The Brass Compass of Blackwood Ridge
A sudden autumn gale forces bridge inspector Ethan Vance home with an orphaned eleven-year-old boy. His wife Nora fears past betrayal, until a weathered surveyor's notebook and brass compass reveal a breathtaking connection to her long-lost brother.
Fictional story. Contains mature emotional themes, past family grief, and discussions of loss.Chapter 1: The Storm at Blackwood Ridge
The rusted iron wind vane atop Nora Vance’s cider mill spun wildly as the gale descended from the coastal range. Rain rattled against the high transom windows of the barn studio, filling the damp room with the smell of wet cedar and crushed apples. Nora wiped her stain-darkened hands on her canvas apron, her shoulders stiff from eight continuous hours of framing canvases for the autumn art market. Outside, the headlights of Ethan’s Ford pickup cut through the sheets of downpour, their pale beams illuminating the swirling fog along the gravel driveway.
Ethan entered through the side door, bringing with him the cold bite of saltwater air and the thrumming roar of the storm. He did not immediately kick off his mud-caked boots as he usually did. Instead, he reached back into the driving rain, taking the arm of a slight boy who lagged behind him. The boy couldn't have been older than eleven. He wore an oversized oilskin coat that sagged past his knees, his dark hair plastered against his forehead like wet feathers. In his small, scarred hands, he clutched a tin box bound with leather cord.