Authors: Cathy Maxwell
T
he three of them, Samantha, Marion, and Wayland, waited in the downstairs sitting room for Yale to return home. The servants were given instructions to notify them immediately upon his return.
Fenley suggested a footman be dispatched to Yale’s ship in the London harbor, and Bates was sent. He sent a message back that no one had seen Yale on the ship or at a warehouse he owned. Bates would wait until Lord Yale appeared or he was sent orders to return to Penhurst.
“What of his banker?” Samantha asked. “Could he still be there?”
Wayland didn’t know, and because he was not one to cool his heels, he went himself to call on the banker who had sent the early morning message. He returned two hours later. “The banker said Yale received word of the typhoon without comment, other than to thank the man for the information, and he left. Yale did not mention
where he was going.” He paused. “I sent out a fleet of footmen to search the pubs and alehouses.”
“Yes, that might be where he is,” Marion agreed.
But Samantha had her doubts. Since his influenza and the brandy bottle, Yale had shown a singular lack of enthusiasm for strong spirits of any sort.
Marion insisted on lunch trays being brought to them, since she and Samantha had not yet eaten. But Samantha was too worried to attempt even one bite.
Standing by the window overlooking the winter garden, she racked her brain, trying to think of where Yale could be…and came up with nothing. The only thing left for her was prayer. She said the same prayer over and over, “Dear God, please send him home to me.”
In late afternoon, Twyla joined them. “I came as soon as I heard. Harold said rumors are flying. They say Yale is bankrupt. Is it true?”
Wayland nodded.
She approached Samantha. “Last night, I was a bit churlish. I shouldn’t have said what I said. Certainly I did not wish something like this to happen. Will you forgive me?”
Samantha didn’t know what to say and then realized that Twyla was apologizing to her because Yale wasn’t there. “He will be back. You can say this to him when he returns.”
Twyla and Wayland exchanged glances. Sam
antha turned to her brother-in-law. “What is the matter? Why do you look at each other that way?”
“It’s nothing, Samantha,” Wayland assured her. “We just worry because this is so much how it was years ago.”
“We even waited in this same room, didn’t we?” Twyla said.
“No, the library.”
“Yes, I remember now,” Twyla said.
“Waited for what?” Samantha demanded.
Wayland didn’t answer. Twyla suddenly studied the pattern of the carpet.
It was Marion who had the courage to say, “They are talking about the first time Yale disappeared. The old duke had been certain that Yale would come home with his ‘tail between his legs,’ as he put it. But he didn’t; he vanished. My father-in-law set up a vigil in the library. He did wait in this room at one time, Twyla. You were right about that.” She said to Samantha, “One of us was always with him. On the third day, he sent out runners. That’s when we learned he had boarded some ship as nothing more than a crew member and left England.”
“But he wouldn’t leave like that now,” Samantha said firmly. “Not without saying something to me first.”
Marion was by her side in an instant. “You are right, he wouldn’t. He’ll be home. We must just wait a little longer.”
But Samantha couldn’t wait. The seeds of
doubt had been planted. Her trust in Yale was too new. She asked Wayland to take her down to the docks: “I want to see his ship.”
He reluctantly agreed.
The twilight gloom was cold and wet and suited Samantha’s mood perfectly. The hours of the morning when she had lingered in Yale’s arms seemed almost a lifetime ago.
“The
Wind Eagle,
” Samantha said, reading the name in gilded letters across the bow.
Wayland knocked for the coachman to stop, and they went aboard. The captain was a young man with a gruff bearing. He was honored to meet Mr. Carderock’s new wife.
“I have a wife and three children of my own,” he said.
“Are they here in London?” Samantha asked, more out of politeness than genuine interest. She studied the piles of rope and the orderly confusion of the deck. A ship seemed much larger from a distance than it did when one stood on board.
“No, they were in Trincomalee.”
“Trincomalee? Isn’t that where the typhoon hit?” she asked.
“Aye. I pray they are alive.”
His words brought the force of the tragedy home to her. Samantha reached out for his hand. “I am so sorry.” The man’s eyes misted and then he looked off from her.
“No need to be sorry. It’s God’s will,” the captain said. He took a moment to gather himself.
“It’s hard, not having word. Mr. Carderock was by here as soon as he heard. From what he says, a good number of lives have been lost on land. I can only pray until I return home.”
“I shall pray with you,” Samantha promised. “Tell me about your children.”
“Oh, I’m not the only one,” the captain said. “A quarter of our crew has family back there. It’s a good place to live if you don’t mind giving up the English winter.”
“I know my brother will do everything he can for you,” Wayland said somberly.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” the captain answered. “But we all know that. He’s a rum one, he is. Best man to work for in the Orient.”
Samantha and Wayland returned to Penhurst after that. Both were silent, lost in their own thoughts.
Yale had not returned home in their absence. It was already dark. Marion and Twyla still waited up in the sitting room.
Samantha didn’t go with Wayland to join them. Instead, she went to her room. A fire had been laid in the hearth, but it hadn’t been lit. She set the candle she’d carried with her on the chest of drawers.
“Dear God, where can he be? Please bring him home to me.”
At that moment, a small draft eased open the door leading to the sitting room. Samantha went to close it and stopped.
He was here.
Pushing open the sitting room door with the palm of her hand, she looked into the darkness of the room.
Yale sat on the settee, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his boot heels resting on the table. He twisted the green glass paperweight in his hands. She could see the flash of glass as he turned it over and over. If he knew she was there, he gave no indication.
