The Curse Keepers Collection (65 page)

“Just promise me you’ll think about it, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

Myra slid off her stool. “I have to leave an hour early today. The research team will be leaving at about seven forty-five.”

“I can take you, and my car should be done sometime this afternoon.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She waved her hand at me. “We’re just as behind out there as we are at the inn. I’ll have plenty to do.” She looked over her shoulder at the sink full of dishes. “I have some paperwork I need to take care of. Would you mind cleaning up this mess and serving breakfast?”

“Of course not.”

“Since the guests upstairs are all leaving together, I thought it might be easier to serve them in the dining room. There aren’t enough tables and chairs for everyone in the other house.”

“That makes sense.”

“I told them breakfast would be on the sideboard at seven.”

“Okay.”

I hopped off the stool and pulled her into another hug. Myra and Claire were the only two people I had left, and Myra could have easily walked away from all this craziness. Yet she was staying for me. The significance was not lost on me. “I love you.”

Her arms squeezed around me. “Child of my heart, I love you too.” Dropping her arms, she grinned at me, her eyes glassy. “We’re turning into a Hallmark movie.” She swatted my arm. “If I don’t see you before I leave this morning, be careful today.”

“You too.”

I filled up the dishwasher and washed the remaining dishes in the sink, staring out the window at the side yard. It seemed empty without Chip running around. Myra was right. The spirits had killed Chip to bait me, just like they’d killed people I knew to coerce me to open the gate the rest of the way. Was it time to walk away from the rest of the people I cared about?

Myra had already prepared a tray of biscuits, so I put them into the second oven and then moved into the dining room, carrying the coffeepot. I set up a coffee station and arranged the table with plates and silverware. I heard the timer go off for the biscuits, so I turned back toward the kitchen. As I was heading down the short hall to the kitchen through the butler’s pantry, I saw a man entering the dining room from the entrance on the other side.

“Coffee’s ready if you want some. I’ll have breakfast out in a minute.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled.

I glanced at the clock in the kitchen, making sure I was still on time. 6:50. He was early.

After I had everything out of the oven and the biscuits arranged in a cloth napkin–lined basket, I carried the casserole in and set it on the sideboard.

The man was standing at the window, looking out toward the downtown area. “Cute little town you have here.” He had an English accent, which caught my attention.

“Most people who live here like it,” I said, giving him a second look before heading back into the kitchen. It wasn’t uncommon to get foreigners on Roanoke Island, but something about him seemed familiar.

I grabbed the biscuits and the tray of butter, jellies, and jams and carried them into the dining room. The man was where I’d left him.

“You say most people. Are you not one of them?” he asked.

He was perceptive. Although these were researchers and not tourists, I still needed to be careful not to damage the image of our town. “No, of course not. I was born here and will die here.” Of that, I was certain. And it would probably happen sooner rather than later.

“Again, a strange way to put it.”

I cringed. Damn my need for honesty. Rearranging things on the sideboard, I kept my back to him. “I love Manteo, but things have been a bit crazy here lately.”

“Since the appearance of the colony?”

“Yes.”

“And what about the marks on the doors? The Native American symbols?”

I froze for a few seconds. Several guests had asked about them over the last couple of weeks, and I’d told them it was all part of the experience. This man’s question seemed more pointed.

I turned to look at him and was surprised to find myself face-to-face with Dr. Preston.

“You.” His eyes widened. “We met outside my office a couple of days ago.”

I froze, speechless and stunned.

“Why are those symbols on your doors?”

While hope surged inside me—
He’s here! Maybe he can still help!
—I had no idea how to go about getting the information I needed without scaring him away. “Are you part of the research team?”

He set his coffee cup on the table, his eyes narrowing in on me. “Not officially. I’m a guest of one of the researchers. He told me that Manteo’s hut was on site, and he asked me if I wanted to check it out.”

“Manteo had a hut in the village?” Myra had never told me. I knew the village had reappeared completely intact, as if it had been picked up in 1587 and dropped back into place over four hundred years later, with edible food and water still in washbowls. Everything had returned in usable condition. Except for the inhabitants, of course. They had returned as fully clothed skeletons. But those were the only details that had been released to the public. It had never occurred to me that Manteo would have lived with the colonists and kept a home there. Along with Ananias Dare, my multiple-great grandfather.

I needed to get into those huts.

His head tilted slightly as he observed me. “You didn’t know?”

“No.”

“What is your interest in Manteo and the Croatan?”

“How long are you here for?”

My question surprised him. “A couple of weeks. What does that have to do with anything?”

I could go about this one of two ways. While I’d love nothing more than to charge forward and tell him everything, I was sane enough to realize that it would scare him off. Slow and steady seemed the best way to go about this. I had two weeks to get information out of him. Even if I wasn’t sure the gods would wait that long.

He was watching me warily and I could tell he was becoming suspicious. The longer I took to answer, the stranger I looked. “I grew up on stories about the Lost Colony. We all know about Manteo, especially with the Lost Colony reenactment play. Shoot, I was the Dare baby.”

“What’s the Dare baby?”

“Every August they pick a baby to be baby Virginia Dare in the play. It’s quite an honor. You have no idea how badly people want their baby to be picked.”

