Finally, fortune—and a woman—smiled on her... More than ready to make a change in her life, Carrie Bowden has discovered a family, received a valuable inheritance and been handed a chance to start over in a new town, in her own mansion. That the interior of her new home is covered with a half-century's worth of dust doesn't daunt her rising sense of adventure. Gillian Dumfries, the local antique dealer, is among the crew of eager helpers who want the old mansion restored to its glory days. Constantly begrimed and disheveled, Carrie is still aware that the furniture isn't the only thing being inventoried by Gillian's eyes. Uncovering art pieces, classic furnishings and old books leads to discoveries—not always welcome—about the mother Carrie doesn't remember and the grandmother who refused to go into those dust-choked rooms for fifty years. Memories of the past stir as the haunting truths of an elegant, but repressive era leave Carrie agitated and anxious. Gillian—confusing, attractive, unexpected—doesn't understand Carrie's increasing fears. But it's the warmth of Gillian's hands that Carrie knows she much reach for when the cold-hearted evils of the past threaten to claim her sanity as their latest victim. Claire Rooney reveals the complexities of history, the price of forbidden passion and the joy of new love in this unique story of present and past.

Two very different women from two very different worlds meet by accident...literally.Collier Ann Torrington, a blue-blooded southern Californian, is running from her family, their money and her father's ruthless political ambitions. Meri Margaret Donovan lives on a Blue Ridge Mountain farm and refuses to see the world beyond her back gate. Their dramatic meeting is only the first of the tests that knock both women way out of their comfort zones.Just when it seems like Collier and Meri might find détente, the intrigue and destructive manipulations of Collier's family threaten her independence and Meri's way of life. There is only one way to survive the onslaught: together. But Meri's own shadows of the past threaten her ability to believe in any kind of future.