Trial by Fire

In this inspiring novel from #1 Born to a French mother and American father, graceful Dahlia de Beaumont has been sole owner and CEO of the venerable family perfume business based in Paris since her early twenties, following the death of her parents. For twenty-five years, after losing her young skier husband in an avalanche, her life has centered on running Lambert Perfumes and being a devoted single mother to her four now-adult children: indecisive Charles, volatile Alexa, kind-hearted business visionary Delphine, and dreamy artist Emma. Now fifty-six, she has an “arrangement” with a married French man but has been questioning that relationship. Dahlia comes to San Francisco on a routine business trip to check on her stores in the States. But shortly after her arrival, brush fires ignite in Napa Valley. Watching the sweeping devastation on the news, Dahlia is moved to help. But doing so will bring unforeseen consequences that endanger not only her life, but her entire future. Forced to remain in San Francisco in the aftermath, she will make unexpected connections while also fighting to protect all she has worked for. What Dahlia learns will provide a new perspective of her life, forever changing what really matters to her and what comes next for her journey. With this uplifting novel, Danielle Steel beautifully dramatizes how life’s unforeseen challenges can sow the seeds for growth and a fresh chance at love--if one is willing to take the risk.

Auteur
Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s bestselling authors, with a billion copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Second Act, Happiness, Palazzo, The Wedding Planner, Worthy Opponents, Without a Trace, The Whittiers, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Expect a Miracle, a book of her favorite quotations for inspiration and comfort; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.

Texte du rabat

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this inspiring novel from bestselling author Danielle Steel, the life of a Parisian woman changes in a heartbeat when she’s trapped by wildfires in Napa Valley.

Born to a French mother and American father, graceful Dahlia de Beaumont has been sole owner and CEO of the venerable family perfume business based in Paris since her early twenties, following the death of her parents. For twenty-five years, after losing her young skier husband in an avalanche, her life has centered on running Lambert Perfumes and being a devoted single mother to her four now-adult children: indecisive Charles, volatile Alexa, kind-hearted business visionary Delphine, and dreamy artist Emma. Now fifty-six, she has an “arrangement” with a married French man but has been questioning that relationship.

Dahlia comes to San Francisco on a routine business trip to check on her stores in the States. But shortly after her arrival, brush fires ignite in Napa Valley. Watching the sweeping devastation on the news, Dahlia is moved to help. But doing so will bring unforeseen consequences that endanger not only her life, but her entire future. Forced to remain in San Francisco in the aftermath, she will make unexpected connections while also fighting to protect all she has worked for. What Dahlia learns will provide a new perspective of her life, forever changing what really matters to her and what comes next for her journey.

With this uplifting novel, Danielle Steel beautifully dramatizes how life’s unforeseen challenges can sow the seeds for growth and a fresh chance at love—if one is willing to take the risk.

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter 1

Dahlia Johnson de Beaumont sat in her elegantly designed office in the building she owned on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, on a warm day in late June, and consulted her list of appointments and the calls she had to make that morning. She was the CEO of the venerable, highly successful perfume firm she had inherited as an only child. It had been founded by her maternal grandfather, Louis Lambert. Dahlia’s mother, Constance Lambert Johnson, also an only child, had inherited it from her father, the founder. Constance had passed away when Dahlia was in college in New York. She had bequeathed the company in its entirety to Dahlia. Dahlia had always known she would inherit the business one day. It was expected. She just didn’t know it would happen so soon. She had a normal, happy childhood, except that her career path had been chosen for her, almost like royalty in a way.

They were one of the most important perfume manufacturers in the world. Louis Lambert Perfumes were as well-known as Guerlain, and followed as many of the original traditions of perfume-making as was possible at a time when some natural ingredients were no longer available or legal and had been replaced by synthetics. It was a technical challenge, but as much as was possible, and with great care, their perfumes appeared to be unchanged.

Dahlia’s mother, Constance, was a gentle, genteel woman. She had never worked in the firm, once she’d inherited it, but she had a deep love for the company her father had founded. It was run by the competent directors, executives, and managers her father had put in place before his death at eighty-seven. Their perfumes were in some way old-fashioned, or traditional, and yet they had been subtly adapted to the modern world and to what women wanted today. Many new scents had been added to the originals, which were popular around the globe. The managing board of directors had run Lambert during Constance’s entire ownership. Her husband, Hunter Johnson, had been on the board, was one of the overseers of the company, and had protected Constance’s interests and invested the company’s assets wisely. He had suggested several times to Constance that they go public, but she had preferred to maintain private ownership. She knew her father would have wanted that, just as the Dumas family kept Hermès private, and the Wertheimer family owned Chanel. Lambert was easily as profitable as Hermès, and had stores where their perfumes were sold around the world.

Hunter, Constance’s husband, was American. They had met at a party at the American embassy in Paris, and he had been dazzled by her. He was twenty-five years older than Constance when they met. She was twenty-one, one of the most beautiful young women in Paris, and he was a childless widower of forty-six. He was one of the early founders of venture capital. They married within the year they met, and Dahlia was born in New York a year later. Hunter advised Constance brilliantly on the company’s investments during her ownership of Lambert. Her death while Dahlia was in college in the States was a heartbreaking blow to Dahlia and her father. He adored his wife, and Dahlia and her mother were very close.

Constance and Hunter had lived in New York in the early days of their marriage, and Dahlia attended private school there. They remained in New York until Dahlia went to college, Hunter retired, and he and Constance moved to Paris. They had gone back and forth to Paris frequently before that, and Dahlia was equally comfortable in Paris or New York, in English or in French while she was growing up. She had strong family ties to France, and had spent her early years in New York, with summers spent in their summer home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France, and once she was in college, she worked at the Lambert offices in Paris for a month every summer and loved it.

Two years after they moved …