Suddenly flickers of old memories stirred in Rose’s mind.
I’ve always thought you smart as a whip, George, but building a hotel in a swamp? That’s lunacy.
Instead of taking insult, Rose’s daddy had just puffed out a ring of smoke as he’d pulled his cigar from his mouth.You just watch. I’ll turn Florida into a paradise. People will flock here.
Her father had been true to his word. Rose had watched as a land of mud and mosquitoes had suddenly sprouted hotels, railroads, restaurants, theaters, and racetracks. She’d witnessed firsthand how tourism could build an economy. Astrid’s bird-watching enterprise proved the possibility of attracting folks to these distant isles.
But would the people of Frest want such activity on their doorstep?
As Astrid returned to the naturalists, Rose’s fingers brushed against a stray cigarette in her pocket. She withdrew it and raised it to her lips.
Slowly she pivoted, taking in the views of both Frest and Hamarray. In her mind, she saw new structures appear from the peat and gorse—ones that would not destroy the landscape but harmonize with it. When her gaze fell on Muckle Skaill again, she reimagined it as a grand hotel.
But was she capable of overseeing such a transformation if the islanders even wished it? It would require a commitment to Hamarray and to Frest that Rose did not know if she was capable of giving. Her whole adult life, she had never stayed in one place more than a month or two.
But the crofters were smart and hardworking. If she helped them put plans for a luxury retreat into motion, perhaps they could keep it going after her wanderlust hit again.
“I do believe you’ve already tried tugging on that book.” Myrtle’s voice was laced with amusement while she lounged on the settee in the libraryas Rose teetered on the top of a ladder. Like every evening since her arrival, Rose was focused on pursuing the third prong of her plan—trying to discover whether the viscount’s key unlockedanythingin the house. On the surface, searching for Barbury’s papers seemed a much easier task than tracking down the mysterioushimor unraveling the islanders’ myriad of secrets. At this point, however, Rose had probably jammed his key into every receptacle where it could possibly fit but to no avail.
“You know, this process would go much faster if you’d lend a hand,” Rose huffed as she reached for another tome.
Myrtle flipped the page of the bound pamphlet she’d found written by a resident of Orkney about the region’s ancient mounds. “I’m busy researching. It is much more entertaining watching you than actually facing the tedium of tugging on book after book in the faint hope of discovering a secret compartment or safe.”
“You are an archaeologist. You’ll dig in the earth for hours overturning an inordinate amount of rocks, but you won’t assist in a moderately dusty library?”
Myrtle laughed as she turned another page. “It is more than ‘moderately dusty.’”
“At least there aren’t any worms involved.”
“But cobwebs and spiders are.”
“I only disturbed that one giant nest.” Rose feigned a shudder as she moved the wheeled ladder a little farther to the left.
The library was not as grand as the ones in either of her parents’ massive homes. In fact, if it weren’t for the chilly, damp draftiness, she’d even call it snug. Or perhaps not even then. The theatrically stunning views from the large mullioned windows imbued the room with drama, especially at twilight. Only mere yards from one of them, the world seemed to abruptly end with nothing but the churning blue sea below. Another perfectly framed a jutting peninsula of red cliff face as it plunged toward the white surf. Out of the third, one could see avibrantly colored sea stack rising like a great column from the water. Turf grew on top, while streaks of white guano from the seabirds decorated the rest of the vermilion pillar.
It struck Rose with a sudden, almost physical force that this awe-striking beauty was about to behers. It seemed nonsensical, though, to claim dominion over such wildness. A land like this would refuse any attempt at taming ... yet people had inhabited Hamarray and Frest for millennia. Their descendants, folks like the Fletts, still eked out a living from the windswept loam and the rough waters. Somehow, Rose was becoming their landlady, and now the isles seemed to demand something fromheralmost as ifit, not she, held title to the other.
“What does it mean to be a landowner of a British estate?” Rose asked as she turned away from the windows and tested another heavy volume.
Myrtle raised a single flaxen eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be the one telling me, seeing that you are about to become one as soon as the paperwork is signed?”
“I may have gotten myself involved in something I don’t fully comprehend.” The words came out with such dreadful solemnity that even Rose felt shocked. Shewasthe queen of blithe ... or at least she had been until the war had left her irritable and jumpy. Rose really didn’t know who she was anymore, and it was becoming more and more apparent that she hadn’t known for quite some time.
Myrtle straightened her back and faced Rose. “How so?”
“I appear to be acquiring tenants—a small village of them, in fact.”
“You are purchasing two islands,” Myrtle pointed out.
“But I’m only doing so to discover where this blastedthinggoes and to see if the locals know anything of use to aid my poor attempts at sleuthing!” While clinging one handed to the ladder, Rose yanked the key out from under her blouse. She shook it at Myrtle, as if the gesture would finally produce successful results. “I didn’t realize I’d be buying abusiness.”
“You are the one who hobnobs with Europeans.” Myrtle rose from the settee to move closer to Rose. “Before the war, you were constantly staying at grand estates.”
“But I was there for the racing and the parties. I wasn’t mucking about the agricultural parts of my friends’ holdings or sticking my nose into their ancient ledgers. You, on the other hand, study societies and how they work.”
“Long-dead ones!” Myrtle protested.
“But you took all those dreadfully dull history courses at college. Certainly one of them dealt withsomethingabout English land management.”
