by Merry Farmer
The ferry was larger than she would have imagined, which was perfect as it provided several places for her and Phoebe to settle in. They chose an out of the way corner on the lower level and fell asleep promptly, clutching their bags to their chests.
Natalia had no idea how long she’d slept, but she was awakened abruptly by a woman’s imperious voice saying, “Good heavens. What are you doing here?”
Both Natalia and Phoebe jerked to full wakefulness only to find themselves staring into the sharp frown of Lady Darlington. Phoebe squeaked in alarm and sat up straight. Her bag began to tumble out of her grasp, but she scrambled to catch it.
“Mama,” she said, blinking rapidly and going red in the face.
They both looked an utter mess. All the fine clothes and fancy hats in the world couldn’t disguise the fact that the two of them had traveled for nearly twenty-four hours without washing or changing their clothes. They’d barely eaten in that time either. The result was that Natalia felt light-headed and out of sorts, and certainly not in the mood to be accosted by the likes of Lady Darlington.
“We were concerned about you,” Natalia said, pushing herself to stand, though her body felt heavy as lead as she did. “Phoebe tells me you are running off with a charlatan.”
“I beg your pardon?” a male voice said from just behind Lady Darlington.
Natalia leaned to one side to get a good look at the man. Several things fell into place at once at the sight of him. He bore a resemblance to Linus, that much was certain, but the older man had a certain meanness to him that Linus didn’t have.
To Natalia’s surprise, Phoebe stepped forward and said, “Mama, you cannot continue with this charade. Please come back to London with me. We’ll figure out what to do with our lives.”
“I have figured out what I am doing with my life, you impertinent girl,” Lady Darlington said. She twisted so that she could reach for Linus’s father. “I shall devote myself to God’s love.”
Phoebe let out a long-suffering sigh and pressed her fingertips to her temples.
Natalia would have stepped up to make some sort of argument on Phoebe’s behalf, but at that moment, Linus strode into the room. Her whole being lit up in excitement. She gripped her bag tightly and flew past Lady Darlington and Linus’s father to race to Linus.
“My darling,” she declared as she approached him. “I knew they could never keep us apart.”
Linus’s eyes went wide at the sight of her. For a split-second, his face filled with joy. All too soon, though, that joy collapsed into confusion. “Natalia, what on earth are you doing here?” he asked.
“I came after you,” she declared with pride. “Mama and Lord Malcolm cannot keep us apart. We are meant to be together, and now we will be.”
Linus’s mouth hung open as though he had no idea what to say to the development. He rested his hands on her arms, drawing her closer, but at the same time, he seemed reluctant to embrace or kiss her. He glanced around the small room filled with benches. They most certainly weren’t alone. While she and Phoebe had slept in the corner, the cramped room had filled with people making their way across the sea to Ireland. Natalia was suddenly highly aware that she and Linus—not to mention Phoebe, her mother, and Linus’s father—were the sole source of entertainment for the passengers.
“We can’t speak here,” Linus said in a low voice. He twisted to the side and offered Natalia his arm.
“I thought you would be happy to see me,” she said, just above a whisper, as they hurried their way out of the room and onto the ferry’s wide deck.
“I am happy to see you,” Linus insisted. “It’s just a bit of a surprise is all.”
The deck was equally as crowded as the interior waiting room. Linus searched up and down, presumably for a place they could speak in private. There didn’t seem to be any such place.
“You made it to Liverpool and this ferry all by yourself?” he asked as he walked her down the deck to the back of the boat.
“With Lady Phoebe’s help,” Natalia told him. “Thank you for sending her to me with your regrets. I never would have thought to come after you this way if you hadn’t.”
Her wide smile faded quickly as Linus glanced sideways at her, looking awkward. “I am sorry that I didn’t say a proper goodbye to you,” he said with a sigh. “That was my fault. But, Natalia, darling, a short separation wouldn’t have hurt us.”
Natalia’s heart sank further. “I don’t want to be separated from you, Linus. I want to marry you, and you want to marry me.”
“I do, I do,” he assured her.
The more they walked the deck, the more attention they drew. Linus was clearly uncomfortable with it, and the more Natalia noticed the smirks and leering stares of their fellow passengers, the less she liked them.
“This is not ideal,” Linus said at last with a heavy sigh, changing direction and marching to one of the canvas-covered lifeboats skimming along at the back of the ferry. “But at least no one will see or potentially overhear us if we conceal ourselves here.”
Natalia stopped and gaped as he loosened the canvas covering of one of the lifeboats. “You can’t be serious,” she said. “You want to have this conversation in a lifeboat, under a canvas cover?”
“There don’t seem to be any other private rooms available,” Linus told her.
Natalia watched him as he uncovered more of the boat. It was large for a lifeboat, and the interior looked clean and dry, from what she could see. Her initial shock and reluctance gave way to the sense of adventure that had carried her all the way from Paddington Station to Liverpool.
“All right,” she said at last, handing Linus her bag and then climbing over the edge of the boat. “If you think this is the safest place to have the conversation we desperately need to have.”
“I do,” Linus said.
