Seaspell

Spoiled city women don't last long on the island. Lighthouse Keeper Waite McKenna can tick off the instances on the fingers of his strong, work-hardened hands: his mother who abandoned him, his resentful wife who died giving birth to their son, and the last two schoolteachers, neither of whom lasted a month, much less a season--but who made trouble for McKenna before they left. He discourages the latest applicant before she even steps off the boat. Mariah Deekins is soft-spoken, petite, and seemingly frail. Accustomed to being cared for by devoted servants and doting parents, she appears to fit McKenna's definitions for both spoiled and citified. But everything changed for Mariah after her parents' deaths, followed by the ugly revelation that compelled her to leave her hometown. She has no money. Teaching school is her only chance. She knows that she can never marry, which makes her attraction to Waite McKenna all the more hopeless and dangerous. Learning to fend for herself, Mariah conquers her fear of storms, of drowning, of the ocean. She makes friends with the villagers and earns the respect of her students. Eventually she even manages to bake biscuits without burning them. Then lies, misunderstandings, and the reemergence of her family secret threaten to cost her her place in the community and to doom her relationship with Waite. The North Carolina Press Club gave SEASPELL first place in the historical romance category in 1997. Bronwyn Williams is the shared pen name of two sisters, Dixie Burrus Browning and Mary Burrus Williams. Sixth-generation natives of Hatteras Island, they grew up steeped in the seafaring traditions of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Their historical romances recreate the daily hardships and natural beauty of life on Hatteras Island as it was in the days of their grandparents and great grandparents.