MacFarlane's Ridge Read Online Free Page B

probably some mountain family with no electricity, living in the old-time traditional ways, who were waiting for a lost daughter to come home. But she never would.
    “Maybe we could track down her people,” Cam suggested. “Even if she came out of the back hills somewhere around here, there must be a record of her, right? I mean, we know her name was Sarah MacFarlane, or at least we think it was, and she mentioned someone named Ian, and someone else called Hamish, and a Mollie. Maybe Ian or Hamish is her husband or her brother or something.”
    Troy nodded. “I can check with Vital Records on Monday and see if they have any marriage records on her in the past few years. She couldn’t have been more than twenty or so.”
    Cam felt better just knowing that they would find Sarah’s people. She walked home in the dark and slept a dreamless sleep.
     
     
    Sunday passed rapidly. Cam spent the morning raking out the dead leaves from the garden, and in the afternoon opened the shop to a small crowd of customers. She barely gave any thought at all to the events of the afternoon before. By the time she had closed the shop for the evening, she was ready to collapse. She started a fire in the enormous old fireplace, and flopped onto the couch. She had managed to get rid of quite a few of the old bloomers, to a college student who did re-enactments. She also acquired a crate of old maps. Some were a bit water stained, but many were very ornate and in good condition. If they were put in good frames, she thought, they would look nice hanging in someone’s office. She had received these in exchange for a pallet of wooden Coca-Cola crates.
    She unrolled one of the maps, spreading it out on the coffee table. It was a map of Colonial-era Virginia. Cam was fascinated. Half of the state wasn’t even populated at that time, and West Virginia wasn’t even in existence yet. She found Haver Springs, which was just a crossroads settlement at that time, and Bedford County. She was about to roll the map back up when something caught her eye. A few inches above Haver Springs was an area marked “MacFarlane’s Ridge.” She wondered if it was where the unfortunate Sarah had come from. She called Troy Adams and explained what she had found.
    He laughed. “MacFarlane’s Ridge has been nothing but an empty mountainside for years. The last of them moved out of there about half a century ago. But I’ll call around and see if anyone up that way has heard of her.”
    “Thanks, Troy,” Cam smiled into the phone. He really was nice, even if Alice misguidedly thought they should be romantically involved. “By the way, have you ever heard of a place called Faeries’ Gate?”
    “No,” he replied. “Was that the place that the girl said she was looking for?”
    “Yeah,” answered Cam, “but I think it may have just been in her head, poor thing.”
    He promised to call as soon as he heard anything.
    True to his word, Troy Adams showed up in front of Granny’s Goodies as Cam was unlocking the door the next morning. There was already a fair amount of people on the sidewalks.
    “You have a minute?” he asked, politely helping her stock a shelf with old books. She had dug out a collection of early editions of Agatha Christie’s mysteries.
    “I always have a minute,” she grinned, “but all of my minutes seem to be occupied. Can we work and talk at the same time?”
    “Sure. Actually, I was going to call you back last night, but it was late.” He leaned across the box of books. “Remember I said I thought Sarah’s name sounded familiar?”
    “Yes! Did you find out who she is?”
    “No,” he admitted. “But there’s some interesting stories connected with the MacFarlanes and the Ridge. Local legend and folklore.”
    Cam shook her head. “I lived here for nine years before I went away to college, and I don’t remember any of the local legends.”
    Troy laughed. “You were a teenager, so you probably weren’t paying attention. I, on