A Vineyard Morning

Book 3: Vineyard Novel

by Jean Stone

Genres: Romance

Synopsis

Life is usually quiet during the off-season on Martha's Vineyard, but not for island newbie and bestselling novelist Annie Sutton...
Finally settled into her adopted island home, Annie is looking forward to writing her next mystery, making soap for her new business, and starting renovations on the Inn she plans to open by the summer. She's also enjoying spending more time with local police sergeant John Lyons, the man she's only just gotten comfortable calling her boyfriend. She's even starting to relish her relationship with John's teenage daughter, Lucy. It's probably not the best moment for a visit from the biological mother Annie only recently met. Still, it's high time she got to know the mysterious Donna MacNeish...
But Donna's visit isn't merely a social call--she's come to share some devastating news. Seeking solace in an outing with Lucy, Annie and the teen stumble upon skeletal remains on the Inn's property, a finding that calls a halt to all construction while the police investigate. Desperate for answers, Annie starts asking questions of her own. But when secrets about her own past bring shattering revelations, suddenly everything Annie understands about love and loyalty is tested--and she wonders if the ties that bind her to her beloved community will reach a breaking point...

Release date: January 26, 2021

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 320

Sample

“The pinkletinks are back!”

Cheers erupted through the West Tisbury Grange Hall as if it were sunset on the beach at Menemsha in summer. It wasn’t summer yet, but it was finally spring, as the pinkletinks—the tiny paperclip-sized, toad-like peepers—announced every year with their long-awaited chorus.

The news was happy music to the group in the hall, who had just wrapped up plans for the upcoming season of artisan festivals. The planning, like the pinkletinks, was a sure sign that tourists would soon arrive on Martha’s Vineyard.

Annie Sutton leaned against the doorway, savoring the April sunlight that seeped through the cracks of the historic, gray-shingled building. She watched as the organizers collected posters of floor plans and booth assignments while the refreshment committee scooped up remnants of coffee and cookies. Her fellow artists were abuzz, laughing and chattering, as they trickled toward the exits.

“Check out the sunshine.”

“We deserve it.”

“Yes, we do!”

It had been a blustery winter, though they’d been spared the nasty nor’easters of the year before. But Annie didn’t mind harsh off-season weather; after all, she was a native New Englander. Which she knew was why, in part, she’d picked there and not a tropical island when she’d left Boston to start over.

She glanced at her watch: 4:00 p.m. Time to head out to the cemetery as she’d promised Lucy, who was nowhere in sight.

“Teenagers,” Annie muttered. She was, however, delighted that the girl had come with her, even though the primary incentive had been the promise of a side trip to a graveyard for Lucy’s genealogy project. Despite the fact that Annie was a full-time bestselling mystery author, part-time soap maker, and soon-to-be innkeeper, she loved spending time with Lucy, the fourteen-year-old daughter of John Lyons—the kind, generous, and massively good-looking Edgartown police sergeant whom Annie had been dating for over a year.

“Annie!” Winnie Lathrop cried out in a jolly voice. “Did you hear? The pinkletinks are back!” Winnie was a Wampanoag woman who lived up island in Aquinnah and had taught Annie how to forage for herbs and wildflowers then craft them into boutique soaps to sell at the festivals.

Plunking down her cotton tote bag, Annie stepped into her friend’s warm hug. “Earl says they’re late this year because it was too damn cold.”

Winnie laughed. “Earl Lyons knows everything about this island. I swear he welcomed Thomas Mayhew when he landed on the beach.” Earl maintained that Mayhew had brought “the first boatload of tourists” in 1642, thereby creating the Vineyard’s first English settlement. A much-beloved property caretaker on Chappaquiddick, Earl also was the father of the massively good-looking police sergeant, and, ergo, Lucy’s grandfather. “Speaking of that old crow . . .” Winnie added, “how’s the Inn? Will you open on time?”

