2015: Ever since she first learned to read, Danny Ambrose has escaped into myth, legend, and ancient cultures. So it’s no surprise she became a quite successful historical novelist, one who is sought by restless spirits to acknowledge their deaths and bring them peace. Now 42, the Long Island native is researching her latest work in Edinburgh one blustery January, preferring escape to the cold city to dealing with her husband—her philandering husband—of 22 years.
But the two issues that present themselves in Edinburgh aren’t as easy to avoid. The first is a tall, dark, and patient local contractor named Alec Johnston, whose interests parallel her own, and who’s determined to make Danny see her future is with him. The second is a 17th century ghost named Alan Preston MacDonald, a malicious spirit who haunts her, threatening her with sword and with physical violence in her dreams, waiting for the moment she ceases to struggle against him so he can steal her soul.
Alec wins Danny’s love. She battles her domineering husband for a divorce, but over time MacDonald grows stronger while Danny grows weaker from lack of sleep, fear, and worry for Alec, ill with cancer. Driven to unravel the mystery surrounding the ghost before he claims her soul and her life, Danny finds the missing pieces to the puzzle in a document in the Edinburgh museum. A curse put on MacDonald binds him to the mortal plane, never to rest in peace until a white witch of his own clan can reverse the curse.
Is Danny the white witch? Is she strong enough to vanquish MacDonald before he steals her soul? And as Alec nears death, can there be a happy ending at all?
