Page 64 of Unspoken Love

She turned slightly and smiled. “No, I’m good.”

He was right, this passage was tighter than the others. Nate had to walk almost bent over, and even she had to duck in several spots before they reached the stairway.

“This wall,” she said at the top of the stairs as she looked back. “I think it’s part of the lighthouse.” She glanced back at him. “Are we right beside the lighthouse?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, I think so.” He tapped what appeared to be a stone wall. “I think it’s the foundation.”

She nodded in agreement. “So we’re heading down and…” She glanced down the stairs that seemed to wrap around the base of the lighthouse as she aimed the flashlight. “Under it?”

He shifted closer and looked over her shoulder. “It appears so.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Stone steps this time, and they aren’t circular. They are probably slippery though.”

“Yeah, be careful.” He aimed his flashlight as she started moving slowly down the steps, counting them out in her head.

“Twenty,” she said at the bottom. “Semi-curved,” she added when he reached the bottom beside her. They both aimed their flashlights up and noticed that they were now under the section they believed to be the foundation of the lighthouse. “It’s kind of sketchy, knowing that we’re going under that thing.”

“Look.” He turned his flashlight to the solid stone walls on either side of them. “There’s still plenty of foundation to hold the weight.”

“Right.” She moved her light around. “Which way?”

There were two passages. One headed under the lighthouse further, through a very narrow archway of stones, and the wider one went to the left.

“You choose.”

“Well,” she said, “since nothing has been easy in my life up until now, and wonderful things have happened because of it…” She aimed her light at the smaller pathway and started moving.

He chuckled, the sound vibrating off the stone walls.

“What else did those letters say?” she asked as they moved slowly through the darkness.

He was silent for a while as he remembered.

“I still listen for your laughter in the tide and feel your touch in the wind’s embrace. Time moves, but I do not—I am here, forever waiting, just as I promised.

I have left my heart where the earth meets the sea, where only we would know to look. It rests in the quiet shadows, safe beneath the light we once followed.

If ever you should find your way back to me, you will know where to look. Until then, I will wait, as I always have, as I always will.”

“You memorized the letters?” She glanced over at him.

He nodded. “I like poetry. And riddles.”

She smiled. “Romantic.”

His smile grew. “You’re just now finding this out about me?”

She shook her head. “So, I guess I headed in the right direction.” When he frowned over at her, she continued. “Safe beneath the light we once followed.”

“Under the lighthouse,” he gasped, glancing back to the way they came. “Of course.”

“‘Where the earth meets the sea.’ Obviously, this passage must exit somewhere on the beach, or at least lead to the other passage that does,” she said. She kept moving slowly. “I just can’t imagine a woman in a long dress making this trek easily.”

“No,” he agreed. “But then again, Karnia was a rather small woman. Smaller than you.”

“How do you know?” She stopped and looked back at him.

“There are photos hanging in the lighthouse. Haven’t you seen them? Max found them in the basement and had them framed. I checked them out the other day when I found this tunnel. It was spooky, but my dreams were definitely of her.”