“To Benjamin?” My voice rose in disbelief. How could all of these arrangements have been made without my knowledge? Was I so consumed with my desire to sail that I had missed things happening right under my nose?
“What’s wrong with Benjamin?” My father held up his hand before I could answer. “Never mind. I know what’s wrong with Benjamin. He doesn’t do what he says he’ll do.”
“He’s always done what I’ve asked him to do,” I said, thinking of Benjamin helping me with my disguise, cutting my hair, warning me that my father was back in Southampton.
“Yes, I should have known his loyalties were with you, Charlotte.” My father dug his hand into the pocket of his breeches. “After he told us where you had gone, he gave me this. Made me promise to give it to you.”
I took the folded square of parchment my father held out to me. Breaking the wax seal, I opened the square to find a single sentence in Benjamin’s careful handwriting inside.
Rachel Carnigan says hello.
Laughter bubbled from inside me despite the situation. Even thousands of miles away, Benjamin was still my best friend. I looked forward to the day when I told him of my experiences in the New World.
My father cleared his throat, bringing me back to the present moment. He wasn’t done defending himself.
“I hoped Lady Elizabeth would teach you—”
“She wasn’t teaching me anything I wanted to know, Father.” I paced away from him, slapping my bare feet onto the sand. “I didn’t want to know how to set a table with French tea cups, or how to prepare a dinner for twenty prestigious guests, or how to arrange daffodils and sunflowers in a crystal vase. All I wanted was to be on the water, on a ship, your ship. I wanted to come here to the Americas and see the world… with you.”
“I wanted to keep you safe, Charlotte. The sea is a dangerous place,” my father shot back. “When I found out you’d hopped onto Finley’s ship, do you know what my first thought was?”
“I’m going to kill her?” I offered.
My father grunted and ground his teeth. “No. I thought, ‘Oh, God, don’t take her too.’ I didn’t want to think about what could happen to you out there.” He thrust his arm out over the water in front of us. “You’re a piece of your mother, a piece of my Emily. You’re a treasure, Charlotte.”
“So better to box me up in Southampton, is that it? Box me up for safekeeping, marry me off to Benjamin, and leave me to wither!”
My voice must have risen louder than I had realized because when I paced away from my father, I caught sight of Daniel and Tizoc running toward me. Tizoc veered off toward Xochitl’s shelter when Citlali called him, but Daniel continued to the shore.
“Charlotte!” He called as he cleared the distance between us. Sucking in a breath and resting his hand on my shoulder, he leveled his blue eyes on mine. “Everything all right here?” He cast a hard look over my shoulder toward my father.
“This is business between my daughter and me, son,” my father said impatiently.
“No.” Daniel stepped around me to stand in front of my father. He was of equal height and could look my father in the eye. “Everything about Charlotte is my business.”
My father regarded Daniel, shocked by his tone and words. His eyes grazed over Daniel’s empty sleeve, and recognition washed over my father’s face.
“You. I’ve seen you before.”
“Yes, and you didn’t deem me fit for your crew at the time.” The muscles in his jaw tightened, his feet firmly planted in the sand between my father and me.
“The boy that was with you,” my father continued, looking around Daniel at me. “You were the boy?”
“I was.”
“I didn’t know it was you, Charlotte. How could I not know my own daughter?” Though he said the words more to himself than to me, he sounded truly penitent.
Something tugged in my chest.
“You should have taken a good look at her as your daughter,” Daniel said before I had a chance to speak. “How could you bear to be away from her? I don’t understand how a man with your business sense and sailing brilliance could make such a blunder as… as stupid as ignoring the dreams of the most beautiful, most loving, most wonderful, most beautiful person ever created.” Daniel huffed out a long breath.
“You said ‘most beautiful’ twice,” my father said.
“What?”
“Most beautiful. You said it twice.”
“Yes… well… God, she’s magnificent. Look at her,” Daniel said, jerking his arm back to indicate me. “Really look at her.”
