A Terrible Beauty
by Nancy Baker
'Will you give me your blood to drink, even though you die of
it?'
A past betrayal returns to haunt Simon Donovan, a frail and
dying scholar of antiquities, when the woman he wronged
summons him to come to her secluded northern home. To spare
his father, Matthew Donovan, a struggling painter, undertakes
the journey, not knowing that it will take hime into the
remote reaches of the wilderness and the darkest regions of
his heart.
In a fantastic mansion, Matthew meets the mysterious Sidonie
Moreau, whose secrets run deeper than those of the ancient
mountains that surround them. Simultaneously fascinated and
disturbed by her, he tries to discover what she hides...
and what she wants from him.
Then in one night of terrible revelation, he learns the
answer -- nothing less than his life's blood, yielded
willingly. She promises that he will not be harmed, that
he is free to do as he pleases, but every night she will ask
for his blood, and every night he must answer. Trapped by
the vast wilderness around them, Matthew submits to her terms.
Every day, he struggles to exorcise the nightmares that
haunt him, giving them form and colour on his canvas. Every
night, he must once again face his immortal captor.
He vows that he will never surrender to her. But as the nights
pass, he comes to realise that there are things more dangerous
than her inhuman appearance and deadly need. There is sorrow
in her eyes, the strange curve of her smile, and her complex,
compelling charm.
There are the secrets submerged deep in his own heart. Soon he
knows that the unthinkable is possible: that one night,
tempted by desire and despair, he might say _yes_....
Beauty and the Beast
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