Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
S aturday morning dawned as the perfect December day, the kind that invited a person to step outside, even if the cold bit at their skin, just to feel alive. Eloise wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck as she rode the ferry with Aaron at her side and the girls in the row in front of them.
It seemed everyone wanted to get from Rocky Ridge to Diamond Island this morning, and they’d barely gotten seats inside on the ferry. The few that had remained had been near the open door, and the wind that came in certainly caused a chill to run through Eloise’s blood.
“You okay?” Aaron draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against his body. His brown eyes softened, and the corners of his mouth lifted in the faintest of smiles.
Eloise nodded, though a quiet weight settled in her chest. The events of the past few days had left her feeling more untethered than usual, as if something just beneath the surface of her normally well-ordered life had been knocked slightly off-kilter. The lights flickering at The Starlight Manor, the small oddities she couldn’t quite explain, the bickering, the fact that Kelli and Shad hadn’t been back to the manor since—none of it sat well with her.
“I’m fine,” she said, managing a small smile in return. “Just a little tired.”
Aaron chuckled softly. “I think that’s the understatement of the year.” He leaned in, his voice dropping to a playful whisper. “You’ve been running yourself ragged trying to make this holiday perfect, El. It’s okay to let go of the reins a little.”
Eloise sighed, the weight of his words pressing gently against her pulse. She couldn’t even argue with him, because he always knew when she was trying to make something square go in a round hole. And lately, it seemed like that was all she did.
She hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that if she didn’t hold everything together—The Starlight Manor plans, the Christmas festivities, the balance between her work at the Cliffside Inn and her family—everything would disintegrate into dust.
But as she drew in a deep breath, she knew today would be different. Today was about giving back to the veterans in Five Island Cove.
Stepping foot back on Diamond Island made her smile, though she’d enjoyed her time away from the home she and her family shared. She let Aaron navigate them toward the RideShare line, and they got in an SUV to get to the community center, where the breakfast would take place.
She moved back into the wind when they arrived at the brick building, which bustled with activity, as it often did during the holidays. Volunteers streamed in, and the scent of bacon and maple syrup hung in the air as she followed Aaron inside. People moved about, setting up tables, unfolding chairs, and bringing out trays of food.
Aaron stood beside her, his hands tucked into his jacket pockets. He looked at ease, his posture relaxed, though Eloise could sense the hum of energy just beneath his calm exterior—always alert, always ready to help wherever needed. Billie and Grace walked a few paces ahead, stopping to chat with Robin and Jamie, their laughter carrying across the gymnasium.
She glanced over her shoulder and found a check-in table. “I’m going to go check us in,” she said to Aaron, who said, “All right, sweetheart.”
Kristen stood near the check-in table, talking with Alice and Arthur, and the three of them turned toward Eloise and welcomed her into their trio. “Good morning, dear.” Kristen hugged her, and Eloise did the same with Alice and Arthur.
“You’re lucky you took the ferry back last night,” Eloise said. “It was packed this morning.”
“I bet.” Alice tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced over to Robin and the girls. “Where’s Duke this morning?”
“Fishing,” Eloise said. “Who else is coming?”
“Laurel and Paul are in the back, helping with the cooking,” Kristen said. She leaned closer and wore a dazzling, sparkly look on her face as she added, “And they brought Liam and Ian with them, so Julia’s on her way now.”
“I didn’t think she’d signed up,” Eloise said. “Oh.”
Alice grinned at her and shook her head.
“All volunteers over here, please,” someone called, and Eloise’s pulse blipped through her veins. She still needed to check-in, but she didn’t want to miss any directions. “We’ll be going over a few food safety items.”
Kristen turned and gave her name, then Eloise’s, and Alice and Arthur’s. It only took a few seconds to get their names checked off, and the woman looked up at them, pushed her glasses up higher on her nose, and said, “Thank you so much for being a large-group sponsor this year. You can head on over to Tracey, who’s going over a few things.”
Eloise smiled at the woman and went with her friends into the fray of tables and chairs. They joined the other volunteers as Tracey said, “Everyone has to wear gloves if you’re going to be on the food line. We need people to help clear plates and wipe tables too, and a group to man the check-in tables. Veterans didn’t have to register for this, but they do have to show their ID to prove they’re a veteran, and they can bring in their families as well.”
