“It’s locked!” Claudia exclaimed.
Hayden jerked on the rusty lock but it didn’t budge. “Well, back in the old days I could have shot it off with a .45, but I guess I’ll have to resort to a hacksaw.”
“What do you think it is? Have you ever seen this box before?” Claudia rushed the questions at him.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Claudia. I’ve never seen the thing. More than likely there’s old fishing lures inside it,” he said in an effort to play down the suspense. “William never threw anything like that away.”
He went over to another storage area in the side of the hull and pulled a hacksaw from an assortment of tools he always carried on the Stardust in case of emergencies.
“But why lock the thing, then hide it?” Claudia asked, unable to contain her excitement. “Are fishing lures that valuable?”
Hayden chuckled. “That depends on how devoted a fisherman you are.”
Claudia practically held her breath while he sawed through the loop on the lock, then groaned with frustration when he didn’t immediately lift the lid.
“What are you doing? Open the darn thing!” she exclaimed.
He picked up the box and carried it over to the ledge of cushions. “Come over here where we can sit down together and look at whatever is inside.”
Quickly, Claudia followed and eased down close beside him. Her heart was drumming in her ears and the sensation that a wild wind was about to blow seemed to surround the two of them like an invisible cloak. The impression was so strong it actually frightened her and she grabbed Hayden’s arm before he could lift the lid to the box.
“Something is—I don’t know, Hayden, maybe we shouldn’t open this thing,” she whispered fervently.
He looked at her with amazement. “Claudia! You practically begged me to search this boat! We traveled all the way down here from San Antonio because of your hunches. And now that we’ve found something, you don’t want to open it!”
Helpless to explain the strange intuitions coming over her, she shook her head. “I’m sorry I’m being so difficult! It’s just that maybe it wasn’t intended for us to uncover what’s hidden inside. Maybe something terrible will happen to us if we do!”
She was trembling now, but whether her case of jitters was from fear or excitement, she wasn’t sure. In any case, she was relieved that he didn’t laugh at her. Instead, he totally surprised her by putting his arm around her shoulder.
“Claudia,” he said as he gently pulled her close to his side, “nothing is going to harm us. We’re here together.”
Together. Together, forever.
The two words swirled through her like a calming mist and all at once she knew this was exactly as things were meant to be. The two of them here together, finding the box and the revelation inside. Hayden was the man she’d been looking for, Claudia realized with sudden clarity. William might have been the image in her visions, yet he’d only been leading her to the man she would love for the rest of her life.
Now all she had to do was convince Hayden. A man who didn’t even believe in rainbows.
Chapter Nine
Moments later Hayden pulled a white plastic bag from the metal container and carefully dumped the contents onto his lap.
Beside him, Claudia sucked in a swift, silent breath as her eyes took in a leather-bound journal along with two bundles of white envelopes tied with blue ribbon.
“Oh, my! Oh, Hayden. Are they—did they belong to your grandfather?”
Totally stunned, Hayden carefully lifted one of the bundles of letters and read the address from the top envelope. “This one is addressed to him. The return is from a woman. Betty Fay Alderson.”
Claudia could actually feel the blood draining from her head. Instantly her ears began to ring. Her hands went cold, her heart stopped. “That can’t be! That’s—Hayden, that’s my grandmother’s maiden name!”
Hayden felt as if an explosion had suddenly rocked the earth beneath them. In total disbelief, his head swung back and forth. “I can’t believe this, but I have to. The evidence is right here in my hands.”
“What does this mean?” she whispered frantically. “That they were lovers?”
Still stiff with shock, he handed her a bundle of the letters, then warily opened the journal. Before he began to read, he picked up a faded, dog-eared snapshot that was tucked snugly in the spine between the first two pages. Incredibly, the black-and-white image had been taken of a young, dark-haired woman standing in front of a two-story house such as Claudia had described in her vision.
Handing the photo to her, he said, “Look, Claudia. This is the house you’ve been hunting. Could that be your grandmother when she was in her early twenties?”
Dazed, Claudia nodded. “Yes. I have a few photos that were taken of her when she was very young.” She flipped the snapshot over and read. “Hotel Lafitte. Seadrift, Texas. Nineteen forty-three.”
“Where is this?” she asked. “Do you know?”
“Yeah. It’s a little fishing town about eighteen miles west of here.”
She closed her eyes and groaned. “I suppose that’s why I kept getting the feeling the house was close by. I wonder what they were doing there?”
His lips twisted with wry cynicism. “What most other lovers at that time were doing when a soldier had a weekend furlough.”
Claudia’s face flamed. “I’m not a prude, Hayden. But to think of my grandmother having an affair…” She placed a hand against her chest. “It just knocks the air right out of me.”
Though he didn’t admit it, Hayden was experiencing the same sort of bewilderment. He wasn’t necessarily surprised that William had once had an affair. After all, he’d been a good-looking, virile man up until the day he’d died. And he’d been a man who liked women, though Hayden was always quite certain he’d never cheated on Alice during their marriage. No, the amazing part of this whole thing was that William might have been in love with Claudia’s grandmother.
