WELCOME TO ROMAN BRITAIN. It is almost fifty years since the legions invaded but Britannia is still a raw, frontier province. Tensions run high, especially in the north, where Aurelia Marcella, a young Roman woman fled from the ruins of Pompeii, runs the Oak Tree Inn on the road to York.

DANGER IN THE WIND. On fine summer's morning in 100 AD, Aurelia awakes to two unusual events: a soldier murdered in his bed, and a letter arrived from Isurium and her cousin, Jovina, inviting Aurelia to a midsummer birthday party. But the missive also reads as a plea for help, referring to 'danger in the wind'. The murdered soldier also bore a message, locked in Aurelia's strongbox, indicating violence would erupt at the very same fort on the day of the party. At Isurium, Aurelia finds Jovina and her drunken husband and unruly children caught in a tangled web of greed, love, intrigue, and death. When violence engulfs the district, Aurelia suddenly finds herself in peril from enemies engaged in an anti-Roman plot and from family members bent on misguided or evil agendas of their own.

Shadows in the Night