Freedom's Light

by Colleen Coble

  “No!” Lydia wailed. “You cannot take my baby.”

  Galen pressed his lips together, and Hannah could see he was holding on to his temper by the merest whisker. “If you do not stop your ceaseless haranguing, I shall tie you to the chair and stuff a rag in your mouth too. I have had enough of your nagging.” He pointed the gun at Birch’s head. “Do what I say, Hannah, or I shall shoot him now.”

  Her heart full of dread, Hannah hurried to obey. Her hands trembled as she tied her cloak about her shoulders and picked up a wool blanket in which to wrap John. Glancing at Birch, she could see his bonds were nearly loose. She averted her eyes quickly before she drew Galen’s attention to it as well.

  Galen handed her the baby. “Come along.” He pulled his own coat on, took her arm, and propelled her toward the door. “By the time your captain is free, we shall be to Plymouth and duly married. He will be able to do nothing.”

  Birch strained against his bonds, his eyes pleading with Hannah to refuse to go. But she could not stand by and see Galen shoot him. She had no doubt he would do it.

  Lydia wrung her hands. “Take me with you, Galen. Surely this is a jest. You would not be so cruel. I birthed your son. Hannah cannot love you as I do.” She had no cloak around her, but she followed them out the door and toward the cliff path.

  At the top of the cliff, Galen turned to face her. “I have had enough, Lydia! Go away, or I shall shoot you and be done with it.” His face dark with rage, he waved the pistol at her. “You have been a thorn in my side this past year. I have what I came for!”

  As the awful truth of what was happening finally sank in, she blanched. “You don’t love me, Galen? You truly do not?”

  “How many times must I say it? I have never loved you. Now leave us be!” He faced Hannah and gestured to the path that led to the beach. “You go first, my dear.”

  Hannah could see Lydia’s face. Her eyes were sunken, her mouth scrunched up in pain. As though in a dream, Lydia slipped her hand in her pocket and drew out the knife. She looked down at her hand, then at Galen. Her face changed and became ferocious. With a cry she flew at his back, and the pistol fell to the ground.

  He turned to meet her and grappled for the knife as Birch, free of his bonds, burst out of the house and started to close the distance between them. He snatched up the pistol, but there was no opportunity to use it.

  Lydia was like a wild woman. She clung to the knife, biting and scratching. She and Galen were as one person, with no chance for Birch to shoot Galen without risking Lydia. Birch moved forward to try to separate them, but before he reached them, they teetered on the edge of the cliff.

  Hannah’s breath caught in her throat. “Lydia, be careful,” she cried.

  Lydia seemed to realize the danger. She turned her gaze and met Hannah’s for a moment. Then she smiled a sad smile and turned her attention back to Galen. She threw her body against him in a final frenzied attack and forced him even closer to the brink.

  “No!” Galen rolled his eyes in terror as one foot slipped over the edge. His arms windmilled frantically, then with a final despairing cry, he and Lydia pitched over the precipice.

  Hannah screamed and rushed to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Two crumpled bodies lay on the rocks below, the sea lapping blood away with every wave. The waves were already trying to carry them out to sea. Tears stung her eyes, and she buried her face in John’s blanket and wept.

  Moments later, Birch called her name. More sobs burst from her throat, and she stumbled into his waiting arms. “Dead. They went over the cliff,” she babbled.

  “I saw.” Birch drew her close, and she clung to him as to a rock in a storm. They stood there for several minutes as Hannah sobbed. She didn’t see how she could bear this devastating blow.

  His arm still around her, Birch stepped to the edge. “The sea has taken them.”

  Hannah buried her face in his coat. Visions of Lydia as a child tumbled through her mind. Such a bright and happy child, ruined by Galen.

  Birch seemed to know what she was thinking. “She had to make her own choices, my love. Just as you and I have to. Come inside. We must get the babe out of the cold. And check on Charlotte too. She may be awake and frightened.” He guided her toward the house, and she leaned into his strength.

  Inside the house she hurried up the stairs. She put John in his bed and smoothed the soft cap of hair. He would know the bright spirit who had been his mother. She would tell him. He was all she had left of her sister. Tears pooled in her eyes, and she choked back a sob. Crying wouldn’t change anything, but it was all she could do to hold back the tears.

  Straightening her shoulders, she brushed the tears from her cheeks and went down the hall to check on Charlotte. The babe was just beginning to awaken. “Would you like to see Papa, darling girl?” Hannah whispered. She picked her up and carried her downstairs.

