Serenade of the South
Louise Ulmer
eBook
(Write Words, Inc., Aug. 25, 2006)
Who could resist an antebellum mansion by such a name? Not Ariel. She's there to write the family history for her great-aunt, the owner of the house and benevolent ruler of all therein. Elderly Aunt Belle still runs the place without electricity, determined to keep it exactly as it was before "The War." Never mind. Even the heat and mosquitoes can't dim Ariel's love for the time and place. Aunt Belle's passion for history isn't the only passion flaming behind those white columns. One of Belle's two bachelor great-nephews will inherit the plantation, but only if they keep it the way Belle wishes, right down to marrying the wife she picks. And the wife Belle has picked out for Chad, her favorite, is the adored and mysterious Gloria Ratherwood. Ariel hates her on sight and the battle for Serenade is on, with everything stacked in Gloria's favor. But Ariel has an ally, a lovely woman in a long gray dress, whom no one else can ever remember having seen. And someone leaves four leaf clovers where only Ariel will find them. Clearly, someone wishes her luck and she's going to need it as things turn ugly and someone is trying to hasten Aunt Belle's departure to the cemetery out back. Then, suddenly, all the fingers of guilt point right at Ariel herself.