The Inn was a new venture for Earl and Kevin, Annie’s half-brother. Earl had said they should call it The Vineyard Inn because the name was easy to remember, and would make a “perfect hashtag for Instagram.” He’d winked when he said the last part, because Annie was well aware that the seventy-five-year-old curmudgeon would not know Instagram from instant coffee. Kevin was forty-three, nine years younger than Annie. He’d come last summer for a visit and wound up staying, working alongside Earl. The venture—(or, “adventure,” as Kevin called it)—had been their harebrained idea, conceived “out of necessity” (Earl again), because at the time, Annie had little money and nowhere to live. She’d accused the men of being old-fashioned and wanting to rescue a damsel in distress. They’d all had a good laugh over that, because Annie was quite capable of taking care of herself. Though she wasn’t always sure of that, their support helped her stay positive.

“I’m trying to be optimistic,” she said to Winnie now. “Earl and Kevin insist construction is ‘coming along,’ but it’s pretty hectic. Our first guests arrive Memorial Day weekend, so . . .” She shrugged. She didn’t add that they were over budget, out of cash, and short on labor, or that suppliers were slow to deliver to Chappaquiddick, the Vineyard’s easternmost arm that was a bit out of the way.

“And the first festival is that weekend,” Winnie said.

“Right. Crazy times. But how’s your family? How are you?” Annie didn’t want to talk about the Inn: its rising problems and onrushing deadline made her stomach hurt. “Have you made lots of fabulous pottery?” Winnie was renowned for her exquisite bowls and mugs, and silver and wampum jewelry. She’d once told Annie that she made jewelry in summer when the natural sunlight helped her shape tiny details; she crafted pottery in winter when the thousand-degree kiln helped her stay warm. Winnie was as practical as she was loving to all people, all creatures, and the earth.

“The clan is well,” she replied. “Me included. And I have a healthy stash of wares ready to sell. How about you? Have you had time to cook up more soap?”

Annie sighed. “I started writing a new book, which is always a challenge. But I managed to make a few cases with the help of my assistant, who right now has disappeared.” She hoisted her bag back up on one shoulder, grateful it weighed less now that she had passed out samples of her latest soap. She reached in, dug out a bar, and handed it to Winnie.

Winnie held it to her nose, inhaling the fragrance. “Snowdrops. Light. Fresh. Nice work, Annie Sutton.”

“Thanks. It was a whim. Lucy was a big help.” Annie glanced around the hall again. “Right now, however, I suspect she’s looking for another job.”

Winnie laughed. “As I recall, her father was off in a million directions when he was a boy. Overall, he turned out okay.” Winnie’s deep brown eyes—the color of sassafras root, as John had once commented—sparkled with amusement and lit up her copper skin.

Annie smiled and hoped she wasn’t blushing. John was a native islander; his family and Winnie’s had been friends for generations. “Yes,” she said, averting her eyes from Winnie’s gaze, “you might say he’s okay.” She didn’t want to explain, even to Winnie, that though she and John had agreed they were “officially dating,” Annie wasn’t ready to get serious, and John was still reassembling his life after his divorce.

At that moment, Lucy came skittering around the corner, just in time to hear the last bit of their conversation.

“Who’s okay?” she asked as she stepped into the conversation.

“Your father,” Winnie said.

“Gross.” Lucy wrinkled her nose and dropped her iPad and a three-ring binder into Annie’s bag. “Can we go now?”

“Where are you off to?” Winnie asked.

“Christiantown,” Lucy said. “The burial ground. I’m trying to figure out if I have ancestors there.”

“Wampanoags? ”

The burial ground was one of the few known resting places for Vineyard Native Americans. But with eyes as pearl-gray as her dad’s, and skin tones nearly as fair as the spring day, Lucy hardly looked like she had Wampanoag heritage. And it didn’t help that she’d braided her hair into a long, single plait the way that Winnie did, because Lucy’s hair was caramel-colored.

