The Authorized Version

Felicity has spent a busy, sometimes stressful week on the Isle of Lewis with her five-year-old son Teddy. She has been studying the stories and locations of the post World War II Lewis Awakening. In quiet moments she reads the journal of the life-changing event kept by Alieana, the great aunt of her friend. Felicity feels she is making progress on her project in spite of the mounting questions both in Aileana’s journal and in her own life—especially when Antony, in his nightly phone call from Iona, informs her that he has been interviewed by the police regarding the possibly illicit activities of a man they saw on Iona—and that she may have seen on Lewis.

Then comes Sunday—a lovely day set aside for worship, rest, and family time.

Felicity attends a service at the tiny Saint Moulag’s Chapel commemorating his work bringing the Gospel to the Hebrides Islands in the year 562.

Then she gathers Teddy and his childminder Isla and they picnic on the beautiful Uig Beach where the world famous Lewis Chessmen were discovered in 1831 after a violent storm. Teddy loves the story of the crofter who, walking the beach, discovered the tiny men uncovered by the wind and surf—and then ran away, thinking they were faeries, sprites and gnomes.

He might have been even more terrified had he seen the over-sized statue Felicity pointed out to Teddy on their way to the beach.

The 78 chessmen are of Norse origin and most carved of walrus tusk, but a few are from whale teeth. Today, 82 pieces are owned by the British Museum in London.

CC BY-SA 2.0 DE DEED, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Germany

The remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license

One piece is owned privately. But replicas are readily available. Felicity considers purchasing a whole set for Antony, but I only brought one back to my chess-loving husband.

Monday should be a quiet day for Felicity as she has interviews scheduled right there in Stornoway. But when she rings her husband and mentions the mysterious white yacht  Teddy glimpsed at Uig, Antony is worried.

Stay tuned to see where Felicity’s adventures take her next.

If you missed earlier updates you can see them here:

A New Monastery Murder, Progress Reveal for A Wind in the Hebrides, Invitation to My Research Trip

Progress Reveal 2 A Wind in the Hebrides visits the Isle of Lewis

And if you have missed any of Felicity and Antony's earlier adventures you can see the whole Monastery Murders series here.

A final "just in case" you want even more up-to-the-minute accounts of Felicity and Antony, they feature in several of the short stories in my newest book, Going There, Tales from the Riviera, where they showed up unexpectedly on a fabulous trip I enjoyed to France.