“From the looks of her, she was a beautiful, vibrant woman. I can certainly see why my grandfather would have been drawn to her. But perhaps we’d better read some of this stuff before we draw any more conclusions,” he suggested.
Nodding, Claudia untied the ribbon and opened the first letter from the stack. At the same time Hayden turned his attention to the journal.
Some thirty minutes later, twilight had fallen and tears were streaming down Claudia’s face. Lifting her head from the letter lying open in her lap, she wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands.
From what she’d read so far, she’d discovered that Betty Fay had been living in Port O’Connor, working at a fish house when she’d met a young soldier named William Bedford. The two had fallen in love instantly and their relationship quickly deepened into a serious affair. So far the letters talked of marriage, but sadly, Claudia knew that a marriage must have never taken place.
“I don’t think anyone in the family knew about Betty Fay living down here on the coast. Or maybe they did and I just never heard about it,” Claudia said, her voice husky with tears. “I just keep wondering why she never told anyone about William. Why keep it a secret—especially after her husband died?”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing about my grandfather, Claudia. And the only thing I can figure is that it was just too private and painful to share with anyone. Still, you would have thought the two of them would have gotten together later on, after their spouses passed away.”
“Think about it, Hayden. When Betty Fay’s husband died, William’s wife was probably still living. And she went on to outlive William herself, didn’t she?”
Hayden nodded. “Yes. Grandmother only died about a year ago and she’d become feeble a couple of years before that.”
“It seems the timing was never right for Betty Fay and William to be together.” A fresh set of tears burned her eyes and Claudia closed her lids in an effort to ward them off. “In this letter she’s talking about their plans to get married aft
er his army duty was over. I wonder what happened back then? I can’t believe the two of them simply fell out of love. This wasn’t just some frivolous infatuation. The fact that William saved all these letters and Betty Fay cherished the ring tells me that the two of them must have loved each other until the day they died. It’s just too sad to think about.”
Torn by her tears, he slipped his arm around her shoulders and tilted her head to the curve of his shoulder. “You’re taking all this too hard, Claudia. Their lives are in the past now. It’s futile for you to cry over what might have been.”
Sniffing, she lifted her head far enough to study his grim profile. “Surely you’re not so unfeeling that this doesn’t affect you!”
It had affected him, Hayden realized. Far more than he ever wanted to admit to Claudia or to himself. Especially after reading several entries that William had written in the latter part of the journal.
Somewhere in Europe, during William’s military stay, he’d purchased an opal ring from an old Gypsy woman, who’d insisted the stone was blessed with love. When his tour of duty was finally over, he’d brought the ring back to Betty Fay with every intention of marrying her. But when he’d returned to San Antonio after his military duty, he’d learned that Alice was pregnant. He’d went on to write that since there was a slim possibility the baby could be his, he couldn’t shirk his duty to become Alice’s husband and the baby’s father. But in spite of this, his heart would remain with Betty Fay.
As far as Hayden was concerned the whole story of his grandfather’s life was just more solid proof that true love couldn’t endure. Real life always got in the way.
He sighed as a heavy weight seemed to settle on his shoulders. “My grandfather spent years agonizing over a woman he couldn’t have. You think that doesn’t affect me?”
“That’s the impression I got,” she said quietly, then seeing the ragged look on his face, she groaned with remorse. “I’m sorry, Hayden. I don’t know what made me say that. I realize you’re not made of iron. It’s just that this revelation has jerked at my very roots. And I’m making everything worse by weeping all over you.”
He squeezed her hand, then handed her the journal. “Here. Read this. It can explain better than I as to what happened between our grandparents. Right now I’d better get the Stardust on its way back to Port O’Connor.”
Rising to his feet, he went straight to the upper deck of the boat and began to hoist the sails. Claudia took the letters and the journal into the sleeping quarters. At the table, she lit a fat candle that was anchored by a heavy lead holder, then sat and opened the journal.
Above her, she could hear the creaking deck, the flap of canvas and Hayden’s footsteps. Eventually, the Stardust drifted into deeper water and Claudia began to read.
More than an hour and a half later, Hayden entered the cabin to find Claudia still reading. As he took a seat on the edge of one of the bunks she lifted her head and looked at him through bleary eyes.
Closing the journal, she pushed her wind-tangled hair back from her face. “Are we close to Port O’Connor yet?” she asked.
He smiled wanly. “We’re already docked.”
She glanced around her, amazed that she hadn’t noticed the movement of the boat had stopped.
“Oh. I had no idea I’d been in here that long. I guess I was so immersed in your grandfather’s writings, I lost all track of time.”
“That’s understandable. I haven’t been able to think about much else.” He patted the empty spot at his side. “Come over here,” he said softly. “I want to talk to you.”
Her heart kicked into a nervous thump as she left the table and sank down next to him. “Are you angry with me?”
The question seemed to take him by surprise. He shifted toward her, his brows arched. “Angry? Why should I be?”
She shrugged and he reached for her hand. After tightly enfolding it in his, he rested them both on his knee.
