Title: Pulled by a Dream
Series: The Matthews Brother Trilogy #1
Author: Kathryn Greenway
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 1, 2018
Emily Darrow is ready for a change. She’s sold her interior design company, and is taking some time off to consider her options before starting a new life with new challenges. But when she inherits her Aunt Jane’s dilapidated farmhouse, along with all its memories, she realizes her future might not be exactly what she’d envisaged. Ignoring resistance from her family, Emily sets out to make her aunt’s dream a reality.
She abandons city life for the tranquillity of the quaint English village where she spent so many happy summers as a child, determined to make a success of her new venture. Emily is used to relying on no one but herself, and that’s just how she wants it. She certainly doesn’t need a man, especially one as stubborn as handsome carpenter Jake Matthews.
Jake’s dreams suffered an unexpected setback with the death of Jane Phelps, and when it becomes clear her niece has no intention of accepting his offer, he has to walk away. But when events take another turn and the pair have to work together, Jake can’t help but be attracted to her, despite her stubborn streak. A chance discovery, however, causes him to think that Emily is not all she seems. And if he’s right, there’s no way they could have a future together.
EXCERPT
“Emily Rachel Darrow, are you eating strawberries again?”
Emily froze, her lips already crimson with juice. She could lie. She could hastily wipe her mouth and remove all traces of evidence. Except she knew she’d do neither of those two things. Besides, Aunt Jane was already in sight, striding down the garden, her face creased in a smile, as if she’d known all along what she’d find.
Emily had a feeling she wasn’t really in trouble, even if Aunt Jane had used all her names, which was usually a good sign of impending commotion. And when Jane shook her head, laughing, before lurching forward, hands ready to grab, Emily knew what was coming.
She was about to be tickled.
“No!” She let out a loud shriek and made a dash for the greenhouse, hoping to avoid Aunt Jane’s nimble fingers, but Jane cut off her escape and scooped Emily up into her arms.
“I put netting over my strawberries to keep the birds off them,” Jane said as she carried Emily toward the house, still smiling. “I keep forgetting there’s one little bird who sneaks under there.” Emily wriggled, but Jane held on tight. “Oh no, you don’t. That’s three times this summer that I’ve caught you.” She lifted her chin and called out, “Clare? Get out here. We have a little strawberry thief in need of a damn good tickling.”
Aunt Clare appeared at the kitchen door, laughing. “Oh, good, you caught her. Let me take the apple pie out of the oven first, and then I’ll be with you.” As she disappeared from view, Emily caught her last words. “And save some of that tummy for me to tickle!”
Emily did some quick thinking. Jane would have to put her down first before she could deliver her promised retribution, and that meant… escape. As soon as her feet touched the grass, Emily squirmed free of her aunt’s grasp and made a beeline for the barn. Not that it was her only option: there were plenty of places where she could hide. That was what made it all so much fun.
“Get back here, you little thief!” Emily could just about make out Jane’s words amid her laughter. “I have tickling to do.”
“You have to catch me first!” Emily panted, running as fast as her seven-year-old legs would carry her, trying not to stumble into the flower beds. Behind her, she could hear Jane panting heavily, and Emily giggled. She wasn’t about to let herself be caught again. At last she reached the barn and pushed open the wide oak door, slipping inside into where it was cool, where the sun couldn’t penetrate thick stone walls. Past Aunt Clare’s pottery wheel, past the kiln, past the bags of clay, to the ladder that led up to the loft, Clare’s secret hideaway that wasn’t a secret at all. There was a large bed up there, covered with a thick quilt, and Emily scrambled to hide under it, still giggling.
Footsteps. Getting closer. Closer.
“Emily!”
“Emily!”
“Emily.”
She blinked, shivering in the cold, late November wind that tried to penetrate her black coat. The rain was that half-hearted variety, a fine mist that still managed to soak hair, skin and clothing alike. For a moment, she didn’t have a clue where she was: her mind was still in Jane’s garden, back when she was a little girl and summers seemed endless. One glance at her surroundings brought her violently into the present.
“Emily.” Her mother’s whisper was louder now.
She blinked once more, before fully realizing what was expected of her. Emily stepped forward to the edge of the grave, covered by a layer of bright green imitation grass, and dropped a single red rose into its depths. It joined the heap of others already there: Jane’s coffin was barely visible beneath the carpet of red.
Emily raised her head to take in the crowd of people gathered around the grave. Fairdown wasn’t that large a village, maybe claiming four hundred inhabitants, but she reckoned there had to have been at least a hundred people at the funeral service.
So many people who loved her, whose lives she touched. Her and Clare.
The thought tightened her chest, not for the first time that morning.
I should have spent more time with her, especially after Clare died.
Emily pushed aside her self-recrimination and gazed at the faces of those around her. Apart from her immediate family, she spotted people who appeared vaguely familiar, and took them to be from her childhood. There were far more that were strangers to her, however.
On the other side of the grave stood four men, their heads bowed. She studied the seemingly close-knit group, liking how the three younger men supported the older one, their stance protective. Obviously a family, judging by the resemblance. The tallest of them lifted his chin and stared at her, his blue eyes unblinking. It was as though he was studying her.
Emily stared back, her jaw set, slightly unnerved by his unwavering attention. Then the older man spoke, his words inaudible to Emily’s ears, and her observer nodded, tightening his arm around the older man’s shoulders.
A squeeze on her upper arm. Her mother’s hint.
Emily stepped back, taking in more of the scene before her. Beside the open grave, Clare’s headstone looked brand new. Has it only been a year? The sight brought on another bout of self-recrimination: she’d missed the funeral. The words etched into its black, shiny marble surface still made Emily’s heart ache as much as they did the first time Jane recited them to her.
We will meet again
In a place where there is no pain
No shame
Only love.
Reading the words gave Emily her first grain of comfort. At least they are together again. Emily believed that with all her heart, because no loving God would keep apart those two souls.
"All in all, an absolute stunner of a story from a seasoned author branching to new avenues."
"If you like your romances with well-rounded characters, well plotted, beautifully written, with a dash of mystery, and yummy sensuality, you really ought to try Kathryn Greenway's first release."
"With some gloriously descriptive locations and a cast of secondary characters that each added more than their own tuppence worth to the situation, this was a generous story, the author spoils us with not only the quality of the work but also the depth of sensitivity that she imparts. Beautifully written, this is an author that I may not have read before but that I would certainly read again. First Class." - Books Laid Bare blog
Kathryn Greenway lives on the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of the UK, in a typical English village where there are few secrets, and everyone knows everyone else.
She writes romance in different genres, and under different pen names, but her goal is always the same - to reach that Happily Ever After.
Pulled by a Dream is Kathryn's debut novel, although in a whole other life, she is a bestselling author of gay romance.
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