Chapter 6 - The Restoration of the Harbor
The wind off the Savannah River was cold, but the sun had finally broken through the grey clouds of the morning, casting a pale, clean light over the brick facade of the Harbor Mansion.
In the master bedroom, the heavy, dark drapes that Agnes had hung to keep the room dark had been pulled back, letting the winter sun flood the polished pine floorboards. The smell of medicine and damp wool was gone, replaced by the clean, sweet scent of lavender and fresh-cut pine.
Mara Bennett stood by the window, holding the baby girl against her chest. The little girl was sleeping, her tiny chest rising and falling in a steady, healthy rhythm. In the bassinet beside her, the baby boy lay under a soft wool blanket, his breathing no longer requiring the assistance of the hospital machines.
The double doors of the bedroom opened, and Arthur Sterling walked in. He was carrying a small, wooden box—the one Rebecca had kept in her private desk.
"Thomas found this in the safe deposit box," Arthur said, setting the box on the table. "It’s her journal. The one she kept during the last three months."
Mara walked over to the table, her hand resting on the baby’s back. "Have you read it?"
"Only the last page," Arthur said. He opened the lid, pulling out a single sheet of paper written in Rebecca’s elegant, sloping hand.
“If you are reading this, Arthur, then I am gone, and you are home,” the letter read. “Do not grieve for me. I did not lose this fight. I chose my battlefield, and I chose my soldiers. Take care of Mara. Take care of our children. And make sure they never forget that their mother was a Moore—and their father was a giant.”
Mara wiped a tear from her eye, her hand reaching out to touch the signature at the bottom of the page. "She really did love you, Arthur. Even when she was married to him."
"She married him to protect the company, Mara," Arthur said, his voice soft. "She knew that if she divorced him immediately, his family's partners would have tied up the hotel assets in litigation for a decade. She had to let him think he was winning until the estate was secure."
"And now?"
"Now, we rebuild," Arthur said, looking out the window toward the river. "The federal prosecutors have frozen the Holden assets. The hotel company is being reorganized under a new board of directors, with Thomas as the temporary chairman. The children's trust will hold fifty-one percent of the stock."
He turned back to her, his face relaxed and peaceful in the warm evening light. "But we’re not staying here, Mara."
"We're not?"
May you like
"No," Arthur said. "This house has too many ghosts. I've bought a small cottage on Sullivan's Island. It's quiet there. The air is clean, and the water is calm. I think Rebecca would have liked them to grow up where they can hear the ocean."
Mara looked down at the baby in her arms, then at the little boy in the bassinet. "I think she would have loved it, Arthur."
