DAN’S NEW NOVEL – THE PERFECT STRANGER – PREORDER NOW FOR 2.99 – Will Come out Nov 27th (Thanksgiving Weekend). Then will be $4.99. HELP SPREAD THE WORD?
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2PDGD62
From the Back Cover (Read Chapter 1 Below):
It is the spring in New York City, 1912, and Lily Whitaker, a wealthy young socialite, is in love. While serving at a ministry to the poor in her church, she meets a handsome young businessman. Charles Bennington moved to New York from San Francisco 10 years ago with just the clothes on his back. But he’s worked hard, taken every advantage the good Lord’s provided and now owns a thriving business. He can hardly believe it when he caught Lily’s attention and, later, receives permission from her father to court her. Two months after that, he agrees to let Charles marry Lily, who’s overjoyed at the news. Charles secures first-class tickets for their honeymoon on the return voyage back to England on the RMS Titanic. Like the ill-fated ship, something happens that threatens to sink their plans and turn both their lives upside down. Is the wedding now off? Will Charles lose everything and be forced to take a train back to San Francisco?
This can’t be how the story ends.
Chapter One
March 20th, 1912
Gramercy Park, New York City
Oh, no. She had waited too long. She knew this when the sunlight pouring through her front windows had lost its shine, casting her entire room in shadows. A fine spring morning had begun with such promise. Lily promised herself she would not stay stuck inside this house for even one more day.
But at breakfast her brother Cedric — reading from the newspaper — said thunderstorms were expected today, possibly by noon. Of course, she’d replied, since when did those weather reports in the papers ever prove true?
Apparently, this time they’d succeeded.
Putting down her hairbrush, she hurried from her vanity over to the windows and pulled back the shears. The whole of Gramercy Park lay in full view beneath her and, like her room, looked dark and dingy. A young mother sitting on one of the cast iron benches rocking a stroller, suddenly looked up into the sky. She quickly stood, pulled the little cloth roof so that it covered the stroller’s opening, and hurried toward the front gate. She must be seeing rain clouds approaching. Lily sighed and stepped away from the windows.
A knock on her bedroom door.
“Come in.”
The door opened. It was Annie, her lady’s maid. “Miss Lily, I know you said earlier you wanted to spend some time in the park before too long. Thought you should know—”
“That the weather has turned foul? I already know. I was trying to make myself presentable, but I wasn’t fast enough.”
Annie quickly closed the door behind her and glanced over toward Lily’s vanity, noticed the hairbrush and set of combs. “If you would’ve let me fix your hair for you, it might have bought you a little more time.” She said this in almost a whisper, so no one walking in the hallway would hear.
By no one, she meant Lily’s mother. If she knew, Mother wouldn’t approve of the way Lily had altered the basic arrangement she had set up for Annie, the list of tasks Lily had taken over and was now doing for herself. Like fixing her hair, setting out her clothes for the day, tying her shoes, and many others.
“I know, Annie. But you know how I feel about these things.”
“I know, Ma’am, but still—”
“Annie, remember, behind closed doors you needn’t call me Ma’am anymore. Lily is fine, or Miss Lily, if you must. I know we don’t share the same station in life, but as I’ve mentioned, I want to begin to…shall we say, closing the gaps between us somehow. At least when we’re alone. We’re almost the same age. And I don’t want you to think that I’m superior to you.”
“But you are, Ma’am. I mean, Miss Lily. Far superior to me, in every way I can imagine. I see it with my eyes, everywhere I look in this world. And in every other room in this large house, except maybe this one. And even then, it’s only because of the kindness of your heart.”
Annie said all this with her slight Irish brogue. Lily loved hearing it, although that was one of the secret little deals they had made between them. Annie wanted to distance herself from sounding so Irish and had asked for Lily’s help to speak with a more refined American accent.
“I understand this may be hard for you, Annie. But I don’t just do it from the kindness of my heart. I think you know what other thing motivates me here.”
At that, they both smiled.
“Might it have something to do with a handsome young gentleman caller?” Annie said.
