Contents (57)
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sharon Gosling
The only other explanation was that the note was genuine and had been written a very long time ago.
Rachel had stood inside the lighthouse dome for a long time on the first occasion she’d climbed the steps into the space, trying to take in what she’d found. Why had Cullen never told anyone about what was up here? Cullen had told her himself that he’d been living in the lighthouse since the 1960s. He must have known about the camera obscura all that time. Was it really just down to the letter that this person – E.A.M. – had left? She thought about what else he’d muttered as he’d lay in that hospital room. Selfish. Wanted to keep the bookshop. Dear Cullen and his devotion to his books. Even knowing nothing more about the camera obscura, Rachel could well believe that it was a historical gem. Perhaps he’d been worried that if he’d revealed its existence, the tower would have become too important a historical site for the bookshop to remain where it was.
Did that account for why he’d never made a will, she wondered. Had Cullen been worried that he would have to disclose what was up here if he did?
Rachel’s immediate instinct after she had descended from the camera obscura room that first time was to call the solicitor and tell him what she had found. The estate was Alan Crosswick’s responsibility. Whatever now needed to be done, he should be the one to do it, and he did not currently have the full information about the tower.
Still, Rachel held back, both because of the note and because of Cullen himself. He’d left that note where it was, and he had kept the room secret, just as the writer had requested. She at least wanted to understand a little about what she had uncovered before ending that secrecy.
Her discovery of the camera obscura had, in some ways, made Rachel frustrated with Cullen. There were so many questions to which she wanted answers, and the only person who could have answered them properly was gone. It was infuriating.
She turned instead to the room itself, to the papers tucked away beneath the camera obscura plinth, hoping at least to be able to find a name to go with the initials scrawled at the end of the note. After all, it wasn’t James MacDonald, the builder of the tower. His initials had been J.C.M. – James Connor MacDonald. Rachel knew them well, because he had followed the tradition of moneyed gentry of the period and bought uncovered book blocks from the printer for binding in his own chosen style. In MacDonald’s case, this was dove-grey leather with a design in embossed gilt that included these three letters. Most of the original volumes housed in the library had been long gone by the time Rachel had taken up residence in the lighthouse, but there were still some that Cullen had kept. No, the writer of the note had not been James MacDonald.