A Charm in the Bottle Tree
Emily of Elderbeck - Book Three
When young English nurse Emily Cruikshank arrives in Savannah, she expects a new beginning. Instead, she finds friendship, a world of old remedies and quiet traditions, and a love she knows can never be hers.
Grace becomes her closest friend. May, Grace's lifelong companion and the woman who all but grew up beside her, teaches Emily that some things are not meant to be explained - only carried. And beneath an old bottle tree, among blue glass and whispered stories, Emily receives a small red-flannel charm that will remain with her for the rest of her life.
When tragedy sends Emily home to Elderbeck, she begins again. She marries, builds a family, tends her garden, and lives a life that is full in its own quiet way. Yet Savannah never quite leaves her. For decades, letters cross the ocean, carrying memories of Grace, May, and the summer that changed everything.
As Emily grows older, the past begins to return in unexpected ways. An old tin box is opened. A granddaughter begins to discover a gift of her own. And finally, Emily knows that the little charm she has kept for sixty years was never hers to keep forever. It is time for it to go home.
A story of friendship, enduring love, memory, and the quiet things we pass from one generation to the next.