Rosalind at Red Gate

The summer Laurance Donovan planned to spend in quiet Annandale takes an abrupt turn when a telegram pulls him into someone else's crisis. Miss Patricia Holbrook and her beautiful niece Helen arrive at Red Gate fleeing something they won't name, their presence shattering the tranquil country routine. A threatening brother, Henry Holbrook, looms over their escape, and as Laurance investigates the family's dark secrets, he finds himself falling for Helen while danger closes in. What begins as a country romance accented by witty conversation and summer evenings gradually reveals sharper teeth: there are fortunes at stake, loyalties to betray, and a mystery that demands resolution before anyone can safely love. Nicholson delivers the pleasures of early 20th-century American fiction at its best: warm characters, atmospheric setting, and a plot that surprises while satisfying. The romance buoys the mystery, and the mystery gives the romance real stakes.