“My great-grandparents are buried at the sacred ground on Chappy,” Lucy replied, though that was hardly proof, as several Caucasians also had been laid to rest there. “I used the money Annie paid me for helping her with her soaps for a DNA test. Turns out, I’m two-percent Native American. I’m hoping to find my people.”

“If they were Chappaquiddick Wampanoags, they won’t be up here in Christiantown. Those graves are only from the Aquinnah tribe.”

“I know. It’s crazy that there was more than one tribe here. But that’s how it was even before Mayhew coughed up forty measly pounds and a couple of beaver hats to buy the Vineyard.”

“And don’t forget that his princely sum included Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands,” Winnie said with a wink.

Annie checked her watch again. Though daylight savings had begun, and the sun didn’t set until seven-o’clock-ish, she wanted to get home in time to see Kevin and John, who’d gone fishing somewhere up island and camped out overnight. John had said Kevin needed a break before the final crunch to get the Inn done, and that he needed one to help him brace for summer chaos.

“I read online that there aren’t any names on the stones at Christiantown,” Lucy was saying. “Except Mary Spencer’s. She’s been there since 1847, so who knows if she really was a Wampanoag.”

Winnie nodded. “So what’s your plan?”

“I’ll take pictures of the stones—I read that they’re just fieldstones—then I’ll look for similarities with the ones on Chappy.”

“That sounds great. But tread lightly. There’s probably a thick blanket of wet leaves keeping the earth warm. The space was designated for the Christian ‘Praying Indians,’ but if you ask me, Moshup is the one who protects them in winter.” A legendary god-like giant, Moshup had watched over the Wampanoags for centuries, but disappeared the day that the British stepped ashore. Then Winnie patted Lucy’s shoulder. “Good luck, dear. And remember that if we don’t know our past, we cannot guide our future.”

The three of them hugged good-bye and moved toward the door. Then Lucy raced ahead, her braid happily bouncing, her life too new for her to have any angst over deadlines, finances, or the impending onslaught of summer vacationers.

Winnie had been right about Moshup’s blanket: a weave of birch and oak leaves in weathered shades of terra-cotta covered the ground. Lucy announced that the site encompassed less than a single acre, was officially the “Christiantown Woods Preserve and Indian Burial Ground,” and remained under tribal ownership.

Annie parked the Jeep off the narrow dirt road, grateful that she’d traded in her Lexus for something better suited to the terrain. When she’d first moved to the island, she’d replaced her Jimmy Choos with walking boots from L.L.Bean, and her Ann Taylor suits with flannel shirts. She hoped that eventually her former life would slide so far back in time that she’d no longer feel its sour breath on her neck.

She dropped her phone into her jeans pocket—a ritual she stuck to, especially when exploring off a beaten path, or in this case, off an ancient way.

Once outside, Annie noticed the quiet. It reminded her of when she’d been young, of when her small family had vacationed on the island, and she and her dad had explored the remote Menemsha Hills. They’d hiked alone; her mother had preferred the summer sounds of crashing surf and romping kids at South Beach in Edgartown. Annie’s dad, like Annie, preferred silence. She hadn’t, however, inherited the trait from him, as the Suttons—Bob and Ellen—had adopted her.

“There’s the chapel,” Lucy whispered, pointing to a small, ramshackle building. They treaded softly toward it, as if not wanting to disturb shadows of long-dead souls. Lucy unlatched a shuttered window, and they peeked inside.

“Thomas Mayhew Jr. gave this land back to the Wampanoags in the seventeenth century,” she said. “But it was only for the ones who converted to Christianity—which is why they called them ‘Praying Indians.’” Her tone remained hushed, her eyes wide. She pressed her face against the dusty glass. “This is a replica of the original chapel that burned down; the tribe replaced it in 1829. It only has a few pews and a small altar.”

After closing the shutter, she turned and started across the road. “The cemetery is at the top of the hill. No one’s allowed up there unless he or she is a tribal member.”

Annie followed. “We should have asked Winnie to come with us.”

