For over a thousand years the Dukes of Gantley have struggled to hold and maintain their ancestral domain, Gramercy Park, the most splendid and imposing edifice on the South Coast of England. But when Paul, the ninth Duke of Gantley, inherits the estates, events bode ill for the family manse, for Paul is a rake, a spendthrift and a thoroughly bad lot. Soon he is selling off large tracts of lands in order to settle his gambling debts and his escapades with women. He is also a suspect in the mysterious deaths of several young women. Then one night in a drunken rage, he banishes his younger brother David and his sister Julia from their home. But a strange set of circumstances finds his life in the hands of David; and even though he begs for mercy from his younger brother, David refuses and takes the life of Paul, just as Cain slew Abel, and lives to regret it the rest of his life. In the meantime, with his brother s death, David becomes the tenth Duke of Gantley.
Barely a hundred miles from Gramercy Park, across the English Channel, lies the coast of France. In its glittering capitol the Dukes of Gantley find their favorite playground amid the splendors and excitements of that dazzling city. More than one Duke of Gantley chose his Duchesse from among the most beautiful women of Paris; David was no exception. He chose the exquisitely beautiful Alicia Dumont, whose mother had been a ballerina and a well-known courtesan in her day. But the events of history have a way of changing people s lives and bringing tragedy when it is least expected. While Alicia and their two children are in Paris visiting Alicia s mother, the Franco-Prussian War breaks out and they find themselves virtual prisoners during the Siege of Paris. David is desperate to bring them back to the safety of English soil and risks his life to do so. But when he returns to Gramercy Park he is a broken man, for history has exacted its price.
Figuring in the story is a magnificent diamond necklace said to be made from stones that were once a part of the notorious necklace of Marie Antoinette; said necklace was instrumental in bringing down the French Monarchy and perpetrating the French Revolution. The necklace is stolen three times, and David risks his life to recover it each time.
When David s son is born he names him Paul, after his brother, in a vain attempt to ease his own conscience for the role he played in his brother s death, but it turns out to be a curse instead. Young Paul is arrested in a male brothel in London and brings disgrace to the family s name. David is furious and disinherits the boy. Paul dies tragically of syphilis in Paris and David struggles with his remorse. David s youngest brother, Tim, carries on the line and becomes the eleventh Duke of Gantley and brings the family and Gramercy Park into the Twentieth Century.
(Although the name DeKingsley figures in the family tree of the author, the De Kingsley family in this narrative is strictly fictional.)
