Into His Arms (31 page)

Her husband grinned. “He asked if you had accomplished everything that you had hoped. I told him that we were in the middle of one last task, but that I had just the tool for the job.”

She cried out and struck him on the arm. “Nay, you did not!”

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. “Nay. I did but tell him that you had wrought wonders with our pitiful furniture.”

She relaxed in his arms, and indeed, let him take the worries from her mind.

Chapter 28

The voyage back to Boston was entirely unlike Faith’s journey away. Of the original crew, only the cook, Mr. Bartlett, chose to stay with Geoff and Giles. The others were either unsuitable for a legitimate merchantman or had no desire for such an unexciting vocation. The new crew consisted of men who liked not the rigors of navy life nor the danger and bloodshed of piracy. There was no doubt that they were a coarse lot, but they worked hard enough and were somewhat more trustworthy.

It seemed that thirty-six hours of seasickness would be a predictable part of Faith’s traveling, but beyond that, her body adjusted. It was far less traumatic when she could stay above deck, her eyes fixed firmly on the horizon to minimize the effects. As the captain’s wife, she was afforded every courtesy and the highest respect. Far preferable to spending four weeks in but two gowns, she embarked upon this adventure with two trunks of clothes. A wide-brimmed straw hat and cotton gloves protected her fair skin from the sun, allowing her more time on the open deck. At night, the lower decks were not strewn with the sleeping forms of sailors. Far fewer were required when fighting and possibly capturing another ship was not a consideration. The men all fit comfortably into the hammocks hung in the crew’s quarters.

The cozy familiarity of Geoff’s cabin had its own differences. There was nothing shy or desperate between its occupants, only the natural conclusion of days spent by a man and a woman seduced by mild breezes, sapphire waters, and warm rains.

With the help of both Giles and Geoff, Faith learned to use the backstaff, sextant, compass, charts, and stars to map their course. In time, they hoped to be able to buy Giles a ship of his own, and Geoff would welcome a new navigator, especially one who warmed his bed, as well. Best of all, this new training gave her plenty to do to occupy her time, and she soon found herself falling in love with the sea. Geoff laughed and said they’d make a sailor of her yet, if only she’d learn to give a proper cussing. She and Giles exchanged sly looks. If only he had heard her one day on the docks of Port Royal.

Where they had once traveled from the chill of an early New England spring into the warm embrace of the Gulf Stream, now they left sunny climes and rounded Cape Hatteras, with its inhospitable waters, to meet the crisp beginnings of autumn. The weather changed in other ways as well. Storms were more worrisome in the hurricane season, so when the ocean waves became violent, and the horizon before them dissolved into a solid gray mass of sea and sky, the crew worked diligently to skirt the worst of it. Trusting Geoff and Giles to keep them safe and on course, Faith rode these storms out below, saying a little prayer for good measure.

At last they neared the Massachusetts coast. Though Faith had come to love the lush tropics with their exotic flora, her blood quickened at the sight of dense forests licked by tongues of autumn flames that colored the leaves. Soon, the woods would erupt into a conflagration of reds, oranges, and golds, ere winter stripped them bare. It was a crisp time of tart apples to eat and leaves to crush underfoot. Aye, for all the beauty and blessed warmth of her new home, she would ever miss the changeable land of her birth.

The homesickness that had hidden somewhere deep within her became an intense ache, and yet she dreaded what must come. When they at last arrived in Boston, she hesitated to stroll the docks as she once had. She stayed close to Geoff and Giles as they arranged to sell the rum, sugar, indigo and other goods that filled
Destiny’s
hold. Days passed, and she had yet to even shop among the merchants who daily gathered outside the Boston Town House, much less visit her home.

“Are you not sick to death of endless talk of prices and deliveries?” Geoff asked her as they ate the third meal in as many nights at the inn where they were lodging.

“If I’m to be your helpmate on voyages, I must know all aspects of your business,” she replied.

Geoff rolled his eyes. “You cannot fool me, love. You are hiding. Can we not at least take our meals at some other establishment?” He glanced around the nearly empty common room. “There are plenty to choose from, and this place is not the best, I assure you.”

