The Beautiful Ones

In the summer of 1848, three beautiful strangers arrive at a Virginia plantation-and the guilty begin to tremble.

Elin Andersdotter, a young Swedish woman bound to the Lebon family by contract, has learned to survive by observing everything and revealing nothing. Her closest companion is Cécile Lebon, the sheltered daughter of the house, whose severe stutter has allowed others to mistake her silence for weakness.

Then the Fairhavens arrive at Le Champ des Fleurs.

Elegant, unsettling, and untouched by the suffocating summer heat, Adrian, Nicholas, and Octavia Fairhaven have come bearing questions about Commander Nathaniel Vale-a disgraced naval officer who vanished after discovering the secret behind the fortunes of three powerful Virginia families.

Around Adrian, Cécile's voice miraculously returns, offering her the freedom and understanding she has always craved. But Elin sees what Cécile cannot: frost spreading through locked rooms, blue butterflies rising from the earth, and gardenias blooming where something murdered lies buried.

The Fairhavens have not come to save the Lebons.

They have come to collect an old debt.

As the truth beneath Le Champ des Fleurs begins to surface, Elin must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice to protect Cécile-especially when Cécile may not want to be protected.

The Beautiful Ones is a dark Southern Gothic tale of forbidden desire, buried crimes, supernatural vengeance, and two young women struggling to claim their voices in a world built upon silence.