  Birch turned to stare at her when she came into the parlor. The love in his eyes brought a lump to her throat.

  He held out his arms for Charlotte. “Hello, sweet girl. Will you come to Papa?”

  Charlotte stared at him gravely for a moment, then held out her chubby arms for him. He directed a joyous smile to Hannah and took their daughter in his arms.

  After a few moments he kissed the top of Charlotte’s curly head. “I must see if I can recover the bodies, my love.” He handed the baby back to Hannah. “I may not be back till the morrow. I have much to tell you.”

  “I shall be here.”

  The rest of the afternoon dragged by. Hannah finally put Charlotte to bed and retired herself. Thinking of Lydia and her ruined life, it was a long time before Hannah slept, and then only after many tears.

  The sun had hardly begun to pinken the horizon when she heard pounding on the door. Her feet still bare, she rushed down the steps and threw open the door. Birch stood there, his pirate eyes boring into her. He held out his arms, and she rushed into them.

  “Did you find them?” Her words were muffled against the wool of his uniform.

  His arms tightened, and he kissed the top of her head. “No, my love. The sea did not want to give them up.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes, and she nodded. “’Tis better this way. I would rather remember Lydia as the laughing maid she was.”

  He guided her inside and shut the door behind them. Sitting on the sofa, he pulled her into his lap. “I am free, Hannah. Free of vengeance and hatred.”

  “I knew as soon as I saw you.” Her heart was near bursting with joy.

  He smiled tenderly. “You will wed me now?” Putting his hands on her shoulders, he stared into her face. “It will not be easy these first years, my mermaid. I shall have to go back to war. The fight for liberty rages on.”

  “I know.” For some reason, she was unafraid.

  He traced her jaw with his finger. The touch brought shivers to her spine. She turned her face into his hand and kissed the palm. He took her mobcap off and gently took the pins from her hair. The dark locks tumbled from her head, and he thrust his hands into the mass of curls. She quivered at the touch of his hands in her hair.

  “I thought I might never get to do this,” he murmured. He buried his face in her neck. “You smell like the sea after a rain, fresh and sweet.”

  Hannah put her arms around his waist. He gathered her closer and left a trail of kisses up her neck and across her cheek until his lips found hers. As their breath mingled, he pulled her closer, and she was lost in the wonder of his kiss.

  EPILOGUE

  AUGUST 1783

  As she did every day at sunrise and sunset, Hannah stood on the lonely hillside in the fading light of day and looked out over the water for her husband’s ship. The babe in her womb kicked, and she rubbed at her belly. “Peace, little one. Your father promised to be home in time for your birth, and I know it will be so.”

  Charlotte looked up at her. “Papa?” Little John echoed his big sister’s query with a questioning look.

  “Soon, my loves.” She
took each child by the hand. Birch needed to hurry though. The babe was due next week, and she grew impatient to see him.

  As she turned to retreat to the house, over her shoulder she caught sight of a white sail. Her heart thumped in her chest, and she turned back to face the sea. From the shape of the ship, it could be the Mermaid.

  As the ship grew nearer, a boat was lowered, and a lone figure waved at her. Birch! She picked up both children, and they waved at their father as he rowed to shore.

  “Let us go meet Papa.” She led the children down the rocky slope to the beach.

  She felt as light as the clouds floating in the sky as she waited for her husband. It seemed forever until he leapt over the side of the boat and pulled it the last few feet to shore in the waves.

  His fierce embrace told her everything she needed to know.

  “The treaty is ready to be signed. I shall not leave you again.” He pressed a final kiss on her head, then swung Charlotte into his arms and tossed her up in the air. She squealed with delight, but John hung back with his thumb in his mouth.

  Hannah pressed a hand to her chest, and tears sprang to her eyes. “Oh, Birch! I could expire from joy.”

  The light in his pirate eyes was a blaze of love and devotion. “What say you to the notion of letting someone else keep the light, my love?”

  “I would say I have my eye on a suitable gentleman.” A young man from the village had been helping her as her belly grew ponderous and she grew awkward. “We shall to go to Boston?”

  His grin spread across his face. “I have a yen to see China when the babe is old enough. The Mermaid is well equipped for the journey, and I have already outfitted the captain’s quarters to hold our brood of children.”

