While I was pacing my room, trying to gather the courage to confess my secret, that dirty rich dog showed up. He tried to apologize for behaving the way he did in front of his mother, but all of my feelings for him flew out the porthole right then and there. The world is a rough place, and if he wasn’t going to stand up to his mother, how would he ever protect our child? So I never told him. My family helped me raise Nathaniel, but I’ve been bringing him up on my own since I lost them.
I still like men, Remington, do not get me wrong, but I do not need a man to get by, and I reckon I have raised a mighty fine young lad by myself.”
Impressed by her bravery, I held my hand over my heart. “You must be so strong, Torrence.”
“A wise man once told me, you’ll be surprised how strong you can be when strength is your only way to survive.”
Though I giggled at her impersonation of an English accent, I let her know I liked that statement.
“It’s true. And sometimes you have to do shit you don’t want to do to survive. But you only truly fail when you give up.” She winked, and I was certain that she had also heard those empowering lines from Mason. “Now, as for your family, do you love the man who raised you?”
“I do. I love him with all my heart.”
“How’s he treated you?”
“Oh, he treats me like a little flower. That’s what he calls me, and I have always thought of him as my lighthouse and my sunny day.”
“Beautiful.” She looked around. “Now, your birth father, you said you’re afraid to meet him, but do you want to?”
“I do want to. I have heard so much about him, and honestly, I have been following his story for years, now.” I didn’t want to tell her it was Mason because she knew him.
“All right. Well, I’m not the one to tell you what to do, and I sure as shit don’t want to be responsible for the path you end up choosing, but I will tell you this. Life is not a fairytale, sweetheart. Buccaneers and gentlemen are not one in the same, and I reckon you’re going to have to choose between your fathers, or more likely, they’re going to end up choosing for you. So, hold your heart tight, love, because the winds of change are about to blow strong through your world. Sometimes we can find shelter from the storm, but other times we just plain have to brave the weather and see where we land when the sun comes up.”
“That’s beautiful, Torrence.”
“I’ve learned a lot in my thirty-three years, sweetheart. Plus, the stories I hear from the reckless seafarers in here help to keep my line of quotes colorful.” She inhaled her tobacco smoke and patted my hand. “I don’t know if any of that helps, but since your mother’s a loon, I’ll be here if you ever need anyone to talk to. All right?”
“You’re a gem, Torrence.” I squeezed her hand.
“So are you.” She stood up. “So don’t go throwing your pearls to the swine, sweetheart.” As she headed down the stairs, she glanced back at me and chuckled, “And for Christ’s sake, go untie that servant boy.”
With that, she was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the wild cries of the happy whore in the room behind me. To my great relief, she let out a final yelp of satisfaction and silenced. Now I could think in peace. Staring out the window at the harbor and the bustling crowd below, I tapped my fingers on the table and thought about my life, especially focusing on Torrence’s line about braving the storm.
While gazing off at the horizon, my thoughts were interrupted when the man who had been making the whore happy let out a loud and angry, “What?!”
I heard her high-pitched voice excusing something, then he shouted, “No! This is bullshit, Hannah. The biggest, nastiest, bilge rotten, maggot infested pile of bullshit that ever existed!” I heard him throw something heavy over.
“Stop acting like a child, Mason,” the woman said.
It was her. And him. My mother had been in the next room having loud, wild sex with the king of the sea, and now she was arguing with him! Good Lord, could my life get any worse?
Another loud crashing sound rang out as he roared with a beastlike growl. “Why didn’t you tell me this when you got here? Or right after she was born for that matter.”
Oh my. She’d told him about me! Though my heart sank into my gut, my mind spiraled in curiosity. I needed to know more. Scooting closer to the wall, I listened in the same way I used to eavesdrop on my mother in her study.
“I’m sorry, Mason. I wanted to tell you about her, but I didn’t know where to find you.”
“More shit! I have been in London so many times over the years, and every goddamned time I got there your landlubber husband sent his puppets out to try and hire me. So, don’t tell me you didn’t know I was there.”
“Thomas never told me anything. He shut me up in the room while he ran around the town, cheating on me and whatnot. Come to think of it, he was probably keeping me locked away so I wouldn’t ever find you.”
That lying bitch! How dare she make a villain out of my wonderful father.
“You’re full of it, Hannah,” Mason rumbled. I was glad he didn’t believe her. “That man isn’t locking you up any more than you thought I was. You’re the one who does this to yourself. And that’s probably why he isn’t true to you.”
Though I didn’t like the frightful tone he was using, I certainly agreed with the words themselves.
“Just like you weren’t,” she snipped like a bratty child.
He threw something else over. It sounded like the entire bed. Amidst the bashing sounds of shattering glass, it crossed my mind to bust through the door and help her, but she didn’t sound the least bit threatened by the raging man. “I certainly didn’t miss this shit,” she casually huffed.
