The Scent of Lilacs (Regency Sognet Romance)

"The Scent of Lilacs" by Barbara Hazard possesses all the ingredients of a gothic romance -- Edwin Whittingham receives unexpected news that he has inherited his dead great-uncle's wealth and home in the coastal town of Lechton. And so, happy at the prospect of no longer being penniless, Edwin and his younger sister, Katherine, make for Bryce House. There is however one small condition to this inheritance: Edwin must stay at Bryce House for a whole month, nights included, or else forfeit the inheritance. And when Edwin and Katherine finally reach Bryce House, they discover the reason behind this strange condition: apparently Bryce House is haunted by a gentleman ghost, and a weeping lady. Edwin and Katherine must prove their mettle by sticking it out for an entire month.Of course neither sibling believes in ghosts. But their belief suffers a few knocks when first they realise that all the servants refuse to spend the nights at the house, and when they themselves begin to hear and see the ghosts. However it is only to Katherine that the weeping lady appears before, leaving behind her a scent of lilacs... Strong minded and practical, Katherine, however refuses to allow a couple of ghosts to faze her -- finally she has a home of her own, and money to be able to indulge in new clothes and a horse. She even finds romance with a dashing and enigmatic neighbour, Luke Tremaine. But as the deadline for month's stay at Bryce House draws to a close, things begin to fall apart for Katherine. Edwin disapproves of her romance with Luke, and the ghosts seems to have become nosier and more sinister, and seem to have decided to concentrate on haunting only her. Katherine is beginning to fear that the ghosts are driving her to madness. Could she be right?"The Scent of Lilacs" is mainly a gothic romance because while the romance between Katherine and Luke does figure into this novel quite a bit, it comes of as being a little incidental. I, for one, was totally caught up in the haunting and the fact that halfway through the novel, only Katherine was singled out as the beneficiary of all that ghostly dos. It is rather obvious what is going on and who is behind all the incidents, but Barbara Hazard does a masterly job of making you wonder if Katherine would indeed be frightened into madness or if she would be saved. Katherine is a rather unique heroine in that not only is she beautiful, intelligent and practical minded, but that she also suffers from bouts of depression, thus giving credence to Katherine's own fear that she may be losing her mind. However, I did find it a little galling that given that Hazard had painted Katherine as a clever and sensible young woman, that she did not allow for Katherine to suspect what was really going on, even when she had the evidence before her very eyes. It was a little irksome (for me anyway) that Katherine had to be rescued, though I'll admit that this did add to the "fearful" atmosphere of the novel, as you wondered if Katheri