内容简介：
A long slow voyage from St. Petersburg, Russia to Charleston, South Carolina aboard a variety of sailing vessels should have been an exciting time for Sarah Stoughton, wife of a Russian Cossock and daughter of a wealthy Charleston merchant. It was to be the realization of dreams she had when she was a child listening to stories of old seafaring men who visited her father's place of business on the waterfront. It was not a pleasant journey, however, but she did have time to catch up on all the reading she had been putting off for years. She also had more time than she really needed to reflect on her life. Sarah was a highly educated woman. She had studied at the Woman's Medical College in Pennsylvania, but she never practiced medicine. She married right after she graduated and her husband, who was on the diplomatic staff at the Russian Embassy, thought it was unseemly for a diplomat's wife to work outside the home. Soon after the marriage her husband, Sergae, was ordered home to Russia and for over two years Sarah endured the dull uneventful life of a Cossack's wife. Her relationship with her husband was at a very low ebb and with Sergae's blessing she arranged to return to Charleston for an extended vacation. Now she was back home in Charleston. She was eager to renew old acquaintances and to reenter the social circles that she had known as a young girl. Unfortunately, times had changed and South Carolina was very close to war. Additionally, Sarah's family was being tormented by a powerful man who believed they had kept an adoring Sarah away from him when he was a young man. Coincidently, this same man was actively involved in a foreign conspiracy that was designed to destroy the entirefabric of the United States of America. He was ambitious, but more than that, he desired to have Sarah Stoughton at any cost. The conspirators had perfected their plans for the demise of the democratic experiment in America and murder of an emissary of the President of the United States was a cornerstone of that plan. Sarah's unwanted suitor, the powerful Chief of Police of Charleston, South Carolina had made some additions to that plan. He would do everything in his power to bring about the fall of the Stoughton family. He would carry out the plan to the letter alright, but he would be accomplishing it by casting suspicion on Sarah's father's loyalty to the south and by framing him for the conspiracy and murder. Startling events after Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 would drag the United States to the edge of the deep dark abyss of civil war. In the north abolitionists clamored for the end of slavery. In the south, secessionist demanded release from their union with the north. The commander of the Federal garrison in South Carolina was replaced by a Kentuckian whose loyalty to the U.S. Army was questioned. His bold move the day after Christmas shocked both sides and led to the arrest of Sarah's father and brother for treason. Only the skilled maneuvering of a very shrewd attorney could help them out of the tangled web in which Major Robert Anderson unwittingly snarled Robert And Jacob Stoughton. It would not be the last time the attorney would come to the rescue of the Stoughton's. The next time it would take the combined efforts of the slave communication network, the confederate army, a former operative for the Pinkerton detective agency and Sarah herself to free herfather. There was only one snag, Sarah would have to feign affection and admiration for a man she despised, to get him to confess to a murder. One mistake, one miscalculation and she could find herself in a life threatening situation or worse. A meeting with her family's tormentor was to be held very late at night in a dark lonely cotton warehouse at the end of the shipping wharves. Although there was a solid plan in place to have a key witness in hiding to hear the confession and to rescue Sarah if need be, the plan required split second timing. As far as the murder