Prologue Kate 1982 The large ballroom was crowded with familiar ghosts come to help celebrate her birthday . Kate Blackwell watched them mingle with the flesh--and ---blood people , and in her mind , the scene was a dreamlike fantasy as the visitors from another time and place glided around the dance floor with the nsuspecting guests in black tie and long , shimmering evening gowns . There were one hundred people at the party at Cedar Hill HOuse , in Dark Harbor , Maine . Not cunting the ghosts ,Kate Blackwell thought wryly . She was a slim , petite woman , with a regal bearing that made her appear taller than she was . She had a face that one rememberded . A proud bone strcture , dawn --gray eyes and a stubborn chin , a blending of her Scottish and Dutch ancestors . She had fine ,white hair that once had been a luxuriant black cascade , and against the graceful folds of her ivory velvet dress , her skin had the soft transluncence old age sometimes brings. I don t feel ninety , Kate Blackwell thought . Where have all the years gone ? She watched the dancing ghosts . They know . They were there . They were a part of those years , a part of my life . She saw Banda , his proud black face beaming. And there was her David , dear David, looking tall and young and handsome , the way he looked when she first fell in love with him , and he was smiling at her , and she thought , Soon , my darling , soon . And she wished David could have lived to know his great --grandson. Kate s eyes searched the large room until she saw him . He was standing near the orchestra , watching the musicians . He was a strikingly handsome boy . almost eight years old , fair--haired ,dressed in a black velvet jacket and tartan trousers . Robert was a replica of his great--great--grandfather , Jamie McGregor , the man in the painting above the marble fireplace . As though sensing her eyes on him , Robert turned , and Kate beckoned him to her with a wave of her fingers , the perfect twenty --carat diamond her father had scooped up on a sandy beach almost a hundred years ago scintillating in the radiance of the crystal chandelier . Kate watched with pleasure as Robert threaded his way through the dancers. I am the past , Kate thought . He is the future , My great--grandson will take over Kruger --Brent Limited one day . He reached her side , and she made room for him on the seat beside her.