“And I didn’t miss your hell-bound insanity and outlandish accusations! Goddamn it! I can’t believe the shit you do to my mind!” After kicking something over his voice lowered, so I moved closer yet. “I was always true to you, Hannah, and I would’ve been for all my days. There isn’t another man in this world fit to deal with the madness you can bestow upon a man’s mind, but I would’ve let you burn me up till my last breath if you would’ve stayed by my side. Hell, even once I realized you loved me no longer, I let you hide, and paint, and talk to your damn animals. I would’ve let you go on that way as long as you wanted to, because I loved you. And as much as I hate to admit it, I still do!” He kicked something else.
“I love you, too, Mason,” she cried. “And I love Sterling, too.”
“Ah, I believe you love me, but I reckon it’s only because of what you get out of it. And I think you still love yourself and your own bullshit more than your boy.”
“I love my boy, Mason!” Her voice rang with all the guilt she’d been harboring.
“Do you? Because you haven’t said one damn thing about him since you came in here.”
“I, I was going to…” she stuttered.
“Oh? Were you going to bring up the child you left behind after riding my dick like a wild whore? How motherly of you.” I heard her slap him across the face, but he kept going. “At least you had the courtesy to mention the daughter you kept from me. For all I know, you could just be saying she’s mine because you’re bored in that other man’s bed and you want me to raise her so you can get a better pounding in the night.”
“How dare you talk to me that way!”
“I’ll talk to you however I want! You’re the one who ruined this! I might have been foolish enough to let you climb in my bed last night, but don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten the way you left me alone with that boy. Of all the hell I’ve endured in my lifetime, there hasn’t been one thing as painful as hearing him cry for you after you left. Of all the roles I’ve filled and all the parts I’ve played, figuring out how to raise a young child by myself has by far been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I don’t how the hell I’ve done it, but I have, and since you didn’t ask, I’ll tell you, he’s turned out to be one hell of a man. I can only hope that you can say the same about this d
aughter you robbed from me.”
Though his passionate confession caused my eyes to fill with tears, she only responded with a shitty rebuttal. “Though I’ve regretted leaving you both, I’ve never once worried about the way Sterling would turn out under your care. And as for our girl, I didn’t rob her from you, Mason. I didn’t know about her until I got to London. And by then it was too late.”
“Too late? And what the hell do you call this?” Mason shrieked, pain and betrayal scorching his voice. It pained my heart to hear that big strong man sounding so hurt. “If she is mine—”
“Stop saying that!” Mother screamed with more passion than I had ever heard her exude. “She is yours! She looks just like you and I even gave her the name we chose. Remington Rain is your daughter, Mason Bentley. She is beautiful, and brave, and she loves the rain just like you do.”
Silence.
After what seemed like an eternity, he quietly said, “And I don’t even know her. I hate this. I hate the way you rip me to shreds. Even after all these years you’re the one thing in this world that can make me weak, and I think this news is more than I can stand.”
What did that mean? Did he not want me? What would she do now?
“What are you saying, Mason?” Mother asked.
“Since you left, I’ve kept your quill in my pocket like an idiot, and I’ve been writing you love letters like a fool, so while holding you in my arms last night, I thought that I’d be able to forgive you for leaving me and Sterling, but this, I can’t forgive this.”
“Please Mason. Please.” It sounded like she fell to her knees. “I never understood how much I loved you until I left you, and I now know that you are the best thing that ever happened to me. Please think of the things you wrote to me in those letters and please forgive me for what I have done. I already told Remington about you and Sterling. She needs you, Mason. And I want to be with my son again. I’ve been planning this since I heard of your arrival and I timed everything just right. Thomas is leaving for England this afternoon, and if you can forgive me for my own stupidity, then we can be a family again.”
Moved by her speech, I hoped for the sake of her own aching heart that he would accept her apology, but the fact that she had planned to hide me from my father when he was leaving town was more than I could bare. I had no idea he was going away, and it was apparent to me what I had to do.
The moment I stood up, I heard the door fly open.
“Take me to her,” Mason said in a low, even tone.
I flew back into my chair, blood racing with fear. Shit. Oh shit. It was too late to run. I had nowhere to hide. If Mother saw through my thin disguise or recognized the clothes she had given me, she would not allow me to flee. With one look into my face, Mason would know I was his, and I would never see my father again.
Laying my head down on the table, I held my breath and waited as they passed. Hopefully they would just think I was a drunkard taking a nap.
Once I heard their footsteps fading down the stairway, I knew my plan had worked.
Sitting up, I crept over to the balcony rail and watched them walking towards the pit. Sink me. It was Mason and Midnight from the stories. Mason, tall and handsome, dressed in his clean, regal attire, long braid hanging out of his feathered cavalier hat. Midnight, white blonde hair neatly wrapped within a black cloth, with her face mostly hidden beneath the brim of her feathered tricorn hat. The black cloak hung loosely over her masculine attire and shielded her identity so well. There was no way of telling whether she was a man or a woman, and the forbidding glare beaming from her thickly lined ocean blue eyes was frightful enough to keep anyone from asking.
Near the bottom of the stairs, a man approached Mason and said something I couldn’t hear, but whatever it was, Mason didn’t like it. With a stiff arm, he shoved the man back, and when he fell over the railing and onto the table below, no one made mention of it.
