Written in Stone (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

couldn’t help but grin. “True, but Willie Wade wasn’t arrogant. He knew who he was and never tried to be anyone else. He was true to himself, for better or for worse.”
    Hudson took a moment to consider this. “But this Charles guy is our uncle, right? Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, keep in touch?”
    “I can look up his contact information for you,” Olivia said. “He’s married and has kids, so we probably have cousins too. Personally, I don’t want anything to do with him.”
    “I guess I should want to meet this new family, but if we’re being honest here, I don’t,” Hudson said. He sighed contentedly and looked up at the restaurant. “I have this place, a wife, a daughter, and a son. I’ve got a sister now. And a few guys I go fishing with every now and then. I don’t need an uncle or a bunch of cousins who don’t know me from Adam. I’ve got everything I need right here.”
    Olivia thought of her sister-in-law and niece, who were probably in the manager’s office. Caitlyn was undoubtedly coloring in her sketchbook while her mother answered the phone. Across from Olivia was the man she called brother. Her adorable nephew was cradled in her arms. Around the corner of the building, her friends Millay, Laurel, and Harris were waiting for her. The man she loved and her precious Haviland were there too.
    “I’ve got everything I need right here too,” Olivia said with a smile.
    Together, they watched a sailboat glide across the water, its mast light twinkling like a Christmas tree star. The vessel was heading for the open sea, following the path of the moon beneath the cloudless night sky.
    Olivia Limoges didn’t feel even the tiniest twinge of wanderlust as the boat disappeared into the twilight. She’d traveled the world, but it was only in Oyster Bay that she’d found what she’d been searching for. She belonged to the town and to its people and they belonged to her.
    She had everything she needed.
    Drawing Anders closer, she leaned over and softly sang a verse of her mother’s lullaby.
    C’était dans la nuit brune
    Sur le clocher jauni,
    Sur le clocher la lune
    Comme un point sur un i.
    Ho la hi hi, ho la hi ho
    Ho la hi hi, ho la hi ho.
    (It was in the dark night,
    On the yellowed steeple,
    On the steeple, the moon
    Like a dot on an
i
.
    Ho la hee hee, ho la hee ho
    Ho la hee hee, ho la hee ho.)
    * * *
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A UTHOR’S N OTE
    Many thanks are owed to doctors W. Paul Murphy and Timothy Stanley for reviewing the nuances of malignant hyperthermia with me. I’d discovered the medical condition while reading a case study conducted using Lumbee subjects. I instantly became fascinated with the tribe’s history and with the Battle of Hayes Pond. I took several liberties in regards to the events of that day in 1958, but if you’d like to read more about the Lumbee, visit them on the Internet at The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina (www.lumbeetribe.com).

B IBLIOGRAPHY
    (in order of appearance)
    De Musset, Alfred. “Ballade à la lune.”
Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie
, 1830.
    Mansfield, Katherine. “Loneliness.”
Poems
, edited by Murry (London: Constable, 1923).
    Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “My Lost Youth.” Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919.
The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
    Herrick, Robert. “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time.” Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919.
The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
    Van Dyke, Henry. “Inscription for Katrina’s Sun-Dial.”
Little Rivers
, 1895.

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    Turn the page for a preview of Ellery Adams’s next Books by the Bay Mystery . . .
    Poisoned Prose
    Coming soon from Berkley Prime Crime!
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    “D eath by chocolate. That’s what the coroner’s report will read,” Olivia Limoges said to the woman sitting next to her. She pushed away a plate still laden with a caramel brownie, a hazelnut petit four, and a square of peanut butter fudge. “I’ll have to be rolled home in a wheelbarrow.”
    “That’s why this place is called Decadence.” Laurel Hobbs, local reporter and mother to twin boys, bit off the end of a strawberry dipped in white chocolate and moaned. “How can you resist the many, many temptations being offered to us? Here we are, two of the lucky few invited to this exclusive event, and you’re showing restraint. Seriously, Olivia, try this one. Just take a bite.”
    Olivia glanced at the Amaretto cream puff and shook her head. “I think it was a mistake to