  The breath left her lungs as visions of Shanghai, silk, and exotic teas flooded her mind.

  He put down Charlotte and embraced Hannah again. “Your light led me to freedom, my love. What need have I of a lighthouse when you are by my side?”

  With his arm around her shoulders, he turned her to face the sea and his ship. “Together we will embark on adventures beyond comprehension, Hannah. What say you to that?”

  Her heart was so full she found it hard to speak, so she turned and threw her arms around his neck. “’Twas a momentous day when I pulled you from the sea, Captain. I don’t think I shall throw you back.”

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Dear Reader,

  To say I’m thrilled to deliver this book to you is an understatement. Freedom’s Light has languished in my virtual drawer for eighteen years, but it’s been a precious story to me from the first moment I came up with the idea.

  This is the novel that landed me my wonderful agent Karen Solem, and this is the book I’ve always regretted not publishing. The Revolutionary War period was a tough sell back when I wrote it, and I wasn’t sure this novel would ever be in your hands. I’m so thankful my terrific editor Amanda Bostic loved it as much as I do and wanted to bring it to life.

  Please let me know what you think of Hannah and Birch’s story!

  Colleen Coble

  colleen@colleencoble.com

  colleencoble.com

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’m so blessed to belong to the terrific HarperCollins Christian Publishing dream team! I’ve been with my great fiction team for fifteen years, and they are like family to me. I learn something new with every book, which makes writing so much fun for me!

  Our fiction publisher and editor, Amanda Bostic, is as dear to me as a daughter. She really gets suspense and has been my friend from the moment I met her all those years ago. Fabulous cover guru Kristen Ingebretson works hard to create the perfect cover—and does. And, of course, I can’t forget the other friends in my amazing fiction family: Becky Monds, Kristen Golden, Allison Carter, Jodi Hughes, Paul Fisher, Matt Bray, Kimberly Carlton, Laura Wheeler, and Kayleigh Hines. You are all such a big part of my life. I wish I could name all the great folks at HCCP who work on selling my books through different venues. I’m truly blessed!

  Julee Schwarzburg is a dream editor to work with. She totally gets fiction, and our partnership is pure joy. This book was a special challenge with such historical detail, and her eye on making sure it was right was a tremendous help!

  My agent, Karen Solem, has helped shape my career in many ways, and that includes kicking an idea to the curb when necessary. We are about to celebrate eighteen years together! And my critique partner of twenty years, Denise Hunter, is the best sounding board ever. Thanks, friends!

  I’m so grateful for my husband, Dave, who carts me around from city to city, washes towels, and chases down dinner without complaint. My kids—Dave, Kara (and now Donna and Mark)—love and support me in every way possible, and my little granddaughter, Alexa, makes every day a joy. She’s talking like a grown-up now, and having her spend the night is more fun than I can tell you. Our little grandson, Elijah, is seventeen months old now, and we are expecting a new baby in May. Exciting times!

  Most important, I give my thanks to God, who has opened such amazing doors for me and makes the journey a golden one.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1.Arranged marriages were common in this era. What do you think about that idea?

  2.I sometimes wonder which side of the conflict I would have been on. Have you ever thought about our struggle for freedom and how you would have reacted? Would you have sided with England and tried to keep the status quo or would you have fought hard for autonomy?

  3.Lydia’s willfulness seems all too common these days. Why do you think society seems to have gone in the direction of self?

  4.A grudge can become all consuming. For me, it’s harder to forgive something done against a loved one than against me personally. What do you struggle with?

  5.The story dealt with obsession in several different forms. Galen’s obsession with Hannah, Lydia’s obsession with Galen, Birch’s obsession with revenge, and various obsessions with power. Which one is the hardest for you to understand?

  6.The Puritan church of that era could focus on rules and not love. Have you ever experienced a church like that?

  7.Jesus was Hannah’s first love. That can be hard to maintain in the stresses of life. What anchors you?

  8.Hannah always circled back to what Birch really needed—God. For me personally, I often seek to help someone in my own power, which is exactly the opposite of what I should be doing. How do you deal with this issue?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Colleen Coble is a USA TODAY bestselling author and RITA finalist best known for her romantic suspense novels, including Tidewater Inn, Rosemary Cottage, and the Mercy Falls, Lonestar, Rock Harbor, and Sunset Cove series.

  Visit her website at www.colleencoble.com

  Twitter: @colleencoble

  Facebook: colleencoblebooks