A Stroll In The Park

• Author: Diana Castilleja
• Publisher: The Dark Castle Lords
• Year: 2007
• Setting: New England, Scotland
• Fictionwise Listing: A Stroll In The Park

Book Description

Aurora Salvage is looking for a new life, and a new leaf to turn. She’s alone for the first time in ten years, when she loses her husband in a tragic accident while he is on assignment. Drake McKenna is the resident professor of the little New England town she’s moved into. A small park is the center of the community, and it’s the first place she finds a level of comfort. This is an unfortunate turn for Drake, who’s all but claimed the park as his own personal sanctuary where he could hide himself and his wounded heart.

When Drake’s father falls ill, however, his only recourse is to return to Scotland, and see for himself how things are, as well as try to keep his brother’s wife from claiming their heritage from under his brother’s nose. He returns to find his father sick and in bed, but not on the deathbed his brother had first insinuated. Instead, he and Aurora shock not only the household, but his brother, when he returns with her as his wife. Sean described their father’s illness as worse than it was to convince Drake to return home, but he’d not expected the turn of events, nor how deeply all would be affected by his homecoming.

Excerpt

The carved oak door closed behind her with a cushioned sound. It was the snick of the lock that bore a resounding tone of finality. Aurora checked the lock by pushing on the knob for the last time, then dropped the keys into the old-fashioned wall mounted mailbox. They would be picked up by the end of the weekend by her realtor.

She walked to her car and dropped the last box into the trunk and closed it with a slow hand, the sound poignant in the afternoon stillness. Her gaze traveled up the red curved pavestones of the flowered walk, to finally rest on the door she had just walked through for the last time. There were no tears this time. The new owners of the two-story brick home would be moving in by the end of the month. It was time for her to move on. Life was demanding in that way.

She’d been a widow for six months. Six long, tortured months of swimming through intense feelings. Now there was acceptance that she was at a turning point in her life. It was time to make some major new-leaf adjustments to her life. It had taken Alexander’s death, however heartbreaking it had been, to show her she no longer had an identity.

Over the ten years of their marriage, she had ceased to be Aurora Salvage, had ceased to have an individual identity from her husband and his fame. She had become Alexander Salvage’s wife, Mrs. Salvage. An appendage. She couldn’t count one person among the dozens they had known far and wide to be a friend of hers. They had all been photographers, freelancers for various magazines and astute writers. She couldn’t think of one woman friend that hadn’t been gained from his work, from his travels. There wasn’t one person she could turn to after his death to lean on. The closest ones were mourning him as their friend, as their co-worker, as a mentor in his field. They couldn’t help his bereft widow.

She backed out of the drive for the last time. With a sad stare, she saw the fine cut of the hedges and colorful flower beds she had planted on her own knees just two years ago. She repeated the mantra she had found to be true for herself. She was important. She was not a shadow. She was Aurora, and she would not allow herself to be lost behind another man again.

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