And, for once, my father did.
“Charlotte.” His voice was barely a whisper. “I’m sorry.” His green eyes pleaded. “I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness or your love, but I want them both. I want them more than anything. It was wrong of me to…” My father buried his head in his wet hands, trying to regain some control.
“I did so many things wrong. I know not letting you sail was like asking you not to breathe. I would have gone around anyone who stood in my way too.” He looked at me. “You may look like your mother, but you’re definitely my child, my daughter. I did what I thought was best because I love you. Now and always. What more can I say?” He looked as if he were about to collapse onto the beach.
Tears rolled down both our cheeks now as I stepped around Daniel and reached out to my father. He took my hand in his big, sea-roughened one.
“You don’t need to say any more,” I said. “You’ve said exactly the right thing. I love you too, Father.”
He caught me in his arms and pulled me closer. He stopped when he remembered the blood on his tunic. “I owe you a hug.”
“You owe me many hugs,” I corrected, as he wiped his eyes. “And we have a great deal of catching up to do.”
“Aye, that we do.” We walked up the beach back to Xochitl’s shelter.
“Firstly,” I said, turning to Daniel. “This is Captain Daniel Connor, and I will be marrying him—not Benjamin—shortly.”
“Marrying? Oh… well…” my father sputtered.
“I thought I’d start with the most important information first then fill in the silly details later.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” My father narrowed his eyes at Daniel. It was going to take a little convincing for him to see that Daniel was worthy of my love. “What else?”
“I consider the Sunal woman and baby you saved part of my family and would do anything to protect them. I’ve killed for them, and I would do it again.”
My father stopped walking and turned to face me. “You did what? Cripes, Charlotte!” He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me over. “Did you get hurt at all? You could have been killed.”
I rested my hands on his. “I’m fine. Physically anyway. I won’t lie and say that certain images don’t flash in my mind when I close my eyes though.” With Daniel by my side, those images were fading, but they were still there. They might always be there. “I did what had to be done.”
My father exhaled a slow breath as he continued to study me. “Why did I ever think caging you up in Southampton was the right thing to do?”
“Ha!” Daniel intertwined his fingers with mine. “You can’t cage someone like Charlie. She’s a free spirit.” He kissed my hand as we arrived in front of Xochitl’s shelter.
Tizoc came out holding the new baby. He looked so proud, his eyes a deep shade of honey as he presented the newest member of his kin.
“Tiegan. Little Princess.” He winked a golden eye at me. “The first Sunal born in our new home.”
“The first of many.” I peeked into the blanket at the tiny baby. She was perfect with her delicate, dark features and thick black hair.
“We will do well,” Tizoc said. “This baby proves it.”
The rest of Tizoc’s family gathered around, adoring the baby and thanking my father for his skill in delivering the little one.
“Maybe all those years at sea weren’t for mere business,” he said. “I w
ouldn’t have known what to do if I hadn’t traveled so much.” At least some good had come from his being away from me for so long.
“Charlotte!”
I looked past my father to see Eric and Riley jogging over. I now had more family than I knew what to do with.
As the dawn surrendered to day, more Sunal from the Swell came streaming over to Xochitl’s shelter to have a look at the baby and offer congratulations. Acalon held his daughter for his people to see, encouraging them to believe starting over was possible. Their culture would survive through their children born in this new place. Tizoc would lead them. They couldn’t be in better hands.
Daniel took a turn holding the baby. He looked nervous as he cradled the child on his left arm. It would be some time before we were ready for one of our own. We needed time to enjoy each other first.
As my father talked with Yaoti, I was overcome with a sense of tranquility. Of perfect happiness.
Then I felt the eyes on me.
Shifting my gaze to Tizoc standing a couple of paces away, I watched him smile as dark eyebrows raised above the tiger eyes.
Thank you, Cihuapilli, he thought. I believed I was supposed to save you, but it happened the other way around, didn’t it?