“Not something,” Lily said. “It has everything to do with it. Charles and I have talked about this on our last time together out there in the park.” She pointed toward the window. What she didn’t mention was that part of the reason she wanted to get out there just now was to sit in that same park bench they had sat in, and try to reclaim all the memories and feelings created by his last visit. Charles hadn’t exactly said it, not in so many words, but he had certainly said it with his eyes and the tenderness in his voice, and he’d sat closer to her than he ever had before.
She felt certain he was only days away from having that talk with her father.
“Mr. Bennington told you he didn’t want me calling you Ma’am?”
Lily laughed. “No, but in a way…yes. We talked about the future, and the kind of home he wanted to have when he got married.”
“Oh, my goodness, Miss Lily, was he talking about marrying you?”
Lily smiled, recalling the moment. “Not exactly, but—”
“’Tis not a thing a man like him would toss about loosely.”
“Then you understand what I’m saying,” Lily said. “I felt he was talking about the ways in which he wanted our life together to be different than the way I’ve grown up here, in this home. He seemed to be probing a bit, to see if I might be open to living in such a manner, a much simpler manner.”
“But, he does seem to be a man of some means,” Annie said. “The clothes he wears, and that automobile he drives.”
“He wasn’t talking about material things, like clothes and autos, or the size of one’s house. It was more about the way we treat people, the people in our lives especially. He’s not one for putting on airs. In another conversation, he told me he grew up very poor. And it had taken him a great deal to get where he is today. But he’s only recently enjoyed the things that money can buy. They don’t mean very much to him, not compared to people.”
Annie sighed. “Sounds like a fine man, Ma’am. Wouldn’t mind meeting such a one as that. You know, poor like me, but on his way up to a better place. A place he wouldn’t mind taking me with him when he goes.”
“I asked him,” Lily continued, “did he not want to have any domestic servants in his future home? He said he wasn’t entirely against it, and depending on the circumstances, it might be a necessary thing. But he didn’t want to treat them like…” Lily almost didn’t want to say what Charles had said. “Well, let’s just say he made it clear, he didn’t like the way my family, particularly my parents, treat our domestic help. Like their second-class citizens, or too far beneath us to be treated with dignity and respect.”
“I’m liking this man more and more, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Lily smiled. How could she mind? She was in love with him. And she didn’t mind anything he had said, nor was she offended. His words only mirrored her own. “So, you can see, Annie, why I want our relationship to start being different. In a way, you’d be doing me a favor. Helping me get used to the life I might be living in the days ahead.”
“Then I’ll do my best to oblige your request,” Annie said. “He’s coming back again tonight, isn’t he? I heard the chef mention he might be coming to dinner?”
“Yes! And I can’t wait to see him again.”
“You think he might be wanting to have that talk with your father, tonight?”
“One can only hope.”
Just then, they both heard the doorbell ring.
“I better go answer it. The butler’s a bit under the weather this morning.” She headed out to the hall, closed the door behind her.
Lily walked over to the window and looked down below. A few moments later, she saw a little street boy running down the sidewalk, away from their front door.
Perhaps a minute later, she heard a knock on the door. “It’s me again, Miss Lily. A little boy brung a message for you.”
She came in and handed her a note. Just her name written on the front. No other address or postage. It was a little soiled. She could see what looked like the little boy’s dirty fingerprints on the envelope. “What could this be?” she muttered aloud. She couldn’t imagine Charles ever sending her a note in this fashion.
“Well,” Annie said, “I’ll leave you some privacy.” She backed out and closed the door behind her.
Lily opened the envelope and pulled out a small note, handwritten on clean white paper. Just a few sentences. As she read them, her heart began to pound inside her. For a moment, she could scarcely comprehend their meaning.
So, she read it again. This time, the meaning became clear. But it made no sense. It must be some horrible prank, a terrible joke. But it was certainly not funny and clearly not meant to be.
She read the words once more:
This man who is courting you now.
Charles Bennington. He is NOT the man you think he is,
The man he pretends to be.
Far from it. In fact, just by being with him
your own life is in grave peril.
You must break it off immediately!
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