The Grey Beginning Author:Barbara Michaels Kathy Morandini had longed to see the beautiful old city of Florence just the way she saw it now--warmed by the golden Italian sun, cradled under the fabled blue sky of spring. — But spring and beauty were meaningless. She should have been seeing Florence with her husband Bart; it was his home. Instead, she was alone, haunted by memories of the f... more »laming automobile accident that had been her last view of him, three months before.
Only her American sense of duty had brought her here. Bart's grandmother, the Contessa Morandini, had a right to hear about her grandson's last days from the girl who had been his wife, the girl the Contessa had never met.
Kathy shook off her apprehension and asked for directions to the Morandini villa in the hills above the city. Her hands tightened on the wheel of her small rented car as she drove bravely into the terrifying traffic, the bewildering tangle of narrow winding roads, and a living nightmare even worse than the horrifying dreams that tortured her sleep.« less
Hoping that a trip to her late husband's childhood home will help her come to terms with his recent death, Kathy Malone travels to the rolling hills of Tuscany. But there, instead of solace, Kathy finds a lonely boy named Pietro, uncanny hints about her late husband, and the stately Contessa Morandini, whose chilly reception warms only when she mistakenly assumes Kathy is pregnant with the next heir of the Morandini line.
Despite--or perhaps because of--the Contessa's efforts to keep Kathy and Pietro apart, Kathy befriends the young boy. Their games lead her through the villa's maze of dark hallways, where she begins to discover hints of a startling truth. As the pieces of a sinister and murderous plan fall into place, Kathy realizes she has stumbled onto a dangerous obsession...one that was meant to stay hidden forever.