Shelley Garden

Though he did not know whether this was the Shelley Garden where Muya had once lived, as recorded in her handwritten copy, he suddenly recalled that Muya had once shared a romance with Lucas—and had even borne him a child.

When Lucas had been mocked by everyone as a fraud, when Lucas had been despondent and decided to end his own life, might he have come to find Muya at the very last moment, to see his son?

If he had truly come to find Muya, could he have leapt into the well here in grief?

Curiosity drove Angel toward the well concealed beneath dead grass.

Nite and Sanna followed him over. Sanna wore a puzzled expression, but the instant Nite saw Lord Pat standing by the well, he immediately remembered those two days spent searching for wells.

"This well is over three thousand years old?" Angel turned to Nite.

Nite hesitated. "It should be, but I'm not entirely sure."

Angel looked to Sanna again. "Why is it covered with dead grass?"

Sanna said, "This well has always been abandoned. There's no water inside, but there's a storage room below. We use it as a cellar for storing vegetables, and the dead grass is there to keep unclean things from getting in and spoiling the vegetables."

Nite seemed to remember something as well. "I remember now. When I was little, I was naughty and climbed down there once. It was piled full of vegetable leaves. I was too small to climb back up, and I cried and shouted for half the day before Auntie Nivi found me and carried me out."

"So my mother saved you, then." Sanna shot Nite a glance.

Nite scratched his head and chuckled foolishly.

While they spoke, Angel had already probed downward with his spiritual