Straw in the Wind (28 page)

‘He's clever, and leaves very little to chance. If I had anything to hide I wouldn't like him to be after me.'

‘He must be good since he found you, something I wouldn't have thought possible. And he's won your heart in the process by the sound of it.'

She felt her face warm. ‘Yes . . . I suppose he has.'

He took her hand in his – a hand that was just as callused as hers had been, before Celia's salve had begun to help soften them. ‘What if I told you that I've missed you?'

‘Missed me . . . how could you when you never met me?'

‘Even though I thought you'd died at birth, I've always wondered what you looked like and regretted not having my own daughter at my side, or even seeing you as a baby.'

Serafina remembered she needed to tell him of the charge against her. ‘There's something you need to know . . .'

There came a shout from the quayside. ‘Erasmus, where are you?'

He stood, and with Serafina partly concealed behind him he waved, a wide smile appearing on his face. ‘I'm here, Marianne.'

‘I found Adam loitering on the quay and looking suspicious. He's told me that Serafina is with you. I'm dying with curiosity. May I come aboard?'

Indeed, Adam was standing by Marianne's side, looking slightly bemused.

‘No you may not. I'll be up at the house in a little while and will bring Serafina with me. What are you doing, coming to the quay by yourself? Nick will smack your arse for you when he finds out.'

She laughed at such a notion, then placed her hands on her hips and scolded him. ‘Usually you're more hospitable. What are you thinking of, when I ran all the way down the hill and got a pain in my side for my trouble? You can't keep her all to yourself, you know. I'm not going away; I'll just wait here on the quay. Best to let me on board, though, then we won't have to shout our business back and forth.'

‘I've already got one woman on board, and she nearly brained her damned fool head on a crate. Two will be double the trouble. You stay there, do you hear me, Marianne?'

Crawling with curiosity, Serafina stepped out from behind him to gaze at the woman Adam had talked so much about. She was lovely, and when their eyes met a beautiful, welcoming smile spread across Marianne's face and she blew her a kiss. Warmth flowed through Serafina and she called out, ‘Marianne, thank you so much for the gift.'

‘Lor, it was nothing compared to what I was going to send you, but Adam and Nick insisted on taking half of it out. However, I've kept it all for you. Don't let Erasmus frighten you; he's not as fierce as he pretends to be.'

By this time most of the crew were listening, and grinning amongst themselves.

Behind Serafina, Erasmus chortled, ‘I most certainly am. However, I can see that you ladies have several matters of national importance to discuss.'

‘Of course we have, dearest Uncle, since we'll probably discuss you fine gentlemen when you finally allow us to get together and gossip. Of course, if I'm forced to carry on a conversation here it will end up as common knowledge around the dinner tables by tonight.'

‘Aye, there's that, but since when have we allowed it to bother us,' he grumbled, and there was a moment of awkwardness when he gazed at Serafina, seemingly unaware of how he should treat her. Then he leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead.

She gave him a hug in return, a quick one that didn't give him time to react, since he didn't look like a man who hugged strangers.

‘Better you go with Marianne, else she'll stay there all day if you don't.'

‘But, I wanted to tell you—'

‘It can wait, since your sister can't . . . and I do have work to do. Over the next few days we'll find some private moments when we can talk together.'

Her sister!
Little coils of excitement sprang about inside her as Erasmus took her to the gangplank. She wondered what everyone would do if she did cartwheels along the quay.

He raised his voice. ‘Off you go, then; it's safe to go ashore since the entire crew has turned into a cage of drooling monkeys instead of getting on with their work. Marianne, you look after her, now. Take a cab from the rank, and if you see Nick, tell him that Red and Sam are on board. Adam, join me on board if you would.'

A short time later Adam and Erasmus watched the two women walk off, chatting together as though they'd known each other for years. As they reached the cab rank near the turn off to the High Street, they exchanged a hug before they got inside.

‘Now there's a sight,' Erasmus said with some satisfaction as the cab moved off. ‘George Honeyman would turn in his grave.'