Guilt shadowed her brown eyes as they swept over his face. “I’ve disrupted your work, your daily routine, everything. And now it looks like I’ve managed to demolish the sacred memories you had of your grandfather. I’m sorry, Hayden. That wasn’t my intention at all. When I first came to you in San Antonio I had no idea I was going to eventually uncover something like this.”
He took in a long breath then slowly released it. This woman was too good for him, he realized. There wasn’t a selfish bone in her body. Once she had a husband, he would get her complete devotion. And she would deserve the same sort of love and commitment from him. But Hayden had already walked that path and failed. He couldn’t be a husband again. He couldn’t be what Claudia needed and that fact was like a knife blade in his heart.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about. I want to apologize.”
This time the surprise was on Claudia’s face. “I think you need to turn that around, Hayden. I’m the one who should be apologizing. You didn’t ask for any of this.”
With a shake of his head he said, “I didn’t ask for any of it. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that I said some awful things to you. I accused you of lying and even worse, trying to pull some sort of con game for money. When all along you were being totally forthright with me. Do you know how much of a heel that makes me feel?”
Soberly, she touched her hand to his cheek. “My own parents doubted my visions. Why should you feel guilty for doubting me?”
Because there was a sweetness, a goodness inside her that he’d not found in Saundra or any other woman he’d known in the past, Hayden thought. That in itself should have been enough to make him see she was genuine. But then, it was as he’d told Claudia before, his heart was too jaded to believe in anything or anyone.
“Well, I do. Because I realize some of what I said hurt you. And I don’t want you going back to Fort Worth thinking I was a total jackass.”
Back to Fort Worth. Just hearing the words filled her heart with lead weight. How could she go back now? she wondered miserably, when her heart would stay here in south Texas with him.
Swallowing at the ache that was building in her throat, she said, “I wouldn’t be thinking anything like that, Hayden. I—”
He watched her gaze drift toward their clasped hands.
“You what?” he prodded.
Like an earthen dam trying to hold back a raging river, something inside Claudia gave way and she groaned as she was unable to stop the flood of emotions rushing through her. “Oh, Hayden, can’t you see that I’ve fallen in love with you?”
His head actually reared back as though she’d struck him. “No!”
The negative reaction stung, but didn’t surprise her. “You just said you believed in me. That you knew I was a truthful person. Why don’t you believe me now?”
“I don’t think you’re lying, Claudia! I just think you’re confused. We’ve only known each other a few days. You couldn’t have. This whole thing with the visions and our grandparents’ affair has gotten you messed up. You’re emotional. Overwrought.”
Desperate to convince him, she shook her head. “No, Hayden. I realized I loved you before we ever found the journal and the letters. I just didn’t say anything. But now, well, I couldn’t go back to Fort Worth without letting you know how I felt.”
Releasing her hand, he scraped fingers from both hands though his tousled hair. Misery marked his face as he glanced away from her. “Look, Claudia, I’ve already explained to you how I feel about love and marriage. This thinking of yours is only going to make you and me both unhappy.”
Claudia felt as if a big gaping wound had just opened in her chest. “Hasn’t anything that’s happened today gotten through to you, Hayden? You tell me you believe in my visions—”
“I have to,” he interrupted. “Otherwise, we would have never discovered the journal. As far as that goes, you would have never come to San Antonio looking for me.”
Hope suddenly sparked in her eyes. “That’s right. That’s what I’m trying to say. The ring wasn’t j
ust leading me on a quest to uncover an affair that happened sixty years ago. It was leading me to you.”
“Oh, hell!” He jumped to his feet and backed away from her as though she’d just turned into a serpent. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”
She stood and looked at him with eyes that begged him to open his mind and his heart. “I believe it with everything inside of me,” she whispered. “In Gran’s letters, she talks about the opal and how she and William both believe that the ring somehow absorbed the power of their great love. I think they were right. Love is the most powerful thing that exists and the ring proves that the power of such love can transcend all time.”
All he could do was stare at her as she walked forward and slipped her arms around his waist.
“We were meant to be together, Hayden. My grandmother told me if I wore the opal I would find my true love. Now I have.”
Hayden had never felt so cornered or desperate in his entire life. The feel of having Claudia back in his arms was becoming a familiar pleasure. One that he didn’t want to give up. Yet she wasn’t a woman who would agree to an affair and even if she would, he’d have to refuse. Because he wanted her to be happy. And in the end, love was the only thing that would give her complete happiness.
“Betty Fay didn’t give you my name. Besides,” he continued to argue, “if we were so destined to be together, why didn’t the ring lead you to me in the first place?”
Trying to ignore the pain in her chest, she answered, “No, Betty Fay didn’t give me any man’s name. And the ring didn’t lead me to you first because you were married four years ago. You married the wrong woman!”
Because he couldn’t resist, his hands slid up and down the warm contours of her back. “Claudia, I’ll admit that something out of the ordinary has been going on with you—with us. And this thing with the ring leading us to find out about our grandparents affair is, I’ll admit, more than coincidental. But none of this means that we’re supposed to be in love. Like they were.”
Because of the Ring Page 12
