To Robert Gottlieb, Kim Whalen and Jenny Bent
for your guidance and support-you’re all the best.
And to the people who make
my everyday life special:
To Phil, Jackie and Jen-I love you always!
To Mom and Dad-thanks for setting the best
example in life and in romance. I love you, too!
And last but not least, to the Plotmonkeys-
Janelle Denison, Julie Leto and Leslie Kelly. As usual,
I couldn’t do it without you and I wouldn’t want to try.
XXX OOO
INTRODUCTION
IN THE LATE NINETEENTH century, the small village of Stewart, Massachusetts, 1.5 miles west of Salem, site of the now-infamous witch trials, fear of curses and witchcraft ran rampant. During this time, William Corwin fell in love and eloped with a woman who was already betrothed to another. The man William wronged, Martin Perkins, was the oldest son of the wealthy Perkins family, from the neighboring village of the same name. To William Corwin’s misfortune, Martin’s mother, Mary Perkins, was a witch.
And she immediately sought revenge on her son’s behalf with this curse: Any Corwin male who falls in love will be destined to lose his love and his fortune.
No male Corwin since has walked away unscathed…
CHAPTER ONE
THE SMALL TOWN OF STEWART, Massachusetts not so proudly boasted two claims to fame. Its proximity to Salem and the Corwin Curse.
Derek Corwin was well acquainted with that damned curse, as his family had come to refer to the albatross one of their ancestors had saddled them with. All because William Corwin couldn’t keep it in his pants, what should have just been a scandal had turned into a centuries-long damnation.