Kelly sat up with a start. Homer shot her mama! Kelly could not connect the little boy Homer to the grown up Homer, who lost an arm in the war. But worst of all, Granny said somewhere along the line, he had lost Jesus. Granny said they should pray for him. It’s what her mama would have wanted. But Kelly found it hard to even think about praying for the man who killed her mama. “Do I have to, Jesus?” she whispered.

  Kelly woke up suddenly. The room seemed darker. Yet the light still shone brightly. Kelly hurried to the windows. It was snowing! It was a blinding snow! Kelly could not see far. The fog horn! She needed to start the fog horn.

  As Kelly ran down the long winding stairs, she wondered if she could set it correctly and start it. She had to try! She wondered about the light she had seen on the ocean. As Kelly set the timer, she prayed again for her papa. How she wished he was here! Just as she was about to start the fog horn, Kelly heard loud banging on the door beside her. Someone was in trouble! Quickly, she unlocked the door and pulled it open. A big stranger pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was that he had an arm missing.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Homer

  KELLY TOOK ONE LOOK AT the snow-covered man with the missing arm. All she could think of was the man who had killed her mama. She started screaming.

  The man started reaching for her and then stopped. “I’m sorry, little lady,” he said. “I mean you no harm.” But Kelly couldn’t stop screaming. She was still screaming when Granny came down and put her arms around her.

  “What have you done to her?” Granny demanded.

  “I haven’t done anything to her, ma’am,” the man said. “And I pray to Jesus, I’ll never hurt another soul.” He pulled his snow-covered cap off to reveal a head of curly, brown hair.

  “Homer!” Granny gasped. “Homer Becker! Is that really you?” She held the oil lamp higher.

  The man peered at Granny in the dimly lit room. “Granny?” he asked.

  Kelly clung to Granny. Granny gave a huge sigh, instinctively feeling the man before her had come to make amends. “Yes, it’s me,” she said. “Come, we may as well go into the living room.”

  “Granny?” Becky called timidly from behind them.

  “Come, girls,” said Granny. “I think we are safe with Homer.”

  “Yes, you most certainly are,” Homer assured them.

  Granny offered the man a cup of coffee and cookies. Kelly was too scared to drink the hot chocolate Granny set in front of her.

  “How did you find us?” Granny asked Homer.

  “Before I explain, I need to ask you a question,” Homer answered. “Have any of the Blackburn brothers been here?”

  Granny explained about the night papa left with some men. “He told Kelly they are bad men. I wondered if they might be the Blackburn boys. Lester hasn’t returned since.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Homer groaned. “I’m afraid it’s all my fault.”

  “I think you’d better explain,” Granny said, firmly.

  Homer sighed, and then began. “I have regretted my actions all these many years. Granny, you have no idea, the grief I’ve felt since that horrible, horrible night. About five years ago, a new pastor arrived in our church. I begged him to help me. He promised that Jesus’ death was enough to cover even my awful sins. I willingly confessed. I felt much freer, but I desperately wished I could do something. I knew there was no way to right such a terrible wrong.

  “Some of the slaves returned to our plantation looking for jobs. The pastor knew about share-cropping and helped us with that. Through the freed slaves, I learned that you, Granny, had escaped with a baby that might have been Justin and Caroline’s.”

  Granny nodded and hugged Kelly. “This is Kelly, Homer. This is Justin and Caroline’s daughter.”

  Kelly squirmed when Homer turned and stared at her.

  “Well, I’ll be,” he murmured. “If you don’t look like your mama.” Homer rose and then kneeling in front of Kelly, he took both of her hands in his one big hand.

  “Kelly, I’m the horrible man that shot your mama and grandma. You have probably hated me forever. But you can’t hate me as much as I do.”

  Kelly felt overwhelmed. “But where is my papa?” she cried.

  “She has known Lester as her papa all her life,” Granny explained.

  Homer returned to his seat. “When I learned that Caroline might have a daughter, I began searching for her,” he said. “Finally, I learned that a man by the name of Nelson Lessiter or Lester Nelson had helped a lot of slaves escape from our area.

