A Broken Promise • 3

Di turned and looked through the glass sliding doors. The entire balcony was covered in blue streamers, upon which words appeared to have been written. Mart crossed the room in a few strides and threw open the sliding door. He tugged one of the streamers free of the railing and held it up for all to see: PROM-----ISE-----PROM-----ISE-----PROM-----ISE. It appeared over and over again, along the full length of every streamer.

“Well, that’s clear enough,” Mart noted, letting it drop. “Someone has broken a promise and another someone wants to remind them of it.”

“But how did they get up here?” Trixie wondered, looking over the edge. “Our balcony joins to yours, but the door onto the next one is locked. There’s no balcony above and I don’t see any way to climb up from the one below.”

Di looked over the edge and shuddered. “You’d have to be Spiderman.”

Dan shook his head. “No, you’d need a good head for heights and decent upper-body strength, but it’s not all that difficult. If you started on those stairs we used yesterday, it’s not all that hard to climb up onto the rail and then swing around the corner of the building and reach the lower balcony. From there, it’s just a matter of climbing up – and there are plenty of hand- and foot-holds to help.”

For a long moment, Di stared at him in something akin to astonishment. “I’ll take your word for it, but please, don’t any of you try it to see if he’s right!”

While this discussion went on, Trixie was instead examining the balcony for other clues, having dismissed the matter of ‘how’ as unimportant as soon as Dan offered an explanation.

“Does this belong to anyone?” she asked, holding up a tangled piece of thread. “It might have been left by the person who did this.”

Honey, who was closest, held out her hand and took it. “It’s a kind of greyish blue, I think. I don’t remember any of us wearing something this colour yesterday. No one is wearing it today.”

“Hold it against something white,” Di suggested. She stepped inside and returned with a sheet of paper. “Is it grey or blue?”

“I think, maybe, it used to be blue, but it’s faded to a funny bluish grey, or greyish blue.” She frowned over it a little longer. “I’m sure none of us had anything like this. One of us would have noticed if someone had such a long thread hanging from their clothes.”

“So, it probably was the person who did this.” Trixie turned a full circle and looked at the streamers. “They didn’t do any damage. It won’t take more than a few minutes to remove. Unless you were standing on that little patch of grass over there, you can’t see it from anywhere other than right here. So why did they do this?”

Mart glanced around. “I’d have to say that we are the intended audience. Is anyone staying in the suites below ours?”

Honey shook her head. “I don’t think so. Ours are the only cars for this end of the building. The parking spaces for all of the downstairs rooms were empty yesterday, and earlier today when I was down there.”

Trixie’s face lit up. “That’s how our rooms were chosen – by the fact that there were cars parked in their spaces.”

“And, maybe, because yours is at the end of the building,” Dan added. “From what I can see from here, this is probably the easiest balcony to climb to, not counting the one directly below it.”

“So, not necessarily specifically us,” Honey clarified, “but just someone, anyone, who happens to be in this room and can see the message. I wonder what the promise could have been and who they want to remind?”

“Well, I think we should report this to the front office,” Brian decided. “Honey, the booking’s in your name; do you think you could do that?”

She nodded. “I will, right away.”

She went inside to the phone and was soon speaking to someone. The others milled around, looking at the streamers and wondering aloud what the unknown person might do next. In a few minutes, Honey joined them.

“What did they say?” Trixie demanded. “Did you find out what it’s all about?”

Honey shook her head. “The man was rather evasive. He apologised profusely, but wouldn’t answer any questions I asked about it. He offered to have someone come up and clean up for us, but I said not to worry and that we’d do it ourselves.”

“Good thinking,” Trixie replied. “That way, we keep charge of the evidence.”

Mart began unwinding the streamers from the nearest post. “And if we’re careful in removing it, we won’t have to walk down all those stairs to retrieve any pieces that get dropped.”

Trixie leaned over the balcony. “Dropped! I wonder if the one who did this dropped anything. Maybe I should go down and see.”

