What the Heart Knows: A Milford-Haven Novel - Book One (2 page)

Thanks to those who provide expertise during my research: for “Miranda,” to artists Mary Helsaple, Barbara Bash, and Caren Pearson for inspiration and depth of detail; for “Cornelius,” to Dr. Laurence Doyle for off-the-charts, inspired brainstorming and astronomical specifics; to Pilulaw Khus for Chumash and Native American wisdom; to Dr. Lou Blanck for Central Coast geology; to Carole Adams and Harrison Gruman for lighthouse history and operational details.

Thanks to dear friends in Cambria who’ve supported Milford-Haven for many years with such enthusiasm, including Elaine Evans, Kathe Tanner, Susan Berry, Freedom Barry, and Jim Buckley.

Thanks to Verne Nobles, and to Frank Abatemarco for clear vision and passionate commitment to the Milford-Haven Television project.

Thanks to sponsors and co-hosts past and future: Judy Ingels, Christa Young, Lenore Hotchkiss, Linda Naylor, Barbara Tellefson, to name a few, for helping me produce the Milford-Haven Socie-Tea® Events (Possibili-Teas, Generosi-Teas, Hospitali-Teas, Creativi-Teas, Connective-Teas, and our list continues!) And to Elena Bonaventure and James Micocci of Unique Soap Boutique for the wonderful
Days Of Our Lives
events.

Thanks for book mentoring: Judith Briles a dynamic advocate who opened the important door; Marcella Smith for bookstore wisdom; Peggy McColl for launch wisdom; Ellen Reid for demonstrating excellence.

Thanks for organization support: WWW (Women Writing the West), CLAS (California Literary Arts Society), IBPA (Independent Book Publishing Association), CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association), PALA (Publishers Association of Los Angeles), and Author
U
—serving with worthy colleagues on boards and advisory boards has taught me so much and continues to be a privilege.

Thanks to all at Haven Books including Lauren Tyson, Joyce Seed and Reya Patton for helping to create the original platform. Thanks to members of the original Advisory Board Sam Summerlin at NewYork Times Books, Bob Johnson at the Associated Press and Suzanne Kirk Tomlinson.

The first version of this book was a novelization, an adaptation of scripts into a fledgling narrative version. One person who “got” what I was doing, even then, was my mentor Louis L’Amour, who believed in my project and told me to keep going with it. For encouragement and friendship my forever thanks to Louis, to Kathy L’Amour and to Beau L’Amour.

The other two people who always got it were my parents. Thanks to Père who introduced me to Shakespeare and to Dickens. Thanks to Mom who always believed I should be writing.

And most important of all—thanks
to
you,
my readers! I’m thrilled to welcome those of you who are new to my books. And I extend a special heartfelt thanks to the core group of readers who began with the novels’early editions. I continue to learn from you, and to appreciate your steadfast support during my publishing journey. This beautiful new edition, and the opportunity to launch my series with the New York publisher of my dreams, would not be happening without you.

The Radio Drama

Milford-Haven
had its first air date in 1987, and my thanks go to KOTR in Cambria, California, our first radio home. In its next incarnation,
Milford-Haven, U.S.A
. was broadcast on the BBC, for which I thank Ms. Pat Ewing, Director of Radio 5—a maverick network that launched a maverick show and celebrated with us when we reached 4.5 million listeners.

In the U.S., thanks to New York’s Museum of TV & Radio and Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications, for honoring the show by adding it to their permanent collections. And to Bill Bragg
atYesterdayUSA.com
, who first broadcast the show on internet radio. Thanks to Jim Kampshauer at KTEA in Cambria for the marvelous revival broadcast of the series.

Before there were any shows to air, there were talented actors, and my thanks go to both the original
cast of Milford-Haven
and to the
cast of Milford-Haven, U.S.A.,
seasoned professionals who brought my characters so vividly to life that their work is inextricably woven into the fabric of the characters themselves.

Before there were actors to record, there had to be a studio, and my thanks to Engineer Bill Berkuta, whose Afterhours Recording Company became our studio home—a workshop in which we created one hundred episodes of the first show, sixty of the second, and where we now create audio books and Student Theater & Radio (S.T.A.R.) productions.

Thanks to Marilyn Harris and Mark Wolfram, who composed the haunting
Milford-Haven
theme and all the music cues that supported the emotional ebb and flow of the story, and whose music we now use for the
Milford-Haven Novels
Audio Books.

And before there was a
Milford-Haven,
there was a young woman who had always lived in cities—Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles. I spent a summer performing
Sea Marks
at Jim and Olga Buckley’s Pewter Plough Playhouse in Cambria, and became fascinated with life in and of a small town.

Thanks to my U.S. listeners, especially those in Cambria and the Central Coast. Thanks to my U.K. listeners, particularly those in Milford Haven, Wales. Both these special towns have embraced me as an honorary citizen. Thanks to the Castle Inn in Cambria and to the Belhaven in Milford Haven, Wales, for accommodations and for spreading the word.

Thanks to my family and friends—supportive from day one: Ray Purl, Marshie Purl, Linda Purl, Erin Gray, Caren Pearson, with very special thanks to Miranda Kenrick, and to Vickie Zoellner. My love and thanks to my husband Larry Norfleet.