Once they were inside the lifeboat, Linus adjusted the canvas so that they would be out of sight to anyone on the ferry. The lifeboat was deeper than it seemed at first, and there was a surprising amount of space for them to sit upright, after he adjusted the canvas. He shifted the fabric over their heads so that a wide gap facing the sea let in ample sunlight. At least they wouldn’t be in the dark.
“You shouldn’t have come after me,” Linus said in a soft voice, once they were settled. He reached for her, brushing a hand across her face. “Though I must admit, part of me is flattered that you did.”
Natalia leaned toward him from where she sat on one of the boat’s benches. “I don’t want to be apart from you, Linus, no matter what my family says. I don’t care who you are or where you came from, as Lord Malcolm seems to.”
Linus stared at her with a self-conscious look. “You might care if you knew more about where I came from.”
Natalia shook her head. “All I know is that man who seems to have Lady Darlington in his thrall is your father. On the train from London, Phoebe explained that he is some sort of a religious charlatan. But I don’t care about any of that. You’re the only one I care about.”
Linus let out a breath and rubbed a hand over his face. “There is more to it than that, Natalia. Yes, he is my father and he is a charlatan, but he’s more than that. For years, he has been scheming to steal money from vulnerable ladies, like Lady Darlington. He’s been quite successful at it as well.”
“I don’t care if—oh!” Natalia paused as the lifeboat bumped hard against the side of the ferry. She’d thought they were fastened more securely to the large vessel. The bump was nothing more than a distraction that served to gather her thoughts, though. She reached for Linus’s hands and squeezed them. “It doesn’t matter to me what your father has done. You are not your father. As I continually tell everyone I chance to meet, you are a brilliant, innovative physician. Your reputation is your own, not his.”
“Perhaps,” Linus said as the boat bumped again. His grip on her hands tightened. “I need to tell you more about how I was raised, though. I didn’t have the same sort of upbringing that, well, th
at just about anyone else has. I was born and raised within the community of so-called believers that my father formed in his younger years.”
“It sounds exciting, if you ask me,” Natalia said, her smile growing. “Very Bohemian.”
Linus laughed. “It was certainly different. But that is precisely the problem. I understand fully why your mother and Lord Malcolm don’t consider me a viable option as your husband. Based on my background alone, I’m not.”
“I say you are,” Natalia insisted. “We are at the end of the nineteenth century, looking into a whole new century of thought and practice. The world is changing by leaps and bounds, and I aim to change with it. Besides,” she added with a shrug and a sigh, “so many of what my mother and Lord Malcolm would consider to be eligible men of my own class are marrying American heiresses who can save their flagging estates. Just look at Frederick Herrington and his engagement to Miss Garrett.”
“I thought you liked Miss Garrett,” Linus said with a grin.
“Oh, I do. She’s jolly good fun.” Natalia’s answering grin only stayed in place for a moment. “But dollar princesses like her certainly are making it difficult for the rest of us to find husbands.”
Linus smirked gently at her. “Are you saying you’re only interested in me because I’m available?”
“No, not at all,” Natalia balked, eyeing him carefully to see if he was teasing her or if he was truly hurt. She inched closer to him. “I love you, Linus. I truly do. You are the only man I could ever see myself wed to.”
“And if I’m honest,” Linus said in return, “I can’t imagine my life with anyone but you.”
He scooted forward, slipping his arms around her and drawing her close. He slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her with a tenderness that filled Natalia’s heart with light. In spite of the fact that she was certain she stank from all her traveling. He kissed her anyhow, just as she loved him in spite of the fact that he was imperfect. The joy of the moment made her feel as though she were floating.
Several seconds later, she began to feel as though she were floating for other reasons. At some point when she hadn’t noticed, the lifeboat had started to bob more than it had. She frowned as she broke their kiss.
“Something isn’t right,” she whispered.
“I’ll make it right, my darling,” Linus said, moving in for another kiss.
She placed her hands on his chest. “No, something truly isn’t right.”
He finally felt it as well and straightened. With one swift movement, he pushed the canvas concealing them aside. Natalia’s heart dropped to her stomach at the sight of nothing but open water around them. At some point in their conversation, the lifeboat had detached from the ferry.
Linus muttered a curse under his breath and set to work gathering the canvas and shoving it aside so that he could get a better look at what was going on. The ferry wasn’t too far away, but the distance between them was growing fast. Natalia spotted a trio of young boys standing at the back of the ferry, pointing and laughing at them. She instantly wondered if the little scamps had seen them climb into the lifeboat and untied it from the ferry as a prank.
“What do we do?” Natalia gasped, twisting this way and that to assess their situation.
“We try to make it back to the ferry,” Linus said in a take-charge voice.
He found a pair of oars in the bottom of the lifeboat and set to work attaching them to the rings along the boat’s edge, where they belonged. There were several sets of rings and several oars, and even though he set a pair of oars up for her as well, Natalia knew she would be useless compared to him. She simply didn’t have the strength to row effectively, though she tried.
“We’re never going to catch the ferry,” Linus said after pulling hard on his oars for several minutes. “It’s traveling on steam power and we’re—”
“Not,” Natalia finished his sentence. A feeling of dread filled her gut. “Surely they’ll see we’ve detached and send someone after us.”
