Fox River. Emilie Richards
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Название: Fox River

Автор: Emilie Richards

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература

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      PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF

      EMILIE RICHARDS

      “[A] heartfelt paean to love and loyalty…”

      —Publishers Weekly on The Parting Glass

      “An engrossing novel…Richards’s writing is unpretentious and effective…and her characters burst with vitality and authenticity.”

      —Publishers Weekly on Prospect Street

      “Well-written, intricately plotted novel…”

      —Library Journal on Whiskey Island

      “Emilie Richards presents us with a powerfully told story that will linger in the heart long after the final page.”

      —BookPage on The Parting Glass

      “A romance in the best sense, appealing to the reader’s craving for exotic landscapes, treacherous villains and family secrets.”

      —Cleveland Plain Dealer on Beautiful Lies

      “A multi-layered plot, vivid descriptions and a keen sense of place and time.”

      —Library Journal on Rising Tides

      “A fascinating tale of the tangled race relations and complex history of Louisiana…this is a page-turner.”

      —New Orleans Times-Picayune on Iron Lace

      EMILIE RICHARDS

      FOXRIVER

      Dear Reader,

      I’ve been fortunate to live in wonderful places I can share in my novels. I started my writing career in New Orleans, the setting for Iron Lace and Rising Tides. I made two extended trips to Australia, the setting for Beautiful Lies, and I spent many years in bustling Cleveland, the home of Whiskey Island.

      When it came time to move again, I was as interested in a unique and colorful setting for my next novel as I was in school systems and health care facilities. When northern Virginia appeared on my family’s horizon, I knew I’d found another home rich in history, culture and natural beauty.

      From my front door I can easily drive to mountains and beaches. Or I can take a shorter drive to some of the most beautiful rural scenery imaginable: Virginia horse country, where farms and million-dollar estates rise from rolling hills and Thoroughbreds graze inside miles of winding stone fences.

      It took only one visit to Loudoun County to know I’d found the setting for my next book.

      So this time come with me to the world of foxhunting and steeplechasing, and a society that values the way a man sits a horse as much as it values his family name. I hope you’ll find it as fascinating as I have.

      I always enjoy hearing from my readers. Please write me at P.O. Box 7052, Arlington, Virginia 22207.

      From the unpublished novel Fox River, by Maisy Fletcher

      Today, when I think of Fox River and all that happened here so many years ago, I am unwillingly wrapped in shades of green. The fresh, sweet green of pasture deepening toward the horizon, the evergreen of forest shading inevitably to the blue-green of Virginia hills until, at last, mountains merge with a misty sky.

      It is the same sky, more or less, that others see. The sky that stretches over California and China and the farthest regions of Antarctica. It is the sky under which I was born, under which I lived the events told in this story. The same sky that sends sun and rain to make the grassy hills of Fox River as verdant, as lush, as any in the world.

      But I, Louisa Sebastian, am the only person who sees the proud man silhouetted against this Fox River sky, the man erect on a stallion that no one else will mount, a man so wedded to the horse beneath him that I am reminded of the mythical centaur, and my breath, despite everything I know of him, catches in my chest.

      Today, when I am forced to think of the events that happened at Fox River, I am swallowed by shades of green and by the blood that so long ago stained blades of grass a bright and terrible red. In the many years since, the grass has grown and the rain has washed away visible traces of blood, but I know the earth beneath has yet to recover, that if I were to dig in that very place, the dirt beneath my fingernails would be rusty and tainted still.

      Had I only known what awaited me as I rode to Fox River that first afternoon, I would have galloped back to my cousin’s estate to seclude myself. I would have pleaded illness or injury and asked that my trunks be packed immediately for my return to New York.

      But, of course, the future is never ours to know. Only the past is ours to contemplate and mourn forever.

      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER 1

      CHAPTER 2

      CHAPTER 3

      CHAPTER 4

      CHAPTER 5

      CHAPTER 6

      CHAPTER 7

      CHAPTER 8

      CHAPTER 9

      CHAPTER 10

      CHAPTER 11

      CHAPTER 12

      CHAPTER 13

      CHAPTER 14

      CHAPTER 15

      CHAPTER 16

      CHAPTER 17

      CHAPTER 18

      CHAPTER 19

      CHAPTER 20

      CHAPTER 21

      CHAPTER 22

      CHAPTER 23

      CHAPTER 24

      CHAPTER 25

      CHAPTER 26

      CHAPTER 27

      CHAPTER 28

      CHAPTER 29

      CHAPTER 30

      CHAPTER 31

      CHAPTER 32

      CHAPTER 33

      CHAPTER 34

      CHAPTER 35

      CHAPTER 36

      CHAPTER СКАЧАТЬ