He and the curate piled four massive books upon the vicar’s desk, then left Ruarke and Heather to their reading. It did not take Ruarke long to find the birth record of Heather’s mother, and to his surprise, the record of her marriage to one Sir George Alwyn, baronet. “Heather, here it is. All of it, including thenames of your maternal grandparents, Joseph and Sarah Evans. See, it is right here.”
She put a hand over her heart. “Is there a chance my grandparents are still alive?”
He glanced at the book of death records. “We could spend time searching through that tome, but I think Mrs. Orman is the one to ask.”
He took a moment to step out of the room to call for her. “Mrs. Orman, can you tell us anything about Miss Alwyn’s grandparents, Joseph and Sarah Evans?”
“Oh, indeed. Yes, I can. I had no idea they were related to you. How dense of me not to make the connection. But I never heard either of them speak of a daughter or a granddaughter. I thought they had no children. How odd… Well, they passed on quite a few years ago. It was not too long after we arrived.”
Ruarke took hold of Heather’s hand, knowing how deeply she must be feeling their loss. “It should not be too difficult to learn more of your mother’s ancestry now that we know who her parents were.”
“Why did my father never tell me about them? And why would my grandparents never mention me or my mother to Mrs. Orman?” She furrowed her brow as she continued to look at him. “It feels as though they wanted to hide all connection to me.”
“To protect you, Heather. I’m sure they loved you. But what if you came here as a child and saw the ghost? Or were somehow drawn into the Singing Caves and almost lost your life? It would have frightened them. Look, here…in this entry. Bella and Millicent Evans’ father had a brother. And that brother had a son, who must have been your grandfather, Joseph Evans.”
She looked over his shoulder as he traced through the Evans family history.
“Here’s more, Heather. Your grandfather then had a daughter he named Bella, no doubt in honor of his drownedcousin. Then Bella married the baronet.” He looked up at her, trying to make sense of it all. “But she must have died in Yorkshire, because her death is not recorded here. Let’s see if we can find anything about you.”
“Was I born here? Does it say?”
“No, you are not in here,” he replied. “Since your father’s estate was in Yorkshire, you were likely born there, just as your mother likely passed there. But it is also possible your mother brought you down here one summer before her death to visit her parents. We’ll have to talk to their neighbors or village elders for confirmation. But I’m sure she must have done so.”
“I would like to see where my grandparents lived. I wonder if it will also appear familiar to me.”
“It might. We will get there soon, I promise. Hopefully, the neighbors will have answers to our questions. We need to find out how old you were at the time, and what did you see that scared your family so badly, they resolved to keep you away from here forever?”
Heather’s lips began to tremble, and Ruarke knew she would soon be in tears. “They took this drastic measure to protect you,” he said. “How deeply they must have loved you. Why else would your grandparents never try to get in touch with you? Why else would your father never speak of them? He was not a cruel man. In fact, you described him as kind.”
She nodded.
“He would not have cut off his own wife’s family without good reason.”
She drew out her locket and stared at it. “How did it come down to me?”
“We may never know, but it is possible my ancestor gave it to your mother because she shared Bella’s name. A token, perhaps as he lay dying.”
“Ruarke, I think I know how to break the haunting,” Heather said. “There are two lockets. One your ancestor kept close to his heart and felt so strongly about that he included it in the painting hanging in your entry hall. That is the locket I now wear, and mistook the girl in it to be my mother. But Bella described another locket to me, the one he had given her that held his portrait.”
“We don’t have that one.”
“Millicent stole it after she struck down Bella.”
“Then it is likely lost to us forever. Who knows what she did with it?” Ruarke mused. “She could have tossed it into the sea, for all we know.”
Heather began to nibble her lip. “What if we need both to free poor Bella? Do you think this is what keeps her bound to the caves? This is where the two of them secretly met. I’ll wager James used to sneak out of the house through that secret tunnel you recently sealed up, so he would not be seen. But Bella now needs to reclaim the locket that contains his portrait. We must discover what happened to it.”
“How? It is an impossible task. We wouldn’t know where to start looking, assuming it hasn’t been discarded or destroyed long since. But those lockets may not be the only way to free Bella. You are an Evans, Heather. I am a MacArran. I think it is significant that an Evans loves a MacArran.”
“Just as those two loved each other in the past? Oh, of course! Do you think our marriage will be enough?”
Ruarke raked a hand through his hair. “It is possible.”
Heather regarded him with loving eyes. “Is this not the most romantic thing ever to happen? We were fated to meet and fall in love, thereby closing the circle.” She inhaled sharply and her eyes grew wide. “Does this mean you are in love with me?”
He smiled. “Seems so, doesn’t it?”
Chapter Nine
