Category: Romance Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
ISBN-10: 1601543743
Type: Fiction
Pages: 180
Copyright: December 2008
Light paranormal romance set on a Caribbean cruise and featuring a ghost, a pirate, a mysterious musician, legends and curses.
: Daisy and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lily, are embarking on a Caribbean cruise. She isn't looking for anything special on the cruise other than a pleasant break from her humdrum existence as long-time divorced single mother to a busy teenage girl. She certainly isn't prepared for an enigmatic man named Peter whose idiosyncrasies in dress and speech mark him as an eccentric person to avoid. But Daisy can't avoid him. In fact, she begins to obsess about him from the first moment she catches him staring at her in the cruise ship terminal. Peter remains elusive and mysterious throughout the cruise. She catches sight of him occasionally, never often enough to please her, and they connect one wonderful night as he sweeps her into his arms for a waltz. A waltz? On a Caribbean cruise ship? While Daisy's dinner companions share nightly tales of the legends of cursed pirates, Daisy dreams of the mysterious man who has captured her heart.
Excerpt
Bjorn glanced at his enrapt audience and took a deep breath. Daisy cringed. Something was coming.
"And with his last ounce of strength, Captain Smith grabbed his sword and plunged it in Gentleman Jones' heart."
A stab of pain seemed to knife through Daisy's own heart, and she involuntarily put a hand to the painful spot just below her left collarbone.
Even Becky was speechless, her jaw hung open. Lily took a breath and asked the question uppermost in Daisy's mind.
"Did he...does he...?"
"They say he still wanders the Caribbean, alone and lonely, a ghost with no hope of dying or returning to the living."
Bjorn's voice drifted away. He scanned the faces of his audience solemnly.
He shrugged. "But it's just a silly story, one of many. Who knows if any of them are true?"
And in a surprise move, he picked up his fork and resumed eating. Johana smiled demurely and took a sip of water before she too resumed eating.
Bjorn's stunned dinner companions stared at him. Lily, Daisy and Becky exchanged saddened glances.
Jim broke the silence when he started laughing and clapped Bjorn on the back. Bjorn choked slightly and put his napkin to his lips.
"Well, you sure had us going. I'll give you that. So...no truth to the story?"
Bjorn leaned slightly away from Jim and shrugged once again. "I find the Caribbean folklore fascinating, but many of the stories are just that. Stories. I heard this tale from a man in a museum in Nassau once. I liked it." He gave the group a sheepish smile.
"So, it's just a fairy tale?" Becky asked.
"Not a fairy tale," Bjorn smiled slightly. "Just an old legend. If the story were true, we would have to believe in ghosts...and I for one do not care to think about such things." He picked up his knife and fork again and began to cut his food, seemingly no longer interested.
"Just a legend," murmured Johana. She shook her head in amusement. "A story. Bjorn has many."
"Mom, what are you doing? Are you okay?"
Daisy turned to meet her daughter's eyes. Lily nodded toward Daisy's hand still dramatically clutched to her chest.
She colored and dropped her hand. The pain had eased.
Such a sad story!
The Matchmaker:
Angela Calminetti, mother of five, New Age practitioner and gifted psychic and telepath, is proud of her family ties and does everything she can to make sure that all of her younger siblings are as happy in love and marriage
Edward Rutherford is prepared to do just about anything to escape an arranged marriage to a woman he despises. But his brilliant plan to feign insanity has some rather unwanted consequences...
