Book description
With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, architect
Charles Waterston's life seems in perfect balance. Nothing in his
comfortable existence prepares him for the sudden end to his ten-year
marriage - or his unwanted transfer to his firm's New York office.
With nothing left to lose, Charlie takes a leave of absence from his
job to drive through New England, hoping to make peace with himself.
Christmas is approaching when Charlie leaves New York, heading to
Vermont to ski. But a sudden, blinding snowstorm strands him in a
small Massachusetts town. There, as if by chance, Charlie meets an
elderly widow who offers to rent him her most precious possession: a
remote, exquisite lakeside chateau. Hidden deep in the woods, it once
belonged to a woman who lived and died there two centuries before. Her
name was Sarah Ferguson. And from the moment Charlie sets foot inside
the chateau's graceful depths, he feels her presence, and longs to
know more about the life she led. It is Christmas Eve when Charlie
first glimpses her, a beautiful young woman with jet black hair. He
thinks it is a neighbour playing a joke on him, until he finds her
diaries hidden away in an old trunk. As he begins to turn the brittle,
dusty pages, Sarah Ferguson comes alive. Intrigued and unafraid,
Charlie immerses himself in the diaries, eager to learn more about the
woman for whom the house was built. Sarah's first entry is dated 1789,
the year she arrived in America. Without self-pity or sentiment, she
writes of her harrowing journey from her native England, having fled
the brutality of her aristocratic husband. Settling in Massachusetts,
Sarah finds an unfamiliar land seething with the turbulence of the
Indian wars. Determined to start a new life in the vast new world,
Sarah finds freedom - and danger - as she builds her home in the
wilderness and meets a man who will transform her life. His name is
François de Pellerin, a French nobleman adopted by Indians and drawn
into the battle for the growing nation. Their fateful union is a
testament to a love so powerful it reaches across the centuries. And
for Charlie Waterston, caught between Sarah's world and his own, their
story is a gift - one that gives him the courage to let go of his
past, and the freedom to grasp a future that is right before his eyes.
In The Ghost, Danielle Steel has created a stunning blend of history
and drama. Brilliantly interweaving past and present, she brings to
life two stories, centuries apart, in a timeless novel of courage,
healing and love.
has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over
530 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international
bestsellers include Second Chance, Ransom, Safe Harbour, Johnny Angel,
Dating Game, Answered Prayers, Sunset in St. Tropez, and other highly
acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story
of her son Nick Traina's life and death. Visit the Danielle Steel Web
Site at www. daniellesteel. com.
