It took my eyes a while to adjust to the tenebrosity of the pub after the bright morning light outside.

Like the island itself, The White Lady seemed to be frozen in time, undisturbed by the passing centuries, charming in its own, old-fashioned way.

Obviously, the locals who frequented the place had their breakfast early, and this time of the day, they were off to their daily business. The place was quite empty and quiet when we entered.

"James! So you arrived, you should have stopped by last night." Will, emerging from the darkness, welcomed us cheerfully, hugging my father.

He looked older than Dad-- his hair was completely grey. Will was also taller and more muscular, and had the air of people who stayed a lot outdoors around him. I always liked Will; he had a great sense of humour.

"Liam, look at you! You are at least as tall as Dean, and he is older than you! You look like your beautiful mother, thank God," he exclaimed, laughing, patting me on the shoulder.

"You haven't changed at all, man, at least not on the inside. Just your hair changed colour," Dad said teasingly, laughing as well.

"Nice to see you again, Will," I told him. "Where's Lynn? I wanted to thank her for the pizza she left for us and all the rest."

"Yeah, Will, thanks a lot to both of you. What have you done with your charming wife, we need to see her. And Dean, too. Is he on the island?" Dad asked.

"Lynn's in the harbour getting some fresh fish for lunch. We've got a couple of guests in the rooms upstairs who are dining with us, so Lynn has to cook today. It might take a while before she returns. Come and have a cup of tea while you wait."

We sat down at the bar, accepting his offer. It was a wonderfully cosy little pub, with antique furniture and a huge fireplace. Take away the electrical lights it must have looked more or less the same even a couple of hundred years ago.

"Dean is at sea, fishing with some friends," Will continued, disturbing my silent musings. "He won't be back before sunset, so you won't see him today. But I will send him up to your place tomorrow, if you'd like."

"Yes, definitely. It has been so long since we saw each other last, I might not even recognize him anymore," I replied to Will, smiling.

"Oh, don't you worry, he is still the same, just taller. So how do you like your new house, how was the first night?" Will inquired, changing the subject.

"The house is just perfect for us, Will. We love it, right, Liam?" Dad said, winking at Will before he continued, "Liam here has even seen your White Lady already, on his first night on the island!"

I felt the blood creeping up to my face, making me blush. Why did Dad have to come up with this story in front of Will? I didn't even remember well what I saw the previous night; it might just have been a dream.

"Dad..." I started, feeling embarrassed, but was interrupted mid-sentence.

"No way, tell me everything!" Will demanded with what looked like a genuine interest.

Not wanting to disappoint him, I decided to tell him about it. Shooting one last, exasperated look in my father's direction, I described what I believed I saw the night before.

"Well, it was nothing much, really. I just thought there was someone, a woman dressed in a long white gown, walking under my window, towards the Old Lighthouse, late at night. That's it," I said truthfully.

"See, Liam, Will here is an expert on the local history and legends. He is working on his first book at the moment, and it is all about the Byron's Lighthouse and its White Lady," Dad explained.

"Then you are the right person to finally tell me something about her, Dad hasn't really told me anything yet." I turned towards Will who stood on the other side of the bar top, looking at him expectantly.

"Right," he said, wiping the bar with a cloth he took off his shoulder. "Where do I start? Her name is Anne Byron." Will pronounced the name as if the White Lady was real, a person still alive, rather than a local ghost.

I never quite liked ghost stories; they just freaked me out too much. This story had to start yet, and I could already feel the hair on my back and arms rising. It was a weird sensation; I shivered involuntarily.

"Anne is, or was, to be precise, the wife of the first lighthouse keeper. The two of them lived in the keeper's house up there in the Victorian times. Apparently, on the outside, they were a happy couple, but one day, she disappeared without a trace. Then the gossip started, about Anne having run away with a lover. Her poor husband killed himself by jumping off the lighthouse's tower a few months after she had gone missing."

Will paused for a while, lost in thoughts, then continued. "There was a new keeper after them. He only stayed in the keeper's house for a few weeks, claiming it was haunted. That's why he moved to the house where you live now and stayed there a year. The man would talk about a ghost walking on the cliffs around the lighthouse to anybody who would listen. Slowly, he... went mad. He was removed from the island and closed in an asylum in Stornoway."

The story was definitely creepy. Not only was it about a person gone missing and never found. It was about a desperate man committing suicide and another one becoming crazy after seeing a ghost... I could feel the skin on my arms crawl into gooseflesh. But that still wasn't all of the story.

"Then, in eighteen ninety-six, the lighthouse was automated and stayed that way until the nineteen fifties," Will's voice disturbed my silent reverie. "Since they built the new lighthouse, the old one hasn't been used. But, some lucky people claim to have seen its light on particularly foggy nights. Mostly old people or young kids. I'm not as lucky myself," Will concluded, his eyebrows meeting in a frown.

I was certain that I had seen the light up there last night, but I wasn't quite ready to share even this information. My father would make fun of me, for sure.

The legend was riveting and scary at the same time.

"If you like the story, boy, you should visit the library," Will added after a while. "There is an awful lot of information about the lighthouse and the tragic couple there. The library and museum have hundreds of Anne's paintings, too. She was a talented watercolourist. And, there is an old book full of Victorian photographs taken by Anne's husband. It's all so intriguing..."

"Now, enough of your ghost," my father interrupted. "Tell me the news about the island's otter population. Is the bevy still living on that little islet on the other side? Didn't you tell me you had a puffin colony there now as well?" Dad asked, his eyes full of childlike joy and scientific excitement.

Seeing where the conversation was heading, I decided to leave them there and go out to explore the village on my own. I finished my tea and thanked Will.

"Just don't get lost, Liam!" Dad called before I closed the pub's door.

I rolled my eyes at him, which only made him laugh. He was so annoying sometimes...

"You'll stop laughing when I tell you that you might have a little competition, James. The two guests upstairs are wildlife lovers like you, bird watchers to be precise," I heard Will telling him.

He was right. As soon as he said that, he got my father's full attention. Dad stopped laughing and looked at Will, all seriousness, forgetting about teasing me instantly.