Chapter One: The Lighthouse

The lighthouse at Gull Point had been dark for eleven years when Nora Price came back to the island. From the deck of the ferry she could see its white tower standing above the rocks, streaked with rust and missing half the glass from its lantern room.

Her grandfather had kept that light for thirty-two years. As a child she had climbed its spiral stairs a hundred times, counting the steps out loud, and she still remembered that there were one hundred and twelve of them from the bottom to the top.

The ferry bumped against the dock and a young man in a yellow jacket threw a rope around the piling. Nora picked up her suitcase and stepped onto the island for the first time since the funeral.

The village had not changed much. The general store still had its faded blue awning, and the same three benches still faced the harbor. But the fishing boats were fewer than she remembered, and several of the houses along the waterfront had boarded windows.

She walked up the hill toward her grandfather's cottage, which now belonged to her. The key was under the flat stone by the door, exactly where the lawyer had said it would be.

Inside, everything was covered with dust. Her grandfather's coat still hung on its hook, and his reading glasses lay folded on top of a pile of logbooks on the kitchen table. Nora sat down in his chair and opened the book on top.