  “So I started hunting him down. But when I came to New Freedom, Pennsylvania, I reached a dead end. It seemed I could go no further. Then I learned that the Blackburn brothers were looking for him, too. I met with them. They seemed like nice, sincere fellows. Said their sister had been engaged to him and mourned losing him. She personally begged me to help her find him.

  “I believed them and gave them all the information I had. Only later did I realize that these were some very bad men, and they intended to harm him. I came as quickly as I could. Now, tell me everything. I want to know what I can do to help.”

  Kelly looked into the kind eyes of this stranger. His offer to help brought a dim ray of hope into Kelly’s world. She found herself telling him everything she knew. Granny added her own version.

  The man listened intently, occasionally asking a question or two. Then he nodded. “I’ll go hunt them down. I won’t stop until I find them,” he promised. “I’ll bring your papa home, Kelly. With God’s help, I’ll bring him home to you.”

  The next morning, Granny made a delicious breakfast, while Kelly and Becky showed Homer around the lighthouse. He insisted on helping with the chores.

  After breakfast, he carried enough fuel up to the light to last for two nights. By then, the storm had moved on, and Homer was anxious to be on his way.

  Granny pressed a flour sack of food into Homer’s hand and wished him Godspeed. Homer hugged first Kelly then Becky, and then he asked them to pray for him.

  Kelly felt her hope growing, as she watched Homer limp out to the sloop he had tied to their dock. Before he unfurled the sail, he turned and waved to Kelly standing in the open doorway. Kelly watched the boat sail into the sunrise. She felt a moment of peace, knowing someone else was searching for her papa.

  Kelly remembered her dream of the little blonde-haired girl in the swing beneath the live oak tree. In her mind she could still see the boy come running . . . Homer and Mama . . . the best of friends.

  “Kelly,” Granny’s gentle voice brought Kelly back to the present. “Keeping the door open will cool off the whole house and will not make Papa come home quicker.”

  Kelly closed the door. “Granny, do you think he will find Papa?”

  “I think Homer will do everythin’ in his power to do so,” Granny said. “Why don’t we start preservin’ those vegetables we brought. Somethin’ tells me it’ll be a long, hard winter.”

  After looking over Granny’s huge selection, they decided to start with vegetable soup. As they worked, Granny told them one happy story after another of Kelly’s mama’s childhood.

  After a delicious dinner of fresh vegetable soup and biscuits left over from breakfast, Granny suggested the girls work on their school lessons, while she finished the dishes.

  “We will do no such thing,” protested Kelly. “Becky and I will do the dishes while you nap.”

  “The very idea!” Granny laughed. “I’m not a baby that needs to nap.”

  “We will not do school lessons unless you promise to rest.” Becky’s eyes flashed, and she stood with her feet apart and her hands on her hips. She tilted her nose in the air and added, “I have spoken!”

  Kelly laughed. “Okay, Princess-I-Have-Spoken. We’ll do the dishes, and then Granny can rest while we work on our lessons.”

  It didn’t take them long to finish the dishes and clean the kitchen. Granny had just settled into the rocker for “a little quiet time with the Lord,” as she called it, when there was an urgent knock on the door.

  Before anyone could open the door, Tom McKinley, Becky’s papa, pushed the door open. “Gather your things quickly, girls. All of you need to go back to Stone Haven with me. There is a hurricane on the way.”

  “Where is Papa?” cried Kelly.

  “I’m sorry, Kelly. We had to abandon the search. It’s too dangerous. Come quickly, all of you. There is no time to lose.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Hurricane

  “GATHER YOUR THINGS QUICKLY, GIRLS,” said Tom. “We don’t have much time.” Becky hurried to pack.

  “I’m not going,” announced Kelly.

  “Not going!” Becky exclaimed. “You have to. Papa thinks there is a hurricane on the way. He’s never wrong about that. We have to move quickly, Kelly.”

  “You and Granny can go,” Kelly persisted. “But I need to tend the light. There is no one else. It is especially important during a hurricane.”

  “No one expects you to remain here during a hurricane, Kelly,” said Tom.

