Uncharted Hope (The Uncharted Series Book 5) Page 16

  Alice’s eyes grew wide. “Then he is brave too.”

  Sophia chuckled lightly, warmed by the joy of sharing a happy moment with her sister. She wanted to ask about their mother’s leaving and what made their father become the man he had, but the best way to remain in the joy of the present was to avoid reopening the wounds of the past.

  Alice yawned again, so Sophia patted her hand. “I should go.”

  “Enjoy your picnic.”

  She stood to leave. “I will.”

  “And, Sophia?”

  “Yes?”

  “Please, come back to see me often.”

  * * *

  Sophia held a sealed vial of the gray leaf vapor up to the window in the Colburn kitchen. Flecks of lights swirled inside the glass. “And see how it catches the light?”

  John reached for the vial. “So, how does it sparkle like this in the vial but not in the air outside?”

  “This is a high concentration. Plus, the substance seems to dissipate quickly outdoors.”

  “Fascinating!” After a moment of turning it and watching the swirling gray leaf vapor, his gaze moved back to Sophia. “You have proven yourself to be a bold scientist and a good sister.”

  Hearing John Colburn’s approval swelled her heart with victory. His approbation held the weight of not only his position as village overseer, but also as the man who was becoming more of a father to her than her own. Hope had replaced the hatred in her heart, and peace had replaced bitterness. “Thank you, Mr. Colburn.”

  He nodded once and returned his attention to the vial. “How is your sister today?”

  “Much improved. She was resting when I took the cinnamon rolls to them this morning. Hubert will stay home with her for a few more days. I’ve asked them if they need me to help with the twins, but Alice says it’s important that I continue my training with Lydia.”

  “I will visit them.” John gave her a knowing look. “Continue to pray for God’s best in your relationship with her. Never give up on someone you love.”

  Sophia thought of her three nights in the cottage, taking care of Alice. “Our time together during her recovery gave us more patience with each other. She might not change as much as I’d like, but I now have hope.”

  “I am pleased to hear it.” John held up the vial. “Connor, what do you make of Sophia’s discovery—the way things disappear behind this concentrated gray leaf substance? Do you believe this helps keep the Land hidden?”

  Connor scooped Andrew from the floor and gave a casual shrug. “It could be a factor in the phenomenon. And it might explain why our view of the night sky from here is distorted—stars spread out, moon oval-shaped.” He sniffed the baby and grimaced. “I’d like to use this new information to ensure the Land stays hidden from the outside world.”

  “We still need to do more research.” Lydia reached for Andrew. “Here, I’ll change his diaper. You need to leave soon if you will meet Levi on time.”

  John passed the vial back to Sophia. “Good work, Sophia. I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.” He turned to Connor. “Where are you off to?”

  “The team has marksman training at the shore tonight.” He mimicked aiming a crossbow then popped his lips. “Levi and I are setting up targets this afternoon.”

  Lydia stopped and shot Connor a look over her shoulder as she carried the baby into the parlor. “It’s windy out.”

  Connor stepped to the sink and filled a cup with water. “The men need to train in all conditions.” He took a long drink then looked inside the empty cup. “Never know when we will have to fight to defend the Land and her resources.”

  John sighed and walked to the door. He patted Connor on the back as he passed. “Take Revel with you. He is getting restless working at the Foster farm. I want him to stay in Good Springs a while longer. He needs stability.”

  Connor set his cup in the sink. “He’s interested in joining the security team. I’m confident our training this evening will solidify his commitment.”

  Lydia crinkled her nose. “Just be careful, please. Today is the autumn equinox.”

  Sophia traced a finger around the vial of gray leaf vapor. “What does the equinox have to do with anything?”

  Connor chuckled once and looked at Lydia with an eyebrow raised. “I’ll let you explain that one, Doc.” He flashed a confident grin as he walked out the back door and toward the shore.

  Andrew wiggled, wanting out of his mother’s arms. Lydia motioned for Sophia to follow them into the parlor where she laid the baby on the floor to change his diaper. “Connor arrived in the Land on the autumn equinox four years ago.”

