Ransome's Quest (43 page)

Michael stared down into the amber liquid. He’d never had brandy before. He would probably never have it again.

His father had not touched his glass since pouring it. He read through the small leather-bound ledger line by line. After a long while, he came to the last page, closed it, and pulled off his glasses.

“There are only two people who could have given you an accounting so accurate. And I know Julia believed you to be dead. Explain to me why I should not have Jeremiah Goodland immediately imprisoned for giving aid and comfort to a known pirate.”

Michael put his glass down on the low table in front of him. “I had been on my own for a couple of years. I could not keep a crew together because I would not hurt people, so our prizes usually ended up escaping from us. After one especially humiliating defeat, I lost most of my men when we put into port. I had heard rumors of how well Tierra Dulce was doing, so I decided to come back and take what was mine. I wasn’t certain what I planned to do except come into the house and take whatever I could while everyone slept.

“Jeremiah caught me and recognized me. I told him everything. He wanted to take me inside right then and tell Mama and Julia, but I knew they would not understand and could never forgive me, so I refused. But I think Jeremiah knew that one day I would become a man and realize how important family is. He told me a story from the Bible, only at first he told me just a portion of it. A story of a son who has everything and goes to his father and says everything is not good enough, that he wants half of the inheritance he is to receive when his father dies.”

“The story of the prodigal son.” The corner of Sir Edward’s mouth twitched.

“He stopped at that point in the story. He said that he would give me a record of Tierra Dulce’s income and let me know what portion of it was mine—my birthright, my inheritance. And so long as I took only that amount, and did not hurt anyone on the ships, he would continue giving me the information.” Michael snorted and shook his head. “Now that I think of it, he reminded me a lot of a Royal Navy captain. He demanded to see that ledger every time I came to him to get the updated account information. He demanded a full report of my activities. Because I knew I had to report to him, it kept me from doing things that could have gotten me or other people killed. Kept me from doing things I never would have been able to live with.”

Michael told him the rest of the story, about liberating slave ships and becoming an American privateer.

“How many slave ships?”

“Seventy-eight, sir. Each carrying more than three hundred souls.”

“Did Jeremiah ever tell you the rest of that story?”

“Yes, sir. Each year, he would add a piece until I knew the entire outcome. He tried to convince me I was like that boy and you were like that father, but I didn’t believe him. You already know why.”

Sir Edward chuckled. “I think the entire household heard why.”

“I did not believe a father could forgive a son like that. Because if the father forgave the son for straying so far and making such a mess out of his life, then that would mean the son would also have to forgive the father for making the son feel that he could never live up to his brother—or in my case, to William Ransome.”

“What made you change your mind? What made you believe in forgiveness?”

“Serena.” The sound of her name coming from his mouth filled him with such longing he could barely keep himself from going to the door and walking to Kingston to find the next ship headed north.

“Ah.” Green eyes twinkling, Sir Edward sat back in his chair, elbows propped on the high arms, fingers steepled before his face, index fingers tapping his lips. “A lovely name for, I’m certain, a lovely young woman.”

“Yes, sir. Her family has taken me in as one of their own. Her father is making me a partner in his importing business, along with his own son, who happens to be my closest friend in the world. Serena and I plan to be married as soon as I can return to Philadelphia.” Which would be much sooner now that Michael did not have to go all the way to England to see his father.

“Philadelphia is such a long way away. I hope you plan to bring your Serena down for a visit so she can see the beauty of the place you grew up.”

“I plan to do more than just bring her for one visit, Father. Declan and I will be expanding his father’s business to the Caribbean. And I am certain Serena plans to find reasons to come down here with me as often as she can.”

Sir Edward clasped his hands together before dropping them into his lap. “Wonderful. The family will be back together again.”

Michael could not rejoice with his father. “Not the entire family. It is my fault Mama died. If I had only come back and let her know I was still alive. But I was so afraid that discovering her son had turned pirate would be the death of her. So I stayed away.”

“She was ill for a long time, Michael. The doctor believes it was stomach cancer. You could have come back and she still would have died.”

“But she would have known I was still alive.”

Sir Edward made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat. “So will you go back to Kingston with us tomorrow to try to find a ship headed north?”

Anticipation leaped in Michael’s chest. “Yes, sir. I have waited so long. It seems impossible I am finally going to get to see Serena again.”

Sir Edward stood and straightened his uniform coat with a tug at the waist. “They have probably finished the main course, but they may still be at dessert. And I do not know about you, but I have worked up a hunger.”

Michael stood, but looked at the two glasses of brandy, untouched. “Sir, the brandy?”

His father looked at the glasses and bottle as if just now realizing they were in the room. “Ah, yes. Julia needed to know we had not murdered each other, and a study should always smell like wood smoke from the fireplace, dusty books, and brandy. At least, that’s what my father’s study always smelled like.” He picked up the glass, sniffed it, and set down again. “Cannot abide the stuff myself.”

Shaking his head, Michael headed for the door.

“Son?”

He turned back to face his father. “Yes, sir?”

Sir Edward laid his hands on Michael’s shoulders. “You have become a good, strong, capable man. I am proud to call you my son.”

All the disappointment Michael had experienced as a child hoping his father would say those words tried to choke him. But he swallowed past it—and it disappeared. “And I am proud to call you my father.”

In the dining room, the main course had been taken away and the dessert course laid, but Julia had set aside plates for both of them. Michael looked around the table, wishing Serena could be here to see this. His family.

