Raquel Byrnes (21 page)

“Am I bothering you?” I nodded to the equipment. “You look like you’re in the middle of something.”

“I’m never too busy for you,” Simon said and came towards me.

“Well, your father wants you to go and take a look on the deck right now.”

“No.” He looked back at Lavender and then at me. “This is more important. I’ll go later.”

“I heard another storm is on its way,” I mumbled, hugging myself. “More rain and gloom.”

“I wish you could see Noble Island like I do. How beautiful it is.”

“I do, too.”

I put the counter between us, not sure if being close to him was what I needed. Being in his arms felt right despite all I’d heard about him. I didn’t think clearly with him close, and I needed to. I was tired of being afraid and confused here.

I’d seen Lavender’s face the night she thought monsters were outside. No one should be terrified in their own home.

There were so many things I wanted to ask Simon but didn’t know how. He placed his palms on the table, his gaze holding mine.

“Come sail with me. I have to survey the storm damage for the governing board, anyway. Let me show you how beautiful it is here.” He put his hands up in surrender. “We can keep whatever you want between us if you want.”

“I—I’m sorry, Simon.” Heat flushed my face. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

“I want to sail!” Lavender said from the door. “I want to sail, Daddy! Come with us, Rosie, please?”

With her large blue eyes and pink pouty lips, I smiled despite my concerns. “How can I say no to that face?”

“Shall we take her around the nose of the island?” Simon walked over, scooped Lavender into his arms, and twirled.

She let out a gale of giggles.

I watched them with my thoughts tangled together.

“Can we show her the treasure caves?” Lavender asked and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Please?”

“Well, if you insist.”

“I’ll go get my pirate hat!” She wiggled out of his arms and ran out the door.

“Pirate hat?”

“She thinks the caves on the north side have pirate treasure.” Simon walked around the counter, shoved his hands in his pockets, and smiled. “Thanks for agreeing to come. Today is a tough day for her.”

“Because it’s September first?” The lightness of the moment was gone, intruded upon by the anniversary of a death. Lavender’s mother. Simon’s beloved. “Your father told me today is her real birthday and tomorrow is—”

“Yes.” His gaze held mine, sorrow flashing behind his brilliant blue eyes. “Because of what today and tomorrow are.”

“Should I really be tagging along with you two? I mean, maybe this isn’t—”

“Please come with us, Rosetta,” Simon said, a shadow of pain crossing his features. “I have no right to ask. No reason for you to trust a man like me, but I don’t think I could bear this day without you.”

“Simon…” I was stunned by his openness, by so vulnerable a statement. Here was this magnificent man laying his heart out, and I didn’t know what to say. “I…I’m so confused.”

“My intentions are honorable, Rosetta.” Simon took my hand and brushed his lips across my knuckles.

Fire flared through me, and I was captive in his presence.

“Come with us.
Especially
this day. We need you.”

25

A pale sun floated across the sky casting shimmering shapes on the polished wood hull of the yacht. We sliced through water, and the call of seagulls echoed above as we passed harbor seals lazing themselves on a buoy. Behind me, the muffled flap of the sail and ting-ting of the hooks on the mast lulled me.

Noble Island looked beautiful from the water. A jagged skyline of pines pierced the cool blue sky. Cliffs fell in sheer drops to the ocean below. Waves crashed against the rocks, fanning out in white foamy sprays. We passed a stretch of white beach completely isolated from the land by rugged rocks and fallen trees bleached with sun and years. Birds strutted along the shore pecking at the sand.

“This is a gorgeous, Simon. I see why you love Noble so much.”

“This is the side no one sees.” He smiled down at Lavender, her tiny hands on the wheel of the helm. A cool breeze ruffled the feather of her pirate hat. “These beaches are only accessible by kayak or small dingy so no tourists come here.”

“Those are the treasure caves!” Lavender ran to my lap, pointing to the face of the cliff that rose high above the ocean. Caves, dark and low in the sea, puffed out sprays of water with each swell. “There’s treasure in there. Pirate treasure.”

“Really?” I asked and smiled at Simon.

He stood at the helm watching us.

“Well, I’ve never seen a secret pirate cove before.”

“You can’t tell anyone.” Lavender looked at me sternly. “You promise?”