  “I see,” Sophia said, even though she didn’t fully understand the connection.

  “And two years after that, space debris entered the Land on the same spot on the shore, also on the equinox.”

  “I remember Connor mentioning the debris in class.”

  Lydia skillfully held Andrew still with one hand and cleaned him with the other. “And last year, Justin Mercer made his way to the Land, arriving on the shore on the equinox.”

  “Ah.”

  “And it is the same place on the shore where the founders entered the Land on the equinox in eighteen sixty-one. That’s why they built the cairn near the tree line.”

  Sophia paced to the window and looked toward the road. Nicholas was walking toward the Colburn house, carrying a picnic basket. She tapped her fingertips together. “I understand why you told Connor to be careful, if entry to the Land is more likely on this day each year.”

  Lydia continued. “Yes, well, it was probably unnecessary to warn Connor.”

  She looked back at Lydia. “So, you think nothing will happen today?”

  “No, I meant because Connor is always careful.” Lydia left the freshened baby to play on the floor and joined Sophia at the window. “Are you ready?”

  Her heart fluttered inside her chest. “It’s our first date.”

  Nicholas had stopped in front of the house and was speaking with John. Nicholas wore a blue shirt with a white cravat tucked into his waistcoat. Comb lines smartly parted his dark hair.

  Sophia straightened the lace at her collar and turned to Lydia. “How do I look?”

  “Beautiful.” Lydia beamed. “Where is Nicholas taking you?”

  “To the bluffs for a picnic.”

  “He is a good man.”

  “Yes, he is.”

  While Lydia went back into the kitchen, Sophia stayed by the parlor window, watching Nicholas with a heart full of hope. He had encouraged her dreams, proven he cared for her, and shown respect to her family. And their courtship had just begun.

  John continued walking toward the road. Sophia lost sight of Nicholas as he walked around the side of the house. Soon his baritone voice filled the kitchen.

  He and Lydia spoke briefly then Lydia popped her head into the parlor doorway. “Nicholas is here to see you,” she said with a secret grin.

  “Thank you, Dr. Bradshaw.” Sophia smoothed the bodice of her best day dress and stepped into the kitchen. “Good afternoon, Nicholas.”

  “Good afternoon, Miss Ashton.” Nicholas glanced at Lydia, who was leaning on the parlor doorway with a sentimental smile.

  “Right, well.” Lydia pushed away from the doorframe. “I hope the two of you have a wonderful time.” She disappeared into the parlor with Andrew.

  Sophia rounded the table and met Nicholas by the door. “She’s very happy for us.”

  “So am I.” A grin curved his lips. He switched the picnic basket to the other hand and offered her his arm. “Are you ready?”

  She’d secured her position as Lydia’s assistant, reconciled her past by learning to live in the present, and was falling in love with a caring man who promised a slow courtship. Her heart warmed with joyful anticipation at a future that was just beginning.

  She slipped her hand around his arm. “Yes, I am ready.”

  Epilogue

  Bailey Colburn awoke with the morni
ng sun blasting through the porthole above her berth. The storm was finally over, and the first day of autumn on the Southern Hemisphere had just begun.

  She swung her feet to the floor and knelt by her suitcase. One piece of luggage held everything she owned—and one thing she didn’t.

  She felt around beneath the folded clothes until she located the sunglasses case she’d taxed from Justin Mercer. Flipping open the case, she ran a finger across the frames of his aviator sunglasses. He could always get another pair.

  “Perfect,” she whispered. As she pulled the sunglasses out to try them on, a folded-up piece of notebook paper tumbled onto her lap. She unfolded it and read the letter.

  Bailey,

  I knew you would do the right thing even though I couldn’t. If you make it to the Land, give these sunglasses to Connor Bradshaw. Yeah, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist if I left them on my desk. You can’t keep them. They belong to Connor. Tell him all the evidence of the Land has been destroyed, and I will make sure the Land stays hidden. Take care of yourself, beautiful. The rest is up to you.

