La Cucina

by Lily Prior

Published 1 November 2001

Nectar

by Lily Prior

Published 18 June 2002
Ramona Drottoveo, an albino with unusual looks, is a chambermaid at an Italian country estate. Distinguished by an intoxicating scent, she is despised by all women and worshipped by all men, whose inexhaustible lust she eagerly satisfies. But Ramona's life changes for ever when she marries a beekeeper who dies after discovering his bride with a lover on their wedding day. The superstitious villagers go on to blame Ramona and her lover when his body mysteriously disappears and the crops fail, and they exile the couple from the estate to the neighboring city of Naples. There we follow Ramona through her tragi-comic misadventures where her life is transformed once again by the birth of an unwanted daughter, Blandina. Blandina 'steals' Ramona's scent, depriving her mother of her only asset. No longer able to seduce men into blind submission, Ramona returns humbly to the estate to an unexpected welcome - and revenge.