No. We saved each other, Tizoc. As friends are meant to. I pressed my fingers to my lips and blew him a kiss.
Again, he smiled. As we watched each other, a young Sunal woman from the Swell walked over to him, her long, black hair shimmering down her back. His gaze slid to her for a moment, and I noted the quick flicker in his eyes.
Perhaps new beginnings existed for everyone here in Florida.
Before I could spend too much time thinking about Tizoc with someone, Daniel slipped up behind me. Spinning me around, he caught my mouth with his and kissed me as if he were ready for our own new beginning.
“How about we take a stroll? Find that place in the vision. Our place.”
“An excellent idea, Captain.”
Daniel nipped at my earlobe before taking my hand and leading me toward the water. Before my feet reached the sea, however, a white puff of fur skittering across the sand caught our attention.
“Looks as if someone wants to come with us.” Daniel released my hand and scooped up Ghost.
“And why shouldn’t he?” I took the cat from Daniel. “He’s been on this adventure with us all along. He wants to make sure we end it properly.”
“You and me together. That’s the best ending I can think of.”
Daniel grasped my hand again, and with a quick glance to the Charlotte bobbing contentedly next to the Emily, we sloshed along the shore.
“What else do you think is out there?” I motioned to the horizon. It still called my name.
“Only one way to find out,” Daniel said. “Sail with me?”
Enjoy an excerpt from another Discovery Series Book…
CAST WITH ME
A Paranormal Discovery Book
“What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined ... to strengthen each other ... to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.”
George Eliot
Chapter One
The world had decided I didn’t exist.
A lady in a purple, striped dress parked herself in front of me as if I were invisible. Didn’t even ask if I was in line. She just didn’t see me.
She wasn’t the only one either.
This exact scene replayed at the public library, in the halls of Olaf Browne High School, at the Zephyr Art Gallery where I worked a couple hours a week. Didn’t matter if I wore neon green or strung twinkling Christmas lights around my neck.
So I went home, foregoing the few essentials for which I’d come to the market—salt and vinegar chips, apples, white grape pomegranate juice. Trudged up to my room instead. Mom didn’t stop me. She didn’t see me either. Not really. Her detective nose was always buried in whatever case she was trying to solve—saving the world “one psychopath at a time” as she called it.
I stood in front of the mirror on the back of my closet door and studied my reflection. Yep. Same as always. Two green eyes, two ears. One pierced all along its rim. A reasonable nose above good-looking lips. Long brown hair, a little stringy by this time of day. An angry zit on my cheek. Seriously, invisible people didn’t get acne, did they?
I was there. Dahlia Mayson. One seventeen-year old human. My heart beat in my chest. My breath flowed in and out of my lungs. I took up space. Flesh and blood. Real.
So what was with everyone?
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I flopped onto my bed and let the soft leopard-print quilt rub against my bare arms. Sterling, my Siamese cat, uncoiled from her slumber and crawled onto my stomach. Even she only noticed me when it benefited her.
“What,” I said into my phone.
“Hey, D,” Nikki said. Okay, maybe a few humans acknowledged my existence. “Alise and I are going to the movies tonight. Want in?”
Nikki Sodorov and Alise Bedeau had been my best friends since they moved from the mainland to Samson Island—Nikki ten years ago and Alise eight. By hanging out with me they had condemned themselves to a similar brand of invisibility, but at least we all had each other.
“Can’t, Nik,” I said. “Got to work.”
“You looked sick to me during Calc,” Nikki said. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could hear the smirk on her face. “Maybe you shouldn’t go to work.”
“I definitely shouldn’t go to work, but I’ve got to.” I added a hint of a whine to my voice to be convincing. Truthfully, I liked working at the gallery, but Nikki and Alise both had crappy jobs at Frankie’s Sandwich Shop. I had a duty as their pal to commiserate about the pains of trying to earn money when you’re an unskilled teenage laborer.
