Return to Pearl Island, Bonus Chapters Read Free Page A

her then took her by the hand. “If you people will excuse us...”
    “Break a leg,” Allison called as he pulled Aurora from room.
    “You’re not coming?” Aurora asked.
    “In a minute,” Alli promised as he led Aurora into the back hall.
    He chose that path to bypass the crowd in the dining room, but the moment they entered the central-hall-turned-lobby, the hush of the inn surprised him.
    “Where is everyone?” Aurora asked, glancing into the empty music room and dining room where the buffet had been spread on the sideboard. Normally, by this time of the morning, several guests sat around the big table visiting and eating. He spotted a few dirty plates and crumpled napkins, but no people.
    “They must all be out on the veranda, waiting to watch the interview.”
    “Oh, great.” She released a shaky breath. “So, now I get cameras
and
a live audience.”
    He started to laugh, but as they reached the base of the stairs, cool air brushed his skin. He stopped abruptly.
    “What?” Aurora asked, then stopped as well. The way her eyes widened with wonder told him she felt it too. “Oh.”
    “Yeah.” He looked about as his senses tingled—not with fear, just awareness.
    There was a time, years ago, when they’d all been sure Marguerite and Jack had finally found peace and moved on to wherever it was ghosts went, but every once in a while they seemed to come back.
    But only when someone in the family needed help.
    Like the day AJ, at age two, slipped away and made it all the way down to the dock with no one seeing him. Chance had been working in the office when his body turned ice cold and a vision of his son drowning popped into his mind. Without stopping to question, he’d charged out the front door and spotted AJ standing at the very end of the dock, bending his little legs like he was about to jump in. Shouting all the way, he’d raced down the lawn and onto the dock to snatch the boy into his arms. With his heart practically beating through his ribs, he’d turned to see Aurora right behind him. She’d had the exact same vision. Swimming lessons had started the very next day.
    “Do you ever wonder,” Aurora said gazing about in awe, “if Marguerite and Jack are the reason we suffered so little damage?”
    “Actually, I do,” he admitted. “You?”
    “No,” she said without hesitation. “I never wonder. I know they did.”
    He looked at the wood paneling, noting how it gleamed, and how colored light poured through the stained glass window to shine against the stairs. Not one pane of glass on that window, or any other, had broken during the storm.
    People could explain away the lack of broken glass, but not the rest.
    When the order came to evacuate, they’d rushed to board up the entire inn then moved the furniture to the ballroom on the third floor. He remembered too well, how it felt to drive away not knowing what they’d find when they returned. Aurora had sat beside him, stoic and dry eyed during the gut-churning days that followed while they’d watched the twenty-four-hour storm coverage. When they’d returned to the island, they’d feared the worst, especially after driving through Galveston and witnessing the damage there.
    Then they’d walked through the front door of the inn and stared in relief—and wonder. Everything from the ground floor up looked exactly how they’d left it. The only things ruined by water damage had been the modern additions in the basement.
    “I know a lot of people would scoff, but I think you’re right,” he said. “Marguerite and Jack saved the inn. Not for themselves, but because they know how much the place means to all of you.”
    “Us,” she corrected, but her eyes looked troubled.
    “What?” he asked.
    “Do you... ever feel a little guilty? That we survived virtually unscathed when other people didn’t?”
    “No.” He took her other hand so they stood facing each other at the base of the stairs. “I feel blessed. And not just for the