Stormy Petrel: The gripping classic that will keep you on the edge of your seat

Rose Fenemore is taking a break from her Cambridge teaching post in an isolated cottage on the island of Moila. One evening, she is shocked to discover an attractive stranger, Ewen Mackay, in her kitchen, who claims to have grown up in the cottage. She is tempted to believe him, when another man seeks shelter from the storm. John Parsons also rouses Rose's skepticism...and more tender feelings as well. And as the truth about the two men unfolds, the stormy petrels, fragile elusive birds who fly close to the waves, come to symbolize Rose's confusion and the mystery of her future.... Rose Fenemore is taking a break from her Cambridge teaching post to meet her brother Crispin on the island of Moila off the west coast of Scotland. She looks forward to a quiet holiday in a natural paradise of seabirds and wild flowers. But things do not turn out so idyllically. Her brother's arrival is delayed, and the island's peace is shattered by the appearance one night of two men seeking shelter from a violent summer storm--men whose conflicting stories draw Rose into a web of menace and suspicion. Ewen Mackay claims to have grown up in the cottage. John Parsons also rouses Rose's skepticism...and more tender feelings as well. Rose's discovery of the stormy petrels--the fragile, elusive birds who nest ashore but spend most of their lives flying close above the sea waves--comes to symbolize the confusion she feels about Ewen Mackay, the man known as the island's prodigal son, and the man calling himself John Parsons, whose account of himself Rose has every reason to distrust. The isolated cottage on the remote Hebridean island of Moila seemed like an ideal, away-from-it-all retreat for writer Rose Fenemore, a place where she could work in peace, and where her brother Crispin could walk, fish and photograph the birds and wildlife. But it is not easy to escape the world and its troubles. Crispin's arrival is delayed and Rose, on her own in the lonely cottage, has to cope with two very different men who come in from the sea on a night of summer storm. Neither man is what he claims to be, but how can Rose tell which one to trust? This is the story of a young woman holidaying on a tiny Hebridean Island where things do not turn out quite as idyllically as planned and the night is busy with surprise visitors whose conflicting stories take some sorting out A classic tale of love, intrigue, adventure and the natural world, set on a beautiful isolated Hebridean island, by beloved novelist Mary Stewart.