It was summer. A dry scratchy heat hung around the porch where Claire sat sweaty and sipping a beer. The man wore a black suit that Claire immediately sensed was probably more expensive than the car sitting in her driveway. His face was partially obscured by noontime shadowes cast by the brim of an understated fedora, but when he smiled she could see perfectly straight, white teeth. "Claire?" "Yes." "It is a pleasure to meet finally." "It is?" "Your grandmother spoke of you constantly." " -------------- segue to end with the mention of the book and Ambrose's contact info he leaves. start Romanian section. Sil runs into jazz musicians in NEw York at some point. leap backward in time to Sil and Waiben in Massachusetts. Ambrose dangled hand over the edge of the boat until the river tickled the hairs on his wrist. He straightened the oar against his chest and shifted the hat over his eye to shade the afternoon sun. He closed his eyes and heard the lazy progression of guitar chords echoed by bass notes and strummed in time to asdkfj;k kl;asdfj klj, he could still picture her on the stage, the over-dramatic sweep on an arm, the singular wrechedness of the lines that echoed out of her mouth, the shockingly blond exotica of her hair that seemed to toss about her in the dim candlelit stage and the gruff hand on his shoulder jaring the whole vision to a close. From the shore he could hear the occasional bleet of sheep and coppling of horses hooves stamping the dusty road that paralleled the river. He though her riding in some expensive coach, footman atop next the driver waiting to dismount and open her door with a flourish and bow. He smiled and fell asleep. The boat continued to drift with the current justling occasionly against the sides of the river where overhanding limbs scratched at the his hat and the bow rebounded lightly off sunken rocks and gnarled watery roots entrapped by last year's flood. The noice of the city awoke him from the river dream far before he actually passed beneath the monolithic and slightly charred remains of the parliment building and the wakes of small steamers forced him to once again man the oars. took the lee side of the island keeping an eye out for his mother ont he bank but she appeared to have already left. He lay low against the gunwale peeking up a bit to see if his brothers had come in yet, but their boats were nowhere to be seen and he knew that his brothers had already gone with their father to the Bastich. To drink whisky on the square and wouldn't be home until late with the sounds of breaking glass and cursing coming out of the forested darkness as he had heard late at night all his life. He brought the boat downstream past the dock and then expertly dug one oar into the current as a fulcrum while windmilling the other to excute a nearly perfect circle on a dime. He then put his eight against both oars in the relative lee of the dock pausing only to cast the line to the man on the dock who caught it and pulled him the rest of the way in. At the Bastich Tavern he found his father and three brothers drunk in the corner he grabbed a mug at the bar and went to drain a bit from each over the surly cries of theif and good for nothing, which like the Sil is in nicaragua leading sailing tours fighting the malaria he picked up in India. When the season ends he sails through the canal and over to Thailand and works that season. Jimmy owns the bar the opening scene is Claire and Waiben discussing the trip. She goes to say goodbye to Jimmy, who is heading out on a motorcycle trip around the world. She wants him to find Sil. He delays his trip for two days to go to funeral. Claire is the one who goes to meet waiben at the funding meeting. The man from budapest approaches her at the funeral. Says he will pay her way to Paris and set them up with what they need to continue the research. She goes to the funding meeting with Waiben and meets with him to tell him about the opportunity in Paris. So we track Jimmy up through Canada and down Russia into Mongolia where he finds Sil. Claire to Paris. Sil is with scratch in thailand looking for the legendary angkor hallucinogen, he goes from Thailand to Europe. Theodore and Isabella across the Cacuses and down through india with the book. Sil as an corporate assassin? His connection to the man who visits Claire? The man is father to both Theo and Isabella, Theo's mother died and Isabella's father died and the man takes care of both. They end up marrying and Theo and Isabella still fall in love. That's gross, but hey it happens. 2-piece sequin decorated heavy cotton lace over silk satin, black chiffon flounces, velvet ribbon trim & diamante brooch on wired black velvet cockade, label stamped in gold on black petersham, "Mody i Platji S Peterburg Fontanka u Chernysheva mosta" Translation: "Fontanka Fashions & Dresses St. Petersburg at the Chernysheva bridge", black silk taffeta linings, long skirt train, Sh-Sh 13", B 38", W 24", Skirt L 39"-60", (minor sequin loss) excellent.