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“It had At half after six, the precise ti at it, the tiain But it definitely moved” She looked up, a dazed expression in her eyes “Maybe Papa really is alive”

Aurora stared “Courtney, what are you talking about?”

“I had a drea me he was alive I know it sounds insane, but do you think what just happened with the tin to that effect?”

Rather than dubious, Aurora looked intrigued “You didn’t actually see your father go down?”

“No” Courtney shuddered “I heard his screa thrown overboard, I was in the ed below and locked in my cabin”

“And obviously his body was never discovered” Aurora was beco moment

“But he was bound,” Cour

tney felt corain Lexley was forced to tie to his leg To survive such an ordeal would be virtually impossible Still—”

“Mr Scollard” Aurora ca you—and your timepiece—to Mr Scollard If anyone is able to discern the unknown, ’tis he The instant you’re well, we’ll head for the lighthouse and discover if the watch’s ns”

“You don’t think I’m mad?”

“Of course not Mr Scollard has taught end—no matter how farfetched—has shards of truth to it ’Tis up to us to unearth those truths, to discern fact from fiction”

“That’s not always easy,” Courtney mused, half to herself “Nor, in all cases, is it practical There’s merit to Slayde’s contention that my dream was merely a reaction to Papa’s death, or rather to my inability to accept it”

“You told all this to Slayde? Why? And when?”

Hearing the stunned bafflement in Aurora’s tone, Courtney desperately wished she could call back her words Despite Slayde’s justifiable, utterly proper reason for visiting her bedcha but proper And to discuss even the innocent prelude to that outcoly difficult

Courtney’s voice quavered as she grappled with her self-consciousness, opted for brevity “Slayde heardand came to check on me I blurted out my dream”