They came to an opening in a split-rail fence. A large boulder sat there. A metal plaque with a moss-green patina was attached; an embossed message identified the spot as the head of the path to the “burying ground.”

“Lucy? Are you sure it’s okay to go up?” Annie did not like breaking rules, let alone on consecrated land.

“Nobody’s around. Besides, I’m two-percent Native American, remember?”

In Annie’s previous life, she’d been a third-grade teacher who’d maintained control of her class. But Lucy was fourteen, not nine, and not one of Annie’s students. “Okay then, but I’ll wait here. I’ll check in with Kevin to see if he and your father survived their camping trip.”

“Whatever.” Lucy tromped up an embankment of dirt stairs that were framed by tree roots; her iPad was fixed in one hand, her three-ring binder in the other. Then she disappeared—again—this time into a stand of tall, newly budding oaks. She clearly was an island kid who knew where she was most of the time, and if she didn’t, she wasn’t afraid. After all, she hadn’t been raised in the city as Annie had.

“This is so cool!” Lucy’s voice called down from the hilltop. “Every stone has something on top!”

Annie cupped her mouth. “Like what?”

“A scallop shell. A piece of wampum. A couple have coins.”

“Take pictures!”

“I am!”

Annie smiled with appreciation for the girl’s enthusiasm. Then she leaned against the boulder and scanned the rustic forest, wondering if the trees were as old as the sacred site. She closed her eyes and listened to the stillness until her mind quieted and her shoulders relaxed, the stressors of her things-to-do list beginning to disintegrate like fine white sand beneath an outgoing tide. She stood, trance-like, for several minutes until a brisk rustle of leaves warned her she was not alone. Maybe it was someone who had passed that way before.

Yup, it’s the dead guys.

Annie’s eyes flipped open, her body jerked, she nearly buckled to the ground. Quickly righting herself, she let her gaze skim the area. Of course, there was no one. Except Murphy, her old college pal who’d died nearly two years earlier from a rare, swift-moving cancer, but whose spirit tended to show up when Annie needed sage advice or a good laugh.

“Murphy!” Annie cried, shaking a playful fist up toward the sky. “Stop scaring me!”

Poltergeist-like laughter was swiftly muffled by the ding of Annie’s phone. She checked the screen: it was Kevin.

PARTY’S OVER, her brother texted. GET YOUR BUTT BACK TO CHAPPY. WE’VE GOT AN INN TO FINISH. AND—SURPRISE!—MOM IS COMING SATURDAY. SIX DAYS FROM NOW. MINUS A FEW HOURS.

“Nooo!” Annie cried. Her birth mother was coming to the island? Donna MacNeish—the woman who’d raised Kevin but hadn’t raised her? The woman Annie had only seen three times in her life?

Yes, my friend, Murphy whispered. Her.

Annie’s things-to-do list blinked into sharp focus again—that time with an added entry: Donna. She braced herself, inhaled deeply, then sprinted up the embankment, traversing the tree roots, determined to help Lucy finish her research, while hoping that the souls of the Praying Indians would forgive her for tramping on their hallowed ground.

She had no business longing for it. But it sat in the window of a small secondhand shop on Newbury Street, and she passed it every morning on her way from the T to her job. There was something about it that called to her: the supple, timeworn leather, the meticulous detail, the era in which it had been fashioned. It was a classic trunk, perhaps at home in a first-class sleeping coach aboard the Orient Express—Paris to Istanbul—in the early twentieth century. It made Donna wonder about the hundreds, or thousands, of stories stored within.

If she’d listened to Aunt Elizabeth, the trunk might have been hers. “Don’t marry that man,” Elizabeth had said. “Instead, find one with money so your life will be more interesting.” She also had advised that if Donna only owned one sweater, she should make sure it was cashmere.

