Now It's For Always by Jessica Eissfeldt

Author:Jessica Eissfeldt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action-adventure romance, good clean romance, tourist season, clean paranormal romance, Prince Edward Island series, seaside letters, seaside secrets
Publisher: J&J publishing
Published: 2019-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

MAGGIE peered inside the old sea chest. Scraps of watered silk, stained and ragged-edged, were piled on top of wallpaper samples, all thrown haphazardly into the shrunken wooden tray that acted as a shelf in the chest.

Maggie reached in and helped Zak remove the scraps of fabric and paper. But as they sifted through the material to the bottom, they found nothing.

Zak lifted the small wooden tray out and set it down on the floor.

A pile of yellowed newspapers lay underneath. Mustiness wafted to Maggie as she glanced at the date—1892.

Eddie grinned. “Had to have a place to stick ‘em. Never know when you might need somethin’.”

Maggie carefully lifted out the yellowed pages. Underneath there was a leather pouch about the size of a letter. Her breath caught.

Zak rummaged around in his jeans pocket and pulled out a pair of wrinkled white cotton gloves.

“Like a boy scout, aren’t you?” Maggie couldn’t help teasing him.

“Never hurts,” Zak said, a glint in his eye that Maggie couldn’t quite read.

“So,” she said to cover up the swoop in her stomach, “let’s have a look.”

She watched Zak’s long, strong fingers close around the old leather. He met Maggie’s gaze. “Here,” he said, his hazel eyes serious, “you open it.”

Maggie’s heart skipped a beat as he handed her the gloves.

She slipped them on then reached out and began to unwind the strap that wound around the leather pouch.

After the last of the binding fell away, a sheaf of neatly stacked, though yellowed and brittle, pages was revealed. Zak stood. So did Maggie. He strode over to the kitchen table and placed the leather pouch on the neatly pressed and spotless tablecloth.

Eddie followed behind.

Zak put the pages on the table.

“You know,” Maggie said, “since the riddle said twenty-three cryptic pages, maybe it’d be useful to lay each page out side by side just so we can pick up on any patterns or anything.”

“Good idea,” Zak said. He put action to Maggie’s words.

Maggie helped him. The faded ink and swooping, curled letters of each line made Maggie smile. She leaned forward to examine the text.

They scanned the first few pages in silence. “I don’t see anything here—” Zak began.

“Wait a minute.” Maggie cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “What’s that?”

“What?” Zak said.

Maggie pointed to the very first line. “That capital letter T.” She tapped a finger on the page. “There’s two lines...”

Zak frowned. “You’re right,” he said. “They both start beside the T. It forms what basically looks like a greater-than sign beside the T.”

T >

“That has to be what cryptic meant in the riddle.” Maggie felt her heart speed up. Could this actually be real? The evidence, it seemed, was staring her right in the face.

“So,” Zak said, “we have to look for more letters with marks somewhere around them...”

They scanned the rest of the page in silence. “I don’t see anything else.”

“Well, since it said twenty-three pages, maybe there’s just one per page?”

“Good thinking,” Zak said.

“But,” Eddie interjected, “there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet.

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