Joni of Storm Hill — Lucile Vernon Stevens

Joni's real father was wrongly convicted of murdering his mother-in-law; now Joni goes to live with him at Storm Hill. In spite of vaguely disturbing undercurrents, as elusive as the lightly scented breeze, Joni felt that Storm Hill offered her a haven, until she found the scribbled warning affixed to her pillow with a deadly-sharp hatpin.

In the wake of Harley Kirk's death the family lawyer broke the news to an astonished Joni Kirk that the austere, aloof businessman had not been her real father. Not only was she suddenly bereft financially--for Lisetta, Harley's much older natural daughter by a former marriage, was his only heir--but Joni had to confront a disturbing truth; Her father, Dr. Jonathan Frayne, was alive...and he was an ex-prisoner, having been convicted of the murder of his mother-in-law, Joni's grandmother!

Dr. Frayne had been pardoned and released from prison when another man confessed to the crime, but the unjust conviction had cost his his health, his medical practice, and his wife. Joni's mother, Marian, unable to endure the strain of the highly publicized scandal, had divorced Jonathan and married Harley Kirk only months before Joni was born.

Adrift and alone, unsure of the strength of her commitment to Wayne Curtis, the son of Harley Kirk's business partner, Joni opted to join her father at Storm Hill, the stately plantation where he lived in seclusion. Sharing his home were his sister, good-natured Chrissie Daniels; Chrissie's husband, Marvin; and Aggie Quinn, Dr. Frayne's bitter, sharp-tongued half sister. A frequent visitor was darkly handsome Sean Merrill, but Joni was never sure just whom he came to see; her father, herself, or Beverly Daniels, her sparkling-eyed cousin.

In spite of vaguely disturbing undercurrents, as elusive as the lightly scented breeze, Joni felt that Storm Hill offered her a haven...until she found the scribbled warning affixed to her pillow with a deadly-sharp hatpin.