Adam shrugged. He wasn't interested in the former family rivalry, except as a means to an end. He'd always had a strong feeling that something had been left unsaid by somebody – something that would resolve the whole issue. Still, he was happy that Serafina had been accepted, so far. ‘What do you think, Captain? Is she yours?'

Erasmus's mouth curled into a grin. ‘I reckon there's some strong similarities to my mother, at that. Anyway, she's got herself a pa as far as I'm concerned.'

‘We have to be sure. Between you and me there's some other business concerning Serafina that she doesn't even know about yet. It regards property that has been fraudulently claimed by another. By now the lawyers should have that investigation well in hand, and before it can be settled Serafina's connection must be proved beyond a doubt.'

‘Can't the girl remember who she is?'

‘She has memories, but because of certain circumstances in her life she is unsure, and you need to be told about those.'

He nodded. ‘Come to my cabin. We'll talk over coffee and I'll settle your bill if you like.'

‘No charge, except for necessary expenses. You'll receive a detailed account in due course.'

‘I always pay my way, mister.'

‘Not this time.' Adam grinned at him. ‘You could call this a labour of love, since you'll end up being my father-in-law if Serafina will have me. I intend to wait a while though, and allow her to get used to this new set of circumstances. Would you have any objections?'

Erasmus scratched his head. ‘I'll be damned . . . what am I supposed to say to that when I've only been a father for ten shakes of a rat's tail? You'd better ask me when the time comes.'

He raised his voice. ‘Take over Mister Grimshaw . . . seems I've got some talking to do.'

‘Aye, aye, Captain,' came the reply.

S
erafina had fallen immediately for Marianne's charm during the short ride up Constitution Hill, though she found her chatter a little overwhelming. The house she was taken to was solid, though it seemed a little cramped after Leighton Manor.

‘You must move in with us. Aunt Daisy won't mind. It's her house, you see, only she doesn't live here now she's married. We're only living here ourselves until our new house is built. It's got a view over the harbour. There's a boarding house next door, but it's very respectable so there won't be any undesirables loitering in the district.'

‘I believe it might be the boarding house where we're staying, since there's a house being built further down the hill. No wonder Adam laughed when I asked him if we could see your house from there.'

Serafina smiled when Marianne said, ‘Adam didn't tell me you were staying there. I was there yesterday afternoon, to see how the building was progressing. He could have introduced us then. He is so infuriating, making me wait until Erasmus arrived. What if the ship had sunk? We'd have waited for ever.'

‘Under those circumstances, I doubt it. As it was he hired a vehicle and showed me the . . . countryside around Dorchester. It's very pretty here.'

Marianne shrugged. ‘I find that the town can make me feel closed in at times. I grew up on the heath, you see, and my . . .
our
. . . sister still lives in the family house. Nick says the new house with the view over the water should suit us both. He used to be a sea captain, and was master of the
Samarand
. The ship had a reputation of being unlucky. I fell down a hatch when I first went on board, and I wasn't found for two days. On Nick's very next run to Australia, the ship was overturned by a huge wave, and Nick lost most of his crew. He gave up the sea when he finally got home. That's when he opened the emporium. I didn't see him for nearly a year after he was shipwrecked, and I thought he was dead. I gave birth to our son during that time.'

‘That must have been hard on you.'

‘Well, you're right of course, Serafina, but though everyone thought he must have drowned, I never gave up hope because, somehow, I knew he was still alive.' She abruptly changed the subject. ‘Serafina is such a pretty name. I knew you had that name; I heard it whispered on the wind when I was on the heath. I was with Nick, and he didn't laugh or turn a hair when I told him. We have gypsy blood through our mother's family, though it goes back a long way. Charlotte doesn't believe in such things . . . she doesn't want to really, so she tends to deny it to herself. Adam named your file Serafina after I told him.'

‘I've heard my name on the wind too,' Serafina confessed. ‘I was with Adam. We both heard it the first time. And I heard it again just yesterday. Adam took me to the house where he thinks I spent my early years. I recognized certain things . . . and I saw a woman who I believe was my aunt.'