And then he looked up. “You’ve heard.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I’ve been worried about you. We’ve all been waiting for you.”
“I needed to be alone,” he answered.
“How long have you been here?”
“Since after I called on the banker.”
“The servants—”
“I came in the back way, Sam. No one saw me. I needed time to think.”
She entered the room and crossed to him, kneeling on the floor beside where he sat. “What did you need to think about?”
He surprised her with a smile, “About what an unlucky bastard I am.” He kept flipping the paperweight, first in one hand, then the other. “Not even pixies could save me, Sam. Everything I worked for is gone.”
She placed her hand over his, halting its movement. “Not everything, Yale. I’m still here.”
Their gazes locked.
“You shouldn’t be,” he said. “I’m no good, Sam. My father was right. I am a wastrel.”
“Your father never thought any such thing.” She came to her feet. “He loved you. He didn’t always do what was best for you and maybe he didn’t understand you, but he did love you. And
I
love you. I will not let you push me away, Yale Carderock.”
He set the paperweight aside and came up to take her in his arms. “Sam, I love you. I want nothing more than to be with you.”
“But?” she asked, holding her breath for the answer.
“I must leave,” he said dully. “The bankers think I’m finished, but that isn’t true. I have a warehouse and one ship. Plus a plantation in Ceylon. I will rebuild my company.”
“Then why are you sitting here alone in the dark?”
He placed his hand against the side of her cheek. “Because I don’t want to leave, Sam. By rights, I should be gone on the morning tide…but I can’t. I want to be here with you.”
“Would you stay and work with Wayland?”
He laughed. “No. I could never do that…and yet I can’t leave you either, but I must. The worst part is that I don’t know when I will return. It depends on the island and how bad things are. I could be gone for well over a year or more, Sam.”
“A year or more,” she repeated, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
His arms pulled her close and she rested her head against his chest, her arms around his waist. Closing her eyes, she drew a deep breath.
He was so warm, so real, so secure. “A year,” she repeated again.
His arms tightened. He rested his chin against her head. They stood this way in the dark, holding each other as if they would never let go, and then Samantha heard a small, distinct voice inside herself.
It spoke clearly. It was not her voice. She knew it…and she heard it as plainly as if someone was in the room with her. The voice said, “Go with him.”
Go
with him.
Of course she could go with him. “I’m going with you.”
“What?”
It was so simple! “I am going with you,” she said, and turned toward her bedroom. “I must pack if we are going to leave in the morning. My packing will be easy. I don’t own much.”
He caught her hand before she’d taken two steps. “Sam, you can’t go. I won’t take you with me.”
“Why not?”
“Because it is dangerous.” He took ahold of her by both arms and bent to look in her eyes. “You don’t know what a storm of that magnitude is like. Trincomalee is a safe natural harbor. For it to be destroyed, the typhoon could have leveled the whole island. Until you experience a typhoon, you can’t imagine how much destruction Nature can wreak. Food, and even water, may be scarce. Disease will run rampant.”
“All the more reason for me to go,” she said calmly. “Yale, I am a healer. From what you have described, my skills will be needed.”
“It’s too dangerous. If something happened to you, my whole life would be meaningless. I have to believe that you are safe here in England.”
She almost laughed. “This sounds like what we were talking about this morning—only then
I
was the fearful one. What is it you said? A hundred accidents could befall one right here in London?” She pulled back from him and he released his hold. “Yale, I want to be by your side. Together we will rebuild Rogue Shipping.”
“Sam, it isn’t an easy life. The tropics claim many lives.”
“Oh, pooh, I’m a bonny North Country lass. I’m strong, Yale. Furthermore, you might as well resign yourself to the fact that I won’t let you leave without me. Ever. Do you understand? I want to swim in a pool at the base of a waterfall. I want to see everything you described to me, including those giant stone gates shaped like a lion’s paws.”
He studied her a moment and then, to her relief, he smiled and she knew she’d won. “I’ll take you with me,” he agreed. “But I will never forgive myself if anything happens to you.”
“It won’t, Yale. This is how it was meant to be. I know it in my soul. Now come, let’s tell Wayland and Marion our plans.”
She held out her hand and he took it. But instead of leaving immediately, he brought her
hand to his lips and kissed it. “With you, I can do anything.” They left the room then, arm in arm.
Samantha had no regrets over her decision. She told Yale that she felt as if it was meant for her to go to Ceylon with him. Maybe it had been preordained from the beginning, she told Yale, when they’d first met in the Ayleborough vault.
Yale’s family did not want them to leave, but they understood, and supported, Samantha’s decision to go with her husband. “He needs someone,” Marion assured her. “You will help him build a good life there. But please do not forget us.”
“I could not,” Samantha said. “You are my family.”
Once word was out that the
Wind Eagle
would sail immediately for Ceylon, those with friends and relatives on the island petitioned Yale to take messages, clothing, and presents to their loved ones. He promised to deliver each and every one.
The morning papers wrote about Yale’s confidence in making the return trip. To his surprise, bankers were not as reluctant to extend credit as they had been immediately upon hearing the news. There was a very good possibility that Rogue Shipping would survive with little trouble.
Samantha laughed and claimed the pixies living in the green glass paperweight must be
working magic. Marion agreed and insisted they take it with them.
Three days later, Samantha and Yale stood side-by-side on the dock, prepared to board the
Wind Eagle.
Wayland and Marion and the boys had come to wish them a safe voyage. Even Twyla had come to see them off, although she said she had never in her life risen before dawn for anyone.