Faith studied her hands, which clasped and unclasped with a will of their own in her lap. “I know. I’m well aware that no one who knows Boston well eats here. But what if someone I know should come to town and take a meal before they return to their home? It is a common practice.”

“Is that not a part of why you came here, to see people that you know? Look at me, Faith. This cold New England air seems to be turning you back into a Puritan.”

“Nay, not a Puritan, but what? ‘Tis so very different here, Geoff. Religion is everything. What am I?”

“You are Faith.”

“Faith the faithless.”

“Because you chose not to have your beliefs handed to you by pompous, arrogant clergymen? Good God, is this about that insignificant little speck you were betrothed to?”

She winced a bit, hoping he didn’t see, but he caught the tiny gesture. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m much better about it these days.”

“I know, and I appreciate it.”

“Well, there you have it, love. You may not have found a church that suits you, and you may not always know exactly what you believe, but you keep your Commandments and hold me to them as well, like it or not. You’re a Christian, Faith. More Christian than many who sin all week, then sit in a pew every Sunday and consider that adequate homage to their God. What more can they ask?”

“I suppose I had better find out,” she said, her voice resigned. “If you can spare the day, mayhap we should take a ride tomorrow.”

It was still dark when Faith rose and chose a modest and relatively simple gown of deep violet raw silk. The neckline was high and edged with lace that concealed much of her throat. Long sleeves were gathered into three puffs and banded with black satin ribbons, the same ribbons that also trimmed the bodice. The effect was both fashionable and subtle. She wore her hair in an uncomplicated knot and finished the outfit with a small cap that matched.

Geoff made fewer concessions, wearing the elegant lace and fabrics fashion demanded. Still, his royal blue coat and black breeches would not be entirely out of place, despite the fact that they were of luxurious velvet. He pulled his hair back into a queue, downplaying its sensuous texture.

They hired a coach just after sunup and rode in silence while the familiar road passed by the window. It seemed to Faith that she knew it only from some fantasy and not from years of having traveled it. When she saw the first little cluster of buildings at the edge of her village, she drew back from the window. Better to see her family and gauge her welcome before anyone saw her. If she were waylaid by a neighbor, someone would surely alert her parents ere she could speak with them, and that might go badly.

They passed the church, a solid clapboard building that dominated the main road running through the center of town. To her relief, Owen Williams was inside or absent altogether. A quick glance at her husband’s face suggested that he shared her sentiments.

All around them, the village bustled with activity. Even those who lived in the town proper kept some animals, chickens, goats, perhaps a few pigs, and the air was pungent with their presence. Women tended to these while their husbands and sons tended to business. It was mid morning, and the sounds of hammer and anvil rang out from the smithy.

Although Aaron Jacobs’ wood mill lay on the outskirts of town, the sound of planks being cut from raw timber carried to the coach, and Faith wondered if Aaron had found a suitable bride.

Faith focused on her surroundings, rather than allowing her mind to wander a few short minutes into the future. Her nights had been wracked with happy dreams of warm homecomings that dissolved into nightmares of rejection and anger. Which would it be? She would know very soon.

The coach drew up to the end of the short road that led to her family’s home. The house sat back from the road at the edge of several acres of forestland, the source of wood for her father’s business, and at her nod, Geoff knocked on the roof of the coach, signaling the driver to stop.

Faith sat, unable to bring herself to alight, and Geoff tilted her face to his to bestow a long and gentle kiss. “Whatever happens, we have each other,” he told her. “I truly hope this is a happy occasion, but no matter what, you will never be alone in the world.”

She gave him a tremulous smile. “I cannot say which would be worse, to never know how they felt or to have them tell me to my face that I am a disappointment and a disgrace.”

“Right now, ere you face their judgment, do you feel disgraceful?”

“Nay.”

“When you leave here today, you will be the same woman who sits here beside me now. Remember that.”

She nodded. “I will.”

Other than the fact that trees that had once held but the promise of buds were now filled with leaves just beginning to turn, her home looked just as it had when she left it. She might just as easily have dreamed the last six months but for the very real man who walked reassuringly beside her.

