Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But her efforts to please Juliana are met with increasing levels of contempt as it becomes apparent that Juliana is jealous of Maud's youth and beauty. Further, Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her.
Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London (and which was commonplace in Victorian London). Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise? Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination? And what is its power?
Will Maud ever learn the truth of her inheritance and be free? Will she lose John for ever?
- ISBN10 034095678X
- ISBN13 9780340956786
- Publish Date 6 March 2014
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 20 April 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Hachette Children's Group
- Imprint Hodder Children's Books
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 400
- Language English