”Entrancing.… The words are poetic, the message one of longing evocative of yesteryear but as up-to-date as your latest heartbeat.”

—Southern Pines Pilot (NC)

“Warm, beautiful, sad, and funny—a perfect romance. Terry Kay tells this story of passion with a clarity of feeling that is simply breathtaking.”

—Mark Childress

“I laughed out loud, chuckled and felt very thoughtful at times. … It surprised and pleased me.… This book was such a joy.”

—Barbara Bush

“Kay is a gifted, insightful writer with a simple, gracious style. … A tender, bittersweet, and memorable tale of obsession, friendship, love, and destiny.”

—Toledo Blade Citizen (OH)

“Terry Kay has created a magical place full of love, laughter, sadness and expectation, where time stands still and hope is always on the horizon.”

—Cathie Pelletier, author of A Marriage Made at Woodstock

Also by Terry Kay

To Whom the Angel Spoke: A Story of the Christmas

To Dance with the White Dog

Dark Thirty

After Eli

The Year the Lights Came On

The Runaway

Shadow Song

A NOVEL

TERRY KAY

Copyright Page

Washington Square Press 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used ficitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1994 by Terry Kay

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Washington Square Press, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kay, Terry.

Shadow song / Terry Kay

p.   cm.

ISBN 0-671-89260-6

eISBN-13: 978-1-4391-2213-6

I. Title.

PS3561.A885S48 1994

813’.54—dc20

94-15369

CIP

First Washington Square Press trade paperback printing October 1995

15  14  13  12  11  10  9  8

WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or [email protected].

Dedication

A few years ago, two friends—cohorts in the business where I was then employed—appeared in my office not long after the publication of one of my novels, and they said, in jest (or maybe half-jest), that they did not understand the story I had written, that it was interesting but complex. They wanted me to write a novel of romance for them. I promised that I would. Someday, I said. When I found an intriguing story. Two years ago, while visiting the Catskill Mountains of New York for the first time since 1957, I found that story. It had to do with an opera singer named Amelita Galli-Curci and some wonderful ghosts from three summers of working in a resort hotel.

And, so, this book is dedicated to:

Patty and Elaine

Because a promise is a promise.

Shadow Song

CHAPTER

1