“Luke here will take a group and do a quick orientation on greeting. I’m taking the bulk of you back to the food tables for service, and Martha here—” She indicated a woman on her right-hand side. “Is over the dining room and clean-up. If you have a preferred area, you can congregate there, but we may need to shuffle you around.”
Eloise slipped her arm through Aaron’s. “Food service?” she asked as people began to move and talk. “We’ll be able to stay together that way.”
“Yep.” He looked over to Billie and Grace with Robin and Jamie. “Girls, over here.”
Everyone came over, and Eloise stayed with Tracey. She took them back behind the serving tables and started issuing directions for serving scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage—patties and links—hash browns, and how to deal with the condiment station.
She needed runners to take away empty trays and bring out new ones, and she added, “We still need people to keep cooking throughout the two-hour event.”
Eloise found herself standing between Grace and Aaron, scooping fruit salad for anyone who wanted it. She’d first put it in small, clear plastic cups, and she’d fill those and replace them as needed. Aaron got scrambled egg duty, and Grace and Billie were in charge of the pastry basket.
The first wave of veterans and their families began to arrive. Eloise’s heart warmed as she watched the familiar faces of Five Island Cove’s older generation—the men and women who had served in the Navy and Coast Guard, who had weathered storms, both literal and metaphorical, with quiet resilience. Some walked with canes or leaned on family members for support, while others moved with surprising energy and vigor despite their years. There were fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, and even younger veterans who had served more recently, their faces lined with experiences she could only imagine.
She heard a familiar laugh and glanced over to find Kelli restocking cups at the coffee station. Her heartbeat leapfrogged in her chest, and she turned to her husband. “Kelli and Shad are here.”
Aaron looked in the direction Eloise did. “See? They’re adults, and they’ll come back.”
“Can I get some fruit, please?” a tiny voice asked, and Eloise startled. She hadn’t even realized all of the cups had been taken, and a darling girl with dark hair stood in front of her, two chocolate croissants on her plate and nothing else. “Maybe just the strawberries?”
“Karla,” her mom said. “You can’t just?—”
“I can get just the strawberries for you,” Eloise said, and she used her oversized spoon to fish out the berries the little girl wanted. Her face shone with the brightness of the sun and moon combined, and Eloise let her happiness and joy seep way down deep into her soul.
When she got close to running out of fruit, another volunteer brought her another bowl of strawberries, cantaloupe, and pineapple. She scooped and chatted with people as they moved through the line, but she would never be able to keep up with Aaron.
She heard, “Thanks, Chief,” at least a hundred times, and since everyone knew him, they all had something to say to him. He could be broody and silent as a cop, but today, he’d turned on his extroverted personality, and he laughed, talked, and even took pictures with the citizens in the cove.
Eloise simply smiled at him, her heart filling drop by drop with more love for her good husband.
“Can I take several of these?” Kristen asked. “I’ve got a family who needs it.”
“Take them,” Eloise said, though she already had. Kristen gave her a warm smile and turned to take the fruit to who needed it. Several other people did similar things, and Eloise was suddenly glad she’d gotten a stationary position.
“Hey, Billie.”
Eloise turned her attention to two people down, where Ian had just arrived, an empty plate in his hand. Billie smiled at Ian, who’d been at the manor last night with his dad. Billie had gone out with him a few times now, and Eloise actually liked him.
“Let’s see,” he said. “I need a blueberry muffin and two cream cheese danishes.”
“You got it.” Billie gave him the danishes while Grace plucked the muffin from the bunch and put it on the plate. Ian should’ve then moved down the line, but he didn’t.
“What are you doing later?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Billie said. “I think we’re going home to do some laundry, and then we’ll go back to the manor tonight.” She glanced down to Eloise and then her dad, but Aaron currently talked with someone.
“Maybe while your clothes dry, we can go to a movie.”
“I’ll—let me talk to my mom and dad.” Billie gave him a smile, and Ian nodded.
“Fair enough,” he said. He smiled at Grace and then moved down the line. He blinked rapidly when he saw Eloise, and she couldn’t believe how narrow his tunnel-vision had been. Then again, when it came to Billie, Ian couldn’t seem to see much besides her.
“Good morning, Ian,” she said diplomatically.
“Hey, El.” He cleared his throat and looked at his phone. “I, uh, don’t need any fruit.”
“Great.” She nodded to Billie’s father. “Aaron’s got scrambled eggs.”
Ian swallowed and moved down the line. “Hey, Chief,” he said.
