Columbella - Phyllis A Whitney

A governess becomes entangled with a dysfunctional and dangerous family in this novel by a New York Times–bestselling “master of suspense” (Mary Higgins Clark).
 
Finally liberated from her cruel and domineering mother, twenty-eight-year-old schoolteacher Jessica Abbott has accepted a position as governess in Hampden House, a crumbling plantation on the cliffs of St. Croix. Her charge is Leila Drew, the oppressed teenage daughter of a pathologically punishing mother. But the vulnerable girl is not Catherine Drew’s only victim.
 
For years, Catherine’s desperate husband, King, a man to whom Jessica is irresistibly drawn, has been searching for the means to a safe escape—for himself and Leila—from this ruin of a family. As Jessica becomes further entwined in the violent dynamics of the Drew family, she realizes Catherine’s wretched power may be grounded in a secret that has trapped not only King and Leila, but herself as well.
 
A recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, Phyllis A. Whitney was hailed by Mary Higgins Clark as “a superb and gifted story teller, and a master of suspense.”