The year is 1846. Désirée Bordeaux is a beautiful Créole belle living with her aging grandfather, a heavy drinker and gambler who has accrued huge debts. When he dies suddenly, Désirée learns that her beautiful New Orleans plantation, Chêne Vue, is to be put on the auction block.
Désirée finds herself being wooed by Philippe Jaunet, a cruel man who lusts after Chêne Vue and strikes fear in Désirée's heart. She is also being courted by the handsome and wealthy New Yorker, Lance Van Buren, but her heart belongs to another-the man who broke her heart and married someone else.
Désirée is pulled in different directions, her life complicated by circumstances, misunderstandings, lies, and betrayal-and the workings of her own turbulent heart. Will love eventually win out for this southern belle? Power, passion, and deception rule in Arlette Gaffrey's latest novel, Behind the Columns.
Arlette Marie Gaffrey, a native of New Orleans, is a French-Spanish Creole. Her family goes back many generations — to 1834 — in the Crescent City. Arlette was married to a career naval officer, and has three children and six grandchildren. She and her family live in San Diego, California. Arlette is also the author of A World of His Own: In the Land of the Creoles.