  J.M.

  Bailey refolded the note and tucked it back inside the case along with Connor Bradshaw’s sunglasses. She hid the case beneath her clothes and zipped the suitcase shut.

  Justin had planned this all along. He didn’t trust himself with the gray leaf tree but didn’t want to put the Land in jeopardy, so he found someone who would do the job for him.

  She knew when she’d met him that he was playing her somehow, but she never would have guessed this was his game. She’d accepted the risk, and was glad she had.

  No matter how this turned out, it was worth the trouble. Whether she ever got to the Land, the people there were safe from the rest of the world.

  She climbed the steps to the yacht’s deck and leaned against the railing. The shock of knowing this was Justin Mercer’s plan not hers left her numb. Yet through the numbness a foreign surge of joy bubbled up, relaxing the vise grip of post-war anxiety. Old habits told her to tamp the joy’s warmth before it could take hold, but she would not stop it now.

  Bailey looked across the rippling sea and turned a circle to scan the unbroken horizon in all directions. The ocean wind whipped her cropped hair across her forehead as the yacht sailed toward freedom. She spread her arms welcoming her future, whatever it might bring.

  ###

  Our story in the Land continues in Uncharted Journey, book six of the Uncharted series. An excerpt of Uncharted Journey is included in this ebook next...

  Bonus Excerpt of Uncharted Journey

  Half of Eva Vestal’s heart was buried in the shade of an old gray leaf tree on the east side of the Inn at Falls Creek; the other half was strong enough to pull a plow, but as long as she managed the inn well, she wouldn’t have to.

  Eva controlled her footing as she tiptoed between the toy marbles scattered in the office doorway. She sidestepped her six-year-old son, who was sitting on the rag rug, picking out the red marbles to work the addition equations on his slate. Zeke’s chalk screeched against the board, making the only sound in the otherwise quiet inn.

  Eva shifted the two heavy inventory books she was holding to the other arm and glanced at Zeke’s slate. Once again, all of his answers were correct. “Good job, sweetie.”

  Zeke looked up at her with deep-set eyes, just like his father’s. “Write some more, please, Mama.” A short whistle followed his every S sound, thanks to a missing front tooth.

  “You are getting good at arithmetic. I’m proud of you.” Eva slid the thick inventory ledgers onto her desk and wiped Zeke’s slate with her apron. “Want to try something a little harder? Maybe adding double digits?”

  Zeke wrinkled his freckled nose. “What are double digits?”

  “Numbers higher than nine but lower than one hundred.”

  He looked at her like she’d ask him to hitch up the wagon and drive it clear to Good Springs. “Mama, I’m only six!”

  A light chuckle vibrated Eva’s throat. “All right, we can save double digits for another day.” She gripped the dusty piece of chalk and wrote more equations on his slate. “But I will give you some eights and nines.” She probably should have started his schooling last year, but she always had more work than daylight and would until Revel moved back home. Her fingertips tapped the ledger books. “You will have to learn to add big numbers to help run the inn someday.”

  Zeke took his slate and plopped back down on the rug between the office doorway and Eva’s desk. He frowned. “I don’t want to run the inn when I grow up. That’s a lady job.”

  “No, it isn’t. Your grandpa ran the inn before he married your grandma, and your great-grandfather ran the inn and the stables and farmed. And your Uncle Revel will run the inn when he inherits it someday.”

  Probably someday soon, but she kept that part to herself.

  Zeke corralled his marbles between his knobby ankles. His trousers were too short for his growing legs, but Eva didn’t have time to make him a new pair this week. Maybe Claudia could do it. He picked up two red marbles and held them over his face, pretending they were his eyeballs. “I don’t want a job that keeps me inside the house all day.”

  He’d gotten that from his father too. Funny what a kid could inherit from a parent he had never met.

