April Waverly cared for crippled and demanding Sir Drew Ramsay until his death. She is surprised and a little frightened when his unctuous lawyer, Ben Muir, informs her Ramsay left her Oakton, his Wiltshire estate, and part of a very large fortune if she meets a few simple conditions too easy to be believed. Until Ostara, the festival of the Spring Equinox, she must live at Oakton, attend the festivals and groves of the Oakton Ramseys (Drew's sect), and remain single. Ben Muir, Drew's lawyer and executor, will live with her at The Lodge and instruct her in managing Oakton. After Ostara, her final obligation is to change her name to Drea Ramsay. She will become Mistress of Oakton. The curse of Oakton is that the masters and mistresses never leave, but their ghosts haunt the farm. The Horned Man hunts her in her dreams, claiming her soul as the price of her living body in a centuries-old bargain. A missing man is found dead in a bog on Oakton. Farm animals are torn apart. A crying child haunts the Lodge at Oakton. Ben watches her every move as she grows closer to Geoff Lanfair, the vet who treats Oakton's animals, but he does not object. April learns more about the demon who stalks Oakton and the Bell that summons him. The Oakton Druids restrain the evil one but the Festivals weaken the barrier. The Horned Man has a skilled and pitiiless human ally waiting for the tolling bell to free him. Ostara falls one cold Spring night, and the Horned Man comes for his promised sacrifices. April and her allies must stand against the Horned Man and his collaborator, or she will lose more than her life.
42 parts