Summer Island - A Prince in Peril

11 - The Library

It seemed ages since the children had been to their cove. Greta hoped nothing had changed. She was worried someone else-maybe some other kids-had found it and ruined it somehow. Looking at her friends, she figured she probably wasn't the only one concerned. Everyone was enjoying the ride but there was definitely a feeling of anxious anticipation in the group, as if they had been away so long they were beginning to doubt if their perfect day had actually happened or if their hideaway even existed.

"Look!" Zoë shouted. It was the cliff. They urged the horses toward the rocky edge. Everyone seemed to hold their breath.

Dinora was the first to see it and she squealed in delight. "It's here, it's here!" she yelled back, Diablito prancing along the edge. "It's all still here."

The children rushed to tether the horses and move supplies through the tunnel. The passage wasn't nearly as terrifying this time, in part because it was familiar but mostly because they had brought enough torches for everyone.

"Oh!" Greta gasped. She had forgotten just how beautiful it was. The sea sparkled even bluer, the sun more golden. Even the sand seemed softer. Fearing it might not be true had magnified its splendor.

* * *

When they returned, dinner was waiting for them on the table, along with a note from Tia.

Darlings,
My apologies-a little busy with a project at the moment. Enjoy dinner and get to bed early. Please work in garden tomorrow. Also, if I have not returned by Monday, there are some errands I need you to run. The list is on the kitchen counter.
All my love, Tia

Perhaps other children would have relished this opportunity to be left unsupervised and to their own devices. These children did not. Instead they worried about Peter. He now refused to come out of his room at all, and only spoke to them to say "thank you" when food was left at his door. They tried to maintain a cheerful mood but as dinner progressed, their conversation again found its way to the man spying on the house, the stranger from the kitchen and Tia's mysterious departure.

"I hate this," said Seymour on the second evening, when Tia still hadn't returned. They had spent the day in the garden and were now relaxing in the music room with cups of hot tea and sore muscles. "I feel like we're sitting ducks."

"That's the thing though," said Daniel. "If we were in danger, Tia never would have left us."

"Then why is Peter afraid to come out of his room?" Dinora asked.

"That I don't know," he replied.

"It is possible," offered Greta, "Tia thought we'd be in more danger if she didn't leave us."

"That's a comforting thought," remarked a sullen Zoë.

"I just wish there was something we could do," Dinora grumbled, reaching for a raspberry tart.

"But we don't even have all the pieces of the puzzle," Seymour complained as he paced the floor.

"Yeah," said Zoë, "it's like one of those thousand-piece puzzles and we have about four pieces. We don't even have enough to guess what the puzzle is supposed to resemble."

"Let's think about this logically," suggested Mario. "Let's review what we do know."

Zoë's frustration was palpable. "We've done this already. We know a bad guy is after Peter. We now know Tia is scared and I think we can rule out that she thinks we are safe here since that is pretty much the whole reason she left-that we aren't safe here-that someone has found him."

"But are we sure of that?" asked Greta.

Daniel poured himself another cup of tea and silently offered the pot to the others. "Well, he hasn't left the house, so it is possible he hasn't been found and the bad guy just thinks he could be here."