The Legacy — Evelyn Anthony

When Christina Nordohl met the wealthy English widower, Richard Farrigton, in Stockholm, it was an encounter that changed her life. Richard, after the suicide of his drug-addicted wife, had left his turbulent, hate-filled elder son, and the subservient younger one, and gone on a cruise round Scandinavia. There he fell in love with Christina and she returned to England with him as his wife.

Twelve years later he died, leaving Christina and her young daughter the legacy of a great house, land, money and a priceless Hebrew manuscript--and also leaving his vindictive son, Alan, who vows to break the will that has disinherited him. Among the lawyers engaged to defend Christina is a fellow Swede, Rolf Wallberg, a cold and sinister man who exerts an unwanted sexual attraction over the young widow. But is Rolf really fighting for her, or has he a different agenda? And how can her stepson boast he has discovered something that will destroy her and his little half-sister?

The battle is not about greed, but about hate and revenge. It is overshadowed by a terrible war crime and a search for the priceless document Richard Farrington discovered in Stockholm. The key to the mystery lies with the second stepson, the ambivalent, untrustworthy James, and the denouement is brutal and decides whether Christina and Rolf can ever be together.