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A
GHOST AMONG US
Published 2002 by Fire Mountain Press.
I
have written a film script of A GHOST AMONG US, volume two,
JEROME'S QUEST, was published in 12/03, and I am currently working
on volume three of the Ghost saga, THE LAST DESCENDANT.
Synopsis
Present day. Charlotte Lewis is a young fashion photographer,
whose real interest lies in photographing the street people
of London. She has been living in London for approximately
one year when Dierdre Hall comes to live and work there.
Dierdre is the hostess of a cable television show entitled
Below Manhattan; she has accepted a job for the notorious
channel four; doing a British version of her show, entitled
Below London. When the action opens, Charlotte is looking
for a house for them to share with their friend Natalie
Ladd. She finds a large townhouse in Hampstead, fronting
the heath. The townhouse is part of three houses that
were converted from an old manor house.
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Dierdre arrives with Natalie Ladd, a painter from California
who will be showing her paintings in several galleries in London
and is hoping to build up a clientele there. She is the victim
of a vicious divorce, and is somewhat disillusioned with men
because her ex-husband, an author, attempted to keep all the
royalties from his first novel even though Natalie had supported
him through the writing of it. In this she is seconded by Dierdre,
who divorced her own husband because he wanted her to support
him. Only Charlotte and Natalie know that Dierdre is very wealthy,
part of one of the richest families in the states. When the
two women arrive in London Charlotte is involved with Paul Harkness,
a Norwegian research biologist with The University of London.
Unknown to the three women, the house they rent is already occupied;
by the ghost of Sir Jerome Kennington, the fifth Earl of Arden,
who was murdered on his wedding night in the original Arden
Manor. The house they are now occupying is one of three built
on the site of the original manor house, part of which burned
down in 1925; and it is the one Jerome has chosen to occupy.
Perpetually twenty-eight years old, Jerome is condemned to remain
in the house the house until he can discover who murdered him
and kidnapped his bride, Alicia. He has been waiting for over
150 years for someone to move into the house who can see and
hear him.
It is to Natalie that Jerome first appears, fleetingly; but
to Dierdre he first speaks. Dierdre and Natalie have become
interested in the history of the house, and gone to the library
to research the original Arden Manor. They have discovered the
death of Sir Jerome, and the kidnapping of Lady Alicia.
Natalie meets a Russian filmmaker who works for the BBC, Vladimir
Rochovsky; when she is at The Camden Arts Centre arranging for
her first showing. She brings him to the house in Hampstead
and introduces him to Dierdre, Paul and Charlotte. They discuss
the history of the house, and the story of Jerome and Alicia;
the parts that Dierdre and Natalie have discovered.
It is several days later, while Dierdre is researching her first
television show in London, that Jerome first appears to her.
He explains his situation, and enlists her help in finding his
murderers.
She tells him what she knows; Charlotte arrives home, she can
also see Jerome and talk to him. He begins to tell them his
story, how he met Alicia in London during the season of 1811.
She was expected to marry her cousin, Charles Brent -- Alicia's
father had gambled away his entire fortune and left her nothing,
so it was expected she would never receive any offers of marriage,
apart from Brent's.
Dierdre tells Jerome that Charles Brent is the man Alicia married
after Jerome's death. Jerome is amazed, but realizes the pieces
of his puzzle are starting to fit into place. He continues the
story of how he and Alicia fell in love, and how Charles Brent
tried to chase him away from Alicia, telling Jerome that Alicia
was engaged to marry him.
Alicia never agreed to marry Brent, however, and she fell in
love with Jerome and consented to be his bride.
When Dierdre does her first television show, she interviews
a man named Robin Herald, who is the lead singer of a rock group
called Experimental Monkeys. Herald looks almost exactly like
Jerome; and the three women wonder if Herald is Jerome's descendant.
They have already established that Alicia could very well have
been pregnant when she was kidnapped by Charles Brent, since
she and Jerome first became lovers six weeks before their wedding,
and that her child was Jerome's. They show Jerome a photograph
of Robin Herald, but he is not particularly impressed by his
descendant, as he feels men shouldn't wear makeup.
Paul is the first of the three men to meet Jerome; it seems
that anyone in contact with the women can also see him. They
then introduce him to Vladimir, who attempts to film him; but
the film develops blank.
When Robin Herald arrives at the house with a box of candy and
flowers for Dierdre, Jerome is unable to remain in the room
with him; he is inexplicably pulled away.
Robin and Dierdre become lovers. The following day, Charlotte
arrives home with three kittens she and Paul have liberated
from the experimental laboratory at The University of London.
