Publisher's Synopsis
Armagnac Jardineux, the son of a Louisiana planter family, travels to Europe to study and sample all the pleasures that the Old World has to offer. The Civil War begins back home, separating him from his family and their money. Soon, both are gone. Left alone in London, he drowns his despair in alcohol. The only thing he can do well enough to make a living is play the piano. That is when he meets a young violinist named Lothar Mintze, and his patron, Lord Huntington. The young musicians find themselves dragged straight from the gutter into the tea parties of London's high society, where they soon begin to appreciate the crowds of admirers, and all the corporeal pleasures that London has to offer.Still, Armagnac finds himself unable to truly enjoy their new-found fame, when he discovers a mystery of the past which binds his grandmother, Blanche Avoy, to Lord Huntington. Could it be possible that the man she describes in her diary is the same man who has become such a blessing and a curse to her grandson, decades later? What mystery bound their families together so long ago? Will Armagnac be able to free himself from Huntington and his friends once he discovers the truth of their secret?
