Did you ever feel that you were at the right place, at the right time, and did you ever while at that place have unusual feelings of peace and total happiness? Well, these are things that Catharine and her mother and father found when they relocated to The Outer Banks of North Carolina from London. Catharine's father was a very privileged man whose father was very wealthy, but never spent much time with his family because he was too busy making money. Her father wanted something different for his own family and decided to relocate the family to America, where he would make his own way in the world. So their lives of luxury were no more to be. However, as they neared the Carolina coast a violent Nor'easter bore down on them. They were in horrific danger and but for the braveness of The Black Pelican, whose courage is well known in the Outer Banks, they would have been lost. Legend has it that he alerted lifesaving station crews when ships were in danger by swooping down again and again until they followed him to the vessel in trouble. But when Catharine returned to England because of a family illness, she realized that what she treasured most in her life had changed. She became so homesick for the things she had grown to love - the simple beauty of a sunrise or sunset, walking barefoot on the beach looking for shells and seaglass, a gathering of friends and neighbors to share food, laughter, dancing and singing and, most importantly, a young man named Seth - these were the important things to her now. Little did she know that while in London she had spoken with such love and yearning about this new home of hers, that when at last she was able to return home, she would bring a boatload of new "Bankers" with her! Nor did she know that out there was a brave, black bird keeping a watchful eye!
