Sylvia Sark

[from dj flap] The world of Emma Croft had changed. She had left her quiet English life behind her and gone to Spain to meet her wealthy Spanish half-brothers and sister.

Here in the sunshine, surrounded by affection and luxury, she would have been very happy -- if it had not been for the strange air of tension that hung about the household.

Not for Emma the resigned fatalism of Spain. Her mind was questing. What was the mystery surrounding Jacinta? Why was Quentin unhappy? Why wouldn't Gracia marry? Was Van -- her own dear Van -- in love with someone else's wife? And what part was the flamenco dancer playing in all their lives?

One by one the questions are answered, dramatically and with a wealth of skill, against the wild barbaric beauty of Spain in this remarkable and romantic story.

[from dust jacket flap]

The Russia of the Tsars -- a world of jewelled splendor and squalor, beauty and violence. To St. Petersburg, in 1860, Sophia Johnson goes as English governess to the daughters of Prince Rasimov, owner of great estates and some fifty thousand sers. In the Prince -- his hand scarred by the claws of a bear -- Sophia sees a man at once wild and primitive, enlightened and civilised. Gradually she is inescapably drawn towards him, each recognising the strength of the other.

On the country estate violence erupts in a serf uprising. Together facing the danger Sophia and the Prince know that they are deeply in love. But scars of events in the Prince's past are revealed to Sophia. They become adversaries -- locked in a conflict in which one or the other must yield.

In the background is the Prince's former mistress, the beautiful ballerina; the French governess; the Prince's cousin Elena; each is affected by the conflict. On its outcome depends the happiness of all.

Sylvia Sark has written the story of a confrontation between a man and a woman as harsh and tender as the landscape itself.