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Fiction. Literature. Romance. HTML: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 neighbor 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 be… (more)
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This novel begins in the present day with Charlie who has just been left by his wife Carole for the man she has been having an affair with. Even though Charlie is a cuckold, he still manages to keep things civil with Carole because in Steel's worlds manners are everything. Charlie leaves his home in England to go on an extended vacation in Vermont in order to get his head on straight. He ends up living in a house built for an English woman settler named Sarah by her French husband Francois in the late 1700's. Charlie finds Sarah's journals (and ghost!) in the house and learns about her love story with Francois. That story coupled with new acquaintance Francesca allows Charlie to finally move past the loss of his wife and into his future.
Sarah's story was the most interesting part of the book for me and the main reason to read it. This is a good book to read if your heading to the beach or just want to check out of reality for awhile. If you enjoy Danielle Steel novels you know what you are getting.
On page 300 I do not need to be told that the mc is upset
Someone told me that this was the best Danielle Steele book. If this is the best, I don't even want to think about what the other books are like!
Sarah Ferguson flees her abusive husband in England to come to America. Sarah survives the dangerous trip across the sea and builds in America. We meet Francois de Pellerin, a French nobleman. Francois had lived among the Indians. They face the Indian Wars.
I really enjoyed both story lines.
Charles meets Monique and her mother Francesca.