Assumed dead and a continent away, Gretchen’s wounded heart longs for home . . .
With newly found freedom after thirty years, Gretchen and her granddaughter, Bella, a rare musical savant, are happy in their cottage in North Carolina, but the haunting shadows of Gretchen’s past cloud her days. A shameful night in a dark alley of an Austrian village decades ago left Gretchen with only one choice— to flee her family, her beloved fiancé, Peter, and her homeland.
Caroline, a beautiful concert pianist and Gretchen’s closest friend, is settling into her Rockwater home as the wife of Roderick Adair, a successful international business tycoon. But Caroline knows Gretchen’s yearning for home, so she and Roderick fulfill Gretchen’s dream of returning to Austria. You will walk with them through musical Vienna, through historic castles and magnificent cathedrals. You will follow Gretchen up the familiar path along the Danube to the cozy cottage where she grew up and to the trysting place where she and Peter had planned their future.
But will digging into her past unearth dark secrets that should remained buried? Will she find love with Peter again? With longings stronger than her fears, Gretchen desperately searches for her family and the music that once filled her soul. Her past and her future unfold on the willow-fringed banks of the Danube as she opens her heart and a white velvet bag left to her by her grandmammá.