I’d lucked out with the job at the gallery. My father’s cousin, Sophia Mayson, ran it. My dad and I used to go there at least once a week to visit and wander and daydream. Sophia saw one of my drawings once—a swan gliding across a lake with a mirror-like surface—tacked to my father’s home office wall. She told him then and there that when I turned fifteen, she’d give me a job. She stuck to her word and on my fifteenth birthday, Sophia sent me a card with a schedule of my hours for the week. Worked there ever since, answering phones and whatever else Sophia wanted me to do.
“C’mon, D,” Nikki said. “Just once. Call in sick just once.”
“No. Sophia is counting on me.”
A long sigh gushed into my ear. “I wish I had your morals.”
“You wish you had my boss.”
“True. Frankie sucks.”
“And stinks.”
Nikki laughed. “Can’t make a burger to save his ass either.” She took in a loud breath. “Okay, then. See you tomorrow.”
“Later.” I tossed my phone on my nightstand and rolled over, pouring Sterling off my stomach. She meowed but settled up near the pillows on my bed. I stroked her sleek, grayish fur until a purr buzzed in her throat. Now that I was lying down, the urge to go to work fizzled away, birthing a more potent urge to nap.
Shaking my head, I forced myself to my feet and after a quick shower, I changed into my black pants and white, button-down dress shirt—official Zephyr Art Gallery uniform. Looked like an unfinished tuxedo. Some strands of black and silver beads thrown around my neck femmed it up a bit. Not that anyone paid any attention to me with Sophia gliding around like she did. Still felt the need to make an attempt. Silly me.
“Dahlia? Dahl?” my mother called from downstairs. I cringed at the way she said my name. Always sounded like doll, which I definitely was not.
After grabbing my school bag, I went down to the kitchen where Mom sorted file folders at the table.
“Oh,” she said, a surprised look in her eyes. “I wasn’t sure if you’d left.”
Nice when your own mother doesn’t know if you’re home or not. I mean, only the two of us lived in the house. You’d think she could keep track.
“No. I
’m still here.” I held my hands out to either side of me so she would see me, but she’d already refocused on her work.
“Listen.” Mom stuffed her pen behind her ear as she rifled through a book by her right hand. “I’m heading back to the station in a few. You’ll need to get your own dinner and—”
“Mom,” I interrupted. “Going to work. This is dinner.” I held up the last apple we had in the house and half a bag of salt and vinegar chips.
“Oh, right,” she said. “What day is it anyway?”
Typical. “Thursday, Mom. It’s Thursday.”
“Already?” She stopped looking at her papers long enough to rub at her temples.
“Yep.” I leaned against the counter and studied my mother. She still had on her business suit, a chocolate color today. A peach sweater peeked from under the jacket, giving her dark skin an autumn-like glow. Even overworked, every auburn hair on my mother’s head was in place. Brown eyes traced perfectly in black liner. Lips rimmed in a deep burgundy. After my father died, she was a zombie for a week, then she put on this very suit and went to work. She’d been solving crimes nonstop ever since. Funny how mourning makes you productive.
I fingered the row of silver hoops and studs in my left ear. We all had our ways of surviving the cards we’re dealt.
My mother stood, gathered up her folders, and slipped them into her bag, moving as if she didn’t have a lot of time. She never had a lot of time.
“See you tomorrow, Dahl.” She disappeared out the front door.
“See you.” I stood for a good five minutes in the kitchen, thinking. About everything and nothing at the same time. The house was so quiet, morgue-like. Couldn’t stand it. I pulled on my hooded sweatshirt and slung my school bag across my chest. After dumping the apple and chips into the bag, I followed my mother’s footsteps and left.
Outside the air was October crisp. Halloween was a week away, and the smell of autumn hung on every breeze. Leaves crunched their dry, red-orange-brown tune beneath my feet, offering further proof that I did, in fact, exist. If I made a sound, I was real, right? Small hope, but I clung to it.
Sail With Me (A Discovery Series Book) Page 31
