A new edition of the best-selling, award-winning first book.When the Beltrán brothers came to this Andean valley, they found behind barred windows beautiful twin sisters - last in the line of an illustrious conquistador. Through them the Beltrán dynasty was born - a dynasty that ruled the valley for 200 years and was now returning to the dust.Two centuries later, Lydia Sinclair was scarcely out of school when she fell in love with Don Diego Beltrán and left England behind for her husband's Andean estate. Benito, the family's oldest retainer, said that through her the valley would not be forgotten: 'Fate has brought you here to us, to chronicle our decline.'In the night's stillness he told her of romance and battle, drought and pestilence, splendour and suffering.The characters in the valley's tumultuous history rose up before Lydia as if they still roamed the dusty slopes: Admiral Silence who enjoyed no one's company so decided never to speak again; General Mario who prophesied the rui
