The Spirit of Skye

A victorian novel. The year is 1856. On the Scottish island of Skye, Annie is eighteen years old, but today there would be no celebrations. As the daughter and heir of the Laird of Coill Mor, she struggles against the plans and ambitions of her father's cruel estate manager, who is taking advantage of the Laird's failing health. This is a story of true love, of hate, murder and superstition as Annie falls in love with a young soldier, Major Carnegie, who has been injured while fighting at Sevastopol. The soldiers now patrols on Skye, during the unrest caused on the island by the Highland Clearances. Annie's loyalty to the man she loves and to the tenant farmers almost breaks her heart. When the Laird dies unexpectedly, she is left alone to administer the estate. Then, on the night she marries to save the tenant farmers from the boat, the giant white owls scream out through the island, by the light of the new September moon. They wreak havoc at Coill Mor, and Annie's life changes forever. As she flees Coill Mor on horseback, in her flowing white wedding dress, gunshots ring out. She will return to her home a widow. Now aware that she is not considered a suitable bride for the man she loves, she discovers he is the young Lord Tummell, who left the island in a rage at news of her impending wedding.