Chapter 62
Harper stared at the page. As if in a dream, she packed up the materials and returned them to the drawer, treating each one as if it were made of most fine spun glass.
She felt a strange sense of calm. The eye of the hurricane surrounding her and the manor.
She knew who she was, her mind was quickly and efficiently ticking.
Memories were being returned to their rightful order as Meg’s story was resting in its quiet drawer.
Harper felt her steps glide as though she were floating an inch above the floor as she descended to the ground floor.
Without surprise, she saw Lady Bell sitting in front of the fire, a cup of tea in her hand.
Without looking back, she said quietly, “There’s a plate for you in the oven. I had Kaitlyn hold it for you, I knew you wouldn’t want to be interrupted.”
Harper crossed and sat in the chair next to Lady Bell. “I finished.”
“I know,” Lady Bell said, still staring into the fire. “The wind calmed for a moment, and I knew the manor was at peace. You know now why you’re here.”
Harper stared at the fire that licked the logs of the fire, spinning up in crackling stops and starts. “Did you dream of me?” Her hands were shaking slightly, but her core was complete for the first time in her memory.
“I did. Just as the great Duchess Dewitt dreamed of Meg. Meg MacGruer who would go on to be the second Lady Loreana Bell and heir to Bell Manor and the village below.” Lady Bell looked down at her tea.
“I would really like something a bit stronger, but I have a feeling that I will need to keep my wits about me this evening.” She sipped the tea and looked at Harper.
“My mother, Lady Bell before me, told me that when it was time for me to pass my mantle onto the next, that I would dream of her. And I did.”
Harper felt the world go silent, time pausing, the very fire caught in its leaps and twists as it hung on Lady Bell’s words. “I …”
“You don’t need to say anything. You know what became of Meg on Bell Island.
Her energy soared all around the whatever comes next to find you.
You share her history, her pain, her strength, and you can share her joy as well.
” Lady Bell spoke carefully. Harper could hear her words echoing in her ears.
“My mother … was she related to Meg in some way? Is that why?” Harper asked softly.
“I don’t think that’s the way it works. Blood means so much less than we like to think.
Meg found you because you were the one who was meant to carry her story.
Yes, you have a tie to Bell, which strengthens your bond.
Now you carry her story as well as yours—your father and your mother.
You are a contradiction, as are all the great people and things.
You contain multitudes, and I think you are ready to remember your whole story, even the parts that you’ve hidden for so long.
” Lady Bell looked at Harper with eyes that held familiar stories and secrets.
“What happened to my parents? I mean, what really happened on their boat off the coast of Bell fifteen years ago?” Harper asked, fighting the urge to disassociate into static from the weight of the ask.
Lady Bell met her gaze. “You had a dream of two men who were not supposed to be on your parents’ boat, you saw fire.”
Harper nodded. “I did.”
“There’s no evidence because Hurricane Audra erased anything the Coast Guard would have found, even the wreckage was lost in the storm.
” Lady Bell looked to the fire, considering her words.
“The dockmaster reported a vessel missing from East Harbor on the night of your parents’ accident, a vessel that went out to sea without logging out with the harbor.
Not a requirement, but odd, and recommended out here as the weather can change on a dime.
The vessel that left harbor on that day arrived back at port in the early hours of the morning, spotted by the fishermen who were heading out to investigate the explosion that had been spotted off the coast.” Lady Bell paused.
“My parents,” Harper whispered, the words heavy.
“Yes, your parents.” Lady Bell’s voice was soft. “The Coast Guard was already on its way, but the winds had been strong for days, and they were delayed, as were the fishermen, who had to turn back as Audra hit.”
“Did you suspect anything?” Harper asked, for the first time her body firmly rooted in her skin, the urge to disappear into a fog of her own barely perceptible.
“I did. And knowing what I knew about Florence Manning and that crew’s plan to catch and kill Thalassa, I also knew that your mother and father would not allow anything to happen to their island, to Blódughadda, to the legacy of their work here.
I knew they would try to stop Manning. I just never imagined she would go so far as I suspect she did.
” Lady Bell looked plaintively at Harper.
“But Manning didn’t go herself, did she?” Harper said bitterly. “She sent her crew to do the dirty work, keep the blood off her hands.”
“That she did. The two men you mentioned from your teammate’s email? The ones who died in a freak bridge collapse? Those were the men spotted arriving back to East Harbor that morning.”
“There’s no one to report this to now, is there?” Harper said, more statement than question.
Lady Bell shook her head. “Even if there was hard evidence, all the accused are gone. Even Yumi Sato, who, to her credit, tried to break from that group before the hurricane hit, before they did what I think they did. I hope wherever Yumi is, she is at peace.”
“‘The mills of God grind slowly,’” Harper said, and rubbed her temples, emotion welling in her throat.
“That they do,” Lady Bell said softly. “You carry Yumi’s story too, alongside Meg.
And alongside your mother and father, alongside your own.
You are your own person surrounded by the stories that have shaped you.
Never forget that, you are more than what has happened to you.
” Lady Bell stood and stared at Harper. Harper stood and fell into the woman’s arms, her sobs shaking her body.
She cried for her parents and the shock of never seeing her mother’s face again, never hearing her father’s laugh.
She cried for the perfect life they lost on Vestmannaeyjar, the loneliness.
She also cried for Meg, the desperation, her son and her parents gone forever.
Lady Bell gently stroked her hair. Harper pulled back and looked at her, she felt drained, purified.
“Are you hungry?” Lady Bell asked.
Harper nodded. “I need to do something first.”
Lady Bell nodded. “And we have much to talk about. I don’t need an answer to what I said earlier, not yet, we have so very much to discuss before you know what it is that I am asking.”
“We found Thalassa, Blódughadda, Hafgufa. The lab reports confirmed it. We really did it.” Harper whispered the words, looking into Lady Bell’s endless eyes, the joy of the words mixing with the weight of the moment.
Lady Bell smiled, tucked a stray hair behind Harper’s ear. “Of course you did. You were meant to.”
Harper nodded. “I think I understand what you’re asking of me, and I …”
“Don’t need to know right now,” Lady Bell said in a gentle voice. “Go, do what you need to do. Don’t go far, it’s going to get worse outside before it’s better.”
Harper snapped back into the realization of the storm and pulled out her phone. There were several alerts from GeoRata:
Waves over thirty feet in open water at the following coordinates
Earthquake imminent epicenter following coordinates
Caution for coastal regions in the following areas
Harper skimmed the alerts. “You’ve been getting these too?”
Lady Bell nodded. “Coast Guard is watching. The town’s locked down, Sheriff is going door to door. They’re sending a ship out our way as soon as they can. I have a feeling that won’t be the end of it, though.”
Harper nodded. “I think you’re right.” She looked at the fire and back at Lady Bell. “I need to see Anna. I’ll be back.”
Lady Bell nodded. “Go. It’s okay. And we’ll talk when it’s the right time to talk.”
Harper wrapped her arms around Lady Bell’s small frame once again. “Thank you.”
Lady Bell held her tight, stroking her hair, the way her mother had. “Of course, my girl.”