Walking through the crowd, they were eyed closely by everyone, yet no one dared to say a word to the fearsome Mason Bentley or the mysterious sorcerer by his side. Leaning against the bar, Mason gave the barmaid his order. When she reached for his arm, Midnight laid a hand on the wench’s wrist and glared at her until she backed away. I knew all too well that no words were needed to enforce the will of the witch who stood proud beside the king of the sea.
The barmaid delivered the drink from a safe distance, and as Mason sipped the contents of his mug, I watched the way that he and Midnight interacted with each other. To the rest of the world, they were untouchable, but together, they were one. He looked just as confident as ever, and though I was certain no one else would notice, I saw softness in his dark green eyes when he looked at her. And she, oh, Midnight’s ocean blue eyes beamed with a ferocity I had never seen when she caught his gaze. He brought out a passion in her unlike anything I had ever seen, or felt…
Like a silly little girl, I remembered the way Jackson used to look at me, but I forced myself to shut down the memory. I had just heard Mason tell Midnight he would have been true to her all of his days if she’d stayed with him. And I believed it. I wanted a man to love me the way Mason loved Midnight, and now I knew it was not an unreachable fantasy. The love he felt for her was true. So true. And even after all she had done wrong, he forgave her. Like he said, he was the only one fit to deal with her insanity. She needed him. He wanted her. And as I watched them walk out of The Captain’s Wife—a wall of power standing side by side—I knew that she had found her happy ending.
All these years she had been waiting for him, crying in the night, pacing the floor, writing him letters only to burn them. But her heart would hurt no longer. She had her lover, and she would once again have her son. As for me, I wanted my father and my own happy ending.
Once Midnight and Mason were out of sight, I hurried off to the harbor. The sun was sinking, sending colorful rays of light through the clouds that were rolling in, and a thick, salty breeze cooled my sweat as I rushed along. I hope he hasn’t left yet, I prayed, over and over.
The moment I passed the last row of buildings, a man leapt out in front of me, startling me into grabbing my dagger.
“Jackson!” I exclaimed in relief. “You shouldn’t scare me like that. I almost stabbed you.”
He smiled. “You could never get me. I know your moves.”
Damn it, why was he so handsome? Oh, wait, why was he so happy when his wife was missing? “What are you doing here?” I snapped, remembering I wanted to hate him.
“I heard that your father was leaving for London, so I came down here to catch you afore you left. I want to apologize to you.”
“Apologize for what?” I acted like I was unaffected by his bullshit.
“For deceiving you as I did.”
“You should be apologizing to your wife for that.”
“I tried to. Well, it was more of a confession than an apology. The day you and your father brought back that knife, I told her I was going to leave her for you and she went bat monkey mad.” He shook his head in exhaustion. “Since we arrived in Port Royal she’s been threatening to run back to that other rich man she should’ve married in Bristol, and when I got home yesterday, her shit was all gone, so I guess she finally went.”
Liking his story much better than my mother’s, I erased the image of Mother handing me his dagger and promised to convince myself to believe she was lying to persuade me onto her side. “Well, what a shame that is, huh? Maybe he won’t cheat on her like you did.”
“I know what I did was wrong, Remi, but listen, that woman was tearing me apart. What I did was never good enough for her. She wanted more money, and a bigger house, and she wanted me to act proper. But that isn’t me. You know me for who I truly am and you brought the man in me back to life. I hadn’t planned on falling for you, but I did, and I still have feelings for you. In fact, I came down here to ask if you’d be my lady, now.”
Looking into his warm brown eyes and admiring the shape of his well chiseled jaw that was clenched tight
as he waited for my answer, I reminisced all the good times we had. I truly did feel for him, and I believed his story, but I also believed what Mother said about the flogging I would have received for doing what I had done with him. His falling for me could have cost me my life. “If you truly respected me, Jackson, you never would have made a slut out of me behind your wife’s back, and you would have asked to marry me before you bedded me.”
His face drooped. “I was a fool, Remi. And I can’t change what I’ve done, but give me a chance to prove my love for you.”
“Love?” I gasped in surprise.
“Aye. Love. Looky here.” He got down on his knee and pulled out a ring. “I forged this ring myself, just for you. I want you to be my lady for all my days, Remington Rain. Will you marry me?”
My heart sank in my gut. This wasn’t happening. I had to be dreaming. With the last year of my life flashing through my mind, I lowered my head and took a deep breath. The ring was beautiful. It was engraved with the same swirls he had crafted into the handle of the dagger he made me. It had been forged over the fires that would forever burn in the background of my sweetest memories, but memories they would stay. “I’ll tell you what, Jackson. Why don’t you go ask my father?”
Standing up, he started walking in the direction of the harbor. “I’ll go ask him right now.”
I grabbed his arm and turned him to face the other way. “He is staying in one of the rooms at The Captain’s Wife. You may have heard of him. Mason Bentley is his name.”
Every Time It Rains (Uncharted Secrets, Book 3): Endless Horizon Pirate Stories Page 11
