Thorns and Oaths

Rosaria Vitale grows roses on a Sicilian hillside and has spent four years behaving as if her brother were a stranger. Then her brother disappears with a ledger, and two men come to the nursery before dawn. Salvatore Cattaneo does not want a hostage. He wants bait. He gives her a room, a locked gate, and one concession: the estate has a walled garden that has been dead for thirty years, and she may do what she likes with it. By August the beds are green. By August he is bringing her cuttings from other people's gardens without being asked. Then her brother surfaces — not to rescue her. To sell her. The gate opens. Rosaria has one season of harvest to decide whether to walk through it.