  Zeke shuffled his marbles on the rug, and a few rolled to the hardwood floor and into the hallway. He crawled after them. “When I’m grown up, I’ll work in the stables and have a big white horse and name him Jack.”

  Eva smiled at her son, glad he was looking forward to a life at the inn. He would have to work in the stables and do a lot more around here if Revel didn’t move back.

  As Zeke wiggled his legs, more marbles rolled into the corridor. Eva used her pencil to point at the wayward glass globes. “Pick all those up. If your grandpa or Leonard walks past, they might slip. When older folks fall down they don’t pop back up like kids do.”

  “Yes, Mama.” He’d inherited his compliant nature from his father too.

  Eva sat at her desk and flipped the reservation book open to today: Wednesday, March 21, 2029. The first day of autumn in the Land. The end of summer had come to the southern hemisphere too quickly this year. If winter brought winds as frigid as last year’s, her father and Leonard might both be crippled by their arthritis. There was no way either of them could work out-of-doors another winter. She had to either convince Revel to come home now or find the right men to take over the jobs.

  She glanced out the window opposite her desk. The mid-morning sun cast the big gray leaf tree’s shadow over the grass between the inn and the greenhouse. Beneath the high limbs of the old tree, an iron bench sat near three engraved stone markers. Her grandfather and grandmother’s graves were close together and her husband was buried a few feet away from them. She’d spent three months as his wife then almost seven years as his widow and God had carried her through every heartbroken day.

  A stone bridge arched over Falls Creek just beyond the gray leaf tree. None of the other buildings on the inn’s property were visible from the office windows. Her father always said it shouldn’t matter to her because her job was to welcome incoming travelers, not worry about the stables or the farm.

  As the inn’s manager it all mattered to her. If it weren’t for her efforts to get temporary workers, this place wouldn’t be able to sustain itself and stay open for the travelers on the lonely road across the Land.

  She traced a finger down today’s reservation listing. The Overseer of Clover Ridge and his wife should arrive today. Their letter had requested a three-night stay, depending on how their journey was going thus far. She would give them Room 5. That would leave one more double room open in case a family came through later. The three other guest rooms upstairs were already occupied.

  Two traders from Northcrest were staying again tonight in the bunkhouse, so she had four remaining beds available out there. Solomon Cotter, the horse breeder from Riverside, was scheduled to return this week since bot
h the mares he’d bred his stallion with were due to foal soon. It seemed like a waste of time to come all the way out here just for the birth of two horses, but Solo had insisted and Eva’s father had been quick to agree with him. Solo could stay in the bunkhouse like he usually did.

  So that left her with one double room upstairs and three empty beds in the bunkhouse. “Plenty of space tonight,” she said aloud, even though Zeke wasn’t listening.

  His marbles clinked as he added them.

  She looked out at the empty road. “Maybe someone will show up who needs permanent work and just happens to know how to run the stables or the farm. We need a man for each job. Someone with references and experience and the desire to stay out here for good.” And someone so impressive her father actually allowed her to make the hire.

  She opened one of the inventory books. The bottom of the first column listed only twelve tins of lantern fuel. “Let’s also hope a trader from Woodland comes through this week.”

  “Hm?” Zeke asked.

  “Nothing, sweetie.”

  The side screen door creaked open and slapped against the inn’s clapboard exterior, echoing through the hallway. Her father’s gravelly voice followed the racket. “Sorry, very sorry. Wind caught the door again.” Frederick Roberts hobbled into the office’s doorway and leaned against the jamb. He hadn’t set foot inside the office since he’d made Eva the inn’s manager five years ago. He sniffed the air. “What’s Sybil cooking?”

  A hint of browning meat and onions teased Eva’s nose. “Smells like she is starting a roast for this evening.”

  Little Zeke held up his slate. “Look, Grandpa, I can add nines!”

  “Good boy. Very good boy, indeed.” Frederick scratched his chin through his long white whiskers and gazed at Eva. Though it was only ten in the morning, his bloodshot eyes looked like he’d been awake for days. “There was something I meant to tell you, Peach.”