“After you’ve helped with the clean-up here,” Brian told her, shaking his head. “First things first.”

His sister nodded and began unwinding streamers. The task did not take long with all of them helping. Di wound up the streamers as they were removed and fetched a plastic bag to stow them in. They made quite a small package.

“Easy enough to carry across there,” Dan noted, nodding to the path he had picked out. “No equipment needed. Probably wouldn’t take all that long, either.”

Trixie nodded absently, while staring at the floor. A moment later, she pounced on a spot near Mart’s foot.

“Aha!” she cried. “I’ve found a clue!”

Mart frowned down at her and then rolled his eyes. “It’s a hair. So what? It probably belongs to one of you girls.”

Rising to her feet with the hair gripped between thumb and finger, Trixie shook her head. “No, I’m pretty sure it isn’t. It’s too straight to be mine, too fair to be Di’s and not straight enough to be Honey’s.”

“Let’s see,” Di asked, retrieving the piece of paper again. “Honey, can I have one of your hairs?”

They laid out the hair Trixie had found along with a sample from each of the girls’ heads. Trixie’s predictions proved to be correct. Beside Honey’s hair, it looked dull and brownish, while beside Diana’s it looked pale.

“It’s more crinkly than any of ours,” Honey pointed out. “And look: the end is split.”

Di began examining the ends of her hair with a critical eye. “It makes me wish I’d made time for a trim before we left.”

Honey smiled and rubbed her arm. “Yours looks fine. But I know what you mean.”

“How long do you suppose it is?” Trixie asked. “I mean, with relation to the person who owned it, not by itself.”

Honey picked it up and compared it to her own. “I guess it depends on where on the head it comes from. Can you help me, Di?”

After a few minutes’ trial and error, they decided that it was at least shoulder-length, and possibly longer, regardless of whether the person was a man or a woman.

Di frowned at the hair, as she held it up against Dan. “I can’t imagine that it’s very nice-looking hair. It’s probably frizzy and it’s definitely not well-kept.”

Trixie grinned. “When we catch them, you can suggest they get a haircut.”

Di laughed. “I probably will.”

“I think that’s about all I can find out here.” Trixie glanced around the group. “Is anyone coming downstairs with me?”

Honey stepped forward. “I will.”

None of the others joined them, but they remained on the balcony. When Trixie and Honey reached the bottom, they had an audience above, but none other that they could see. The curtains of both the suite directly below theirs and the ground-floor one below that were closed. The search yielded no results. Either the person had dropped nothing, or it had landed in the garden and was lost among the foliage. Before they left, Trixie stood back against the small retaining wall that stood opposite the building at the point where the garden ended, and looked up.

“Did you see that?” she asked Honey, pointing to the balcony below theirs. “I think I saw something move.”

Honey shook her head. “I wasn’t looking that way.”

Trixie stared at the lower balcony for a few moments longer. “Let’s go back upstairs. I don’t think there’s anything more to see here.”

The two made their way up the stairs, but instead of re-entering the room, Trixie dashed for the door they had used the previous afternoon. She made for the walkway and peered across at the balconies, but the only one occupied was their own.

Trixie looked up at Dan, who was standing at the end, looking down. “Did you see anyone?” she called to him.

He shook his head. “No. Should I have?”

She made a helpless gesture and ran across the walkway and onto the grass. Her eyes scanned across the balconies of the lower level, but none showed any sign of occupation. The second one from the end, however, had a small table on it, which had been tipped over.

“Maybe he’s hiding behind that,” she suggested to Honey, who had caught up. “I don’t see anywhere else he could be.”

“You mean, the whole time we were talking, he was below us, listening?”

Trixie nodded. “I think so. Except when we were down on the ground and he was above us, listening.”

Mart loped across the walkway and joined them on the little patch of grass. “What gives?”

His sister held out her hands, palms up. “I think he’s over there. We must have only just missed seeing him when he did it, and he only had time to climb down onto the next balcony. I caught a glimpse of him when we were down there, but by the time I got to where I could see better, he’d gone.”

