"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore"

Chapter One; {Indigo}

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Silence. If there was one thing that Sarah could love almost as much as her garden, it was silence. She hated the loudness of the city, the blaring radios and honking horns. It was one of the reasons why she had moved all those years ago.

Sarah lived out in the country, in the middle of nowhere Missouri. Her closest neighbor lived a good half hour away. She had moved when she was just out of college, her stage career forgotten, and settled in the cottage she now owned.

She smiled remembering being that young, had she ever even been that young once? A laugh escaped its way between her lips. She had once had plans to become an actress, live the highlife like her mother. She had gotten a taste of those dreams in college, and how the real thing paled in comparison to her dreams.

She had become the college's prize actress, their star. Everyone she met spewed off at the mouth about how she would one day be onscreen and everyone would love her. She partied and drank, had her share of lovers. And it bored her.

The last year of college she dropped out of theater, took up horticulture simply to pass the time. Broke it off with her latest boyfriend and turned down every invitation to party. She studied hard so she at least wouldn't end her college career with bad grades, and began to shut herself off from the rest of the world. Much as she had done when she was in high school.

That year she realized through her new classes that she had a knack for growing. She found gardening to be relaxing and started noticing things about nature she had never before. Like the change in wind chill when the clouds would drift in, or the cold dampness that would tickle the back of her neck before a storm came in.

After graduation she began looking for the perfect place of her own. A friend of her father's had dropped by one evening for dinner, a particular friend that Karen had been trying to set her up with.

In one of her many attempts to matchmake, Karen had told him about Sarah house hunt. At first she had been mortified, it was obvious to everyone but Karen the two had no interest in the other. Though once he had offered to sale her his old cottage she thought she might just kiss Karen for her meddling.

Two weeks later found Sarah, bags packed and on a plane for Missouri. She knew the moment she pulled up the drive she would spend every last penny just to own this place.

The cottage, while a little run down, was homey and welcoming. The land was vast with lovely rolling hills covered in wildflowers. A ways behind the cottage was a wooded timber that just invited her to spend her days strolling through it.

Limestone formations and even a small creek could be found on the land. It was perfect, and it was now hers. She had used her savings and a loan fro her mother to pay for it. At first she worked in the town an hour away, the local library needed someone to stock the shelves. In time she opened her own flower shop, which allowed her to live comfortably.

And now at forty she enjoyed her quiet life, tending to her personal garden and working at her shop. She had hired a young girl, Amy, who lived in the small town to work most days allowing Sarah to spend much of the week at home. She only ever needed to head to town two days at most, normally Monday and Saturday.

Though she had not been born there, the townsfolk had adopted her as one of their own. The older men flirted with her and teased insisting she call them Grandpa. She had tea every week with a group of the older women, who spent most of the time inquiring why she had never married.

There had been one man, a few years ago. She had begun to become depressed, realizing her age. She wanted to be married and have children, no doubt about that. But it seemed like every man she knew lacked something vital.

Harry had been sweet, she couldn't deny that. He was older by a good ten years, worked as an electrician for the local building company, and adored her. They dated for three years, or courted would be the better word for it.

He was an old soul, she loved that about him. He would pick her up for their dates, red roses in hand. He opened doors and pulled out chairs, offered her his arm when out in public. He was the perfect man, because of this she wondered why the thought of being married to him made her uncomfortable.

They had talked about marriage for the last two years of their relationship. Eventually the guilt that she was stringing him along got to her and she ended it. She couldn't answer his questions on what was wrong, because she didn't even know.

There had just been something missing. Just like every other guy.

She shook her head as she thought about last Saturday at tea. Mary MacDougall had been as she had always been, trying to pry information out of Sarah on her love life.This was nothing new, for years Mary would tease and ask and Sarah would laugh and wag her finger at her saying when she found someone she would say. What was new was that as soon as the other ladies left, while Sarah helped clean up, Mary blurted out the one thing Sarah never thought she would say.