The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble Page A

had the stress of the lighthouse, he might have recovered from his illness in a place like she envisioned, with paths for the patients to walk and babbling streams to nap beside. Such a pipe dream. Where would she find money for something like that?
    “I would hate for it to be ruined,” she said.
    “I must be practical.” He picked up the reins again. “We’d better be getting home.”
    “What time is it?” She tried to gauge the sun, but it was behind clouds.
    He pulled out a gold pocket watch. “Nearly three.”
    Addie held to the side of the seat as the buggy made a turn onto the paved road. “Is Henry’s birthday ball terribly exciting?”
    John slapped the reins on the horse’s rump, and the animal broke into a trot. “It’s the most boring affair of the year, but Henry likes the illusion of a happy family gathered to celebrate.”
    “You sound as though you don’t like him.”
    A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I admire him, and he’s been good to me. But his demands can be hard to deal with.”
    “Demands? About Edward?”
    “He thinks he owns my son.” He slanted a smile her way. “I’m sure you’ve seen it.”
    She laid her gloved hand on top of his. “It’s already clear to me that no one owns you, Lieutenant. You are the kind of man a woman can depend on with her life.”
    “I haven’t had very good luck with relationships,” he said. “Women seem to put a lot of stock in money and property. I’m not very good at figuring out the gold diggers.”
    “I don’t care about money.” But would he believe that when he learned the land he wanted for Edward belonged to her? She might give it back to him, but not if he would sell it. There were bigger and better things to do with it. She studied him. “Your wife, Katherine,” she said. “How long has she been gone?”
    His shoulders tensed. “About three years. She was struck by a streetcar in San Francisco. Typical Katherine, she was trying to beat the vehicle across the street.”
    “I’m so sorry. She was shopping?” She knew the question was out of line the minute she saw his fingers tighten on the reins.
    “So she said,” was his only response.
    Addie pondered the cryptic answer. Had Katherine lied to him about what she was doing? Or had he disapproved of the money she spent? She couldn’t decipher the undercurrents.
    He sighed. “You’ll hear the rumor soon enough, so I might as well tell you. She was leaving me. Running off with some fellow who was teaching her to golf.”
    Addie smoothed the curls away from Edward’s face. “She was leaving her son too?”
    He nodded. “His illness was more than she could handle.”
    She wanted to pick up the child and hold him close. “It’s not his fault.”
    “She thought it was mine,” he said grimly.
    Addie knew better than to probe that wound, but oh, how she wanted to heal it.

    Addie’s feet barely touched the floor after the day at the beach. When they reached the manor, she turned Edward over to his nurse for a bath while John took the motorcycle to the bank. The house seemed quiet without the very large presence of her father and Clara. She paused in the hallway outside Mr. Eaton’s office.
    No one would know if she slipped inside to look for pictures of her mother. The only one she’d seen was the one in Mr. Driscoll’s bedroom. If Mr. Eaton loved her and her mother so much, surely he would keep some memento of their lives in his private domain. Glancing down the hall to make sure no servants were prowling about, she stepped into the office and closed the door behind her.
    The late-afternoon sun slanted through the bay windows flanked by floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The chandelier over the desk sparkled with crystal, and heavy velvet drapes hung at the two windows. A spittoon was in a corner by the heavy chair, and a row of pipes was on one corner of the desk. A frame stood on the other corner, its back to her. It was a man’s room, thick with the scent of tobacco.