title: The Ghosts of Rue Dumaine
author:  Alexandrea Weis 
description: Alexandrea Weis is an advanced practice registered nurse who was born and raised in New Orleans. Her first novel, To My Senses, introduced readers to the world of Nicci Beauvoir and garnered numerous awards and rave reviews. Her popular second Nicci Beauvoir novel, Recovery, won the Gold Medal for best romantic suspense from The Readers Favorite Book Awards 2011, was named best Romantic Suspense novel by the Spring 2011 NABE Pinnacle Book Awards, and was a Finalist in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards in 2011. Her fourth novel, Broken Wings, won best Contemporary Romance by the NABE Pinnacle Book Awards in 2012, was a finalist in the USA Book Awards for Romance in 2012, and was a finalist in the Readers Favorite Book Awards for Contemporary Romance for 2012. Her sixth novel, Diary of a One-Night Stand, was released in August 2012 and was named a Paranormal Romance Guilds Best Reviewed of 2012. A permitted wildlife rehabber with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, Weis rescues orphaned and injured wildlife. She lives with her husband and pets in New Orleans.
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  A Second Home
  
  * * *
  
  # A Second Home
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Honore de Balzac
  
  
  ##### Translated by Clara Bell
  
  
  
      
  
  
  DEDICATION
  
  
  
  
  
  To Madame la Comtesse Louise de Turheim as a token of
  
  
  remembrance and affectionate respect.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean, formerly one of the darkest and most
  
  
  tortuous of the streets about the Hotel de Ville, zigzagged round the
  
  
  little gardens of the Paris Prefecture, and ended at the Rue Martroi,
  
  
  exactly at the angle of an old wall now pulled down. Here stood the
  
  
  turnstile to which the street owed its name; it was not removed till
  
  
  1823, when the Municipality built a ballroom on the garden plot
  
  
  adjoining the Hotel de Ville, for the fete given in honor of the Duc
  
  
  d'Angouleme on his return from Spain.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The widest part of the Rue du Tourniquet was the end opening into the
  
  
  Rue de la Tixeranderie, and even there it was less than six fee