Longing for a Liberating Love: A Historical Regency Romance Book
Page 27
He nodded solemnly.
Alina walked to the first available seaman and held out the slip of paper Verner had given her. “We’re looking for this captain to book passage on The Evening Tide.”
The man nodded. “You’re just in time, Miss. They’re loading as we speak.” He nodded down the long dock towards a tall sail rising above the fray.
It was a good walk away, but the man said they still had time and Alina and Jinx set off. She had to walk more slowly to accommodate Jinx’s recent injuries, but they nonetheless made good progress across the wharf.
Alina had just caught sight of the stream of people finishing their rise up the loading dock when she felt a little jerk and a sudden lightness on the case in her right hand. She turned just as Jinx cried out, “Mama!” and saw with horror that he was being pulled away from her down the wharf, his hand clenched tight in Jonas’.
For a moment, Alina felt the old terrific fear building inside of her like a paralyzing wave—but in the next, she thought of Theo waiting on the ship, and a raw courage she’d never before felt rose within her. She dropped her luggage, picked up her skirts, and ran across the wooden planks, seizing hold of Jonas’ arm.
Her attack, at the very least, seemed to take him off guard. He turned, his face a mask of surprise that hardened quickly into distaste. “Get off me, woman.”
“Give my son back,” she said, loudly enough that a few passersby stopped to watch.
Jonas looked around him and then hissed, “Be quiet, Alina. You’re making a scene.”
“I think you’ve made enough of a scene by kidnapping our child,” she said, louder this time. She leveled her eyes on Jinx and softened her voice. “It’s okay, sweetie. Mama’s going to take care of this.”
Jinx whimpered, trying to pull his hand back. “You’re hurting me, Papa.”
Jonas grit his teeth. “I thought I might find you here, chasing after that low-society cur.”
“Let Jinx go,” Alina demanded again, as firmly as she could manage. Now there was a definite crowd forming around the couple, and the whispers of recognition were spreading. Alina kept her eyes trained on her husband.
“Or what?” Jonas said, raising his own voice. “I have a letter showing that you were only too willing to give your heart to a barrister as soon as I was declared dead. Do you think a court will give you rights when such evidence is levelled against you?”
A woman nearby gasped, but Alina refused to look. “Yes, I know about this letter. You’ve held it over my head for long enough, but it has no power here. Do you know why you’re going to let Jinx walk back to me?” she asked him, trying to sound calm so that her son wouldn’t be frightened.
“You’re mad if you think I will.”
“Because of this.” She pulled out the papers from Gretna Green and walked forward with purpose. She tucked them into his free hand and watched as he loosened his grip on Jinx to peer at the contracts. Jinx slipped away and stepped sideways into his mother’s skirts.
Alina watched Jonas’ face, speaking low to avoid shaming Jinx. “We both want to keep this quiet—I for Jinx’s sake, and you because you face legal charges if it comes to light. You have no more claim on Jinx, and certainly no claim on me. If it’s worth bringing your wrongdoing into the light, then I am happy to stay and fight that battle.” She looked at the tremor in Jonas’ hands. “And those are copies, by the way. No use in tearing them up.”
She stepped back, and Jonas did not move to follow her. He kept staring at the pages, his face white with fury. Alina had seen that look before at a circus, where a caged lion had prowled his cage, looking for a way out but finding none. At last, Jonas looked up and met her gaze with sharp eyes.
“You realize you will leave in disgrace.” He raised his hands an indicated the crowd. “Now everyone knows what you did and no one will know about this.” He shook the pages at her.
“I don’t care how I leave,” she said quietly, “as long as I leave.”
Alina thought for a moment he would spring at her then and hit her sharply as he used to, but this time the crowds of society all around protected her instead of him. He stepped away in furious defeat. “I hope you’re happy,” he spat, but she didn’t wait to hear any more.
She bent down and looked at Jinx. “Are you okay, Jinx?”
He nodded, his eyes wide. “You know I love you, right? Do you want to say goodbye to your father?”
Jinx looked across at Jonas and nodded. He stepped forward on shaky legs and said softly, “Goodbye, Papa.”
“Speak up, boy,” Jonas growled. “Don’t let her make a weakling out of you. Don’t you want to come and hug me goodbye?”
Jinx swayed for a moment and then shook his sweet little head and came back to bury his face in Alina’s skirts. “The boy has spoken,” she said gently, picking Jinx up.