“Ian,” Aaron said in a big, jovial voice. “You need eggs?”
“Yes, sir.” Ian held out his plate, his eyes still a little too wide. “Thank you, sir.”
“Ian,” Eloise said before he could move down to the bacon. “I’m sure Billie can spare a couple of hours for a movie this afternoon.”
Aaron whipped his attention to her. “We’re going to the movies this afternoon?”
“You know what?” An amazing idea formed in her head. “I think you should go on a double-date to the movies. You and Grace, and Billie and Ian.”
“What is going on?” Billie asked, her voice pitching up into almost a squeak.
“I think I’d like a couple of hours to myself this afternoon,” Eloise said. “I’ll take a really long bubble bath and order my favorite cookies from Baked Bliss.” She smiled at the girls. “And you guys can all go to the movies.”
The five of them stood there, berries and baked goods between them. Then Billie said, “I’d do that.”
“Can I pick the movie?” Grace asked.
“Absolutely not,” Aaron said. “If I’m paying for a double-date at the movies, I’m picking what we see.” He grinned at Eloise and then Ian. “You in, Mister Coldwater?”
Ian glanced down to Billie and then back to Aaron. “Yes, sir.”
Aaron smiled at him as people piled up in line behind him. “Great, now get on down the line and get your people their food.”
Ian nodded and did that, and the buffet line continued as normal.
“This will be fun,” she said to Aaron out of the side of her mouth. “She won’t be around forever.”
“I’m more concerned about you needing a couple of hours to yourself.” He gave a bright smile to the woman in line, then chatted with her husband for a quick couple of seconds. “You said you were okay.”
“I am,” she said. “There’s a lot of people at the manor, and a quiet house to myself—for just a couple of hours—sounds nice.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll bring back a bucket of popcorn for you.”
“Yes, do that.” Eloise grinned at him. “With extra butter.”
“You know, we don’t have to go back to the manor tonight,” he said. “If you need a break, let’s just stay home.”
“Do you need a break?” she asked.
“Not really,” Aaron said. “The room at the manor is huge, and the girls are getting along.” He shrugged and kept scooping eggs. “You tell me, El.”
“I just want the house to myself this afternoon. Maybe I’ll take Prince for a walk.”
Aaron cocked his eyebrows. “So you’re going to go get him from Mike?”
“No.” Eloise shook her head. “I forgot he wasn’t at home.” Of course their dog wasn’t home; they’d moved their family to the manor for just over three weeks, and Aaron had asked one of his cops to dog-sit Prince.
“So maybe just a walk on the beach.”
“Yes.” Eloise grinned at him.
“All right,” Aaron said. “I’ll look up what’s playing and we’ll go this afternoon.”
Eloise turned back to her bowl of fruit, ready to dive into her own task of filling cups, but before she could begin again, she noticed an older man sitting alone in a wheelchair at the end of the line.
He’d combed back his silver hair neatly, and he wore a navy-blue sweater over a collared shirt. His hands rested on the wheels of his chair, and his gaze moved slowly over the food as if trying to decide what to put on his plate. For a moment, Eloise hesitated, unsure if he wanted help, but then she stepped forward, her decision made.
“Grace, take over with the fruit, would you?” Then she rounded Billie and the pastry table and smiled at the man. “Good morning,” she said brightly. “May I help get your plate for you?”
She glanced over to the check-in table, and sure enough, they’d run out of volunteers to help with this kind of thing.
The man looked up at her, his blue eyes sharp despite his years. He smiled, the lines around his eyes crinkling as he nodded. “I’d appreciate that.”
Eloise picked up a plate and moved beside him, holding it steady as he pointed out what he wanted. A cinnamon twist from the pastry basket, a cup of fruit, scrambled eggs, and bacon—all of it came together on the plate.
“Are you from Five Island Cove?” she asked as they moved through the line.
“Yes, I’m from Pearl,” he said, his voice gravelly but not unpleasant. “Used to live on Diamond, though. Retired to Pearl a few years back. Name’s Mark Daniels, by the way.”
Eloise smiled. “I’m Eloise Sherman. It’s nice to meet you, Mark.”
Mark nodded, then gestured toward the stack of pancakes near the end of the buffet tables. “One of those, if you don’t mind. Can’t say no to a good pancake.”
