Oliver shook his head. “Clearly Beth found something.” Eyes alight, he refolded the money into the letter and slipped it back into the envelope. “I’ve gone back through everything I can find from the weeks before she declared her intentions of summering on St. Mary’s. I’ve never bothered with a detailed calendar of engagements, but Mamm-wynn has always been meticulous about such things, and she allowed me to check her records. She had jotted down everywhere Beth mentioned going.”

Mabena’s frown didn’t ease any. “Since when does your grandmother track your every move?”

“She doesn’t.” Oliver chuckled. “But she did mention what Beth brought back with her, and from where. You know Beth always brought her a little something—a flower or a pretty rock or a feather.” His gaze moved to Libby. “She’s been doing that ever since we were children.”

Libby couldn’t help but smile. “That’s very sweet.”

“And handy, in this case. It seems that just before she got this notion of a holiday in her head, she was spending quite a lot of time on the uninhabited islands. Perhaps she found something related to Mucknell on one of them.”

Mabena blew out a breath. “Which one though?”

“I think we ought to start at Teän. I recall the day she went there—we were having dinner guests that night, and she was annoyingly late getting home.”

Libby had studied a map of the islands enough to know that Teän was quite near to Tresco, so it wouldn’t have been the sailing that had taken Beth long. “It’s one of the larger uninhabited isles, isn’t it?”

Oliver nodded and glanced at the clock on the mantel. “And a fair distance from St. Mary’s, so if we do want to explore it today, we had better be off.”

Libby all but bounced. “Let’s! I’ll just grab my bag.” In it she’d already stowed everything she’d wished she’d had with her on Monday, when Mabena had taken her to a nearer uninhabited island called Annet. Pipettes, slides, pincers, and a fully stocked field kit joined her ever-present sketchbook, notebook, pencils, and pens.

While she was grabbing her bag, she checked to make certain Darling had ample food in his dish, smiling when he dashed into her room and under her bed the moment they moved for the door. It seemed that outside was the last place he wanted to go, now that he’d found an indoor home.

Mabena passed her a hat and locked up behind them. She and Oliver were debating which sailboat they should take, the Mermaid or the Adelle, and Libby was content to let them fight that one without her input. She didn’t much care which vessel took them there; she was simply happy to have a day of exploring ahead of her.