Love and Dreams: The Coltrane Saga, Book 6
Page 35
Dani knew there was much she had not been told and realized that what Aunt Alaina had told her had been her personal interpretation of events back then.
She also knew that her aunt had been romantically involved with her father for a time, but it was her mother, Marilee Barbeau, whom he’d eventually married. Alaina had never forgiven him, had probably hated him with the last breath she drew.
Dani sighed, shook her head with pity. Such hatred had to eat upon the heart like a gnawing cancer. How else could her aunt have been so cruel as to create the breach between father and daughter?
When her mother died giving birth to her, her father had already discovered his beloved Kitty was not dead but suffering from amnesia. They were subsequently reunited, and then Alaina had set out to destroy the relationship between Dani and her father and Kitty.
She had succeeded.
Alaina persuaded Dani to come and live with her permanently. Her father had resisted such a move, but the situation in the household, due to Alaina’s constant interference, and Dani’s subsequent intolerable behavior, became unbearable to everyone.
At first, Dani had lived at the Barbeau estate in Kentucky. When Alaina married Count Claude deBonnett, they had moved to Monaco, in the South of France, to live in the deBonnett château. Dani had no memories of a happy marriage between the two, for it was no secret Alaina had married the Count only for his money.
Alaina had also taken young Gavin Mason with her to France, the son of the only other man she had ever loved—Stewart Mason. Stewart, Dani was to learn, was another reason her aunt so vehemently hated her father. Stewart had been a leader in the Klan and, in a gun battle, her father had shot and killed him. Alaina adopted his son, and, through the years, Gavin and Alaina succeeded in making Dani quite miserable.
Seeking love, Dani turned to the church. She felt all alone in the world. There was no way of knowing then that letters she wrote through the years to her father, and those he wrote to her seeking a reconciliation, were intercepted by Alaina and destroyed.
When the Count was killed in a duel, massive gambling debts left Alaina in dire financial straits. Gavin had proposed marriage to Dani, wanting, she knew, to claim whatever she might one day inherit from her father.
She had turned her back on Gavin’s proposals and her aunt’s pleas and joined a strict cloister isolated in the Maritime Alps. Placing her earthly past soundly behind her, Dani looked to a future of absolute servitude to the church.
Then, a sudden, unexpected, and forbidden visit from her half-brother, Colt, awakened her to reality. She learned that her father was living in Paris and had divided up his fortune between her and Colt. Not knowing about the money, Dani also had no way of knowing that Gavin Mason had blackmailed a servant girl to pose as Dani and go to America to claim her share.
The terrible tale had unfolded as Colt miserably recounted how Briana, the servant girl posing as Dani, had made him believe he had seduced her. Overwhelmed by guilt to think he had bedded his own sister, he had signed over everything he had to her and gone away in shame. It was only later, when he returned, that he learned the family ranch had been sold.
Colt followed Briana and Gavin to France where Briana told him of the entire scheme. She had never wanted to be involved, had been blackmailed because of her sick brother, whom she had to support.
Eventually Colt, aided by his father, had tracked Mason to the Greek island of Santorini where they recovered the swindled money…and found Mason murdered by one of his own men.
Alaina, it was discovered, had died after plunging from a window of the deBonnett château to the jutting rocks below while attempting to murder Gavin Mason’s mistress in a jealous rage.
After much contemplation, Dani realized she did not truly wish to be a nun. She left the convent and moved to Paris to get to know the family she had been denied—all because she had allowed herself to be manipulated.
Dani felt a warm glow now to think of the happy times shared with her father and stepmother during the past year. Travis Coltrane was every bit as wonderful as she’d hoped he might be, and Kitty was more like a sister than a stepmother. In fact, it had been Kitty who had helped her come to understand how so many people had been hurt by her inability to make her own decisions, by allowing someone else to interfere in her life.
Kitty, Dani had admiringly come to realize, was an independent spirit, yet she was able to love a man while maintaining her own identity.
Dani wanted to be just like her.
It was also Kitty who had helped her to see that she owed it to herself to live her life to the fullest. There was a fortune already bequeathed to her by her father, and she had the money to do anything she wanted.
And the one thing she wanted above all else was independence…to make up for all those lost years.
The sound of Perrine’s voice calling her name sharply snatched her from the grasping cobwebs of the past. She turned to face him.
Perrine Ribaudt was not only handsome, with dark, curling hair and laughing brown eyes, he was also intelligent. Educated at Oxford in England, he spoke flawless English with only a touch of a French accent. However, if he had not, there would have been no language barrier, for Dani spoke perfect French.
They had met at a reception at the embassy. Perrine was being groomed for an ambassador’s post and came from a wealthy, influential family. Dani found him to be enjoyable company and had accepted his invitations to attend various social functions. All she had wanted was a friendship, but then, after they had been keeping company only a few months, he had proposed. She had refused, but he was undaunted and continued his attempts to persuade her to say yes.
He held out a glass of sparkling champagne and smiled fondly, dark eyes glowing with his love for her. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, my dear, but the hall was crowded.”
She took the champagne, wishing to hear the silvery tinkle of the bells signaling the beginning of the last half of the performance. If she stayed in Perrine’s company, unchaperoned, for very long, she knew what would happen.
She did not have long to wait for the inevitable.
Love and Dreams
Patricia Hagan
Neither shipwreck, amnesia, kidnapping nor deception can keep these star-crossed lovers apart!
The Coltrane Saga, Book 6
When Colt Coltrane meets Russian prima ballerina Jade O'Bannon it is a case of love at first sight. But tragedy strikes when, on a voyage to America, a raging storm wrecks their ship, and Jade sees Colt swept overboard. Rescued from certain death by wealthy businessman Bryan Stevens, Jade slowly allows herself to think she might begin to love him. The only thing holding her back is the belief that Colt might actually be alive.
Then at a glittering ball, Jade is jolted by the sight of Colt. When it appears he does not recognize her, she thinks he is pretending due to each of them being married to someone else. But then she discovers he suffers from amnesia due to the blow to his head when he fell overboard.
Jade knows she cannot just announce the truth to Colt, that it will take time to ease into the reality of their situation. But, as when they first met, the two are inexplicably drawn together and fall helplessly into each other's arms…and in love. Too bad Bryan is willing to do anything to keep what he believes is his—Jade.
This book was originally published by Avon Books in September, 1988.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Love and Dreams
Copyright © 2012
by Patricia Hagan
ISBN: 978-1-60928-995-9
Edited by Heather Osborn
Cover by Valerie Tibbs
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Originally Published by Avon Books: September 1988
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: May 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Epilogue
About the Author
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