Eloise placed one on his plate, and they moved to the end of the line, where she grabbed a small container of syrup and a foil-wrapped pat of butter for him. As they made their way to one of the tables where his wheelchair would fit, Mark glanced over at her, his eyes sharp with curiosity.
“Are you spending the holidays here in the cove?” he asked.
Eloise nodded, setting the plate down in front of him. “Yes, my family and I are staying at The Starlight Manor on Rocky Ridge for the next few weeks. It’s a big house, so we’re having a Christmas retreat with some of our friends and their families.”
At the mention of the house, Mark’s gaze shifted slightly, his expression darkening just a fraction before he looked back at his plate. “The Starlight Manor, eh? That’s quite the place.”
Eloise tilted her head, surprised. She’d been living in the cove for a handful of years and had never heard of The Starlight Manor. “Have you been there before?”
Mark shook his head slowly. “No, never been inside. But I’ve heard stories about that place—some good, some…not so good.”
Eloise frowned, her memories suddenly flooding with all the strange occurrences at the manor. “What kind of stories?” She slid his plate in front of him and pulled up the chair beside him.
Mark paused, his fork hovering over his plate. He seemed to weigh his answer, as if deciding how much to share. Finally, he said, “My grandfather was a firefighter here in the cove. He was called in when The Starlight Manor caught fire one Christmas…sometime in the early nineteen hundreds.”
A shiver ran down Eloise’s spine, and she thought of Kristen’s interest in the history of the house, the way she’d been piecing together the story of the Everleighs, the original owners. Eloise had only skimmed some of the details, distracted as usual by the chaos at the manor, but now, sitting here with Mark, a strange pull—a need to know more—nagged at her.
“The manor caught fire?” She kept her voice steady despite the unease creeping into her thoughts.
Mark nodded, his gaze distant as if he could see something long past. “Yes. It was during a grand Christmas party, or so the story goes. My father didn’t like to talk about it much, but from what I gathered, the fire was bad. It destroyed most of the house, took the lives of a few guests too. One of them was the lady of the house—Elizabeth Everleigh.”
Eloise’s breath caught, her mind spinning with the implications. Elizabeth Everleigh. The woman Kristen had been researching. The woman whose name seemed to be woven into the very fabric of the manor itself.
“What caused the fire?” she asked quietly, her heart racing.
Mark finished his bite of cinnamon twist. “No one really knows for sure. Some say it was faulty wiring or a candle that got knocked over. Others say…well, that it was something more.”
Eloise swallowed, the weight of his words pressing down on her. “More?”
Mark glanced up at her, his blue eyes sharp once again. “Rumors, mostly. People said Elizabeth and her husband had been fighting. Something about money, or the way they were running their charitable work. My father used to say that places have a way of holding on to things—memories, emotions, even anger.”
Eloise’s pulse quickened, her thoughts racing back to the flickering lights at the manor, the strange occurrences that had seemed like nothing more than quirks of an old house. But now, standing here with Mark, she couldn’t help but wonder if something lurked beneath the surface, waiting to be uncovered.
“Do you think the house is…haunted?” Eloise asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Mark chuckled softly, shaking his head as he picked up his fork. “I don’t know about that, ma’am. But I do know that some places hold on to their history more than others.” He popped a bite of bacon into his mouth. “I used to do safety checks on ships, and I’d be the only one on-board to do it. Some places… They can maintain the vibe of what happened there, that’s all I’m saying. A spirit, if you will.”
Eloise sat there for a moment, his words settling over her like a weighted blanket. The Starlight Manor—a place filled with history, with memories, with secrets.
A place that held on to its past.
She forced herself to smile as she said, “Enjoy your breakfast, Mark.” She excused herself to return to the fruit station in the buffet line, but as she walked through the bustling community center, the hum of conversation and the clatter of dishes fading into the background, her thoughts remained fixed on the house.
As she navigated through the patrons enjoying breakfast, she caught sight of Kristen. Eloise met her gaze, and in that moment, she knew she wasn’t the only one who felt it—the weight of The Starlight Manor’s secrets pressing down on them, waiting to be uncovered.
This holiday was supposed to be about rest, about reconnecting with her loved ones and friends. But now, Eloise couldn’t shake the feeling that something much larger, much older, was at play.
Something that refused to stay buried.
And as she moved through people laughing and sharing stories over breakfast, Eloise knew one thing for certain: The Starlight Manor still had secrets to tell, and she found she wanted to hear them.