Years earlier, Donna had made the mistake of believing in true love, so she should have known to listen to her aunt. But though Jack was only a salesman of home cleaning products, he had proposed. At the time, he’d said he didn’t mind that Donna had once lived in a home for unwed mothers, then given up her baby for adoption. He’d said he didn’t mind, but after they were married and had a child of their own, he apparently felt otherwise. He left Donna with very little money and with Kevin, who by then was four. The pittance of child support that Jack provided trickled off after a while, though Donna didn’t let Kevin know that. She took a job as a receptionist at a radio station where the pay was low, but her boss had suggested that one day she might be made office manager.

Aside from keeping Kevin healthy, the promotion became her only wish. That, and to own the Louis Vuitton trunk, which Donna knew had been made in Paris. After all, she’d paid close attention during countless hours of browsing for antiques with Aunt Elizabeth, until Alzheimer’s had shoplifted her aunt’s mind. At the store on Newbury Street, the tag read $400, so it was doubtful the storeowner knew the trunk’s worth. Still, the price was equivalent to a month’s rent. Out of Donna’s league. Unless she found a way.

Then, on an ordinary Tuesday morning when she passed the shop, the Louis Vuitton was gone. She tried to tell herself it was just one more loss. And that, like other losses she’d endured, it must not have been meant for her.

After dropping Lucy off at John’s town house in Edgartown, promising to join them for dinner the next night, then sharing a quick kiss with him before he left for the night shift, Annie headed home. Though she was always sorry when their schedules left them little time to be together, the spark of anticipation kept the embers glowing. This time, however, as she drove the mere two blocks to the Chappy ferry, the glow gave way to trepidation about her birth mother’s impending visit.

Annie hadn’t seen Donna since the fall when she’d arrived on the island after a months-long world cruise. The timing had been wrong: renovations to the waterfront mansion had begun; bedlam had enveloped them. And when Donna had offered a few design suggestions—art deco chairs, hand-knotted Mondrian rugs, a few pieces of enchanting art in the storytelling style of Hugo Mayer—Annie had politely (she’d hoped) rejected them due to (she’d said) budget constraints. And though she could not dispute that Donna had terrific taste, Annie knew her choices weren’t right for the Vineyard. Donna had left the next day, albeit with a smile. Annie had been too busy to be upset. She had, after all, only seen Donna twice on the Vineyard and once in Boston when Annie had gone there on her birthday. But unlike their jubilant first meeting, the last visits had felt strained. And despite monthly phone calls filled with pleasant anecdotes, Annie didn’t know what Donna wanted from her—or what she wanted from Donna.

It hadn’t been that way with Kevin. Their first meeting had only lasted as long as it had taken him to devour a Reuben and a beer at Annie’s birthday lunch—yet from the instant she had seen him, she’d been comfortable. Then, when he showed up on the island and didn’t leave, getting to know him had been seamless, natural, fun. Having been raised as the Suttons’ only child, Annie liked having a sibling. And now, as she drove onto the inimitable ferry, she realized it was even easier to build a relationship with John’s daughter than with her own birth mother. If Murphy were still alive, she’d have a heyday with that.

As the ferry chugged its ninety-second chug across the channel, Annie supposed she should try harder to get to know Donna—if only she knew how. Her adoptive parents had been great . . . well, mostly great. And though Annie had always known she’d been adopted, she’d never felt the kind of loss that she’d read many others did; she’d never been curious about her birth parents.

Lifting her eyes toward the sky, she said, “A little help would be appreciated.” Murphy, however, didn’t reply. Some things, Annie supposed, her old friend knew she had to figure out herself.

In a few short minutes, Annie was home—the Inn, as she now liked to think of it. She parked next to Kevin’s pickup and wandered down the sloping lawn to the cottage that Earl and Kevin had custom designed for her and where Kevin was sitting on the porch in an Adirondack chair. He was gazing at the harbor, smiling.

“I love it here,” he said, without glancing at her.

“Yeah, me too.” She sat down beside him and followed his gaze. The water was calm, as if waiting for the boats to start their summer procession. “The Inn is going be spectacular.”

“And you can’t beat the view.”

