Kristin Hannah - The Enchantment

THE ENCHANTMENT

Kristin Hannah

Emmaline Hatter was a beautiful, brilliant, and rich Wall Street financier in the nineteenth century until the crash of 1893 wiped her out completely. Desperate to recoup her losses, she joins Dr. Larence Digby in his search for the legendary lost city of Cibola, rumored to be rich in gold. Emmaline was used to getting her own way, but Larence was not about to give up control of his expedition to a woman. Somehow, in a world of enchantment, each would have to learn to believe -- to trust the other with their lives, their secrets, and their hearts...

FAWCETT GOLD MEDAL NEW YORK

Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the pub-lisher may have received payment for it.

A Fawcett Gold Medal Book Published by Ballantine Books Copyright 1992 by Kristin Hannah All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copy-right Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and si-multaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-90149 ISBN 0-449-14773-8

Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition: August 1992

To my dad, for all the roads that needed to be explored.

You taught us to dream. To believe. And that has made

all the difference.

And, of course, to Benjamin.

Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.

A Fawcett Gold Medal Book Published by Ballantine Books Copyright 1992 by Kristin Hannah All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-90149 ISBN 0-449-14773-8

Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition: August 1992

Special Thanks to...

Kathleen Gens for her invaluable assistance. And Ken John, the storyteller who started it all.

Rain. Miserable, boring rain.

Emmaline Amanda Hatter stared out the mullioned window, trying to see Central Park through the gray haze that shrouded Eighth Avenue. Angry water drummed the thick glass, slashing downward in opaque, zigzagging streaks. A frigid postwinter wind rattled the pane. Cold seeped through the window and shivered across her fashionably bare shoulders.

Frowning, she let her gaze wander back to the men clustered in her parlor. Railroad tycoon Wilbur Jacobs stood hunched over the hors d'oeuvres table like a greedy rodent preparing for winter. With barely a pause to breathe, he rammed one elegant canape after another into his already overstuffed mouth. His gray-whiskered cheeks worked feverishly to keep up.

Good God, she thought with a deepening frown. At the price of caviar, he could at least chew. There was nothing that irritated her more than spending her hard-earned money on fools.

She glanced at the elegantly clad man standing beside her. Tonight's horror was all his fault. "I can't believe

2 Kristin Hannah

you talked me into hosting this disaster," she said to Michael Jameson through clenched teeth.

The president of Columbia College laughed softly. ' 'I saw you studying poor Wilbur. Should I fear for his health?"

Emma took a small sip of the ridiculously expensive champagne her cook had ordered. "If you feel inclined to worry, try worrying about me. I should be examined by that German doctor from Viennawhat's his name? Freud? Only someone with a mental defect would host a fund-raiser in such financially uncertain times. I cannot imagine why I agreed."

"You owed me," he said easily. "Dr. Zinberg's patent made you a small fortuneand I could have taken him to Rockefeller."

"Well after tonight that debt is paid in full, Michael. I refuse to"

A boisterous pounding at the front door interrupted her. Emma's gaze cut to the salon's doorway. Long, tense minutes passed as she waited for someone to answer the door. No one did.

The hammering intensified until it echoed through the empty corridor and trembled beneath her feet. She thought about the dainty Meissen vase perched on the brass sconce beside the front door. That expensive knickknack represented her first big stock payoff, and it had cost her dearly. Like all her possessions, it was important to herperhaps even more than most, because it was the first. If it fell because some stupid, unwanted guest didn't know how to knock like a gentleman...

No, she realized, no guest would be so rude. It had to be the butler she'd engaged for the evening. She THE ENCHANTMENT 3

glanced at the sterling-plated clock on her mantel and frowned.

He was more than an hour late. An hour! Emmaline took a deep breath to quell her anger, and set down her Waterford goblet with exaggerated care. "Excuse me, Michael. It appears my butler has finally deigned to put in an appearance." "Certainly."

With an almost imperceptible nod to Michael, she plucked up her heavy velvet skirts and exited the smoky, overcrowded room. The unseen man's hammer-hits reverberated through the walls, punctuating the rat-a-tat clicking of her elegant French heels on the walnut floorboards.

She crossed the marble foyer and reached the door. Prepared for battle, she flung it open, and immediately realized her mistake. Her gaze shot to the antique vase just as the door cracked against the wall. The Meissen wobbled precariously.

She surged forward but wasn't fast enough. The precious antique crashed to the floor. Porcelain shattered, flew everywhere. Eggshell-thin fragments scattered across the black and white marble tile like a pugilist's lost teeth.

She stared at the fragments in horror. The memory of the vase's purchaseand how much that day had meantrushed to the forefront of her mind. Furious, she spun around. "Now look at what you've"

One look at the intruder and her throat went dry. She stared, gape-mouthed, at the ... thing in her doorway. Tall, thin, wearing a hopelessly out-of-date black cape, it stood shadowed by the hallway's meager light. Beneath a sagging, slightly askew top hat was a dark void where a face should be.

4 Kristin Hannah

She shook her head in disgust. This... creature... was no butler.

She reached for the door, prepared to slam it shut. Suddenly a hand snaked out from the sloshy black cape. Long, dripping wet fingers curled around the door, and a brown creedmore rain boot snuck through the opening and planted itself on her floor. "Is this the Hatter apartment?"

Even the voice sounded wet. Emmaline squeezed her eyes shut, briefly imagining herself strangling the biddy at the employment house. "Yes, but"

"Great!" He shoved the door open and pushed his way through. Emmaline stumbled backward, crashing into the wall behind her with a resounding thud.

He limped across the threshold like some creature from a Grimm Brothers fairy tale. His uneven, wobbling gait gave him an odd, drunken appearance. Emma watched in horror as his muddy boots squished across the wooden floor and sank into the ivory wool of her Aubusson rug.

Water streamed off his ugly top hat and cloak in a thousand silver streams. He pushed a lock of dark brown hair off" his forehead. It immediately plopped back in front of his eyes. Shrugging, as if to say, /

tried, he flashed her an eager grin and extended his right hand. "How do you"