He looked confused.

“I’m just saying that I’ve grown up living and breathing the legend of the colony. The Croatan are a part of it.”

“That still doesn’t explain why there are symbols on your door.”

I shifted my weight, trying to come up with a reasonable-sounding explanation. My standard answer wasn’t going to work on this guy.

He decided to take a different tactic. “Why did you come see me?”

“I already told you that.” I heard voices coming down the stairs. The other researchers were on their way to breakfast, and I really didn’t want to get into this with other people around.

Becky, the woman who helped with the inn, came in through the butler’s pantry, humming to herself. “Ellie, your mom wants to see you before she goes.”

“Okay.” But my eyes were still locked with Dr. Preston’s.

Becky put her hands on her hips. “Did you hear about that guy in Wanchese getting eaten by a giant snake?”

“A little.” I couldn’t hide my cringe. Why was I surprised word had spread already? And if word had spread, Becky was sure to play a part in its broadcast.

“The rumor around town is that the guy was about to rape some poor girl and this giant snake with horns on its head rose up out of the water and ate the guy. They found his body floating in the water with big ole holes in it from the fang marks.”

Dr. Preston’s gaze shifted to Becky.

I shook my head. “You don’t believe that, do you? If the snake ate him, why was he floating in the water? Wouldn’t he still be in the snake’s belly?”

Becky shrugged. “Beats me, but after that colony just appeared out of nowhere, a giant man-eating snake doesn’t sound too odd. Not to mention that wild animal on the loose that’s going around eating dogs’ hearts right out of their chests. I heard it got a cow last night.”

I turned to her, wide-eyed with exasperation. “Becky, you know better than to be talking like that in front of a guest. We don’t want to scare off the tourists.”

“But he’s not a tourist. He’s a researcher. I’d think he’d want to know about it.”

Dr. Preston opened his mouth to say something, but two men and a woman walked in before he could.

“Good morning, David,” an elderly man with gray hair said as he patted Dr. Preston on the shoulder. “I see you’re eager to get a start on the day.”

“I was having a chat with . . . ” He looked at me with new interest.

“Ellie.” I wiped my hands on the apron covering my shorts and extended my hand to the newcomer. “Ellie Lancaster. I’m Myra’s daughter.”

“Ellie Lancaster!” A warm smile spread across his face. “I met you when you were a little girl. I bet you don’t remember me.”

I shook my head as I tried to place him. “I’m sorry. I don’t.”

“Steven Godfrey. I knew your parents professionally.” He shook his head with a laugh. “I should have put it together when Myra said she owned the inn with her daughter, but her last name isn’t Lancaster and she’s . . . ”

“Chinese.” I smiled. “And I am the furthest you can get from that. I’m her stepdaughter. And she goes by her maiden name. Myra Long.”

“I knew about your mother. In fact, my wife and I came to her funeral. But I didn’t find out about your father’s death until right before we came to the island. Anyway, when Myra told us she owned the Dare Inn, I thought perhaps your father had sold it to her when he got sick. I should have known better. Your father took great pride in the inn.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say. His words only added to my huge pile of guilt. The inn was such a financial mess that we would likely have to sell it in spite of the new boom of guests who had been lured in by the once lost, now found colony.

“I heard about your father’s remarriage, but I didn’t know any of the details. We fell out of touch years ago.”

“Myra came to Roanoke Island a couple of years after Momma died to take a job as a park ranger. She wanted Jamestown, but there wasn’t an opening, so Fort Raleigh was supposed to be temporary. Her master’s degree is in early American history.”

The man chuckled. “We early American history buffs are a dying breed.”

“Daddy met Myra and fell in love, and the rest is history, as they say. She never made it to Jamestown.” I suddenly wondered if she regretted it. I’d never considered the possibility before.

“And she runs a bed and breakfast on the side, just like your parents did? I have to say she got us out of a real pickle by offering to let us stay here.”

“I’m happy we could help.”

Steven smiled. “I can’t help thinking how much your father would have loved to see the colony. Such a shame.”

“Yeah, Daddy would have loved it.” My voice broke, much to my embarrassment. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on something. I’ll be around in the mornings and some afternoons and evenings. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

I turned around and headed for the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Preston start to follow me, but Steven stopped him with a question. I realized that Steven had to be the researcher who had invited Dr. Preston to the site.

Dr. David Preston was interested, which meant I had a real shot at getting some answers. That was a good thing . . . so why did I have a feeling that I was dragging yet another person down a dangerous path?

C
HAPTER
N
INE

My phone rang midmorning while I was making the beds. I answered, hoping for some news about my car.

“Hey, Ellie. It’s Carly from Darrell’s Restaurant. Remember when I mentioned that I could offer you some work while the New Moon’s closed?”

“Yeah.”

“One of my waitresses called in sick this morning and another one’s pregnant and has to cut her hours. Is there any way you could come in and work the lunch shift? You’d be doing me a huge favor.”

“Sure.” Since Dr. Preston was literally at my doorstep, I didn’t have to drive to Pembroke anymore. And I definitely needed the money. “That would be great, Carly. Thanks. What time should I come in?”