In the late 1800’s, Amalie Ansett and Jonathan Evans had been in love since they were children and everyone expected them to marry, joining the two greatest sugar plantations on their Caribbean island. However, problems were brewing in the sugar industry due to the changing attitudes about the slave trade without which the industry would not be profitable. This circumstance leads to manipulation, deceit and a slave uprising, culminating in a multiple murder with Jonathan being one of the victims.
Two hundred years later, Amalie’s descendant (also named Amalie Ansett) receives an invitation from a distant cousin to travel to a Caribbean island which has been her family’s home for generations. There Amalie learns the story of the island’s ‘Jumbie’, a ghost named Jonathan Evans, and she soon learns that her 21st Century beliefs are not necessarily applicable in this island paradise. Thus begins a powerful love story between a ghost desperate to find his one true love, and a present day heroine who finds herself in love with a ghost and committed to solving the mystery of his death two centuries earlier, even travelling back in time to accomplish her mission.
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In the following excerpt, Jonathan suggests to Amalie that she travel back in time with him to try to solve the mystery of his own death back in 1810. Amalie is speaking to the ghost, Jonathan, and to her Aunt Josephina.
“Jonathan has to be here for a reason. He needs to know what happened that night. And I must say we aren’t learning much by wading through the museum archives.” She shook her head. “And I can’t see how my being here can make a difference.”
Jonathan answered her. “Your being here definitely makes a difference. But I think to find out what happened we’ll have to go back together, back to 1810, to the night when everything went wrong. Perhaps to the week or two leading up to that night.”
“Oh my.” Josephina went quite pale.
Why did that idea not seem crazy to Amalie. “Is it possible to do that?”
Jonathan nodded. “I’ve done it before. I’ve gone back and lived those last days over and over, but always the end is the same. I’m carrying you into the house. We’ve just been secretly wed. I step through the doorway and…nothing. That’s the last moment of my life I recall.”
“But if it ends that way each time, how can my going back with you help?”
“I think I know the answer to that.” Josephina looked at Amalie. “Jonathan is of that moment in history. When Jonathan is there he would have no memory of now. Of his future. But you are of this day and time.”
Jonathan nodded. “That’s it exactly. There, I have no memory of being a ghost. I have no premonition of what is to come.” He turned to Amalie, “But, because your time is of the present, of this time and place, I think it is possible that you will be able to remember the now, to see and understand both as Amalie, my bride, and as my Amalie of this century. You may be able to see and to tell me what happened after I walked through that door. I don’t for one moment believe the written accounts.”
“But, even assuming I’m willing to do this, how do we get back to the past?”
“When I go I simply cross the threshold of Evans Plantation. There’s nothing very exact about it. Sometimes I find myself there two or three weeks before the end, other times I’m there only on the last day. But the crossing has never been difficult.” He smiled, “Of course I am, as you would have it, a ghost. I have no idea how or if it will work for you.”
“Why do you think taking me back with you will make a difference?”
“You will be an addition to the equation. Something new. Something that wasn’t there before. I think in crossing you will become one with the other Amalie, but I believe you may retain your memory of the present, of this other time and place, as I, a ghost in this time, retain my memory of that other time. Does that make any sense?”
Amalie laughed. “Does any of this make sense? If I stopped to think about it I’d check myself into a loony bin.”
“I have been waiting centuries for you to return. Will you help me?”
Amalie looked at Jonathan. He didn’t speak again but his eyes pled for understanding, for help.
“I’ll try.”
Josephina smiled. “Well, I’m glad that’s settled. Shall I go pack you a bag? How long will you be gone?”
Jonathan laughed. “It doesn’t work that way. We will return to exactly the day, the same moment, when we left.” Then a worried frown crossed his face. “That is if Amalie can return. I’m not sure how that works. I’ve never tried it with anyone from another age before.”
Amalie laughed. “That’s reassuring.” Looking at Jonathan, Amalie had the fleeting thought that there could be worse things than being stuck with him for eternity. “If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it now, before I have time to come to my senses.”
His breath came out in a rush. “Thank you.”
Amalie kissed Josephina, who wished them good luck and waved them off as if they were going on a school holiday. They took the jeep out to White Wall, where they parked off the road and climbed through the high bush to the old foundations of Evans plantation house.
“This is it. This is where the portal is. When I cross the threshold you must be with me, as close beside me as you can get. I don’t know whether it will work. And I don’t know exactly where or when we will land. Are you ready to do this?”
Amalie merely nodded.
“Then give me your hands and step with me.”
Amalie reached toward him and the faintest brush of an icy breeze touched her fingers. Then the air began to swirl around her and the sky darkened. Wind rushed over and around her. She felt her hands clasped in an iron grip as the earth shook and she tumbled into an abyss, the sound of nothingness roaring in her ears. Consciousness faded.
Email: info@blairmcdowell.com
COMING NOVEMBER 2012 – The latest romantic thriller from Blair McDowell.
SONATA is the story of the beautiful and talented Sayuri McAllister who returns to her home in Vancouver after a five year absence to discover her father’s house has been broken into and much of her deceased mother’s valuable jewelry is missing. Michael Donovan, Sayuri’s old high school flame and now a detective with the Vancouver Police Department, is the officer in charge of the case. To her surprise Sayuri feels a great attraction for him even after all these years. Does Michael feel the same way? Shortly after the robbery, Sayuri’s father marries Alyssa James, a woman Sayuri had never met and to her surprise the mansion is soon also home to Alyssa’s brother. Hugh James is a devastatingly handsome Irishman who immediately begins a campaign to bed and wed the delicious and wealthy Sayuri. Accidents begin to happen. Or are they accidents? Nothing is as it seems. Michael distrusts Hugh James and fears that Sayuri’s life may be in danger.
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