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Chapters (86)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Booklist
  4. Dedication
  5. 1
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  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
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  32. 28
  33. 29
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  35. 31
  36. 32
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  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. 41
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  48. 44
  49. 45
  50. 46
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  52. 48
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  55. 51
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  64. 60
  65. 61
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  74. 70
  75. 71
  76. 72
  77. 73
  78. 74
  79. 75
  80. 76
  81. 77
  82. 78
  83. 79
  84. 80
  85. 81
  86. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“I decided I’d rather watch.” Elle’s smile faded. “I’m a coward when it comes to pain.” She flexed her hands as if trying to ease the tension.

Gently, Clarice said, “The staging was a bitch, but it was worth it. That kind of acclaim and your long memory doesn’t often come to a stage actress.”

“My long memory...” Eyes wide and stunned, Elle turned to Adam. “I remember it all so clearly. The theater. The seats. The shock when Annie Sullivan told the Kellers she’d grown up in a poorhouse.”

Adam waited, barely daring to hope.

Elle sat very still, as if concentrating, delving into her mind for more. Shaking her head, in a choked voice she said, “That’s all. That’s all.”

Ludwig stepped out of the kitchen and, seeing Clarice at their table, sighed heavily and brought a plate to set in front of her.

“Thank you, Ludwig.” Clarice helped herself to a few olives and a potato. As she dabbed the potato in the allioli, she said, “Elle, I hear you washed to shore and Mr. Ramsdell saved you.”

Adam exploded in exasperation. “How do you know that?”

15

CLARICE LAUGHED IN ADAM’S FACE. “Everybody’s talking about it.”

“How do they know anything?” he asked.

“You drove through town with her. That’s what started it.” Clarice thought for a moment. “No, not quite. Mr. Hardling said last night when he was out on his back porch smoking his cigar, he heard a woman screaming down at your house. He was ready to call the cops when it finally stopped. Nobody wants to believe you were beating a woman, so they had to figure out what else it could be. One guy thought you’d bought a peacock, because peacocks scream like a woman.”

Being the object of attention brought Adam an upswell of horror. People were gossiping about him. People were staring at him. With Elle in tow, the situation could only get worse. “I didn’t want a dog, and now I own a peacock?”

“You didn’t want a dog?” Elle sounded appalled.

Her surprise and the implication of heartlessness set his teeth on edge. “I live alone.”

Awkward silence.

Elle looked down at the table as if he’d rebuked her for being alive and a burden on him. Which he hadn’t meant at all.

But before he could find the words to explain, to backtrack, to take away any hurt, Clarice jumped in. “It’s Ludwig who remembered overhearing Madame Rune tell Adam to go to the beach and there find a lost soul.”

How was this possible? How could a stupid random prediction from a fake seer get this kind of attention...and respect? Didn’t anyone in this town, besides Adam, know the difference between reality and woo-woo? “She’s not a lost soul. She was just...”

Dead.

Don’t say that.