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As soon as I got off work, I started ripping the house apart. Whatever I needed to protect myself had to be in Daddy’s notes.
Because I couldn’t consider the alternative.
Chapter21
David found me in the living room, on my hands and knees under a small writing desk in the corner.
“If you’d told me we were playing hide-and-seek, I would have counted first.” He looked around the trashed room and whistled. “I see you started without me.”
I looked up. “I have to find those notes.”
“I know, love.” He reached his hand out to me. “But come up here and let’s figure out a plan, because you’ve searched this house countless times and come up with nothing.”
I took his hand, my heart stuttering at his term of endearment. Had he meant anything by it, or was it just one of those things people said? I stood and he pushed me back toward the chair, guiding me into a sitting position on the arm. Then he took a step back and surveyed the room.
“I’ve spent the better part of the day trying to get into your father’s head.” He shot me a frustrated look. “Not an easy task since I didn’t know him.” He ran his fingertips across a pile of guidebooks on the desk. “But Myra told you that he was anxious and paranoid when he started compiling his notes, right? And he would have hidden them somewhere he thought you’d be able to find them.”
“Yes, but I’ve already looked in those places.”
“So, let’s consider this logically.” David sat on the arm of the chair next to me, our legs pressed together. I was hyperaware of his presence. “Have the Keepers before you ever written the information down?”
“I’m not sure, but I suspect not. It’s an oral tradition, and it was a secret. To tell someone who wasn’t family about the curse would bring dire consequences.”
His brow furrowed. “Do you believe that? Is there evidence this actually happened?”
“I remember my father impressing the importance of keeping it a secret with horrible tales of death and injury, but I never really believed it.” I looked up at him, guilt eating my insides. “Until I told Claire.”
His eyes widened. “You told Claire?”
“When I was eight. She knew I had a secret, and she couldn’t stand it. So I told her about the curse. Just the part about Manteo and Ananias and the gate.” I sucked in my bottom lip and wrapped my fingers around the edge of the chair’s arm.
His body stilled. “What happened?”
“My mother was murdered a few days later.”
“Oh, Ellie. I’m sorry.” His hand covered mine.
“I forgot every single thing I learned about the curse that night. When Daddy tried to reteach me, I refused to listen. I didn’t want any part of it.”
“I’m sure it was a coincidence…” His voice trailed off at the end, and the tone of his voice told me he wasn’t sure he believed it.
I offered David a tired smile. “I used to tell myself that too. But now I’m not so sure. I’m not so sure about anything.” I sighed and looked up at a tiny stain on the ceiling. “You knew that Steven knew my parents.”
“Yes. He told me that he highly respected your father’s work.” David shifted on the seat, but he kept his hand on mine.
Tingles shot from my hand through my body. “He said Daddy was known worldwide for his expertise about the Lost Colony. But he stopped giving lectures after Momma’s death. Daddy told Steven she died because of the colony, and he’d never lecture about it again. He blamed himself for her murder.”
David slid his hand up my arm, resting it on the back of my neck, leaving goose bumps in its wake. His hand slipped under my hair and rubbed my tense muscles. “It sounds to me as if there was a lot of unnecessary guilt associated with her death. The person who killed her is the only one to blame.” He gave me a gentle smile.
“You’re right,” I said, acutely aware of his hand on my neck. “But there’s more I haven’t told you.”
“What?”
“Steven said Momma had been invited to see a private collection of sixteenth-century English and Native American pieces the week before her death. She called him about it because she was concerned they were stolen.”
David stood and turned to face me. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It was stupid not to. It’s just that it was the first big piece of information I’d heard about my mother’s murder in years, and I needed a few days to absorb it. Besides, my mother died years ago. We had bigger and more pressing issues.”
