title: Sophie's Fire
author: Constance Solari
description: Constance Solari has taught at Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, California, since 1972 and serves on the Formation to Mission Committee of the U.S. Sacred Heart Network Board. Her academic areas of interest are French and Italian studies, Comparative Literature, and the Humanities. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00193.jpeg)
  
  _Just for Her_
  
  _Just for Her_
  
  KATHERINE O’NEAL
  
  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
  
  [http://www.kensingtonbooks.com ](http://www.kensingtonbooks.com)
  
  For all the
  
  _Femmes on Fire_
  
  everywhere
  
  Chapter 1
  
  _21 June, 1926_
  
  _Cap Ferrat_
  
  _French Riviera_
  
  Jules awoke with a start.
  
  Without moving, her eyes scanned the vast bedroom of her hilltop Mediterranean
  villa. The floor-to-ceiling French doors were open as she’d left them, the
  breeze billowing the gos-samer white curtains into the room, playing with the
  moonlight that spilled in with a silvery glow. Beyond the windows she could
  see the conical tops of the cypresses that towered above the gardens below.
  All was quiet. The world around her seemed peaceful, serene.
  
  And yet . . .
  
  Something had jarred her awake.
  
  She lay motionless in her bed, listening. What time was it?
  
  The moon was still high in the sky. She hadn’t meant to doze off, but the
  hours she’d spent waiting the night before had caught up with her.