  “I need to stay,” said Kelly. “The ships need to know where the danger lies, especially during a hurricane.”

  “Kelly’s right,” said Granny. “I will stay here with her. We’ll help Becky pack so you can leave quickly.”

  “Maybe I should stay, too.” Becky looked uneasy.

  “No, you go with yo’ papa,” insisted Granny. “Kelly an’ I will be fine here.”

  Tom and Becky left in a flurry. An uneasy quiet settled over the house. Kelly broke the silence. “I need to get the animals inside.”

  Granny nodded. “I’ll start closing the shutters. It’s a good thing Homer carried so much fuel up to the light. We will probably need to light it early tonight.”

  Getting Buttercup, the milk cow, back inside was easy. She was standing close to the door as if waiting for permission to enter. Kelly patted the brown Swiss cow, lovingly. “You’re such a good cow, Buttercup!” she praised her as she closed the gate to her pen.

  But Iris, the brown and white pony, had other ideas. Iris trotted up to Kelly’s out-stretched hand. Before Kelly could grab her, the pony tossed her head and ran in a wide circle. She obviously wanted to play. “Come on, Iris,” Kelly called. “I’d love to play, but there’s no time. There’s a hurricane coming.”

  Kelly laughed as Iris returned, her mane and tail blowing wildly in the wind. The pony nuzzled Kelly’s hand. She caught the friendly pony and led her into the safety of the barn. As soon as Kelly released her in the big enclosure in the barn, Iris lifted her head and tail and pranced in a large circle. Keeping her eyes on Kelly, Iris called out to her.

  “Some other time, Iris,” Kelly called back, as she rushed toward the chicken coop that was connected to the barn. The chickens that hadn’t returned inside on their own were huddled to the side of the barn, their colorful feathers ruffling in the wind. Kelly scooped them up one by one and shoved them into the small side door. Going inside the coop, Kelly quickly counted the softly clucking hens. “Ten, eleven, twelve,” Kelly groaned. “Two are missing. Which ones? Bandit and Petunia. Oh, my!” Kelly’s eyes circled the coop again to make sure she hadn’t just overlooked them. Nope, the biggest rooster and the speckled hen were definitely missing.

  Kelly sighed as she hurried outside again. The wind was steadily growing stronger. Kelly ran to the bushes the hens liked to take refuge in, calling over the wind. They were not in the bushes. Next, she tried their favorite tree, clucking as she did when she called them in for the night. As she neared the tree, she heard an answering cluck. There, huddled in the lower branches of the tree, was the black and white speckled hen. “Come, Petunia,” Kelly coaxed. “You’ll blow away out here.”

  Petunia clucked and huddled closer to the trunk. Kelly sighed. The hen was out of reach. She looked around for something to poke her with, but couldn’t find anything. Kelly grabbed the lowest branch and swung herself up. Just as she did, Petunia flew out of the tree and down to the ground. Kelly jumped down and pounced on her. Petunia squawked, but Kelly held on. “You are such a silly hen,” she scolded as she opened the door to the chicken coop.

  Releasing Petunia, Kelly wondered if she should spend any more time looking for the rooster.

  She went back into the barn, checking all the doors and closing the shutters of the few windows. The barn was almost dark. Above the wind, Kelly heard a different noise. She listened intently. She opened the last shutter so she could see. There, on one of the upper beams, sat Bandit, the missing rooster. “You’re staying right there,” Kelly told him, as she closed the shutter again. “At least you’re safe.”

  Kelly hurried through the shed, closing shutters as she went. Entering the house she called, “Granny!”

  “Up here.” The answer came from upstairs. Granny was closing the shutters on the windows up there.

  “I’m going to pull the boats in.”

  “I’ll come help.” Kelly could hear her coming, but didn’t wait on her.

  She raced down to the dock,thinking the boats weren’t tied to the docks. She opened the door to the shelter. There they were, securely covered and tied. Evidently, Tom had taken time to do it before he left.

  Kelly gave a whisper of thanks for good friends and ran back to the house. She met Granny at the door. “Tom must have done it,” Kelly said. “I’m so glad. I wasn’t sure if we could do it or not.”

