Lily stood up abruptly, craning her neck, checking on Rose playing on the rocks. The summer night was warm and peaceful. The children laughed and talked, splashing in the shallow tidal pool halfway down the rock ledge. Although the sun was down now, the rising moon spread white light on the Sound, the granite, and the rock pool. Bay called for Annie and Eliza to bring Joey up to the porch.

Liam expected Lily to call Rose, but she didn't. She leaned over the porch rail, watching her daughter crouch by the pool's edge. The dark surface rippled with moonlight. Rose seemed mesmerized by the life she could still see in the dim light, the deep green seaweed, silver-blue periwinkles, purple mussels, and speckled crabs. Liam remembered his own young fascination with the sea, and he whispered in Lily's ear, “Our marine biologist in the making.”

“Yes,” Lily whispered back, her eyes shining.

Liam hugged her, loving how happy she was here. She took it all in: her daughter, the moon, her great friends, her grandmother's house. Lily could never be kept down for long. Her spirit was too naturally buoyant.

Just then, Rose sprang to her feet. She jumped up and down, pointing out to sea. “Nanny!” she cried.

Liam had seen a lot of whales in his life. He had grown up on the northwest coast of Nova Scotia, where whales were a way of life. But he never remembered feeling such excitement and joy at the sight of a whale as he felt right now—spotting Marine Mammal 122, the St. Lawrence beluga also known as Nanny, right here in the water in front of the house.

“Do you see her?” Rose called.

“We do,” all Lily's friends called back, stunned and delighted by the rare sight.

Liam took Lily's hand. They ran down the steps, down the grassy hill, to the seawall. They jumped down, climbed across the rocks to be with Rose. Just offshore, the beluga gazed at them with her dark eyes, the most expressive of any whale's. Liam felt as if his heart were on display for the whale, and anyone who might look, to examine.

“It's really her,” Rose breathed.

“It really is,” Lily said.

“Everything is going to be fine now,” Rose said.

“We're together,” Lily said. “That's what matters.”

They heard the phone ringing inside the house and Lily ran to answer it. Liam heard her shriek of joy.

He jumped up to grab her as she flew back down the bank and leapt into his arms.

“It's Granny!” she cried. “She's awake!”

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Maeve wanted a drink of water. She was so parched. It had been like being lost in a desert, with nothing but heat rising from the endless brown sand. Waking up was like stumbling into an oasis.