Mart peered across at the table. “I don’t think he’s there. It’s not really big enough for someone to hide behind and for them to be tall enough to reach all those places Dan pointed out.”

Trixie stamped a foot in frustration. “He must’ve gotten away somehow while I was climbing all those stairs. I should’ve come straight here, instead of pretending to go back.”

“Let’s go and get some lunch,” Honey suggested. “Hopefully, we’ll see something more of him before too long.”

“An excellent suggestion,” Mart added, putting an arm around her shoulders. “I heartily concur.”

“Of course you do,” Trixie grumbled, poking him in the side as she pushed past them.

Her good humour was restored by the time she reached their suite and her mind had begun laying plans to find out more about the situation. She burst into the room, ready for action.

“Let’s go eat,” she urged the others. “Then, we need to find some locals who can tell us more about this place. It might help us find out what’s going on here.”

The others exchanged a look, but it was Brian who spoke.

“Actually, Trixie, this afternoon we’re going canoeing. Honey booked canoes for us for three hours starting at two o’clock.” He made an appeal to her sense of adventure. “We thought we’d head for one of the islands. It’s got its own ghost story, apparently.”

Her expression shifted between disappointment and excitement. “That does sound interesting.”

“Maybe we can find out some more about what’s been happening here over lunch,” Honey suggested.

“Do we even have time to eat?” Di wondered, looking at her watch.

Mart gave her an outraged look. “Of course!”

She rolled her eyes. “I meant, do we have time to eat out? Maybe we should just pick up some sandwiches to go. That way, if we run out of time we can take them with us.”

Trixie looked around the group. “How about if Honey and I go and pick them up and we’ll meet you…”

“Over on that grassy patch,” Honey finished for her. “Bring everything you need with you and we can leave from there when we’re finished eating.”

Plans made, Trixie and Honey headed for the car with a list of everyone’s orders. They made the trip into the main part of town in a few minutes and Honey parked her car near the place they had chosen. As the orders were being made up, the pair made conversation with the woman who was making them. Trixie began by mentioning where they were staying and that they’d just cleaned up a whole lot of streamers.

“Oh, yes. They’ve had lots of things like that up there since the new people took over,” the woman answered, while adding salad to Di’s sandwich. “There doesn’t seem to be any harm in it, but it’s kind of annoying.”

“Doesn’t anyone know what it’s all about?” Honey asked.

The woman shook her head and paused to clarify what condiments were wanted. “The new people don’t talk about the problems they’ve been having. I’m sure they know what it’s all about, but they don’t tell us.”

Di’s sandwich was wrapped and Honey read off the next order.

“What other kinds of things have been done?” Trixie asked.

“Mostly just silly stuff.” She paused with her tongs over the tomato and at Honey’s nod added it. “Blue string tied to things, or streamers, or letters cut out of big sheets of paper and taped to windows. Always blue. Sometimes there’s a riddle or a rhyme of some sort. Mostly it’s just meaningless.”

“Ours had the word ‘promise’ broken into two parts,” Honey confided. “We thought it must have been a message to someone, but since we’ve never been here before and we don’t know anyone, it can’t be us.”

“No, it’s been going on for a year or more. It’s nothing to do with you.” Another sandwich was added to the pile and she began the next. “A broken promise? That reminds me of something. My family has lived here for generations and I’ve known the old couple who used to run the place all my life. There was quite a feud among the family when Mr. Windsor died and it turned out that he hadn’t left things exactly as had always been assumed.”

“That must have made things difficult,” Honey answered. “It’s terrible when that sort of thing happens in a family.”

The woman nodded. “It all died down fairly soon. The son-in-law and daughter who took over the old place are doing a great job, as far as I can see.”

Honey nodded. “We only got here yesterday, but we’re enjoying our stay.”

“So, who was it who objected?” Trixie wanted to know.

She was answered with a shrug. “Not really sure. The son moved away a long time ago. He died quite young, as I recall. There was some other family, but I didn’t know them. They weren’t from here. Not that the daughter is really from here, either. She’s actually a step-daughter, I think, from her mother’s first marriage.”

