The Ghost

This book is a love story within a love story. Charles is told by his wife that she has been having an affair and has fallen in love with another. Charles is totally devastated by this declaration and tries every way to reinstate his relationship. He is then transferred by his company from London to New York where he finds a totally backward approach to his architectural profession. No matter how he tries to settle into this, any arguement he puts forward is rejected and it is then decided by the company that Charles should take a six month paid break and decide whether he wishes to adhere by their ways.

Charles takes the opportunity to do whatever he wishes and takes a hire car to go skiing. He is hoping his new found freedom will take away the pain of losing his wife Carole to an older man whose track record with women is far from faithful. Charles secretly hopes that the affair will fail, even though Carole has filed for divorce and their past home sold.

As Charles ventures to ski, he stops on his journey at a small town called Deerfield, where he finds a small bed & breakfast open out of season with an elderly lady Gladys Palmer. Charles immediately warms to Gladys as if he has know her all his life and decides to rest a few days there. Gladys is a mine of local information and takes Charles to a house she had inherited through her family, set in the beautiful scenic snow area in the forest. Charles feels immediate comfort in the house and its architecture and decides to rent it from Gladys for a year. This way Charles feels he can come to terms with his new batchelor life, or he hopes to go return to England and Carole.

There are many stories locally of ghosts and folklore, but Charles sees a female form on his first night staying in the house. He thinks he has dreamt this but soon comes to learn that he is not the only person to have seen the past owner, Sarah Ferguson. Mrs Palmer had also seen the vision, but only the once. Charles soon becomes intrigued about the previous owners and visits the local historical museum where he finds some books regarding Sarah and her husband Pierre. Here he finds a very cold librarian Francesca.

Charles decides to spend the Xmas with Mrs Palmer and then goes on to the ski resort before the New Year. Here on the ski slopes he strikes conversation with a young child Monique, who he then finds out is the daughter of Francesca. Charles sees the pain in the eyes of Francesca and the coldness continues towards him. Charles finds out from Monique during their ski runs that her father was a famous French skier and that her mother had been extremely hurt by their marriage split, when they moved to America.

On returning back to the house, Charles investigates the attic area and finds diaries and memoires hand written by Sarah Ferguson. Here the story splits to a secondary tale, which entails the bad marriage of Sarah and Edward when she was a young girl. He beat her and raped her and she was unable to produce an heir for him, even though he had many illegitimate ones locally with his womanising and drinking bouts. Sarah decides she cannot take any more of his treatment and decides to sell some of her late mothers jewellery and sail across to Boston. After more than 4 treacherous weeks at sea, Sarah arrives in America. She stumbles on Deerfield and decides this is where she would wish to stay.

Sarah is taken in awe by a local Frenchman Pierre who has local ties with the Indians and dresses like them too. Slowly he takes an interest in her and the pair are drawn together, even though the hurt of Edward is still within Sarah. Finally the pair admit their love for each other and Sarah bears three children by Pierre. When Sarah receives news from England that Edward has died, the pair marry.

The diaries become an obsession for Charles and he spends many days reading them, but alongside this is his own developing relationship with the cold Francesca, who slowly melts to his attention. Outings together with Monique and meals together slowly bind them all together, with Charles finding a similarity to their relationship and that of Sarah and Pierre. Eventually Charles informs Sarah of the diaries and lets her read a copy. He sees a change in her coldness until they both finally admit their fondness for each other.

The story of Sarah and Pierre is as enticing as the story of Charles and Francesca and the need to know more of the story compels the reader to want to know more. It is not a ghost story, but two love stories running parallel from the past and the present. A lovely read. 

SOME WEAR AND TEAR