And finally, thanks to my characters, among whom are: Jack, Zack, Miranda, Zelda, Samantha, Sally, Kevin, Joseph, Cornelius, Meredith, Shelley, June, Chris, Burt, Delmar, Emily, Wilhelm, Stacey, James, Mary, Russell, Nicole, Susan, and Cynthia … who are building, buying, painting, conniving, planning, dishing, cogitating, dominating, observing, consulting, beach combing, serving, sleuthing, skulking, detecting, reporting, abusing, enduring, nurturing, scheduling, ordering, showing, sneaking and seducing, respectively.

Dear Reader —

Welcome to Milford-Haven! For your inaugural visit, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to my favorite little town and to its many residents—all of whom are described in the Cast of Characters at the back of the book.

At first glance, here’s a book you can read for pure escape. After all, if there were a place that gave you a chance to sink your toes into untrodden sand or wander through a pristine pine forest, invited you to browse through shops, tempted you to have a home-cooked meal or enjoy a cup of tea overlooking coastal waves—wouldn’t you go there?

At second glance, here’s a book that might read
you
. For what if journeying to such a place could take you out of your
head
and into your
heart?
What if your intuition could be valued as much as your logic? Milford-Haven is a little town of infinite possibilities. As you read about its denizens, my hope is that you’ll resonate with your
own
possibilities.

Though you may read these books out of sequence, I think you’ll enjoy them most reading them as I wrote them.
What the Heart Knows
is the first novel in the series, and sometimes short stories will augment the overall storyline as well.

Though my series is a saga, each book has a beginning, middle and end. Each Prologue opens with questions brought by—or about—journalist Christine Christian. The heart of the story is seen through the artist-eyes of Miranda Jones. And each story’s themes are concluded by environmentalist Samantha Hugo in her ongoing journals.

In future novels, we’ll travel with Miranda to destinations that fascinate her painter’s eye and her restless heart. This novel takes her—and you—into the nooks and crannies of her adopted hometown, revealing some of its treasures and secrets, and giving you a glimpse into its own warm heart

For it’s the issues of the heart I’m exploring here: do we listen mostly to the head and ignore the rich, contextual information that beats steadily within us?

As this book unfolds, follow my footsteps over the interconnected pathways of those who inhabit Milford-Haven, and come to know … what the heart knows.

“The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.”

– Blaise Pascal

“Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head …”

– William Cowper

“What matters is not what gossip reports, nor what reason suspects, but what the heart knows.”

—from Samantha Hugo’s Journal

Broadcast journalist Christine Christian stepped down from her black car into an even blacker night. She extended her leg past the running board of the Ford Explorer, waiting till her shoe found the hardened dirt of the rutted road.
Actually, I’m inside the gates, so this’ll be the driveway,
she thought, barely able to see the ground since dousing her headlights.

Cool sea wind tumbled through the air, carrying with it the fresh tang of kelp. Her hair ruffling, she glanced overhead to look for the moon. I
know it’s nearly full, and it rose early tonight
. But the sky appeared moonless, and such stars as normally sparkled in the clear, windswept autumn air were obscured by dense cloud cover.

A hundred feet below the bluff, the sea pounded. An October storm had been traveling the South Pacific, and even this far north, the Central Coast reverberated with the effects. “Generating winds of up to fifty miles per hour …” she remembered her KOST-SATV colleague saying on this evening’s
broadcast.

On her left, the terrain fell away to the ocean—now nothing more than an inky, undulating mass. To the northwest, the flash of the Piedras Blancas lighthouse winked in the darkness, sweeping across the landscape to reveal a ghostly skeleton of the unfinished mansion.

Even by its outline, she could tell this Clarke House held something special in its design. Having studied the architectural drawings, she found the reality of the physical structure intriguing. Though she’d read that some of the locals objected to its massive size being ostentatious and out of place, she could see it also fit the site as though it belonged.
The way sky-scrapers fit Manhattan
.

The image of a cityscape seemed incongruous, and she stood still a moment longer, waiting for it to make sense.
Funny, when I was a kid growing up in this little town, all I wanted to do was get away—get to a big city. And I did. But now I find myself drawn back here
. Yes, that was it … processing the fact that, after her many travels, she should find herself once again in Milford-Haven.

For one thing, there was the job with KOST in Santa Maria. After several years on-camera for the broadcast networks —mostly NBC—she’d made the switch to satellite. Just this month the FCC’s deregulation of the market had become official, and 1996 would probably make the history books as a turning point for the TV business. She’d taken the title of Special Correspondent, which meant decent pay and great freedom to develop her own content. Her three-part piece on adoption had just been shown in the Central Coast region.
Part three aired Sunday—two days ago
.

She was already gathering material for her next three-parter on earthquakes, a story that would be taking her to San Francisco, then to Japan and to Turkey.
My bags are all packed. I’m spending three days in San Fran researching the ‘89 Loma Prieta quake. Then I leave for Tokyo from there
.

Now,
this
story had brought her to Milford-Haven.
What a strange homecoming. I should come back in the daylight, visit the newspaper where I had my first job … see what’s the best little spot for breakfast these days … walk on Touchstone Beach. If my wandering soul has a home, it’s probably here
.

Chris took a step away from the bluff, aware once again of the dark that surrounded her.
What am I doing here now? Pursuing a lead, as usual
. She sighed.
Better get this over with. Wish I’d worn sturdier shoes than these flats
. Chilled in the wind, she pulled her jacket closer and drew on the pair of leather gloves she’d tucked in her pocket.