Chapter One
Shading her eyes against the glorious Greek sunset, Rose Talisman stands beside the sapphire-coloured infinity pool at Villa Artemis and takes a moment to admire the beauty of the great honey-stoned house she’s been renovating for four years with the people closest to her in the world, her sister, Adriana, and brother-in-law, Christos.
It’s taken time, money and much cajoling of expert builders, but it’s perfect now: Villa Artemis, hewn into the cliff face above the village of Xanthe and gazing down over the Ionian Sea.
Rose loves her new home in Corfu.
There are no late-night police sirens, no Los Angeles city smog, no randomers accosting her in the street saying ‘OMG, it’s you! My family are all totally nuts – can you help?’
Here, nobody knows who she is. She’s not afternoon television’s favourite therapy guru anymore, star ofThe Talisman Effect.
There are no more ‘Do you want to know what the paternity test tells us?’ moments.
No more family mediations done at high speed with people who really needed four years of intensive therapy instead of one hour-long show trying to speedily knit together broken families.
Rose Talisman has left that crazy life behind.
The late September air is redolent with the scent of lavender and aromatic bay laurels. Rose, who once couldn’t tell one plant from another, has added night-scented stock, nicotiana plants, rosemary and oleander to the terraced gardens.
Cicadas murmur rhythmically in the background and a soaring bird of prey rides the thermals, empress of all she surveys.
The beautiful island of Corfu has healed Rose and she never ceases to be grateful to it.
It’s a land of myth and legend.Nobodycan come here and be unchanged.
Corfu has set her free.
The woman who once moved only when her personal trainer put her through her paces on the Pilates reformer now loves walking the herb-filled hills, clambering over jagged limestone rocks and swimming in the sea.
Her overachieving brain calms down to the gentle rhythm of waves undulating against the white beach below.
She’s about to test if the island, and the house, can do the same for other people.
Tomorrow she starts her first retreat on the island, a retreat that has promised to start the healing process for six people who are willing to try Rose Talisman’s newest therapy venture.
She’s promised a life-changing week where the six guests can begin to look inside themselves, often for the first time, and start the long, slow journey to healing themselves. It’s ahuge risk for her, Adriana and Christos. They all have so much to lose.
Stepping into the limelight again is risky. Despite her fame, Rose has managed to skilfully hide her past. Almost nobody knows the real Rose and she hopes it will stay that way.
The sun is nearly gone now, just the misty hint of dusk rising up with the darkened sky, hinting that the gods and goddesses so beloved of the ancient Greeks are ready to roam across the sky again.
Tomorrow is the first day of therapy.
The first day of turning Villa Artemis into a retreat for therapy and healing.
Mentally, Rose scans the list of her patients.
There were thousands of people who wanted to be first on the Villa Artemis retreat but Rose, Adriana and Christos had narrowed it down to the final six.
Tomorrow at half nine it all kicks off.
Rose can’t wait.
Chapter Two
Dianne Wilkins growls under her breath at the woman in front of her on the airport travelator.
If only she could growl loudly.
