Their vows seemed a tenuous bond at best, but it was all she had....Awakening to a new landscape, Carina DiGratia Shepard is as transformed as the home she has embraced. The mining town of Crystal, Colorado, has lost its evil stranglehold, its surface cleansed by a devastating flood, its people both shattered and revitalized. Carina, too, now strolls its boardwalks a different woman. Married, though in title only. The habits of her rogue husband's solitary life still reign -- Quillan Shepard has left without word of his return, haunted by the parents who'd given him a name he despises and a heart unable to love.Disillusioned by her abandonment, Carina feels again the painful rejection that had driven her to Crystal. Choosing to respond with equal determination, she carves out an existence that provides the independence and identity she has long sought. But the call of the Rose Legacy still beckons...and Carina hopes its dark caverns hold the key to loosening the bitterness encircling her husband's soul.