Leave it for the Rain: A Love She Couldn't Remember—A Woman He Couldn't Forget (Grayson Brothers Book 6) (14 page)

Rebecca’s breath caught at Elias’s description of the mirror. “It sounds enchanting,” she whispered. “But what a sad story. The princess must have desperately mourned her lost past,” Rebecca said, understanding Cecily’s loss in the deepest part of her being.

Mary nodded in agreement. “Every time I hear the story my heart aches for Princess Cecily. The poor woman had to pose as a widow with a young son. The crew immediately fell in love with her and the boy, and each man vowed to protect her and young Ian with his life. But no one was more smitten than Gabe Crane.”

Rebecca sighed and her heart grew lighter knowing the princess would have found a confidant and love in Gabe Crane.

Releasing a light laugh, Georgia Crane patted Rebecca’s hand. “I see you’re a romantic as well. I adore this story and never tire of hearing it.”

She was a romantic? Had something in her expression suggested such? The idea intrigued Rebecca. With every experience she was learning something new about herself.

o0o

Adam watched as Rebecca absorbed the tale. Doubtless she could relate to how the young princess must have felt in a foreign land. Since the accident,
everything
must feel foreign and strange to Rebecca.

“Did she ever return home?” Rebecca asked.

Elias leaned forward. “No one knows, . But in the pages of her journal she apparently mentioned that her mirror and the truths in her diary helped keep her family close and that Gabe’s love gave her the courage to build a new life here in America.”

“What were the truths?” Rebecca asked, looking so enthralled she apparently didn’t realize that her question might be intrusive.

Elias chuckled. “Supposedly nuggets of truth about life passed down through generations that helped the princess cope with her loss.”

“I would read that book cover to cover,” Rebecca said, her voice so dreamy it made Adam smile.

“As would I,” Mary said in agreement, “but the journal has been missing for many years now.”

Rebecca’s expression shifted as though she had lost something precious. “That’s a shame, especially knowing that the journal helped the princess to forge a new path in her life.”

Mary, now fully engaged in conversing with Rebecca, sat forward with her fingers laced and propped on the table in front of her. “I think Gabe Crane found a way to whisk her back long enough to see her father before he died.”

Elias flapped his hand. “Stuff and nonsense. Gabe wouldn’t have risked her life for a journey such as that.”

“No, but the princess might have done so,” Mary argued sweetly. “According to the legend, that man would have moved a mountain for the princess.”

Elias shrugged his shoulders. “All we know is that she and Gabe eventually married. The home in which you will be staying was built for her by Gabriel, or at least portions of it. Fire destroyed some of the original structure, but our family has tended it with care throughout the years. I believe you ladies will be quite comfortable there.”

Adam glanced around the table, secretly pleased by Rebecca’s and their grandmother’s rapt expressions. Even Radford seemed to be engaged.

“I felt at home there from the moment I entered,” Rebecca said. “I’m eagerly anticipating spending two whole months in that lovely home, and I deeply appreciate your generosity and invitation to stay there.”

Georgia Crane smiled and patted Rebecca’s hand, her gesture warm and motherly. “It’s a pleasure to share it with you, my dear. I hope you find as much healing and happiness there as Princess Cecily found.”

After a lovely breakfast of rice with fig sauce and toasted wafers, Rebecca and her grandmother went with her father to the shipyard. He was concerned that the noise may upset her, but Rebecca felt quite well and assured him that she was prepared for the din and commotion.

Adam met them in the bustling yard, looking quite handsome with his hair windblown and his shirtsleeves rolled up his forearms. That he’d been hard at work was apparent in the slight sheen of perspiration on his forehead.

Rebecca couldn’t remember him from her past, but she could certainly understand her attraction to this man because it was still in full force.

“Good morning,” he said, directing the greeting to all of them, but his eyes were on her. “Are you well enough for a tour?”

His concern warmed her and brought a smile to her lips. “I’m quite well, and very eager to learn all about building ships.”

He grinned. “That might take more than one tour, but let’s start inside,” he said, offering his arm.

Surprised, she glanced at her father, but he was preoccupied with whatever was transpiring near the dock. “All right,” she said, welcoming his escort. “What has captured my father’s attention?”

“The new building we are raising to accommodate our new shipbuilding process. Once it’s finished we will house our materials and tools there, which will be more accessible to our job site where we build our ships. Your father is keen to see the new operation.” Speaking over his shoulder to her father, Adam asked, “Would you like to join us inside, Radford?”

“You three go ahead,” her father said. “I see Ben Oakley just yonder and I need to have a word with him.”

With a nod, Adam escorted Rebecca and their grandmother to a huge, cavernous building that towered overhead and appeared to be built on pylons right over a deep channel of water. “We build our merchant vessels, schooners, dories, skiffs, sloops and other small wooden vessels right here on the shore or in this facility, which is determined by their size.”

“Does the water run straight through the building?” Rebecca asked.

“No, it ends a ways inside the building. You’ll see why when I show you how we build our vessels.”