When she tells Dierdre that there are many more animals there,
amongst them some puppies and small rabbits, the girls come
up with a plan to raid the lab and liberate the animals. That
evening, the group (minus Robin) make their plans; Paul has
the key to the laboratory, and Vladimir plans to film the lab
animals before they take them away. Then Dierdre will say the
video-tape was delivered anonymously to her at the television
station, and play it on-air. When Robin arrives to join in the
lab invasion, Jerome somehow manages to overcome his urge to
fade-out, and Robin meets his great -great -great -great -grandfather.
During this period, Jerome's story continues as he tells it
to the group; of his love affair with Alicia (consummated six
weeks before their wedding) leading up to their wedding and
his death on their wedding night.
Shortly before the raid on the lab is to take place, both Vladimir
and Robin split with their ladies. In Vladimir's case it is
simply because he is unable to accept Jerome's explanation of
the afterlife -- Vladimir discovers he is the only one of the
group who is a practicing Christian, and the realization that
his religion is not very accurate throws him into confusion.
He returns on the day before the raid with a gift for Natalie,
and they are reconciled. In the case of Robin, however, the
problem goes a little deeper. He takes Dierdre to a party at
The Hippodrome, where she runs into a former employee from her
television show in New York. The woman mentions to Robin that
Dierdre is very wealthy; this is done spitefully, since everyone
knows Robin's position on wealth. When he confronts Dierdre
with this knowledge she admits that she hid her wealth from
him because she knew he didn't believe people should be wealthy.
He leaves, and it is left to Dierdre to go to him and coax him
back to her.
Several nights later, the raid takes place, with Jerome's assistance.
He has discovered he can leave the house as long as he goes
with one of the three women; but he cannot be seen by anyone
else. He distracts the guards at the university long enough
for the animals to be brought out and Vladimir to complete a
15 minute-long film of the lab itself.
Robin and two members of The Animal Liberation Front are guests
on Dierdre's show the night she shows the lab film; they claim
that Robin, being a high-profile politically-oriented rock star,
was sent the film; and he brought it to Dierdre to run on the
show.
Approximately a week later, Robin tells Dierdre his band has
agreed to do a benefit for The Animal Liberation Front. Two
men from the University of London visit Dierdre and attempt
to question her about the video-tape and the missing animals;
but she dismisses them coldly and refuses to assist them.
The women have continued their research into Jerome's life --
they discover that Charles Brent hired men to kill Jerome and
kidnap Alicia; she was already pregnant with Jerome's child
and after the birth of her son Brent forced her to marry him.
After a year, she escaped with the baby and went to London,
to her Aunt Sarah, the women who had sponsored her season. With
the assistance of Sarah and her lover Robert, an Army Captain,
Alicia plans to divorce Charles. They plan to confront Charles
with Robert to protect them, but he is called away at the last
minute and Charles manages to gain entrance to Sarah's house.
When he attempts to force Alicia to come back to the country
with him, she shoots him.
Jerome is freed to return to Alicia. He walks through the wall
of the townhouse and joins her on the other side, but the following
night they return, and Alicia shows Dierdre that she now has
a little monkey from the lab; a monkey Dierdre tried to save
but who died of his injuries.
Paul has quit his job at The University of London to become
the new Director of The Animal Liberation Front. At a benefit
by Experimental Monkeys for The Animal Liberation Front, Charlotte
and Natalie are certain they see Jerome standing in the audience,
but they cannot locate him when they go to look. Dierdre has
purchased all three of the townhouses and given one to each
of her friends, to live in as long as they want to. She and
Robin have decided to live together in her house, and Paul and
Charlotte have started to talk about marriage.
One year later, the three houses are being occupied by the three
couples, who have cut French doors between them to connect the
reception rooms for parties. Charlotte and Paul are going to
be married in a couple of weeks and The Animal Liberation Front
offices have been moved into the basements of the houses, remodelled
for Paul and his staff.
One day, while Vladimir is in Berlin filming the tear-down of
the Wall, Jerome appears to Natalie. He tells her that Alicia
has been re-born, and he has only one year in which to locate
her soul and make certain he is reborn somewhere near her. Once
his soul goes into another body he won't be able to consciously
remember her; he has to make certain they are close enough to
meet. He wants the assistance of his old friends in finding
her -- he has a gold locket she gave him, which will orient
on her soul and tell him when he is in the right location.
That evening he tells his story to the group. They are skeptical
that he will be able to locate Alicia in only one year, given
the population of the planet. However, Natalie suggests Jerome
join Vladimir in Berlin, and start his search there. He does
so, and returns with Vladimir to London in time for Paul and
Charlotte's wedding. They invite him to accompany them on their
honeymoon; a tour of Scandinavia. He then plans to go along
with Robin on the Experimental Monkeys tour -- the last will
take six months and cover most of Europe, the United States,
Canada and Australia.
The book ends with the wedding, and Jerome's search for his
beloved begins in earnest.
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