She pushed her way through the circle of people, ignoring their sharp eyes and gossiping whispers. She would leave all of that behind forever—it didn’t matter what they said. Let them fill the streets of London with the news of her disgrace; she would leave those streets behind her.
As she neared The Evening Tide, she grew nervous, for the last few people were already up the gangplank and the only men scurrying up and down now were the sailors making their final preparations for the voyage. Alina started jogging, holding Jinx tight in her arms and dragging the two suitcases behind her like millstones. At the base of the gangplank, she saw the crowds of people on the deck looking down at the well-wishers below on the dock.
Theo was nowhere in sight. She looked up and screamed, “Theo!” as loud as she could, but her voice was swallowed up by the people all around. She screamed again, and this time Jinx joined her in her plea, calling out in his sweet childish voice for “Mr. Theo.”
Something about the boy’s cry moved the woman next to them, and then the woman after that. One by one, the crowd gathered at the gangplank took up the cry, screaming, “Theo!” at those gathered on the deck.
There was a rush of movement, and then a white-bearded man leaned over the side and called back, “Who’s asking?”
Alina swallowed hard. “I am! Tell him Alina wants to know if there’s room on this blasted boat for two more.”
A smile spread slowly across the bearded man’s face and faded back into the crowd like magic. In a moment, a familiar set of shoulders and a handsome face replaced him at the edge of the boat. Theodore. He caught sight of Alina and stopped in his tracks.
“Alina?”
“Theo, please—”
But he was already heading in her direction, pushing against the crowd on the deck like a starving man with his first sight of food. He appeared at the top of the gangplank, yelled a few indecipherable words to the ticketmaster, and then plunged down the ramp to Alina’s side. A shout of encouragement rose from the crowd aboard the boat and on the shore, and Theo reached out a hand to take Alina’s in his own.
“What are you doing here?” he said, his eyes falling to the luggage by her side, and then to Jinx. “And you, little man?”
“We want to go with you,” Jinx chirped. “Will you take us with you to the America place on the big boat, Mr. Theo?”
Theo looked at Alina with wide eyes, tears brimming near the surface. “I will take you with me wherever you want to go.”
Chapter 35
There was a flurry of conversation aboard the boat. The ticket master insisted he had no extra room. There wasn’t money to pay for two more people to make passage across the Atlantic. It was untoward to come on so last-minute.
All the excuses piled up before the lovers, but Theodore could think of none of them.
He was overcome by the realization that the woman he loved was standing so near at hand. She looked as fresh and light-hearted as a girl on the day of her wedding, and he could hardly take his eyes off of her.
The ticket master set out in search of the captain, and while he did so Theo seized the chance to take Alina by the hand again.
“You are the one who should be counting the cost,” she answered, looking up at him with her wide blue eyes. “You have always treated me with love and respect. I would be lost now if it weren’t for your dedication in my time of need, but you must know that I have been disgraced in London. I am not a pure, unblemished bride. You don’t know the half of it—”
Theo held a finger to her lips. “There will be time enough to tell me everything,” he said, “but I love you regardless of what has happened in your past. We can leave all of that behind. America can be a new start for us.”
She looked at him, and there was the faintest sign of a tremble in her lips. “So, you…accept me?”
Theo put his hands on each of her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. “Alina, I have loved you with everything inside of me for so long now that to leave you in London was like leaving an arm or a leg behind. You are my everything. Please, don’t ever doubt it.”
“Excuse me, sir.” The ticket master was back, shifting nervously from foot to foot, and he cleared his throat loudly. Theo dropped his arms and turned his gaze on the small man and the taller, uniformed fellow behind him.
“You must be the captain.”
“I am, sir,” the captain said calmly. “I hear there is a problem with the lady’s passage? She did not contact us ahead of time, and therefore is not allowed on board without going through the proper channels.”
Theo wanted to laugh. After everything that he and Alina had endured, this one man’s boarding rules were not going to be the thing that kept them apart. “I have paid handsomely for a cabin with my uncle,” he bluffed. “If you don’t allow this woman aboard, then I am afraid you will lose both our payment and deposits. We will have to disembark at once.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” the captain said. “It’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of space. There are no free cabins for the lady.”
A thought dawned on Theo, and as he turned to Alina he could see the same idea reflected on her face. “What if she could stay in my cabin?” he asked softly, his eyes never leaving hers. “She and the boy?”
“Impossible, sir, unless you were man and wife.” The captain drew himself up to his full height. “I run a very moral and law-abiding ship.”
