I wish to acknowledge with great appreciation some of those I whose help made this book possible:

First of all, Jim Pierson, Dark Shadows’ champion and custodian, who initiated this Dark Shadows novels series. He has produced the Dark Shadows videos and promoted the annual Dark Shadows Festival in an ongoing effort to keep the show out of the shadows.

I am grateful to all of the Dark Shadows fans who have given me their love and support, especially Marcy Robin and Kathleen Resch, editors of SHADOWGRAM, who generously shared their research on 1795 and their own novel on Angelique, Beginnings: The Island of Ghosts.

I would like thank from my heart:

My writer friends, Trudy Hale, Celeste Fremon, and Carolyn Lowery, who graciously read portions of this book, made suggestions, and were willing to talk for hours when I was bewildered or lost. They were like wandering birds who left eggs in my nest, which hatched into amazing ideas.

Warmest gratitude goes to my patient, intelligent editor, Caitlin Blasdell, whose nurturing guidance gave me the courage to write this book, and for her gentle suggestion that “metaphors are like jewelry; one necklace is enough.”

The writers of this period of the television show Dark Shadows: Sam Hall, Ron Sproat, and Gorden Russell have been a continuing inspiration, as has Kathryn Leigh Scott, who first published my writing in The Dark Shadows Companion. I constantly referred to the many books she has published based on the show to jiggle my memory and always found myself drawn into that magical world once again.

I am deeply grateful to my husband, Jim Hawkins, and my daughter, Caitlin, for their constant enthusiasm and love.

And I am forever indebted to Dan Curtis, whose inspired vision was Dark Shadows, who gave the world these immortal characters that never cease to exasperate us and enchant us, and who gave me the role of Angelique.