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BOOK ONE Foxworth Hall

And so it came to pass the summer when I was fifty-two and Chris was fifty-four that our o when I elve and Chris was fourteen, was at last realized

We both stood and stared at that huge, intih it was not an exact duplicate of the original Foxworth Hall, still I quivered inside What a price both Chris and I had paid to stand where ere now, temporary rulers over this mammoth house that should have been left in charred ruins Once, long ago, I'd believed he and I would live in this house like a princess and prince, and between us we'd have the golden touch of King Midas, only with more control

I no longer believed in fairy tales

As vividly as if it had happened only yesterday, I reht and ical stars in a black velvet sky e'd first approached this place, expecting only the best to happen We had found only the worst

At that ti, believing in ouras she led us and our five-year-old twin brother and sister through the dark and soe house called Foxworth Hall, that all our future days would be colored green for wealth and yellow for happiness

What blind faith we'd had e tagged along behind

Locked away in that di in that dusty, musty attic, we'd sustained ourselves by our belief in our mother's promises that someday Foxworth Hall and all its fabulous riches would be ours However, despite all her prorandfather with a bad but tenacious heart refused to stop beating in order to let four young and hopeful hearts live, and so aited, and waited, untilyears passed, and Momma failed to keep her promise

And not until the day she died--and her as read--did Foxworth Hall fall under our control She had left the randson, my child by her own second husband, but until he enty-five, the estate was held in trust by Chris

Foxworth Hall had been ordered reconstructed before she moved to California to find us, but it wasn't until after her death that the final touches were completed on the neorth Hall

For fifteen years the house stood eally supervised by a staff of attorneys who had either written or called Chris long distance to discuss with hi, perhaps, waiting for the day when Bart decided he'd go there to live, as we'd always presu this house to us for a short while, to be our own until he arrived and took over

There was always a catch in every lure offered, whisperedout to ensnare us again Had Chris and I traveled such a long road only to co?