The Lightkeeper's Daughter Read Free Page B

see the resemblance as you do?”
    “Henry Eaton is wealthy beyond your imagination. Better men than I have tried to hoodwink him without success. He is skeptical of any unproven claim.”
    She lifted her necklace. “But the locket?”
    He chewed his lip. “Yes, he might believe the locket.” He glanced at Josephine. “Where was it found?”
    “It was around Addie’s neck when Roy rescued her.”
    He nodded. “There are many questions about how you came to be here and why. Henry will want a logical explanation of how this happened. I’d like to have something more to prove your claim. When he realizes you’re his darling Julia, you’ll be showered with love and material possessions.”
    “I don’t really care about money.” Loneliness had dogged her all her life. The lighthouse stood on a rocky cliff that was an island most of the time. The only access to the mainland was an isthmus at low tide. Even then, her parents had rarely allowed her to go to town, and she’d longed to fit in, to find friends to laugh with and share with.
    Addie stared at him with fresh eyes. Pain etched his mouth and left pallor on his face, but his blue eyes held keen determination. How had he gathered her true need so completely no longer than he’d been here? “Is the Eaton family large?” she asked. “Have I any siblings?”
    “Not living,” he said. “Your sister, Katherine, died in a streetcar accident three years ago. She was your half sister. Closer, really. After Laura died, Henry married our sister, Clara.”
    “Can you tell me more about the family?”
    “There were three of us. Clara and I have the same mother. Our mother died in childbirth when Clara was born. Laura is the daughter of our father’s second wife, so she was our half sister.”
    “So you’re the oldest, then Clara, and my mother was the youngest?”
    He nodded. “There are three years between Clara and me, and two years between her and your mother.”
    Addie’s eyes filled. An entire lifetime of belonging had slipped from her fingers. “Katherine was my only sibling?”
    He nodded. “But you have a nephew. Edward. He’s five.”
    “A nephew! Do we look alike in any regard?”
    “More than a bit,” he said. “I have a thought. I can’t just take you into Eaton Manor and announce you are Julia. However, Edward’s father, John, has mentioned his need of a governess for Edward. Henry is raging about it. He dotes on the boy—being his only grandchild—and has had the care of him since Katherine was killed.”
    For the first time she was tempted to actually do this thing—to go to this family where Mr. Driscoll claimed she belonged. “Why hasn’t Edward been with John?”
    “Henry persuaded him that the boy needed his grandmother as he worked through the grieving process. Besides, John is a naval officer and was out to sea when Katherine died.”
    “The poor child. I would become his governess?”
    He nodded. “If your education passes muster.”
    “I love studies. I obtained a degree through correspondence.”
    “So you wish to accompany me?”
    Did she? She chewed her lip, then slowly nodded. “I’ll come.”
    “You will not!” her mother said.
    Mr. Driscoll fixed her with a cold stare. “You have no say in this.” He turned his attention back to Addie. “You’ll enter the household as my ward, the daughter of a friend. That way you’ll be part of the family.”
    “Then what?”
    “I plan to hire a Pinkerton investigator in San Francisco. I’ll have him talk to this attorney and ferret out who hired him and why.”
    Addie hadn’t been thinking about the faceless person who had contrived to keep her out of the family. “Why would someone do that?”
    “It’s something we must discover. Henry hasn’t risen to prominence without making many enemies along the way. I have several people in mind.”
    “Who?”
    He rose. “A couple of years before Laura’s death, there was some scandal about one of Henry’s rivals.