Hart of Roundstone

As Nellie carried her tomato treasures to the house, she gazed, once more, at the large oak tree behind their log cabin. There, a few feet from the gnarly oak were the gravestones of her brother and mother.

Nellie had watched her father chip away on the large limestone for weeks until he could labor no more, physically and emotionally. When the family placed the huge stone they noticed that there was a perfect round hole on one side of the stone, the heart. The hole was smooth and appeared to have been there for years, although everyone agreed that it was not there before that day. Nellie was the first to explain that the hole in the limestone heart represented the hole left in their own hearts when Rissa Cosby died. Thomas Cosby called the large, heart-shaped rock The Hart of Roundstone because his wife, Rissa Cosby, had been the heart of his life, his family, and of course of Hart County, Kentucky.

Another kiss followed with Nellie’s promise. “Yes, Mike I promise…I promise, oh no, Mike! I promised I would not give my kisses away and I…”

Just then the couple heard the front door bang shut. “Oh, no, Mike, go. Get out of here!”

Luckily, Mike had ridden his horse to the fence which was not far for him to run through the woods to ride home.

Nellie, though had a dilemma, what was she to do? What would her dad say if he caught her outside, even by herself, he would have questions. Frozen, Nellie stood where she was until she could figure out what her dad was doing, where he was going. He didn’t seem to have a purpose, he definitely wasn’t coming to fetch her. She would just walk up to him, tell him she couldn’t sleep. Umm… no not a good idea; He might see her in the white gown, think it was a ghost and have a heart attack. Hide, she had to hide! There behind the large sycamore, she could hide from her father.

Something had awoken Thomas and he couldn’t go back to sleep. With the building tomorrow and the heartbreak of the ordeal with Mary, he felt he just needed to talk to someone. It had been a long time since he had come to talk with Rissa. But something had told him to go outside and talk with her. As Thomas knelt beside Rissa’s grave he began to confide with her as he always had. “Rissa, I need you more all the time. I love Mary, but something has been revealed that I have to talk to you about. I know that you don’t know what happened that awful day. See, Mom thinks you were murdered. She has had visions of the tree, the rope and something shiny. Well, see the rope was cut. Someone had to have cut the rope, just enough for it to tear into when the tree pulled against it. So, when Mom saw the necklace that Mary wore, she assumed it was Mary who had cut the rope… that she meant for you to be murdered. And, the fact is that Mom has always had these visions and, you remember, Rissa, most of the time she has been right! Well, I can’t believe that Mary would, on purpose, have done that. But, it sure looks like someone did. Oh, Rissa, what am I supposed to do? Help me, please, understand this!”

Nellie put her hand over her mouth to keep from blurting out to her dad. No wonder she had felt like there was something going on with Mary. So, Gran and Dad have reason to suspect Mary of murder. Her mother’s murder!