“It’s a family business?” Honey queried, after giving the next order. “Does it go back a long way?”

“Longer than I can remember. When I was a little girl, it was an older generation again who were running it, and I don’t think they were new to the business.” She piled up the fillings on Mart’s sandwiches. “I’m just happy that it’s continuing. There’d hardly be a town without it.”

After that, the conversation turned to their plans for the afternoon. Soon the food was ready and Honey paid for it all, after adding various extras to the pile, including some snacks to take with them on their canoe trip. The friendly woman loaded the whole lot into a large cardboard box for easier carrying. Thanking her, they left the shop and returned to their friends.

Island Clues • 4

“What do you think of that?” Trixie asked during the return journey. “It might be some relative who thinks they should have inherited. Just imagine if Crabapple Farm got left to someone who wasn’t a Belden, or even born a Belden. The rest of us would be furious!”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Honey answered. “There are plenty of potential Belden heirs.”

“In this generation,” Trixie argued. “But what happens if there aren’t in the next, or the one after? My brothers and male cousins might not have kids. Or they might only have daughters.”

Honey frowned and turned into the driveway. “I don’t know how likely that would be. I thought boy/girl ratios ran in families. Shouldn’t there still be more boys than girls?”

“That only works if they have several kids. They might only have one each, or not any. They might even have step-children.”

Honey sighed. “I hope I get more than one. I wouldn’t wish being an only child onto anyone.”

“Are you thinking of marrying one of my brothers?” Trixie asked, staring hard. “Is there something I should know about?”

Her friend did not answer as she pulled into the parking space. “No, not at the moment. We haven’t talked about anything like that, but, well, a girl can dream, right?”

“We’re talking about Mart, here, aren’t we? I mean, I want to be sure that we’re on the same page.”

Honey’s head snapped up. “Of course we are. Who else would we be talking about?”

Trixie got out of the car, balanced the box on her hip and closed the door. “Well, there did used to be that thing between you and Brian.”

“Which ended before it really began,” Honey answered. “And, in case you hadn’t noticed, he’s really serious about Di – not that they really show it, but they are really serious about each other. And Mart and I are serious about each other, too – not that we’re talking about getting married; at least, not now, because I don’t think either of us is really ready for that, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not serious about each other, because we are, even if that’s not what we’re saying right now.”

Trixie made a non-committal grunt and continued up the stairs. They emerged into the sunlight and soon joined their friends.

“Ah! Sustenance!” Mart declared dramatically, kissing Honey on both cheeks.

“I’m the one who has the food,” Trixie told him, before allowing Dan to take the box.

Mart advanced on his sister, grasped her upper arms and kissed both her cheeks as well. “Beloved sister of mine. How glad I am to see you, regardless of anything you might be carrying.”

“I’m not carrying anything. While you were messing around, they took it from me.” She pointed to Dan and Brian, who were busy sorting everything out. “You’d better see them, before they eat everything.”

“Not much chance of that,” Brian answered, handing over Mart’s sandwiches and a drink.

They settled at the edges of the little clearing, where the nearby shrubs gave shelter from the breeze, conversing as they ate. When they were finished, Jim and Brian gathered up all of the rubbish and disposed of it, then they all walked down to the lake.

“How many canoes are we taking?” Jim asked, eyeing the selection. The weather was sunny and many of the racks were empty.

Honey stepped forward. “One three-person and two two-person ones. They should have ‘Reserved’ on them and the times and my room number.”

Jim took one end of the larger canoe and with Dan’s help lifted it from the rack. Soon, all three were ready to go. They all selected paddles and put on life jackets before sorting themselves into three groups.

“Which island is it?” Trixie asked, looking out over the water at the three or four nearby. “That bigger one? Or the one with the rocky bit at the end?”

Honey came and stood beside her. “The bigger one, I think. It’s supposed to have a ruin on it and I don’t think any of those others are big enough for that.”

