In The Country Of Shadows – Cindy Brandner (1)

If you make her come to you, you may well regret it.” She gave him a tug on his sleeve to pull him forward into the firelight. “You must be Alexsandr Kobashivili,” Yevgena said, using the formality of his name as Russians did to show respect. Shura swallowed and looked up at Yevgena. He appeared to be rendered speechless, and so he settled for bowing low over the hand Yevgena had given him and kissing it with the effusiveness only a Georgian could get away with.

Yevgena spoke to him in Russian, the rumble of Slavic vowels and consonants like smoky cold vodka and chilled black earth, causing Shura to smile and look down, his ears bright red with pleasure. Dinner was a Hungarian stew, well flavored with paprika, onions, tomatoes and peppers and accompanied by a great floury wheel of country bread. The conversation flowed easily, along with wine and whiskey for the adults and milk for the children.

There was laughter and talk of everything from cabbages to kings; music and books and travel and the politics of lands other than their own. Jamie led the talk and the laughter, as he so often did, flinging out the filaments of fancy and filigree, poetry and prose, humor and history and they all followed the bright shining threads and helped him to weave a whole tapestry in which everyone partook equally in the making.

Later, when the talk quieted and a certain soporific contentment stunned the company like a hive of bees well smoked, Yevgena rose and went to her vardo, returning moments later with a battered violin case in her hands. “I have fed you,” she said to Jamie, “and now I want some music in return. I do believe,” she turned and smiled at Shura, “I saw a balalaika in your hands earlier.”

She placed the violin beside Jamie and then plucked Kolya from his lap so that he had no excuse not to play. He looked somewhat bemused by the instrument even as he took it out of its case. “You play the violin?” Pamela asked, and her voice held a note of incredulity that caused Jamie to laugh. “I am a rich man’s son,” he said wryly, “do you honestly think I could have escaped my childhood without music lessons of every sort?

How many instruments do you play?” She laughed. “Touché, Mr. Kirkpatrick. The answer is I play none well, but I play three passably.”

Copyright ©2016 Cindy Brandner All Rights Reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the author is an infringement of the copyright law.

Cover design by Stevie Blaue This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Published in Canada by Starry Night Press First Edition Rev. 01/29/2016 OceanofPDF.com For my grandmother, Violet Brandner, who first introduced me to the magic of Ireland. OceanofPDF.com Acknowledgments The author’s thanks to: My editors – Tracy Bhoola, Denise Ferrari, Carla Murphy and Mary Foley Hurst.

I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for all your hard work. The book is so much better for it. Karen Barth who ended up being my first reader as well as the last set of eyes to look at the manuscript – thank you for both the encouragement and the proofing. All my beta-readers and proof readers – Connie Lawrence, Marie Sheehy Grip, Marcia Peterson, Lindsey Walsh Smith, Stephanie Williams McCartha, Laura Molina, Jackie Helus, Amy Quarry, Nancy Albano Burley and Marlonne McGuire.

Thank you for all the careful reading and picking up of a variety of errata. Any mistakes left are entirely my own responsibility. Thank you to Yuliya Miakisheva for checking over my little bits of Russian and making sure they were correct and to Isabelle Mulligan for correcting my French – Jamie appreciates it.

☺ Michael O Neil and Arlene Gillen, tour guides extraordinaire, thank you for the best and funniest tour of Northern Ireland imaginable. Mick, you always reignite my passion for Irish history. Lisa Egan Wanket – both for the use of her name as well as showing me her beautiful city by the bay. Carol Cross for giving me a wonderful tour around the Haight and the Castro while relaying the history of the area. Stevie Blaue for yet another beautiful cover.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 238aea9b012bcc0a
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 4,723,283 bytes (4.504 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 1076
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 1752.92 minutes
• Total Words: 350,585
• Total Characters: 1,860,840
• Average Words per Page: 325.82
• Average Characters per Page: 1729.41

Most Frequent Words

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