The Lost Lilacs of Latimer House — Sharon Wagner

Resigned to waiting out the War Between the States under the protection of elderly relatives in the Bahamas, Charleston belle Faith Richards was lonely and restless. So when handsome, brooding Hunter Latimer offered her a post as governess on Dark Thunder Island, Faith didn't listen to his warnings that the place was not for the fainthearted--and that for long stretches of time she would be alone on the dismal, fogbound island with only a frail and timid woman and her high-strung, sleepwalking child.

Emboldened by Hunter's confidence in her, and strangely drawn by the glint of adventure in his dark eyes, Faith approached her new position with a high heart--only to find herself shunned by the hostile islanders and the darkly taciturn housekeeper of Latimer House. She fell prey to a series of small accidents too contrived to be coincidences, and she realized, finally, that someone was trying to keep her from learning the secrets of Dark Thunder Island. Even the enigmatic Hunter Latimer coud not be trusted. For he was at the very heart of the evil that swirled around her...