“Let’s go past that nearest one first,” Jim suggested, “then go on to the biggest island.”

This plan meeting with general agreement, they got into their canoes and began paddling. The sun was warm on their skin as they glided across the water. The first little island was reached in only a short time. Jim and Trixie’s canoe arrived first. Jim stayed in his seat, and Trixie hopped out onto a protruding rock, while the canoe’s bottom grazed the lake floor. From there she jumped from rock to rock to shore. She scrambled up the steep slope and stood on the apex, amid a few scraggly trees.

“Not much to see here,” she called down to the others, who were debating whether to join her. “Let’s keep going.”

By the time she had regained her seat and pushed off, the other two canoes were well ahead. She paddled hard to try to catch up, but Jim seemed disinclined to do the same.

“What does it matter?” he asked her, setting a leisurely pace. “I don’t think we’ll miss anything by arriving two minutes later.”

Trixie sighed and tried to put a lid on her impatience. She followed Jim’s lead and paddled in time with him, which kept their course much straighter. As they approached the larger island, they could hear their friends’ voices carrying across the water.

“Where is Trixie when we need her?” a female voice asked.

“Dilly-dallying, as per usual.” That had to be Mart.

“Trixie! Hurry up!” Honey called. “Just wait until you see this!”

Trixie grunted with frustration. “Jim! Paddle faster.”

He picked up the pace, but not as much as Trixie did, causing them to veer off course. Finally, they reached the island and Trixie jumped out, splashing through the shallows and soaking her shoes.

“What is it?” she demanded, hurrying up to where the others stood.

Honey was the one to explain. “He’s been here, too. Look!”

Blue stripes had been painted on the trunks and branches of several trees and words were written upon the paint in black pen. From the faded and chipped appearance, it had been done some time ago.

“It makes a couple of sentences.” Di pointed to each tree in turn. “If you read up this tree, down that one, around this one in a spiral, across this branch and then across that one, I think it makes the most sense. It’s sort of a rhyme, though not a very good one.”

In times past, it blew high overhead,
A foregone conclusion – until the will was read.
In it you may judge wrong from right,
But no other clue to it remains in sight.

“But what does it mean?” Honey asked.

Mart stared at the words for a moment. “I think it’s a riddle.”

“There’s more over here,” Dan called, from a short distance away.

A boulder that was half-buried in the earth bore a large blue patch and another rhyme.

A patch of blue up in the air,
The would-be heir with unkempt hair,
Until what’s wrong has been restored,
You’ll be reminded evermore.

“Does someone have something to write it on?” Trixie asked, having checked all of her pockets. “And with?”

“I can take a picture of this one with my phone,” Di suggested, doing just that. “The other one is harder.”

“Text it to me.” Honey turned to the first place they had seen. “Or, I’ll text it to you.”

In a short time, she had done so and they began to explore the island some more. They soon found the ruins, of which very little remained. From that vantage point, they could see across the lake to their accommodation and the balcony outside their rooms.

“He’s there right now!” Trixie cried, pointing. “Look! He’s doing it all over again! Quick, we’ve got to go back.”

Brian caught her arm as she made to run down the slope to the canoes. “Even if you paddled at full speed, he’d still be gone long before you got back. Stay here and we’ll watch what he does. I doubt he can get into the rooms.”

“I can’t really make out what he’s doing,” Honey noted, shading her eyes. “I can see kind of a hint of something blue, and a person in a dirty-blue shirt, but that’s about all.”

Di had her phone out and was taking pictures. “I can’t zoom in far enough to get any real detail either. But I’m pretty sure he’s a he and not a she.”

“And he has messy hair.” Honey looked over her shoulder to see what she was taking. “Do you think he’s the would-be heir?”

Trixie nodded. “And he’s doing the blue, high up thing from the rhyme. The owners must know who he is and what he wants. I wish I was closer, so I could see better.”

“It looks like he’s finished.” Brian peered up at the man. “What’s he doing now?”

His sister made a growling sound. “He’s waving to us. He knows we’re here and that we’re watching him.”

