Rite of Passage
Verity stood in the doorway, unable to move, all too aware of her exposure to a dozen pairs of lustful eyes. She was a captive; a victim of circumstances beyond her control. It would have been better to be a beggar-maid, a farm-hand, anything but a lady condemned to obey her father's ambitions and desires... More
Lady Verity Mandeville has just attained the age of majority and her father, the autocratic Earl of Tremadock has an unpleasant surprise for her.
She has been betrothed to the ruler of a remote Eastern European country. Just as she is beginning to taste all the delights that Restoration England can offer, she is to be whisked off to marry Duke Marec.
But when Verity arrives in Crocovia, what she discovers there far exceeds anything she could ever imagine. Marec is dominating and cruel, ruling with a rod of iron and extracting any pleasures he wants with any girl of his choice.
Slowly Verity comes to realise that the forests around Marec's castle hold a dark secret. But she must bring it into the light in time to save herself from falling under the spell of Marec's dominance, for she finds a strange pleasure in submitting to his every cruel whim.