Kingdom by the Sea

Author:Jill Winters [Winters, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Mystery, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781466298422
Amazon: B005KNGYCU
Goodreads: 12767843
Publisher: Amazon
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

The next day, Nicole finished Josiah Hardy's diary. She pressed the last page flat on the table in an automatic gesture of finality. Admittedly, today had been different than her other days at Tinsdale, as she had been looking for more notations in Nina's purple pencil, rather than focusing on the diary itself. But she did not find any more letters written in the margins, or any other underlined passages.

However, when she opened a skinny blue folder at the bottom of the stack that was on loan from the Chatham Historical Society, she soon met with a windfall of clues.

Inside the folder was a copy of a newspaper article from 1955, folded in half. Nicole un-creased the pages and began to read. The article was about the lighthouse on Nauset Beach—Nauset Light— becoming automated, which meant no longer requiring a light keeper. The piece detailed the history of Nauset Beach: After battling decades of sea-beaten weather, Nauset Beach's trio of light towers finally retired in 1923, being replaced by one of Chatham's recently dismantled twin towers. The North Tower was sent to Nauset and effectively took the place of the Three Sisters Lighthouse, nicknamed for their appearance. The trio of towers that had once served together as Nauset's beacon of light, were called the “Three Sisters” because of the way they stood, like proper ladies in stiff white dresses with black bonnets.

When Nicole turned the page, she saw a rash of purple letters in the margins. Down the left side of the page were the letters: O, N, H, B. Down the ride side: E, Y, D, I, U.

Her heart sped up. She sat up straighter in her chair, frantically searching the letters for some meaning that would become clear. Then she reached into her bag and grabbed a pen. On a piece of scrap paper, she jotted the letters down in a row. Reading and re-reading them, Nicole scrambled the letters around, trying to figure out some combination that would work.

END

LEND

DEFEND. No, she realized, that required two Es and two Ds. She needed to stay focused on what was in front of her.

BEND

BIND

HIND

Suddenly she stopped. Studied the letters. Something occurred to her. Eagerly arranging the letters in her mind, she verified a possible combination on paper. Her heart pounding hard now and her foot tapping on the leg of her chair, she created two complete words out of the letters.

BEHIND YOU

She gasped. With a shudder, she gripped the strange feeling that settled over her. It felt as though her aunt had just whispered the words right into her ear.

Slowly, almost timidly, Nicole turned around in her seat.

Directly behind her, was a framed black and white photo. It was rectangular, no larger than 8” x 6”, wedged on display between several bound atlases. Nicole had seen it many times, but never paid attention to it. Before now, it had been just a part of Tinsdale's overall ambiance, cozy and old-fashioned. It had been a detail of the decor, like the curved oak banister or the criss-crossed panes of the window.

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