“And over the edge he goes,” Dan added, as the man climbed from the upper balcony to the lower and disappeared around the corner of the building in a series of fluid movements. “He’s done that a few times before, I’d say.”

“Let’s get back and see what he’s done,” Trixie urged, striding away from the others.

“What? No!” Mart ran to catch up with her and stood in her way. “We’re going to continue our afternoon on the lake. Whatever he’s done, it will still be there when we get back.”

She turned to her friends, looking for support, but found mostly apologetic looks.

“He’s right,” Honey told her, softly. “And who knows what else we might find on these islands – he’s obviously been to this one and we’ve gotten some good clues here. Maybe he’s been to the others, too.”

“And we haven’t even seen the place with the haunting,” Dan added, glancing down a path that led to the opposite side of the island. “Didn’t you want to see that?”

Trixie closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess you’re right.”

As they walked down the path that Dan had indicated, Di asked, “Do I really want to hear this story? It’s not gory or anything, is it?”

“Not really,” Honey assured her. “The way that I heard it, the people who once lived on this island had a yacht that they sailed on the lake and one day it sank and they drowned. The same day, another boat had difficulties near here and approached the island thinking they could get help here – because there was a house, you see. They saw a woman in a white dress standing on the shore, but she disappeared before they landed and they couldn’t find anyone on the island, or see any other boats nearby. And ever since that day, people have seen the woman in the white dress standing on the shore, especially if they’re having some kind of trouble with their boat, but they can never find her when they get to land.”

In spite of the warm sun, Di shivered. “I’m glad we’re not having any trouble. Does that mean she appears in daylight?”

Honey nodded. “Often at dusk, apparently.”

“That’s still hours away, Di. Nothing to worry about.” Brian smiled and took her hand. “But perhaps it’s just as well none of you girls is wearing a white dress, or you might be mistaken for her.”

They reached the place where the sightings took place and spent a few minutes looking around. When they were finished, they followed a different path back to the canoes and got back on the water. Mart and Honey, who were in the lead, made for the next little island in the chain.

“Is it time for a snack?” Honey called to the nearest canoe, occupied by Brian, Di and Dan.

“Sounds good,” Brian answered. “How about over there, by the water?”

They all hopped out and found places to sit on the shore in the dappled shade provided by some low-growing shrubs. Honey began distributing food. Trixie ate absently, staring out across the water.

“You can’t see our room from here,” she noted, cutting across a conversation on what to do after dinner that night. “Do you think he waited until we got to that second island deliberately, to taunt us? If he’d waited a little longer, we would have been out of the way altogether.”

“Maybe there’s some significance to that other island,” Honey suggested. “He did write his rhymes there.”

“I wonder how we could find that out?” Trixie scrambled to her feet and began wandering around. “Do you think they have a library in town?”

“I didn’t see one,” Mart answered. “And right now I’m more interested in what we were talking about before you interrupted. I was thinking–”

“But he’s making fun of us!” She turned away angrily and stomped away.

The island was too small for her to get out of earshot of the others and she could hear them debating what to do about her. Hearing Mart suggest that she just be left alone to get over it, she picked up a stone and threw it into the water. It landed with a plop, sending droplets in all directions. Feeling a small amount of satisfaction, she repeated the action, to similar effect. A moment after the second splash, a dull thud sounded from below the surface of the water.

Trixie frowned and peered into the shallows. Her stones had stirred up the sediment, clouding the water. She pulled off her still-wet shoes and socks and began wading into the cold water. After a few steps, she retreated and grabbed a stick, having found it to be deeper than it looked. She edged her way closer to the place, poking ahead of her with the stick. The bottom edge of her pants was wet and she still had not reached the right place when Honey came over the rise and found her there.

“What are you doing?”

Trixie jolted, nearly losing her balance. She leaned hard on the stick, which snapped and sent her arms swinging in a vain attempt to stay upright. The battle was lost and Trixie fell with a loud splash.

Continue to next chapter.

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