with her arm.
“You’ll go, and I’ll be left with nothing save the right to mourn you!” “Mariah, listen to me” — “I loved Daniel, and I promised to wed him when he returned, promised against the wishes of my mother and father because I loved him, and he loved me!” She rolled away from Gabriel and curled herself on her side, lost in misery. She hadn’t wanted to remember Daniel, not now, but once she’d begun she couldn’t stop.
“I wished him fare-thee-well and waved until I could see his ship no more, and then I waited and lived on my hopes and his promise. He was second mate on a Jamaican schooner, and their run was fast, but two days from Newport he was lost in a squall in the dogwatch.
“And I did not know. I waited and waited on the dock while all the other men came ashore, and then at last the captain came to tell me, almost like he’d already forgotten Daniel had ever lived, and I wanted to die from the pain of it. My poor, sweet, forgotten Daniel!”
Gabriel was known as a ruthless man, one who had made his way in the world by taking what we wanted. But as much as he desired the sobbing girl beside him, he knew he’d let her go. For once his conscience left him no choice.
He had lost her this night to the ghost of a drowned boy, lost her to a heartbreaking grief that excluded him.
He watched her as she wept, her dark hair wet with her tears, her fingers digging into her folded arms. Gently he smoothed her hair from her face. With a sigh he lay down beside her and pulled her close, holding her and murmuring her name until her sobs finally died away and she lay still in his arms.
He listened to waves on the beach below and held Mariah, just held her. He thought of Catherine, and wondered if she would have mourned him if he’d been lost, instead, as fiercely as Mariah did her Daniel.
He had never felt more alone in his life.
The house was dark when Mariah returned home. In the kitchen she took off her shoes, unwilling to wake her mother or sister on the stairs, and in her stockinged feet she padded through the hallway. She felt desolate and empty inside, loneliness already echoing within her soul, and though she would go to bed she knew she’d find no sleep or comfort from her misery.
She was halfway up the stairs before she saw the dark mass of the figure huddled on the landing and the empty pitcher on the top step.
“You don’t love me, neither of you do,” said Mrs. West hoarsely. In her hands was a folded paper, and over and over her shaking fingers smoothed the crease.
“The truth’s written here, where I’can’t deny it.”
“Come, Mama, I’ll take you to bed. It’s very late, and you’re tired.”
“Read this, daughter, and learn how a mother’s love’s repaid!” Pulling herself unsteadily to her feet, Mrs. West thrust the paper toward Mariah.
“Jenny’s run off with her precious Elisha.”
Chapter Six
All that morning during the final hectic preparations before the tide turned and the Revenge sailed, Gabriel both dreaded and anticipated Mariah’s appearance. He didn’t doubt she would come—he’d left her little enough choice-it was only when that kept him wondering, that and what mood she’d be in when she finally appeared.
He had driven her to Newport himself, and for the entire trip she had been miserably silent and withdrawn, and clearly shamed by what they’d done. Or hadn’t done, by his reckoning. She’d no notion that she was the first woman in his life he’d sent home unsatisfied, and that questionable distinction rankled at his pride. But worse than that was realizing that he cared less about his own disappointment than about hers. He cared that she was unhappy, even if the source of her unhappiness had nothing to do with him.
The sorry truth was that in the past weeks, while he thought he’d been giving her the chance to come to trust him, instead he’d been the one who’d come to know and like her for more than just her lovely
“You’ll go, and I’ll be left with nothing save the right to mourn you!” “Mariah, listen to me” — “I loved Daniel, and I promised to wed him when he returned, promised against the wishes of my mother and father because I loved him, and he loved me!” She rolled away from Gabriel and curled herself on her side, lost in misery. She hadn’t wanted to remember Daniel, not now, but once she’d begun she couldn’t stop.
“I wished him fare-thee-well and waved until I could see his ship no more, and then I waited and lived on my hopes and his promise. He was second mate on a Jamaican schooner, and their run was fast, but two days from Newport he was lost in a squall in the dogwatch.
“And I did not know. I waited and waited on the dock while all the other men came ashore, and then at last the captain came to tell me, almost like he’d already forgotten Daniel had ever lived, and I wanted to die from the pain of it. My poor, sweet, forgotten Daniel!”
Gabriel was known as a ruthless man, one who had made his way in the world by taking what we wanted. But as much as he desired the sobbing girl beside him, he knew he’d let her go. For once his conscience left him no choice.
He had lost her this night to the ghost of a drowned boy, lost her to a heartbreaking grief that excluded him.
He watched her as she wept, her dark hair wet with her tears, her fingers digging into her folded arms. Gently he smoothed her hair from her face. With a sigh he lay down beside her and pulled her close, holding her and murmuring her name until her sobs finally died away and she lay still in his arms.
He listened to waves on the beach below and held Mariah, just held her. He thought of Catherine, and wondered if she would have mourned him if he’d been lost, instead, as fiercely as Mariah did her Daniel.
He had never felt more alone in his life.
The house was dark when Mariah returned home. In the kitchen she took off her shoes, unwilling to wake her mother or sister on the stairs, and in her stockinged feet she padded through the hallway. She felt desolate and empty inside, loneliness already echoing within her soul, and though she would go to bed she knew she’d find no sleep or comfort from her misery.
She was halfway up the stairs before she saw the dark mass of the figure huddled on the landing and the empty pitcher on the top step.
“You don’t love me, neither of you do,” said Mrs. West hoarsely. In her hands was a folded paper, and over and over her shaking fingers smoothed the crease.
“The truth’s written here, where I’can’t deny it.”
“Come, Mama, I’ll take you to bed. It’s very late, and you’re tired.”
“Read this, daughter, and learn how a mother’s love’s repaid!” Pulling herself unsteadily to her feet, Mrs. West thrust the paper toward Mariah.
“Jenny’s run off with her precious Elisha.”
Chapter Six
All that morning during the final hectic preparations before the tide turned and the Revenge sailed, Gabriel both dreaded and anticipated Mariah’s appearance. He didn’t doubt she would come—he’d left her little enough choice-it was only when that kept him wondering, that and what mood she’d be in when she finally appeared.
He had driven her to Newport himself, and for the entire trip she had been miserably silent and withdrawn, and clearly shamed by what they’d done. Or hadn’t done, by his reckoning. She’d no notion that she was the first woman in his life he’d sent home unsatisfied, and that questionable distinction rankled at his pride. But worse than that was realizing that he cared less about his own disappointment than about hers. He cared that she was unhappy, even if the source of her unhappiness had nothing to do with him.
The sorry truth was that in the past weeks, while he thought he’d been giving her the chance to come to trust him, instead he’d been the one who’d come to know and like her for more than just her lovely
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