Innkeeping with Murder - Tim Myers [22]
“Three months later, the mining company found the Panther Star.”
Elise sat up in her chair. “That was found around here?”
Alex shook his head sadly. “On my family’s land, only it didn’t belong to them anymore. One thousand one hundred seventeen carats. It broke Adlai’s heart when they found that stone. He couldn’t bear to hear the jibes of his old neighbors and friends anymore, always laughing at him behind his back, calling him an old fool for selling out. So Adlai started looking for a change of scenery. Travel was difficult back then, but somehow he managed to end up at the Outer Banks on the North Carolina coast. That’s when he fell in love with the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras.”
Alex glanced at his watch and said, “We could continue this another time. It’s getting late, and tomorrow is going to come awfully early.”
Elise pleaded heartily. “You can’t leave me hanging without the full story. I still don’t know why the lighthouse was built here.”
“Okay, you win.” Alex asked, “Now where was I?”
Elise eagerly supplied the start-up point. “Adlai had just made it to the Hatteras Lighthouse.”
“Well, it was love at first sight. Adlai saw that bright diagonal white stripe going up the black tower, and he became bewitched. They say he could be charming when it suited his purpose, and he must have laid it on thick with the lighthouse keeper. Adlai lived with the man and his family as an honored guest in the main keeper’s quarters, regaling them with stories of distant mountains the keeper’s family had never seen. In return, Adlai got free run of the lighthouse and the grounds. To have heard the way my grandfather told it, Adlai dearly loved the brick and stone of the lighthouse.
“Then he fell in love again, this time with a young woman. The principal keeper’s daughter was just around marrying age, and the two of them started spending more and more time together. The keeper’s concerns turned to delight when Adlai proposed marriage to his daughter Hannah, then his joy turned to sadness when the two announced that immediately after the wedding, they would be heading back here to the foothills.”
Elise said, “That must have killed her, leaving her family, everything she knew and loved.”
Alex smiled. “They were in love, and that was the way things were back then. Adlai missed his home, and Hannah was eager to explore the world. After the ceremony, Adlai brought his new bride back to the mountains he loved. Initially, he bought some property near the old farmstead, but he soon grew tired of his old neighbors and friends and decided he and Hannah should have a fresh start together. He looked around, and with Hannah’s approval, they brought the land the inn is sitting on now.”
Elisa leaned forward. “Tell me about the lighthouse.”
Alex continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “After four years of wedded bliss and three babies, Hannah nearly died delivering the last child. That was my grandfather Adam.”
“Hey, do all the Winston boys have names that start with ‘A’?”
“It’s a tradition the family has kept for as long as anyone can remember. Anyway, Hannah loved Adlai, but she never got over losing the lighthouse, the ocean, and her family. Adlai understood how she felt. He was willing to take her back home for an extended visit to show her parents their new grandchildren as soon as the child she was carrying was born and old enough to travel. But it was no easy birth like the others had been. Hannah nearly died during the delivery, and the strain of the birthing left her too weak to travel, since the trip to the coast was an arduous journey back then. Hannah never got over her homesickness, and her health continued to fail. That’s when Adlai got his idea. He’d build his wife a lighthouse of her very own. It wasn’t the same as seeing her family and hearing the roaring crash of the waves again, but it was the best her husband could do with what