Ruth Livingstone's life changes drastically the day her father
puts a young child in her arms and sends her to a small village in
New Jersey under an assumed name. There Ruth pretends to be a widow
and quietly secludes herself until her father is acquitted of a
crime. But with the emergence of the penny press, the imagination
of the reading public is stirred, and her father's trial stands
center stage. Asher Tripp is the brash newspaperman who determines
that this case is the event he can use to redeem himself as a
journalist.
Ruth finds solace tending a garden along the banks of the Toms
River--a place where she can find a measure of peace in the midst
of the sorrow that continues to build. It is also here that Asher
Tripp finds a temporary residence, all in an attempt to discover if
the lovely creature known as Widow Malloy is truly Ruth
Livingstone, the woman every newspaper has been looking for. Love
begins to slowly bloom...but is the affection they share strong
enough to withstand the secrets that separate them?
Delia Parr (Mary Lechleidner) is the author of eleven historical novels and the winner of several awards. The mother of three grown children, she is a full-time high school teacher who spends her summer vacations writing and kayaking. She lives in Collingswood, New Jersey.