Buildings with covered porches and shutters, some with smoke curling out of chimneys.
She spotted a restaurant called the Lobster Cage, another called Gino’s Pizzeria.
She wouldn’t starve.
She spotted a bookstore, called exactly that: A Bookstore.
People moved along the skinny sidewalk in their heavy winter gear.
She was out of town again in less than a minute, and promised herself she’d explore the other side of the village, the side streets, the bay.
But for now, she was rambling along the coast and climbing.
The peaceful silver bay was behind her, and the sea made itself known crashing against a rocky beach, churning under cliffs that rose jagged and fierce enough to stop her breath.
The road narrowed until she wondered if two cars could pass without scraping fenders. It snaked so she slowed to a crawl with the cliffs and windy sea on one side, a thick forest of shadows and blanketing snow on the other.
Mr. Doyle had said remote, she remembered. And someone had plowed since the last snowfall, as the narrow, climbing, winding road was clear for the most part.
Not that she feared winter driving, but her experience there lay centered in the city. But as long as the road stayed clear, she’d be fine. And the GPS told her she’d be there in …
She rounded a curve and there it was, rising up, spreading out on the cliffs under the brooding sky. Astonished, she braked.
She’d thought herself prepared. She had the photos, she had her father’s drawings. But there it stood on its carpet of snow, atop the rise of cliffs and over the lashing sea.
Like something out of a novel, she thought, or a classy horror movie, with its twin turrets and many windows, the deep blue cladding against stone that showed dull gold in the gloom.
There rose the big weeper, its curving branches glittering with ice. The house had the forest at its back, like a wall of green.
Smoke rose in lazy curls from the chimneys, and someone had shoveled paved walkways. One led to the wide, covered portico at the entrance.
And Sonya fell in love.
However foolish, she felt the house waited for her, and stood ready to take her in. Nerves conquered, sheer delight rising, she drove forward.
A muscular black truck was parked at the far end of the main walkway, and she pulled in beside it. She got out, simply stood in the kick of wind and studied what, through fate or lineage or the luck of the draw, could be hers.
She saw a shadow move across a window on the second floor. Someone watching for her arrival, she thought. As she lifted a hand to wave, the main doors opened.
She’d expected Mr. Doyle, but the man who stepped out, hatless, a parka tossed over a flannel shirt, was considerably younger.
The wind caught at his hair—a lot of black hair—as he strode toward her in scarred brown boots.
She caught the resemblance quickly—the shape of the face, the blade of nose, the sharply carved lips curved in a quiet smile.
And she couldn’t mistake the eyes, that wonderfully eerie blue rimmed in black.
As those eyes held hers, she smiled back at him.
“I’m Sonya. You look like your father. Oliver Doyle III?” She made it a question as she held out a hand. She’d expected smooth lawyer’s hands, but his had the feel of a man who worked with them.
“Guilty. Welcome to Lost Bride Manor.”
“I’m sorry. Lost Bride Manor?”
“So the locals dubbed it a couple centuries ago. How was the drive from Boston?”
“Uneventful.”
“Best kind, and you beat the snow. Let’s get you out of the wind, then I’ll get your bags.”
“I don’t mind the wind, and it’s not that much. But I could use a hand.” She opened the trunk. “I’m going to get my purse from the front.”
She grabbed it and the still unopened container of cookies.
“Is your father inside?” she asked as she pulled out her weekender.
“No. He wanted to be here to greet you, give you the tour, but he’s a little under the weather.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Just a cold.” He hauled out her two suitcases as if they weighed nothing. “But my mother laid down the law. Is this it?” He gestured to the three boxes she’d sealed and labeled.
“That’s it.”
“I’ll come back for them.”
She nodded, looked back at the house. “It makes a statement.”
“What does it say to you?”
“I’m here,” she said as they carried the first load to the entrance. “I see. I know. And I’m spectacular.”