From the joinery came the industrious noise of hammer and saw, and Isaiah’s distinct laugh floated musically through the open door. Chickens scurried out from under the couples’ feet, and the milk cow in the pasture beyond the house watched their approach with complacent eyes. David appeared in the joinery doorway carrying a bucket, and he paused to assess the visitors who strolled along the path.

“Faith!” the boy called, his face breaking into a dazzling grin that Geoff immediately recognized as his wife’s. “Father, Noah, Isaiah, ‘tis Faith!” He dropped the bucket and ran to her, arms outstretched, and she knelt, toppling over when his little body slammed into hers. “Mother said you were far away in the land of pirates and black slaves! We thought you’d never come home anymore. I’m taller! Can you see that? I’ll be tall as Isaiah ere he knows what happened. That’s what mother says. Who’s the man?”

Faith laughed and tousled his blond hair. She accepted the strong hand that appeared before her and rose to her feet. This would be Noah, Geoff thought of the young man who embraced Faith silently, tears sliding down his face. He recognized him from the harbor the day he offered her the silk.

“See, Noah, I told you. She’s come back! Faith?” he tugged insistently at her skirt. “Faith? Who is the man?”

Another boy, apparently the middle son, Isaiah, clasped her from behind, having tried but failed to displace his older brother, and she twisted to place a hearty kiss on top of his pale hair.

For a moment, Geoff seemed invisible to them, but not to the older man who watched from the joinery entrance. The one who must surely be Jonathan Cooper made no move to join his children. He merely stood, clearly taking measure of the stranger who had accompanied his wayward daughter home.

Geoff took a step forward. He would rather meet the man head on, on his own terms, than wait, but the father his wife so admired turned away and disappeared into the shop. He looked to see how she would take this blow, but she was still caught up in her reunion with her brothers.

He looked down at the tug on his coattail.

“Sir? Excuse me, sir? Did you find my sister and bring her home to us?”

Geoff smiled at the boy, but his answer was cut off by another cry that came from the steps leading to the front door of the tidy clapboard house.

“Faith! Oh Faith, my baby girl!” The woman running to join the group looked very like Faith, though older and more severe in her coif, her face lined by time and labor.

“Mother!” Faith cried, and the boys at last relinquished her so that their mother could embrace her, as well. “Oh, Mother, I have missed you all so!”

“We missed you, too, dear! More than you can know. I thank God Elizabeth found you. Did you get my letter?”

“Nay, I did not, but I have been hard to find—first at Winston Hall, then Cartagena, then Port Royal.”

“Cartagena? Indeed!” She turned to Geoff and swept him with a glance that took in his elaborate dress and too casual air. “And who is this gentleman?”

“I have asked and asked, Mother, and no one will say!” David whined.

“Shh!” his mother scolded.

Faith’s elation slipped a notch, but she would have to face this sooner or later. “This is Captain Geoffrey Hampton, my husband. Geoffrey, my mother, Naomi Cooper, and my brothers, Noah, Isaiah, and David. I would introduce my father, but he seems occupied elsewhere.” The hurt in her voice said that she had not missed seeing him after all.

Geoff bowed slightly. “Mistress Cooper, gentleman, ‘tis a pleasure.”

For the first time, the older boys seemed to really notice him, and they inspected both Hamptons, taking in every aspect of their appearance.

Naomi recovered first. “The pleasure is ours, Captain. Well, I think we shall have to declare it a holiday, for there will be little work any of us will be good for until we hear every detail of your story. Come, we’ll sit awhile and talk.”

“And Father?” Faith asked.

Naomi’s smile faltered but slightly. “I think it would be best to let him work. I will go to him later.”

Later, Faith thought. When her mother had all of the details and could think of some way to break the news to her husband and try to convince him to speak to his only daughter. She swallowed her bitterness and allowed David to lead her inside, his little legs skipping merrily.

Chapter 29

Naomi’s smile did little to mask the concern in her eyes as she gazed at the newest member of the family. She quietly sipped her tea while her two youngest exclaimed in excitement.