Darsham's Tower — Harriet Esmond

The ancient tower-home of the aristocratic Darsham family has brought fame to the little English village of Senwich.

But there have been many rumors about the strange tower. Kate Quantrill, the beautiful nineteen-year-old daughter of a sea captain, gets her chance to discover how many of them are true. For when Oliver Darsham, the fascinating and forbidding lord of the tower, hires Kate as a companion for his young daughter, Kate finds herself involved not only with the child but with the master.

She has to cope, too, with a young American engineer. He has come to Senwich to save the precariously tilted tower from the ravages of the sea. And Matthew Rouse is as determined to have Kate as he is to save the tower.

But most of all, Kate has to discover the secret of the tower. For it is a secret that affect them all.


“It has stood there for nigh on two hundred years. There was a tale that the Darsham who built it, thwarted in other ambitions and turning to commerce, had wanted a high lookout from which to catch first glimpse of his returning merchantmen. There were other tales: of a haunting, of rebellious daughters locked away in upper rooms, of strange half-human scaly creatures lurking in the cellars -- stories which the tellers themselves didn't really believe but which were in keeping with the soaring, senseless pillar.

“The founder had grandly named it Darsham's Tower.

“From the day of its completion it had been known to the locals as Darsham's Folly.”