“Not a soul.” I crossed my heart, and she giggled. “I’ll keep it a secret.”

We glided along hugging the coast.

Lavender stayed in my arms and soon she was breathing evenly.

I patted her and hummed.

“You want to put her below?” Simon whispered. “I can take her.”

“I’ll do it.”

He helped me to the hatch.

I took the steps to the galley and back to the bench in the forward bow. Lavender sighed and turned on her side when I set her down. Pulling a blanket across her, I pecked her on the cheek. I brushed a curl from her forehead and climbed back out to Simon. “She’s still asleep.”

“You mean a lot to her, Rosetta. I’ve seen her brighten up more in the past month than in the whole year before you came to Shadow Bay Hall.”

“She had my heart before I knew what hit me.”

“I know the feeling.”

The expression on Simon’s face, earnest and open, made my heart skip.

“Do you know what you do to me?” I whispered.

“I make you want to put barriers between us.” Simon looked up, his blond hair falling into his brilliant eyes. He shook his head, his grip tight on the wheel. “Why, Rosetta? How is it you can walk arm in arm with Phillip, but I get within two feet of you and you want to run?”

“You don’t understand.” I walked to him, my knees shaking. “It’s not the same thing.”

“Why isn’t it the same?” He was so close, I could feel the heat rolling off of him. “Tell me why you keep me at arm’s length, when all I want to do is hold you?”

“Because you...” My voice trembled. I was hurting him, and it broke my heart to realize it.

“What did I do, Rosetta?”

“This,” I whispered and reached for his hand. I pressed his palm to my flushed cheek. “You do this to me, Simon. I don’t know why, and I can’t help it, but I’m…I’m just…” I took in a ragged breath and pulled away from him. “I don’t let you close because I can’t breathe when you’re near me. I can’t think.”

The look of surprise on his face sent waves of embarrassment crashing over me. He didn’t feel the same. I let go of his hand, mortified.

What did I just say? Oh, please, let us sink right now.

“Rosetta,” Simon rasped.

“Oh my gosh, Simon,” I squeaked. “Just forget I said that.”

“No.” His eyes bore into mine, intense.

“Why not?” I asked, aware that I’d just made a complete fool of myself on a boat in the middle of the ocean. “Can’t we just pretend I didn’t say anything?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” Moving slowly, achingly deliberate, he slipped his hand around my waist and pulled me close. He reached up with his other hand, ran the pad of his thumb across my lower lip, his heated gaze holding me in place. “Not now that I know.”

“Know what?” I asked, swallowing hard, his touch sending a quake through me.

“That it’s not just me.” He bent forward, brushed his lips against mine, leaving a trail of heat.

I reached for him, held the curve of his jaw in my hands, a thread of longing pulling through me.

Simon clutched me close, his kiss urgent as he moved us forward, his hand going to the mast behind me. I felt consumed by the intensity, and his name escaped with a ragged breath.

I was losing my way and didn’t seem to care.

“Rosie!” Lavender’s voice startled us, and we pulled apart. She stood at the hatch watching us. A strange look crossed her face as she regarded Simon and me.

“Lala,” Simon began, his face pained. “We were just—”

She ran to me, buried her face in my stomach, gripping my skirt in tiny fists.

I looked at Simon. His face registered the same confusion I felt.

“Promise you’ll stay, Rosie,” she said, words muffled by my blouse. Looking up, she grabbed my hand and reached for Simon’s, pulling them together. “Please?”

A torrent of emotion welled up, and I nodded to her, my eyes filling. “I promise, Lala.”

Simon looked at me, his gaze filled with longing. He stroked her hair and then pecked me on the cheek.

She giggled and hugged, pulling us close.

“You promised,” he whispered in my ear.

I nodded, words escaping me.

Please, please, don’t take this from me as well.

****

We stood together as he steered us in a course that hugged the coast. Coming around the tip of Noble, we made our way to the ruined ferry docking station. The storm had ripped the boarding ramp from the rest of the structure, and it listed at an angle to the water by one joint.

“That’s worse than I thought,” Simon muttered. “It could take a few weeks to get that fixed.”

“Josif told me you’re funding the repairs.”

“He shouldn’t have done that.” Simon wove his fingers through mine and kissed the top of my hand.

