Leona Karr - Stoneview Estate

“Wait. I’ll walk you to the house,” Brian told Robyn.

“No need. I know the way. I’d rather say goodbye here.” She surprised him by giving him a lingering kiss on the lips. Then she turned away quickly and disappeared into the shadows of the overhanging trees planted along the walk.

Brian headed in the opposite direction toward the cottage. He was only halfway there when Robyn’s scream cut through the air like a knife.

Calling her name, he streaked toward the back of the house. When the porch light came into view, he saw her. She was standing at the bottom of the back stairs, shivering and staring at the screen door.

A huge funeral wreath hung there.

The flowers and leaves were dead.

Death at Stoneview was printed on a tattered black banner.

Stoneview Estate

Leona Karr

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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With thanks to Joan Biederman, a gracious

and generous lady who inspired this novel.

With affection to Scott McClane,

a very special and talented friend.

A native of Colorado, Leona (Lee) Karr is the author of nearly forty books. Her favorite genres are romantic suspense and inspirational romance. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a B.A. and the University of Northern Colorado with an M.A. degree, she taught as a reading specialist until her first book was published in 1980. She has been on the Waldenbooks bestseller list and nominated by Romantic Times for Best Romantic Saga and Best Gothic Author. She has been honored as the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year, and received Colorado’s Romance Writer of the Year Award. Her books have been reprinted in more than a dozen foreign countries. She is a presenter at numerous writing conferences and has taught college courses in creative writing.

Robyn Valcourt—Living in a house of secrets became a terrifying nightmare. She trusted only one man to rescue her.

Brian Donovan—Would his investigation bring justice to a kidnapper and murderer? And when he revealed his identity to Robyn, could she forgive his lies?

Lynette Valcourt—The party for her one-hundred-year-old house sets the scene for disaster.

Heather Fox—The murdered nursemaid whose spirit seems unable to let go of Stoneview Estate.

Nick Bellows—Was he more than a caretaker and friend to the murdered nursemaid, Heather Fox?

Todd Parker—He wanted a deeper romantic relationship with Lynette’s beautiful granddaughter, Robyn.

John Parker—Was the influential lawyer responsible for a carefully guarded secret?

Becky Sheldon—A determined young girl with her own agenda.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

“Isn’t that a grand idea, Robyn? A birthday party for a one-hundred-year-old house?”

Robyn Valcourt searched her sixty-five-year-old grandmother’s expression. She had to be kidding! “A birthday party, for a house?”

“Why not?” Lynette answered readily. “Houses take on the spirit of the people who live in them. I think it would be fascinating to honor lives that were lived under the same roof.”

Robyn wasn’t so sure, maybe because she didn’t share her grandmother’s feelings about Stoneview. Robin hadn’t found anything warm and appealing about the old mansion when she’d come to live with her widowed grandmother as a teenager. As a child of parents in the foreign service, Robyn had bounced all over the world, living in one embassy after another. After her parents were killed in a plane crash in southern France, she’d gratefully accepted her grandmother’s invitation to come and live with her at Stoneview for her last two years of high school.

The estate encompassed thickly wooded areas and a wide expanse of shoreline along Lake Chataqua, Maine. Historians speculated that an ancient glacier was responsible for digging out the lake bed and scattering enormous boulders near the estate, giving Stoneview its name. In the shadow of tall red oak trees, the mansion stood rather aloof in the center of landscaped grounds sloping down to the water.

From the moment Robyn had stepped through the front door of the house she’d fought a foreboding sense of uneasiness. Large rooms on the main floor were somber and dark, with heavy stone fireplaces and thick-beamed ceilings. A warren of shadowy halls and stairways connected the main floor with the basement, the second floor bedrooms and the attic.

When she was a girl, unseen presences had seemed to lurk in the shadows as Robyn passed through echoing rooms and halls. She imagined muffled, threatening whispers following her as she hurried down the stairs from her bedroom to the warmth of the kitchen and adjoining breakfast room at the back of the house.

Her grandmother’s excitement about bringing back the people who had lived there off and on for the last hundred years failed to strike a positive note with Robyn. She pretended an interest in the weird idea that she didn’t feel.

Robyn was on spring break from her teaching duties at a private women’s college in Portland, Maine. They were sitting on the terrace of her grandmother’s winter home in Florida, and Robyn was enjoying the brush of warm, tanning sun upon her winter-pale skin. Hot-pink shorts were a delightful change from her professional wardrobe of tailored suits in subdued shades of green and beige, which toned down the fiery shades of her chestnut hair. They’d been talking about the family mansion, Stoneview, when her grandmother excitedly revealed her latest brainstorm.

“We’ll invite members of the families who have lived in the mansion since it was built in 1905. I’ve already begun the process of tracking down addresses.”

Robyn silently sighed. Lynette Valcourt’s years as the wife of a foreign diplomat had trained her well. When Robyn’s grandfather died shortly after they had retired to Stoneview, Lynette’s social life had been sharply curtailed. The vibrant, vivacious woman had been put out to pasture much too early, and it was clear to Robyn that her grandmother had already eagerly begun organizing the whole affair. Her silver-white hair, professionally styled, enhanced her strong features and highlighted dark blue eyes. Lynette’s energy level was that of a much younger person, and her tendency to dominate everyone and everything had not faltered during the years.

“We’ll try to contact a living descendent of each family, and send out invitations for a centennial birthday celebration,” she told Robyn.

“Do you think there will be enough guests to make it all worthwhile?” Robyn asked, playing devil’s advocate.

Lynette gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “We’ll include special people in the area who have been connected with the estate through the years. Stoneview has been the setting for a good many community projects, you know. People can wander around the place and see what changes have been made to the house and grounds. We can have the affair catered, and arrange for something special like a fireworks display on the lake for the evening.