Face the Wind by Caren J. Werlinger

Author:Caren J. Werlinger [Werlinger, Caren J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781953070012
Google: CAmYzQEACAAJ
Amazon: B08GJQRXQK
Publisher: Corgyn Publishing
Published: 2020-09-14T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Blossom snored softly, his head resting on Kathleen’s foot as she bent over one of the genealogy books, tracing a line back with one finger, while her other hand marked a place on the tree of another book. There, four generations ago, the Ahearns and the Woodhouses shared a common ancestor.

“So,” she breathed, sitting back, “Jenny’s side of the family, not Joe’s. And far enough back to not be an issue.”

She caught herself. An issue for what? They’re not islanders. She kept reminding herself of that, but was it true? If Irene was the baby Louisa had given up, didn’t that make her part of this island lineage? She’d been scouring the books to find any other examples of an adoptee returning to Little Sister, but there just weren’t any.

“This could shake things up around here,” she muttered, her head propped on her hand as she stared at the pages.

When she’d finally found the third recorded island tremor, in January 1863, there’d been a lot of conjecture about its meaning. The most obvious, as Kathleen had pointed out, was that the country was in the middle of the Civil War, but not everyone agreed. “That didn’t impact us at all,” Louisa had pointed out, since Little Sister hadn’t sent any islanders to take part in any conflicts until the Great War. “But there were submarines in the Civil War,” Rebecca had mused. “The old fishermen have always told tales of seeing strange things in the waters around here. Maybe one came this far north.” In searching the death records, they’d also found that two island fishermen had died in an autumn storm. In the end, they still didn’t know for certain what the quake signified.

“What are you studying?”

She and Blossom both jumped at Rebecca’s unexpected entrance. “Oh, you scared me.”

“So I see.” Rebecca’s eyebrow ticked up in an expression Kathleen had learned to recognize. “What are you looking for?”

Kathleen cursed the flush she felt creeping from her neck into her cheeks. “Nothing—” she started to say, but heaved a sigh. “I can’t say. Not completely.”

She closed the books as Rebecca took a seat across from her. “Can I ask you a question, knowing I may not be able to answer yours in return?”

Rebecca’s eyes reflected her curiosity, but she said only, “Of course.”

“Have you ever… has there ever been a Passing of someone not knowingly from a Little Sister lineage?”

Rebecca sat back, looking somewhat nonplussed at the wording of the question. “Why would someone even attempt a Passing if they weren’t from one of our family lines?”

“Well…”

“Good morning!” came a voice from the front.

Kathleen closed her eyes for a moment. “Be right there.”

The children and their parents began stomping into the library for their reading group. Louisa entered with a child clinging to each of her hands.

“Such wonderful news about Brandi!” she said, beaming. “I’ll bet Jenny is over the moon.”

“She is,” Rebecca said. “Joe took her over to Big Sister yesterday morning when they got the call. The baby was born about four o’clock, but Matty almost didn’t make it.

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