“Why not?” I glanced at Lavender coloring on the deck with a pad and crayons. “Why are you keeping it from your father?”

“He wouldn’t understand.” Simon leaned in, his voice low. “He tolerated the gypsies while I was married to Amanna, but they have a long history of fighting. My great-grandfather bought land on Noble and started to build on it despite the fact that there were families who had been on the land for generations.”

“How did you…” I hesitated.

“How did I end up with Amanna given my father’s feelings for her family?”

“Well, yes.” I sat on the bench looking up at him at the helm.

“I think a part of it was just to defy him, at the beginning, anyway.” Simon shook his head, his gaze far off. “But then it wasn’t about him at all. The way she died…”

A haunting moan sounded over the water. An orca’s cry off in the distance. I scanned the sea and saw a plume of water blow up twenty yards away.

“Is that...?”

“They’re moving through,” Simon said. “The pod takes this route every year on their migration south. Look.”

He pointed across the ripples, and I gasped.

Not ten feet from us, the glistening black and white skin slipped back underneath the water. The tail came up, lobbing against the surface of the ocean with a thunderous blow.

I jumped to my feet, intimidated by how close the whale swam next to the yacht.

“The whales?” Lavender looked up, an excited smile on her face.

“Yup.” Simon held her up to see.

“Is it going to tip us over?” I whispered, my mouth going dry.

“No,” Simon said, and his smile calmed me. “They roll on their side to see above the surface.”

“When they jump out of the water, it’s called spy hopping,” Lavender said, entranced and without a trace of fear.

A spout of water blew up a few feet on the other side and then the dorsal fin, straight and high, slid along the side of the boat. Diving down, the whale slapped the water with its tail, a low wail echoing out of the deep.

“They’re so frightening and fascinating at the same time.”

“Yes, they are,” Simon intoned. “Sometimes, at night, if you stand on Echo Cliffs you can hear their songs float across the dark to you.”

“Echo Cliffs,” I repeated. “Is that how they got the name?”

“I think so.” Simon’s attention pulled back to the ferry dock. “There’s Bernard.”

I followed his gaze. A man stood at the edge of the gang plank leading up to the ferry station waving a hat over his bald head.

“Bernard?”

“He’s the head of Noble Island’s governing board.” Simon waved back. “He may force us to have lunch with him.”

“Is that so bad?”

“Not if you avoid the clam chowder.”

We slipped past the ruined station, and Simon navigated us to a slip just off the north side. I went to help Lavender gather her things. I picked up the blanket on the cushion to fold it when a pink backpack fell to the floor, its contents spilling onto the deck. It was heavy and I peeked inside. She was hoarding things. I saw a button from O’Shay’s overcoat, noting the distinctive wood carved with an anchor. Mrs. Tuttle’s ivory hair comb toppled out clattering on the wood floor. A handkerchief with SH embroidered in the corner; Simon’s.

“What in the world?” I pulled out the botany lens I thought I’d lost.

“Don’t be mad,” her small voice squeaked behind me. “It wasn’t stealing.”

“What was it then?” I looked at her, concerned.

“I just wanted to keep you safe.” Her lip trembled. “Don’t be mad, Rosie.”

“Safe?” She looked so scared that I pulled her to me. “What are you doing with these things, Lala? How would taking people’s stuff keep them safe?”

“If I put them in the circle, they can’t get you.” Her face crumbled, tears slipping down her pale cheeks. “Please don’t tell Daddy.”

“Circle? What circle?”

“The one at the gate, the black powder. Lucien said to put the things in the circle to keep you safe.”

A thousand scenarios went through my mind, none of them making sense. Then I remembered the ring of ash surrounding the cemetery. I knelt down in front of her.

“You mean the ghost line?”

“Shh!” She put her finger to my lips. “Don’t let Daddy know.”

“Why not?” A cold finger of fear slid along my spine. What was going through her head?

“Because he doesn’t like to talk about Lucien. He doesn’t even go to the lake anymore. Not to the swing, not to the cabin, not anymore.”

“The lake?”

Simon’s footsteps sounded at the hatch. “Everything OK down there, ladies?”

“We’ll be right up.” I turned to Lavender. “Honey, I know Lucien was your brother. If you miss him, maybe we should talk to your daddy about it. You can’t keep pretending he’s still here.”