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Ladysharkey1 worked her magic on this chapter.

Thanks for joining me on this new adventure. It's another story that might be a little 'different' but I'm very excited to start sharing this one. People who have read more of my stories know that there's nearly always a method to my madness, so yes, there is definitely a reason why I'm writing an E/B romantic mystery in Alice's point of view. Chapters will be a little shorter on this one because right now, my job won't allow me much time to write and I really like to keep up with my weekly updates.

Flint's Landing, North Carolina

1814

1

When Alice Cullen left her home that morning, there was little to suggest that the day would turn out to be anything but ordinary. Walking her little Spaniel along the rugged coastal pathway, she would ruminate on life in general and the tedious loneliness of her life in particular. Every morning her governess would scold her when she returned, claiming it was unbefitting a young lady of Alice's age to go out, gallivanting around God's green countryside unchaperoned.

Not that Alice cared much for the opinion of the old lady that their distant aunt had sent to care for her and her brother, Edward, after their parents had died in a vicious outbreak of typhoid fever some years back. Try as she might, Alice had never been able to live up to Mrs. Cope's very high standards of ladylike behavior.

And so, after exerting herself in any which way she could, Alice simply gave up.

There was too much life inside the young girl for it to be constrained inside the stifling bodice of society's norms. And, perhaps, there was too little of it in the elderly housekeeper to understand her young new charge.

So they were locked inside a vicious circle of constant struggle with Alice quietly escaping the house each morning. Mrs. Cope kept berating her when she got back and then the two of them would ignore one another as best as they could for the remainder of the day.

But this was not a day like any other.

A first hint of what was about to take place was given shortly after tea time, when the heavens suddenly burst open in the violent overture of a storm that could only be seen as close to the sea as the sleepy little coastal town of Flint's Landing. By the time Edward, the town's notary, came back, he was drenched to the bone.

Her brother's was face marred as he looked out at the sea; its angry waves rolling in high above the norm. "I sure hope nobody's out there," he sighed as he took the towel Mrs. Cope offered him.

But there was.

It was dark outside, the inhabitants of the cottage on the cliff long gone to bed, when Alice was awoken by the dull roar of cannon fire going off somewhere in the distance. It was soon followed by the toll of the church bells, calling all able-bodied men of the town down to the beach to see what could be done to save those in peril.

It wasn't the first time she had heard that sound.

Growing up by the coast, she had lived with both the beauty and the ugliness of the ocean. She'd seen its soft ripples lapping at the sunlit beach in the summer but she'd also seen it like she did that night: claiming the lives and goods of those who sought to navigate her.

"It's a large one," Mrs. Cope remarked as Alice joined her in the parlor, their eyes scanning the darkness for signs of the ship in trouble. "There! You can just see its masts rising up behind the waves."

Narrowing her eyes, Alice followed the direction her housekeeper was pointing in. "A schooner," she whispered, the moon outlining just enough of the vessel for her to recognize it. But what she also saw was that its crew still seemed to be fighting against the force of nature that was pulling them under, though it appeared to be a lost cause. "Those poor souls."

Mrs. Cope clutched her shawl closer around her body, warming her both against the chilly night and the cold dread of knowing that good men were probably losing their lives while they watched. "Do you think they will manage to save some of them?"

Alice shook her head. "The ship's too far out and with the angry waves…It would be madness to even try."

Out on the beach, they could see the people gathering; the men, rolling out the rescue boat as the women stood by and watched as transfixed as Alice and Mrs. Cope were as the horrible scene playing out in front of their eyes.

"Where is my brother?" Alice finally asked, not recognizing him among those gathered below.

Mrs. Cope frowned. "I haven't heard him go out."

"I cannot believe he's sleeping through this!" Alice cried. "Has he been raiding the spirits' cabinet again?" She sometimes worried about her brother. Ever since he'd taken over Mr. Banner's legal practice, his shoulders had become weighted with the load of all the secrets he had to keep. At times so much so that he had been known to indulge in more drink than was good for him. "It's strange," she added, "for he didn't seem all that downtrodden when he came home."

Turning on her heel, she dashed out of the parlor determined to find him and wake him up. Even if she had seen the look of disapproval Mrs. Cope sent her way, it would not have stopped her. Alice was both too close to her brother and too worried about his wellbeing to care about trifling matters like the impropriety of a woman dashing into a man's bedchamber—because, sister or not, that was quite unheard of.

Knocking on his door, she waited an appropriate amount of time before she turned the handle. Standing on the threshold between his room and the landing, however, the scene she witnessed was not what she expected.

Where she had thought she would see her brother, reclined on the bed in some kind of inebriated state—maybe even snoring like a log—his absence came as more of a shock.

His bed was empty.

Unslept in.

Thoughts?