  “Thank God for good friends,” said Granny. “Are the shutters in the barn and shed all closed?”

  “Yes,” answered Kelly. “What about the shutters upstairs.”

  “All done,” Granny said. “So we just need to do these down here. I’ll start in the bedrooms.”

  Kelly hurried to the living room, closing and latching shutters. When she got to the east window in the kitchen, she could not pull the shutter in. Wind whipped into the kitchen through the open window. Kelly heard crashing and knew dishes were blowing off the shelves and hooks. Still, she hung on to the shutter. But the wind was stronger and whipped the shutter from her hands. Kelly slammed the window shut and ran to the last window in the kitchen, just as Granny came in the room.

  “What’s . . . Oh, my!” Granny rushed to help Kelly pull the shutter closed.

  “Granny,” said Kelly, breathlessly. “I need to go outside to push that last shutter in.”

  “Let’s try it together, from the inside,” suggested Granny.

  “I don’t think we can get it.” Kelly opened the window again. She tried to grab the shutter. It seemed to be nailed to the outside wall. She couldn’t even get it started this time.

  “It’s of no use, Granny,” Kelly said, closing the window again. “I’ll push it in from the outside, and you can latch it.”

  “The wind is too strong, Honey-child,” Granny’s dark face was lined with worry. “It’s too dangerous for you to go outside now. We’ll just leave it.”

  “But, Granny, if the window breaks, we’ll be in real trouble. I’ll stay as close to the wall as possible.” Kelly pulled her coat and scarf tight before she went outside.

  One step outside the door took Kelly’s breath away. She hung on to the railing as she went down the steps. Clinging to the railing, she made her way to the side of the house. The wind rocked her as she stepped away from the house with the first shutter in her hand. Stretching as far as she could, while hanging on to the first one, she reached for the second shutter. Just as she caught hold of the second one, the wind pulled the first one out of her hand.

  Granny opened the window. “I’ll hang on to one while you get the other one.”

  Granny held the first one, while Kelly worked to get the second one closed. As she moved her hands so they wouldn’t get pinched between the two, the wind caught it again. This time Kelly was in the way. The wind slammed the heavy wooden shutter, hitting Kelly on the side of her head.

  Kelly cried out, but held on. Gradually, she worked it in place. Kelly heard the latch, right before Granny called, “Got it.”

  Kelly leaned against the house. Her head hurt so much she almost couldn’t see. She couldn’t keep the tears from falling. Blindly and keeping her hands on the side of the house, Kelly started back toward the door. When she finally felt the railing to the stairs, she opened her eyes. She held on, as the wind pushed and pulled at her. She was almost too tired to follow the railing to the door. She heard a strange noise, right before everything went dark and she felt herself falling.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Unconscious

  KELLY THOUGHT SHE HEARD SOMEONE calling her name. The voice seemed far away. Kelly felt as if she should answer, but she didn’t remember how. Something warm and furry brushed against her face.

  “Kelly!” The voice sounded closer and anxious. There was a soft rumbling close to her ear.

  Kelly struggled to sit up. “Granny!”

  “Oh, Kelly!” Granny was peering over the railing. “What happened to you?”

  Kelly’s head hurt to look up at Granny. Something bounced into her lap. “Tulip! Where did you come from?” The tiger-striped cat was stretching to rub against Kelly’s face. That explained the rumbling.

  “Granny, I forgot to see if all the cats were in the barn.”

  “Never mind that! Are you okay? Can you come in?” Granny started to come down the steps. She grabbed hold of the railing as the wind hit her.

  “Wait, Granny,” said Kelly. She scooped up Tulip, and clinging tightly to the railing with the other hand, walked around until she came to the steps. As she came into the open space away from the shelter of the house, the wind rocked her.

  “Here, Granny, take Tulip.” Kelly handed the cat up to the older woman. As soon as Granny could reach her, she grabbed Kelly. They held on to each other in the buffeting wind as they struggled to get the door open. The door flew open with a bang. The orange cat leaped from Granny’s arm into the house. Kelly and Granny were both breathless by the time they fought the wind to close the door.

 

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