Inside, Adam paused to let their eyes adjust to the shadowed interior lit by rows of overhead lighting. The staccato sound of mallets striking wood echoed through the massive structure. Men talked or called to each other, their conversations and commands competing with rhythmic sanding and scraping sounds that were likely creating the haze and the powdery taste of wood in the air.

“We launch our vessels straight out through this channel,” Adam said, “but I’ll tell you more about that later. We’ll start down at the far end. Stay with me and mind your step. There’s a good amount of scattered debris by this time of the morning.”

“It smells divine in here,” their grandmother said, taking in the scope of the vast facility. “Hal would have loved this place.”

“Now there’s a man I wish I’d met,” Adam said, moving ahead to lead the way. “It would have been an honor to know such a great man.” He moved right two steps. “It will be safer for you ladies to follow behind me.”

“Hal would have loved you, Adam,” their grandmother said. She captured Rebecca’s arm and they trailed close behind him. “You’re so much like our own boys it’s like seeing them as young men again. That seems so long ago, I feel positively ancient.”

“I doubt your sons would take kindly to being referred to as old men already.”

Their grandmother whacked Adam’s shoulder with her sunshade. “Don’t you twist my words, young man.”

The sound of Adam’s laughter fell nicely on Rebecca’s ears.

“I’m deeply honored by the comparison, Grandmother. And you are still many years away from being ancient.”

“Oh, how you young’uns love to tease. Makes me miss my boys at that age.”

They walked for several minutes, mostly silent because of the surrounding noise, until they reached the opposite end of the building. As Rebecca’s vision adapted to the interior light, she looked around the cavernous building with her mouth hanging open. In the middle sat what looked like the skeleton of a gigantic whale. “Is that a ship?” she asked, truly astonished at the size.

Adam paused and glanced back at her. “That’s a three-mast schooner. We build other vessels and ships far larger than this outside. Come on,” he said, catching her hand and guiding her closer to the front corner. “We’ll start over here.”

Once she and her grandmother were standing beside him, he spoke above the noise, his voice assured and his knowledge deep.

“This is where we store most of our supplies.”

He pointed out barrels of pitch and oakum for caulking. Bins of nails, cables of rope, and crocks of linseed oil formed towering stacks.

Rebecca felt a little dizzy as her eyes scaled the stacks of supplies.

“Ho there!” a man called, approaching them with a slight limp. He stopped just outside the circle of their little group. He was a somewhat handsome man approximately her grandmother’s age with graying hair that poked from beneath a dusty cap. He didn’t smile, but his expression seemed warm and inviting. “Beg your pardon, ladies. May I borrow this young man for a minute? I’m in need of a strong back.”

“Then Adam is your man,” Grandma said, patting Adam’s shoulder and wearing the proud grandmother look Rebecca was beginning to recognize.

A smile blossomed on the man’s face and he pulled off his cap. “Dawson Crane at your service, my lady.”

Surprised by his gallant introduction, Rebecca watched her grandmother’s face flush as Adam stepped in to introduce everyone. “Dawson, this is my grandmother, Nancy Grayson, and my intended, Miss Rebecca Grayson.” To Rebecca he said, “Dawson is the elder brother of Elias and Ezra Crane.”

Dawson executed a half bow. “I’m honored to meet you ladies.”

“Likewise,” Rebecca said, casting a sideways glance at her grandmother to see why she wasn’t offering the man a proper greeting.

Grandma, who was always in charge, seemed to have forgotten how to speak. To Rebecca’s surprise, Grandma bobbed her head in a slight greeting that made Dawson’s eyes sparkle.

“What did you need help with?” Adam asked, turning Dawson’s attention back to the task at hand.

“Need to load a barrel of pitch onto the dolly,” he said.

An odd look crossed Adam’s face, but he gave Dawson a nod. Cautioning Rebecca and their grandmother to stay put for safety’s sake, Adam went to help the man.

Fanning her face, their grandmother watched him and Dawson walk away.

“What a charming man,” Rebecca said.

Her grandmother exhaled loudly and pumped the fan a little faster. “I haven’t found myself speechless in nearly forty years.”

Unable to hold back, Rebecca released a light laugh. “Then perhaps it’s time.”

“Perhaps,” was all her grandmother said as they watched the men load the barrel of pitch onto a cart.

Dawson may have solicited a younger man with a strong back to assist, but he seemed fit and strong and capable of managing the barrel on his own.

The men returned together, Dawson pulling the cart behind him. “If you ladies won’t mind I’ll tag along for a minute.”

Before they could answer, Adam continued with their tour. “We store our caulking irons, mallets, saws, planes and augers in this area,” Adam said, gesturing to a wall lined with pegs and hooks and nooks for storage. “All our lumber is rough cut and stored over at the mill. We bring it in and shape it as we need it. Our sailmaker prepares the sails and floats them to the dock when we’re ready to rig her.”

“Where would one even begin with all of this?” Rebecca asked, surrounded by an overwhelming inventory of items.

