Prologue

 

 

St. Thomas Hospital

 

London, England

 

It was the twenty-fifth of December, and outside the weather was cold and bitter, but inside it was warm and comfortable as a woman lay resting in a hospital maternity ward. As was the custom for this time of year, the room was decorated with festive adornments that twinkled and sparkled, and a tree stood in the corner, laden with lights and colorful glass balls. The mood should have been bright in keeping with the room and the birth of a child, but that was not to be the case. After a long, difficult night of hard labor, the woman was still and somber. Except for the child she’d just given birth to, the woman was alone.

With a faint smile, the woman turned to the door as a ward sister stepped through with a little bundle wrapped in pink. Approaching the bed where the woman lay, the sister peeled back the blanket to reveal the crumpled face of a contented sleeping child.

“You have a beautiful daughter, miss. Look at this head of dark hair and those lusciously long lashes. And to be sure, I’ve never seen such indigo blue eyes. Why, they’re as blue as the bounteous ocean, and look at these slender, elegantly long fingers. She’ll be the darling of her father. I’m sure of it.” The nurse laughed a jolly round as she handed the bundle to the mother.

The woman took the child and laid her to her breast. On instinct, the child grunted and rooted until she began to suckle. “Yes, she is beautiful…just as beautiful as her father is handsome,” said the mother.

“Well, I daresay, if he looks anything like this little daring, he’s a handsome bloke indeed. Now, what should we call her? A little girl like this one needs a distinguished name. Shall it be Rebecca or Sarah, Margaret or Anne, or how about Caroline or Diana? What shall it be, miss?”

“No, none of that will do for her. She is to be… Dana…Dana Darcy Hamilton,” the mother replied as she gazed upon her suckling child.

 

~*~

 

While the child suckled her mother’s breast, a being in white stood by, a lone red rose in her hand. As the young woman closed her eyes in sleep, the being laid the rose on the side table next to the young woman’s bed and took flight; for now her vigil was complete until...Dana Darcy.