Marie Demers

Brondwoodmead Marie Demers

Newly widowed and childless, 36 year old Mara Scott has lost her storybook ending. She retreats from her grief by moving out of a city apartment to the gatehouse of a nineteenth century mansion in a pastoral suburb. The mansion's history reveals another young woman, Isabel, who lived a hundred years prior and who also suffered from loss. Mara discovers that "brondwoodmead" means "sword in the meadow," and that the mansion was given that name because of the fencing match between two men, each hoping to win Isabel's love. As Mara discovers what happened to Isabel, she learns how resentment leads to bitterness and lost opportunity, and she begins to want more. Mara also meets several men with ties to the mansion, each of them dealing with life and loss differently. From them and from the past, Mara learns that taking risks and trusting once again means fully engaging with life and its wonders. The setting is loosely based on Elm Bank in Wellesley, Massachusetts, a nineteenth century estate now owned by the Massachusetts horticultural society.