“I understand as much,” Theo said. “If you were to marry us, Captain, could she stay with me in my cabin then?”
The man looked from Alina to Theodore, and then back again to Alina. “You know this man, ma’am?”
She smiled, her eyes locked on Theo’s. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
“You should save that bit for the wedding,” Theo teased, his heart melting at the sight of the love in Alina’s eyes.
“Are you asking me something, sir?” she said, the note of teasing in her voice bringing Theo nearly to his knees.
“Will you marry me, little one?” he said gently. “Will you be my bride?”
She smiled and looked down at Jinx. “What do you think, Jinx?”
Jinx grinned wide. “The man who makes us smile.” He put his fingers to his chin as though considering every angle of a difficult equation. Finally, he looked up at Theo. “Yes, I think that would work, Mama.”
Titters of laughter ran the length of the deck, but Theo couldn’t pull his gaze from Alina. “Then it’s settled. The captain will marry us this very day aboard the ship, and you shall stay in my cabin for the remainder of the trip.”
The captain cleared his throat. “This is all very well,” he said, “and I hate to bring a mercenary note into our fair evening, but there is still the matter of payment.”
Theo reached for his pocketbook. The fare would drain him of what little resources he had left, but he would have cut off his nose to pay for Alina and Jinx to stay with him. Just as he was about to pull out the money, he felt Alina’s soft hand on his arm and looked down to see a smile on her face.
“Allow me.” She reached around her delicate finger and pulled at her gold wedding ring, depositing it in the captain’s hand. “Pure gold, and two diamonds set in the band. Will that be sufficient?”
The captain looked at it with raised brows. “More than sufficient.” He glanced up at Alina’s widow’s bonnet, a trapping from her time with Jonas that she had not yet laid aside. “I am to assume you have no further attachments that would stand in the way of a proper marriage before God?”
Alina shook her head. “I do not.”
Theo’s heart swelled at the sight of his beloved finally setting aside the misery of her life with Jonas, the last vestiges that had kept them apart. He put his pocketbook away. “Then it is settled.”
“Wait here,” the captain said. “We will take off from the shore, and then by midday, I will host the legal ceremony to make your wedding official.”
“Perfect,” Alina said, and Theo’s heart echoed in reply.
He took Alina by the arm, Jinx’s fingers curling in his other hand, and the threesome walked to a spot by the helm where they could look out to the sea as the ship pulled away from the shore.
“Are you certain you don’t want to come watch the docks?” William said, appearing behind them.
“Alina,” Theo said, “this is my uncle, William Pendleton. His firm has agreed to take me on in Boston, and his family will help us get settled when we land in America. Uncle, Alina and I—”
“I heard,” he said, his eyes crinkling kindly as he smiled at Alina. “The whole ship heard, I suspect. I think it’s a great day. My Molly will faint away with happiness when she hears of the romance of it all. I will stand in as a witness.”
Theo saw a blush spread across Alina’s cheek, and noticed her gaze drop away from William as he took her hand in kindly greeting. He wanted to ask her what was wrong but he waited, not wanting to expose her in front of a man she had only just met.
William knelt down so that he was at eye-level with Jinx. “I have a daughter who is only a few years older than you,” he said. “Perhaps she can show you the better parts of Boston?”
Jinx nodded, then put his hand nervously on the rail as the boat began to move away from shore. “Will the boat stay up?” he asked, casting a frightened look at his mother. Theo remembered with a start that the only connection Jinx had to boats was the news of his father’s supposed death at sea. Before he could intervene, though, William took Jinx’s hand in his own.
“This great big ship is a beauty to behold, my boy,” he said expansively. “She’s a strong lass and has crossed the ocean many times over. I just came on her a week past, and she was as steady as I’ve ever seen. Would you like to go see how she works?”
Jinx nodded eagerly, casting a glance in Alina’s direction. “May I, Mama?”
“Of course. Stay with Mr. William.”
Theo watched Alina’s gaze follow her son down the deck, and when the boy was out of sight, he helped Alina to a bench facing the ocean and the horizon.
“Do you know why I didn’t want to watch the shoreline?” Alina asked after a few moments of quiet.
“I can imagine,” Theo answered. “You likely feared the sight of Mr. Hartley, or some other such familiar face.”
A strange smile crept over Alina’s features. “Not in the least,” she said. “On the contrary, I met Jonas on the docks before coming aboard the ship.”