“In that office,” Adam said, pointing to a thick oak door. “Our master shipwright, Ezra Crane, designs our vessels. Dawson used to do that job before he found out how much fun it is to work out here with the full crew.”

Rebecca expected Dawson to laugh, but the man seemed uncomfortable with the comment. “I need to deliver this pitch,” he said. With a nod, he expressed his pleasure at meeting them and wished them a good day before he strode away with his cart in tow.

Adam paused for a moment, an expression of regret on his face as he watched Dawson walk away. It seemed as if he wanted to call the man back, but he didn’t.

“Something amiss?” their grandmother asked.

“No,” he said, and directed their attention back to the paper he was holding. “We take the shipwright’s design that’s on a blueprint such as this one,” he said, showing them a scroll-like paper with so many lines and angles on it that it made Rebecca’s head ache, “and we carry it out to the floor for lofting—that means we do a life-sized drawing of the vessel on the floor. When we finish with the drawing process we know the exact shape and size of every piece of the vessel.”

Gazing at the skeletal beast taking up most of the building floor, Rebecca shook her head in utter amazement. How men could take a mess of lines and angles and create something so intricately designed on such a vast scale was beyond her understanding.

“Once we finish the lofting process we make the keel, which is the backbone of the vessel,” he said, gesturing toward the schooner. “It’s that long, square beam that runs from bow to stern. The hull of the vessel is built around the keel. We attach a square frame and plumb level to the waterline, along with several other steps, before we attach the ribs.”

“They look like ribs,” Rebecca said, amazed. “How do you bend the wood like that?”

“We steam them to shape.”

“There are so many of them.”

He nodded. “One rib every two feet. It’s a slow process, like framing the hull and attaching the bulkhead, but it’s important that every piece fits nice and tight. Then we use planers and augers to shape every plank that covers the hull outside and in. Once they are secured in place, we use a cotton and oakum mixture to caulk between every plank.”

“My word... that’s an unimaginable amount of work,” their grandmother said. She seemed tiny and insignificant standing beside the bones of the schooner, but in that moment Rebecca realized that the woman was becoming as important to her as the wind was to the great sails that powered the schooner. Grandma Grayson had commanded Rebecca to get out of bed and find a way to enjoy the rest of her life. Rebecca silently promised that she would give it her best effort.

“Don’t allow me to be boorish,” Adam said to Rebecca. “I’m leaving out a good deal, but if this is more than you ladies wish to know we can move along.”

Rebecca glanced at her grandmother who seemed as intrigued as she was. “I’m enthralled,” she said. The look in Adam’s eyes said he, too, was enthralled—with her. As their eyes locked, she floundered in his gaze, feeling as churned up as the water tumbling along the Crane River behind the pretty little house that he had found for her. Did he choose that location because it was so romantic?

A loud bang from across the way snapped his attention back to the task at hand. “Where were we?” he asked. “Oh, yes, the shear plank, that’s the top plank, is installed and the deck is built on that ledge. It’s quite complicated and scientific to distribute the load evenly, but take my word that it’s far more information than you ladies would enjoy hearing about.”

He was so serious it made Rebecca smile. “You are supposed to be enjoying this, too, Adam.”

He made a face. “I enjoy it too much. It takes upwards of a year to build a vessel and I could talk that long about the process.”

She laughed and hooked her arm around her grandmother’s elbow. “We would like to enjoy a few days in our cozy house on the river, so perhaps we can finish our tour in time for us to move our bags and have supper in our new home?”

A smile tilted his mouth as if he enjoyed her teasing. “Of course, and I should like very much to sup with you ladies one evening before we return to Fredonia.”

“You will join us every evening and we’ll eat together as family should,” their grandmother said. “Tonight you can bring your friend Dawson with you if he would like to join us for a simple supper on our back porch. I’m sure Radford will enjoy a bit of male company.”

“I’m sure he would,” Adam replied. “I’ll have the Beacon Inn make up a basket for our supper and I will deliver it by seven o’clock if that suits you ladies.”

“Oh, that would be lovely,” their grandmother said, clasping her hands in front of her breast. “It will allow us time to settle in a bit before supper. Now tell me how you get this whale out of here.”

Rebecca exchanged a surprised look with Adam. Their grandmother’s invitation to Adam was understandable, and Rebecca was secretly pleased she would be seeing him each evening. Now that she had seen Adam in a different light rather than as a mysterious man from a past that she couldn’t remember, she looked forward to learning more about him. And apparently their grandmother wanted to learn more about Dawson Crane.

Turning back to the schooner, Adam said, “Before we can get this
whale
in the water—” he winked at their grandmother “—we need to add deck beams and planks, and then build cabins, add hatches and port holes and other necessities such as cabinetry. Once we finish the inside we assemble the rigging and trim hardware. I’m skipping over many laborious jobs, ladies, but I promised to get you home before supper. There isn’t enough time to share every step in building a vessel, but when this girl is finished, we pull her out through that channel. Once she’s in the bay we float her to the dock where we outfit her sails.”