Page 21 of The Unknown

“About what?”

“Lindy Garrett,” I say, figuring it’s better than telling a movie’s producer that I’m worried I can’t play the lead role in said film. Especially when Loretta is the woman who fired Lindy—and who has the potential to do the same to me.

“An unfortunate turn of events,” Loretta says. “Lindy’s incredibly talented and I think she would have been amazing in the part. No offense.”

Plenty taken. My self-confidence is battered enough.

“Lindy texted me on the way here,” I say. “And it made me wonder why she was fired. Ronan said he didn’t know.”

Loretta lets out an exhausted sigh. “When Lindy learned we’d all be spending a week on New Avalon, she refused, even though it was mandatory. I warned her that failing to participate would mean relinquishingthe part. When she continued to refuse, she left me with no choice but to fire her.”

I’m not thrilled to be on New Avalon, either, but I’ll gladly endure it for the biggest break of my career. While I would have appreciated a heads-up about coming here, Lindy’s decision leaves me mystified.

“Why did she refuse?”

“Because she was scared,” Loretta says. “She’d done plenty of research on New Avalon by then. She knew its history. And the idea of actually being here terrified her. During our last conversation, when I unfortunately had to let her go, Lindy didn’t take it well. She said we’d regret coming to this island.”

The hallway walls seem to close in around me. The ceiling, too. Like I’ve accidentally stepped into some Temple of Doom trap, seconds from being squished. “She texted me the same thing,” I say.

“Not all of it, I hope.”

“There was more?” I ask, instantly regretting it when Loretta answers with a nod.

“Much more,” she says. “She told me, ‘If you go to New Avalon, none of you will leave that island alive.’”

June 7, 1926

Mrs. Semple is watching me.

I’ve noticed it quite a bit in the full day that I’ve been at New Avalon. She’s never obvious about it. There’s no staring or hovering near me, as far as I can tell. Instead, she simply observes from a respectful distance, watching as I and the others go about our day.

For instance, this morning after breakfast, I took an impromptu walk after finding Jonquil sitting beneath the great oak. It’s a very grand and majestic tree, and I said as much.

“Probably a hundred years old,” Jonquil said, rapping on its trunk. “This place is filled with them. You want to look for more?”

“Certainly,” I said.

As we made our way across the green, Katrina appeared out of nowhere, clearly having been spying on us.

“What are you two doing?” she said in a way that made the question sound more like an accusation.

“None of your beeswax,” Jonquil said.

Since Katrina and I hadn’t started off on the right foot, I chose to be nice and gave an honest answer. “We’re going walking in the woods. You can join us, if you’d like.”

“The woods are awful,” Katrina said, even though she continued to follow behind us as Jonquil and I cut between the big house and Mrs. Minafer’s cottage on our way to the woods.

As we neared the trees, I heard Mrs. Minafer herself call out from her porch. “Yoo-hoo! Are you all going exploring?”

“We are!” I called back. “Please come along.”

Mrs. Minafer appeared momentarily, the hem of her dress making swishing sounds in the grass as she hurried to catch up. “Lovely weather for a walk, isn’t it?”

“Quite,” I said, preferring conversation with her to anything snide and bratty Katrina might say.

Yet as we approached the forest, Katrina continued to pick on me like a fly on pie. “Tell me, Daisy, where are you from?”

“I used to live in Burlington,” I said proudly. “Daddy was a prominent banker and Mommy a well-respected matron of society.”