Read Online Carolina Isle by Jude Deveraux - Free Book Online

strange to you?” She was trying to sound as though she knew everything but wanted to hear more.
    â€œNothing important, but I think it might have great money-making potential.”
    â€œThe most important thing.”
    â€œHave to feed the bottom line, but, touristwise, that island does have an interesting history. Apparently, the inhabitants refused to take part in either the Revolutionary or the Civil War. When the patriots won, they refused to change the name of their island to what the new government suggested, Freedom Island. And when soldiers in the War Between the States landed, no matter what side they were on, the King’s Isle people burned their war boats, then put the soldiers in rowboats and sent them back to the mainland. When President Lincoln heard of it, he said that if all the states did that there wouldn’t be a war. He didn’t allow his troops to waste ammunition blowing up the island, as many people wanted to do.”
    â€œToo bad everybody didn’t do that,” Sara said.
    â€œYeah, too bad. By the early 1890s King’s Isle was poverty-stricken, with just a few hundred people living there. Then natural hot springs were discovered bubbling up from the rocky center of the island and a year later, King’s Isle was
the
place to be. The rich went there to play and to lounge in the waters. They built big summer houses, put in roads, and almost overnight, King’s Isle became rich.”
    â€œIt isn’t rich now, so what happened? The spring dry up?”
    â€œSort of. Around the turn of the century there was an explosion—nobody knows what caused it—and in an instant, the springs were gone. Since then, the island has declined and now there are only about two hundred and fifty inhabitants on its five square miles. The big old houses are still there, but the Internet sites said they’re rotting into the ground, and the current residents have become squatters. The kid who delivers groceries might be living in two rooms of a ten-thousand-square-foot house that has crumbling marble floors. A lot of the residents pay no rent.”
    Sara could see the possibilities. If there was anything that newly rich people liked, it was making people think they’d been rich for a long time. Old mansions would do that. “Why hasn’t someone fixed up the old buildings and made the island into a resort before now?”
    â€œFrom what I could find out, quite a few peoplehave tried, but every businessman has been sent away. It seems that the current residents are just as inhospitable as their ancestors.”
    â€œYou’ll do it,” Sara said before she thought.
    â€œThink so?” R.J. said.
    â€œSara’s told me that you’re very persuasive.”
    â€œDid she?” R.J. asked, smiling. “I hope she’s right. I’d like to get that island for Charley. I was thinking that with modern mining methods, maybe the springs could be uncovered. Charley was right that most people like the caché of going to a tropical island, but a place off the coast of the U.S. with hot springs? That has enormous possibilities. Maybe an ad campaign could make people believe the waters had healing powers.”
    Sara liked everything that R.J. had told her—except, of course, for the lie about advertising the waters as having healing powers. Maybe she could persuade him to let
her
work on the project. She could live in Arundel and work on King’s Isle. Doing what? she wondered.
    â€œThere it is,” R.J. said and she looked ahead. In front of them was the water, a huge dock jutting out from it, and in the distance was the island. There was no ferry. R.J. pulled the car tothe side of the road and cut the engine. “Anyone hungry?” he asked.
    â€œHeavens no!” Ariel-as-Sara said from the back. “After the breakfast at the inn, I may never eat again. You should have seen it! Thick slices of bread stuffed with cream