Only, his family was missing one person. He might never be able to forgive himself for not coming back before Mother died, but watching Father with Maria made Michael wonder if there would ever come a day when he would be able to call her Mother without feeling a pang of guilt.

Over dessert, he announced his intention to return to Kingston tomorrow and find a ship headed north.

Julia looked devastated.

“But I will be coming back often and bringing Serena with me.” He explained what he and Declan would be doing.

As he’d hoped it would, this cheered his sister. “Then, of course, Serena must stay here at Tierra Dulce while you search the islands for beautiful pieces to take back to the Americans.”

He reached across the corner of the table and squeezed her hand. “That’s what I hoped for.”

Instead of splitting up after dinner, everyone adjourned to the sitting room, where talk continued until the early hours of the morning. Charlotte slept, curled up on the sofa between her mother and Ned. And everyone else yawned often and spoke of going to bed until William stood, took Julia by the hand, and said goodnight.

Michael did not want the night to end. He knew he would be coming back, but everything would be different when he did. He shuffled down the hall toward his bedroom, too tired to lift his feet fully from the floor.

“Michael?” Julia came out of her room, wrapping a belt around a dressing gown.

“Yes?” He leaned against the wall across the hall from her.

“Mama’s death was hard on me, but I know how much harder it has been for you to accept there is nothing you could have done to change the outcome.”

He blinked and swallowed back the guilt.

She handed him a plain, fabric-covered journal. “I found this when I was going through Mama’s papers and books. I know she would want you to have it.” She smiled tenderly. “She wrote it for you.”

He opened the book to the first page. It was dated shortly after his ship was taken by the pirates.

Dearest Michael,

You are the joy of my life. And though we are now farther apart than the world can imagine, we will always be together, because I carry you in my heart…

Michael closed the book when the words blurred too much to read them, and he pressed it to his forehead.

Julia wrapped her arms around him, and he melted into the comfort of her embrace. “I like what she wrote in that first letter. Because it is true now that we have found each other. We will never be apart again, no matter how far we go.”

“Because I always carry my sister in my heart.”

“And I always carry my brother in my heart.”

D
ishonorably dismissed from service, along with thirty days’ prison time, and accounting for time served. As soon as he completes the paperwork, James will be free to leave.” Ned reached for Charlotte to hug her after giving the three waiting women the good news—but he would have to catch her first.

“Mama!” Julia let go of Maria Witherington and reached for Charlotte as she sank toward the floor.

Ned was faster, sliding his hand behind her head just before it hit. The small, airless office where Julia, Maria, and Charlotte had been allowed to wait to hear the outcome of the hearing was not fit for the men who worked in it, much less for three ladies.

One of the officers brought water. Julia dipped a handkerchief in it and started wiping Charlotte’s forehead while Maria tried to get her daughter to drink.

Charlotte coughed and sputtered, and her eyes opened. “What—why am I on the floor?”

“You fainted.” Maria looked around the room. “You, there, bring that chair over.”

The frightened lieutenant did as he was bade.

“Ned, lift her.”

He did so, easily. “She’s been complaining that with all of the complications that have happened to delay the wedding, along with waiting to find out what would happen to James, she has not been feeling well.”

Maria took the handkerchief from Julia and wiped her daughter’s face with it. “Nausea? Fatigue? Loss of balance and concentration?”

Fear crept into Ned’s throat with each symptom Maria mentioned. “Yes, ma’am. All of those.”

“I expected as much.” Concern dug lines between his mother-in-law’s brows.

“Mama? What is it?” Julia knelt beside her stepmother.

“Nothing another seven and a half or eight months will not cure her of.” She turned her frown of concern on Ned.

Ned lifted Charlotte’s hand. A disease that would linger for seven or eight months? “What is it, Lady Witherington? What ails her?”

Julia patted his arm, amusement dancing in her green eyes. “Something that has been ailing women since time began, Ned.”

“But what is it?” And why did Maria look as if she might yell and Julia as if she might laugh?

Julia leaned forward. “She is with child, Ned,” she whispered.

“No. She cannot be. We have been apart since…”

Julia raised her eyebrows and cocked her head.

“We have to get married.”

Maria’s frown deepened. “I thought you
were
married.”

“We are married, Mama.” Charlotte tugged her hand out of Ned’s. “And I wish you all would not speak of me as if I am not here.”

Maria looked around. “Come, we will wait for James outside. Charlotte, do you feel well enough to walk? Take your husband’s arm.” She did not need so much volume for the three standing near her. Ned looked around. The two officers watched them with open curiosity.

Ned put his arm around Charlotte’s waist and whisked her from the building to the waiting carriage.

“I thought we were waiting for James.” Charlotte dropped onto the seat, making it bounce. “Julia, do you mind riding backwards? I was getting queasy on the way here.”

“I do not mind.” Julia climbed up into the open-top barouche and sat in the seat facing Charlotte.

Ned turned to help Maria in also, but she did not step up. “You are certain you were legally wed in the eyes of the church?”

“Their marriage is legal,” Julia said, shading her eyes from the warm afternoon sun. “I had my solicitor look at the certificate and he verified it. In the eyes of the law, they have been married for just over six weeks now.”

Maria stepped up into the carriage and sat next to her daughter, but she looked at Julia. “If you make them have a wedding ceremony now, people will be able to count back and know that Charlotte was already with child at the time.”