From her first glimpse of the naked woman fleeing into the frozen blackness of the woods, Miss Elizabeth Stanwycke suspects that danger awaits her at Wolfram Castle. Though no one seems to believe her, Elizabeth knows what she saw - and what's more, she feels an echo of that danger in the tension hanging over the entire von Wolfram family.

Elizabeth herself feels scarcely more calm. The mystery of the woman in the woods plagues her, but nothing shatters her hard-won composure more surely than Count Nikolas von Wolfram, her enigmatic employer. Her reputation and self- respect in tatters, Elizabeth undertook the arduous journey from England, hoping to make a fresh start as a governess. Although she's vowed never to give in to the demands of her all-too-wanton body again, the way Count Nikolas touches her is enough to melt her resolve. And the dark menace stalking the Wolfram family binds them ever closer, until they have no one to trust but each other.

Imagine if Charlotte Brönte had allowed Jane and Rochester to throw caution to the wind, to meet in secret and indulge every intimate whim. Elizabeth is no Jane Eyre - her overriding characteristic is a near pathological curiosity, which lands her in a slightly repetitive series of scrapes - but Nikolas justifies her passion by being as charismatic and mouthwatering a hero as possible. Donna Lea Simpson has re-imagined the classic gothic romance, and any reader who loved Victoria Holt, but always felt cheated by the lack of sexy details, or wished that the manor really were haunted, will adore AWAITING THE MOON.