“They might,” Linus said with a nod. “But if those boys are responsible, they might not.”
“Why not?”
“Do you think you can scream loud enough to be heard on the ferry?” he asked by way of answer.
Natalia sucked in a breath and opened her mouth to shout, but thought better of it. “Probably not,” she answered. “So what now?”
Linus paused in his rowing, glancing around at the rolling sea. At least the waves were relatively calm and the sun was shining. “We find a place to row to shore,” he said, continuing to pull at his oars. “There are likely a dozen islands or more in these waters. All we have to do is find one and settle in until our friends realize we’re missing.”
“That sounds simple enough,” Natalia said.
Inside, her stomach was a mass of butterflies. Perhaps she should have stayed at home and waited for Linus after all. Adventure was a wonderful thing in theory, but she had a feeling her true mettle was about to be tested.
Chapter 10
To say that Linus was concerned about the predicament he and Natalia found themselves in was an understatement. Drifting around the Irish Sea in a lifeboat, the ferry slowly steaming away toward the horizon, only slips of land here and there providing a contrast to the blue-green sea, was disconcerting.
“There should be any number of ferries and fishing boats or other vessels coming through this way,” he told Natalia as he picked a strip of land on the horizon and put all his strength into rowing toward it. “Someone will happen by and pluck us out of the sea at any moment.”
“I’m sure they will,” Natalia said with an uneasy smile.
Linus tried to reassure her with a smile of his own. The more he seemed confident, the less likely she was to fly into a panic.
Then again, Natalia wasn’t the sort to panic at a little adventure, no matter how wild it was.
“Do you suppose the fact that it’s still so early in the morning is part of the reason why there are so few other vessels out on the water?” she asked, holding a hand to her forehead and scanning the waters around them.
“Either that or the tides aren’t right,” Linus answered.
“The tides, of course.” Her smile grew downright mischievous as she studied him. “You are so terribly clever, Linus. I cannot think of anyone else I would rather be stranded alone in a boat on the Irish Sea with.”
Linus laughed out loud at that. Her confidence in him strengthened his arms and kept him rowing long after he would have given up and simply drifted for a while, waiting for some sort of ship to come along. His efforts bore fruit as the strip of land he’d been aiming for grew closer and a small lighthouse came into view.
“If there’s a lighthouse, someone must live there,” Natalia said, perking up and grabbing the oars she’d abandoned after her initial attempt to row. “They will know how to help us.”
Without a watch or a clock, it was hard to tell how long it took for them to row all the way to the island with the lighthouse. Hours, if Linus’s estimate was correct. Distances always looked farther than they were on the unbroken plain of the sea. By the time they rowed their way to the rocky shore, hopped out of the lifeboat, and pulled it all the way onto the bleak beach, Linus was so tired he could have flopped in the sparse, spiky grass and slept for weeks.
“What a curiously romantic place,” Natalia said, panting from the effort of bringing the lifeboat ashore. She stood straighter, placing a hand on her chest and glancing around.
The island wasn’t much to look at. It was little more than a vast pile of rocks with precious little soil and very little vegetation growing from that soil. The lighthouse was the most prominent feature of the island. It was short, as far as lighthouses went, but appeared well-maintained. Best of all, a small cottage nestled up against it, indicating that someone lived on the island, at least part of the time, likely to maintain the lighthouse.
“Let’s explore,” Natalia said, excitement lighting her tired eyes and turning her draw
n face pink.
Linus’s nap in the grass would have to wait. He nodded, checking to make certain the lifeboat wouldn’t be washed out to sea again, then strode up to take Natalia’s hand. Together, they climbed their way over rocks and scrub plants, frightening a few crabs and sea birds as they went.
“This is exciting,” Natalia said as they walked. “It rather feels as though we are two survivors of a shipwreck, seeking shelter and salvation.”
Linus laughed aloud. “I love your imagination,” he said, squeezing her hand tighter. “I dare say you could find the entertaining side of a shipwreck if you were ever in one.”
“Life must be all about imagination,” she insisted as they found a narrow footpath cutting through some of the thicker vegetation. “Otherwise, it would be nothing but drabness and disappointment.”
She had a point. He’d seen more disappointing things in life than beautiful ones. Just watching the expectation in her eyes as they approached the lighthouse made his heart feel full and warm. Perhaps Natalia was right to come after him without waiting. He would do anything to have her liveliness as a permanent part of his life.
“Hello?” she called out as they reached the lighthouse. “Is anybody home?”
Silence followed her call. Linus stepped past her to knock on the door of the cottage at the base of the lighthouse. “Hello?”
The only answer was the rumble of the waves against the edges of the island and the call of sea birds.
“No one is home,” Natalia said, glancing up to him as if waiting to see what bold move he would make next.
Linus twisted to the side, searching the immediate area of the island for clues about who lived there and where they might be. The closest thing he found to an answer was a small, empty dock stretching out from the shore and into the water.
“Whoever lives here, they must not be home,” he said, nodding to the empty dock. “Perhaps they’ve gone to the mainland for supplies?”