The cottage was down the hill toward the water and, as Earl said, “within shoutin’ distance” of the Inn—the old Littlefield house that was being restored, updated, and transformed for the twenty-first century. Adhering to the same top-quality workmanship that they were putting into the main house, the brand-new cottage had wide-plank floors in the small, but sunny living/kitchen combination; a porcelain-tiled, pristine bath; a cozy bedroom shaded by a multi-armed, thick-trunked scrub oak that stood outside the window; and, best of all, a writing room with space for Annie’s laptop and her books and her imagination. The writing room also had two big windows that faced the harbor and the lighthouse and were designed to catch the eastward summer breezes. Originally, she’d wanted to have an apartment attached to the Inn. But she’d traded that idea for solitude. The cottage felt more like a real home, especially since she’d decorated it with a few childhood treasures: her grandmother Sutton’s braided rug; the special quilt her mother had made; her mother’s rocking chair. Her mother Ellen’s things, not Donna’s.

Annie wondered if she could hide there during Donna’s visit. Then she cleared her throat and, as her dad would have said, she “came back down to earth.” She tapped Kevin’s arm. “Donna’s going to be wicked impressed with everything you and Earl have done.”

Kevin ran a hand through his dark hair. A shade lighter than Annie’s, unlike hers, it only showed a few strands of silver; he’d joked that as the younger sibling, he had plenty of time to catch up. “But it’s the worst possible time,” he said. “We don’t even have a decent bedroom for her.”

Annie felt a pressing sensation on her chest, followed by a flash of hope that he’d tell their mother not to come. Then she felt guilty about wanting that. “How long will she stay?”

“She didn’t say. If things were normal, it would be fun for us to be together, but I don’t have time to entertain her. Neither do you. You’re writing a new book, you must have more soap to make, and you have to start pulling things together to decorate the rooms and common areas. There isn’t time for Mom. But she doesn’t take the word ‘no’ very well.” His brow furrowed; his eyes squinted as if he were in pain.

Annie remembered that Kevin’s life had not been perfect. After his father left, aside from Donna and her parents (who’d died when he still was young), Kevin had had no family. Not like Annie, who’d had her adoptive parents, two aunts, one uncle, and four grandparents. They were all gone now—had been gone for some time—but she’d never felt alone during her growing-up years.

“You’re right,” she said. “I’m busy, too.” She didn’t dare say she’d forgotten about choosing the touches of art and decorative items for the Inn. When she’d agreed to do it last fall, the deadline had seemed far into the future. After hesitating a moment, she added, “But my book’s not due for months, Kevin. And I’m only going to do a couple of the festivals this summer. I’ll need to make more soap for those, but maybe I can enlist Donna to help.”

“Our mother? Making soap? Wow. You really don’t know her, do you?”

An unexpected needle pierced Annie’s heart.

Kevin’s cheeks turned ivory, the color of the natural stone that Annie had selected for her kitchen counters. “Oh, God,” he groaned. “I’m sorry. I am the stupidest person in the world.”

Annie knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her. He’d become important in her life, and she knew the feeling was mutual. So she laughed. “You’re right! I hardly know her!” She stopped herself from reminding him that it was partly her own fault, because when Donna had first contacted her, Annie hadn’t responded. It had taken years for her to be ready.

“Well, now you know her son’s an ass.”

“I’ve known that for a while.” Annie got up, bent down, and gave him a hug. “But you’re the only brother I have, and I won’t trade you for anyone. Now,” she added, standing up and squeezing his shoulders, “let’s talk about dinner. Did you come back with outstanding fish from your camping adventure?”

His shoulders drooped. “Nope. Turns out I’m a crappy fisherman, too. Freshwater ponds are open. But nobody told the fish. Or maybe somebody did, so they swam away. Squibnocket maybe. Or Ice House Pond. Anyway, we spent most of our time wrapped in our sleeping blankets in front of the campfire drinking beer.”

Annie laughed again, mostly because Kevin seemed to have taken on Earl’s gif. . .