title: The Visitor - New York 1871-1873
author: Svetlick, Barbara Cope
description: Mirisa suddenly sat straight up as panic pushed against her chest. A dark silhouette of a man was sitting in the wing chair next to the fire smoking a cigar watching her. Her heart was pounding so fast that she couldn’t breathe and she didn’t know if it was a dream or maybe Conrad. She closed her eyes and reached out for him. Conrad touched her lightly and she looked at him then looked at the fireplace and the man was still there. Conrad put his hand on her arm to calm her. The voice brought her attention back to him. “I was surprised you turned down my offer.” “How did you get in my house?” “I have the key. I know the man who was in charge of construction while it was being renovated.” New York City was a city of rich and powerful men who ate bad business deals for breakfast and thought nothing of dropping their foes into the harbor. The City never slept, never cared whether they left the bones of the night in the gutters and only paid attention if it involved money and perverse sex. Mirisa’s life was sucked into the world wind of bored trophy wives and hungry husbands as the Assignments started to put a wedge in the friendship of the men she loved and they unsuccessfully tries hard to pull her back under their protection while she attempts to create a normal life with Alexander. For hell has no place for a woman left to her own devices.