The Silent Lady
Summary
A granite tower claws at Atlantic fog while three grizzled sentinels—Philemon, Peter, and Captain Bartholomew—tend both flame and foundling; into this salt-stung Eden drifts little Kate, an orphan whose laughter keeps the rusted lantern gears turning. When fever coils around her like a kelp noose, the keepers’ panic summons Miss Summerville, a nurse whose spine is as straight as her name is prim. Prudish Philemon, terrified that a woman under his roof will birth scandal faster than barnacles, strong-arms his brothers-in-beard and the kindly Dr. Carlyle into a farcical relay of proposals—each rejected with the crisp finality of a lighthouse shutter snapping shut. News that Captain Peyton, inspector and former lover of the nurse, is bound for shore detonates her resolve to flee; she douses the beacon, hoping darkness will swallow both past and future. Kate, half-sick but whole-hearted, wrests the light back to life, forcing Summerville to confront Peyton amid the glare of her own deceit. Philemon’s moral outrage erupts like a nor’easter, yet Carlyle and the child stand sentinel over the nurse’s battered honor, their solidarity a softer but steadier beam. Love, bruised but unbroken, finally drops anchor: Summerville trades escape for engagement, sealing the circle of surrogate kinship that the Atlantic has spent four reels refining.
Synopsis
Little orphaned Kate lives happily in a New England lighthouse with its old keepers, Philemon, Peter, and Captain Bartholomew. When Kate falls sick, the prudish Philemon hires Miss Summerville, a live-in nurse, to care for her, but is concerned about possible gossip. To alleviate the situation, each keeper and Dr. Carlyle propose to Miss Summerville, but she rejects them all. After hearing that Captain Peyton, a lighthouse inspector, is scheduled to arrive, Miss Summerville makes sudden plans to depart without explanation. At the urging of Carlyle, she agrees to stay, but tries to avoid Peyton by turning off the lighthouse beacon. Concerned for the safety of the passing ships, Kate relights the beacon and Miss Summerville is forced to meet Peyton. When Philemon learns that Peyton and the nurse were once lovers, he demands her resignation, but Carlyle and Kate stoutly defend her honor. Touched by his devotion, Miss Summerville finally agrees to marry Carlyle.