‘Then the gypsies will know you are here. That must have been Constance Serafina Jarvis you saw, who was my aunt too. Only she didn't get on with my father. He was incensed when she died and left most of her money to charity. He thought it should have gone to him. How wonderful if she's come back to haunt the place! I do love family skeletons, don't you? Everyone tries to cover them up but they always come to the surface.'

‘I don't think she was a ghost, because I was with her. It was more the experience that I saw what I wanted to see. And of course, I
am
the family skeleton, so can't really see it the same way as you do,' Serafina said morosely.

‘Oh, but of course you are . . . oh, don't worry about it, my dear. I would be gripped with delight if it were me, since it adds an air of mystery, and people notice you. The Honeyman and Thornton families are gossiped about all the time. We have terribly wicked reputations. There's the gypsy blood, though God knows it's well diluted. Then we have the affair between my mother and Erasmus, and her death . . . then you . . . the innocent lamb who was cast out of the family. And Charlotte married a man she'd only just met to spite Nick, who had been in love with her since childhood. As for Charlotte and Erasmus, they hardly talk to each other because of the scandal your birth caused, so Charlotte might not be as welcoming of your return to the family as she should. But she'll come round to it, I promise. Oh yes, I nearly forgot. When Nick and I married we kept it a secret, but there was a dreadful scandal and Charlotte threw me out and didn't speak to me for a whole year.'

Serafina's head buzzed. ‘It sounds as though there is a melodrama a minute.'

‘Oh, it seems like it sometimes, but your drama beats all.' Tears flooded Marianne's eyes. ‘I can barely comprehend a more cruel act than my father casting an innocent infant from her rightful home. I shall never forgive him, and it's a wonder you want to know us at all.'

Serafina hadn't really wanted to know them, but had allowed Adam to talk her into it. She couldn't be churlish and say so, though she experienced a sudden, crushing need to be back in her little nest at Leighton Manor. But she'd cut herself adrift so couldn't blame anyone else, she reminded herself, and was under suspicion of theft. The thought made her feel sick so she stopped thinking about it.

Serafina found herself taken into a hug that a boa constrictor would have envied. If her sister kept this up she'd end up with cracked ribs, she thought, and she patted Marianne awkwardly on the shoulder. She felt relieved when a knock came at the door and Marianne set her free.

There came an exclamation when Marianne opened the door. ‘Aunt Daisy, how wonderful to see you . . . you'll never guess who is here!'

‘Of course I can guess, you ninny.' A slim woman in a grey dress appeared and was introduced as Mrs Phipps. Dark-brown eyes that eerily resembled Erasmus Thornton's raked her sharply up and down. ‘You're the spitting image . . . yup, you're a Thornton all right, from the female side, anyway,' she said with some satisfaction. ‘This is going to cause a good old stir of the stew in church come Sunday.'

Serafina was folded into another bone-crushing hug. She was being given hardly any room to breathe by these people . . . her
family
. She felt trapped, the air in the room seemed dense and she wanted to run, except there seemed to be no way out. To her dismay she began to weep.

‘There, there, my dear,' Daisy said. ‘It's all been too much for you.' Serafina was led to a chair, where two concerned women with faces just as wet as hers gazed at her.

‘Sorry . . . I don't know what's come over me. I'll be all right in a minute.'

But she wasn't all right. She wanted to go home, but realized that she didn't have a home now, and she couldn't stop crying.

‘You're just overwrought. It's my fault for insisting on seeing you before you were ready. I'll never forgive myself.' The dark-blue eyes of Marianne were awash with tears now. ‘Lord, I'm such a fool.'

She couldn't let Marianne, who'd been so generous and sweet towards her, take the blame. ‘You're not . . . it's me that's the fool,' Serafina said, and they hugged each other and started to weep on each other's shoulders again.

‘Now we've decided that we're all fools, I'll go and make us some tea and we'll drink to it,' Daisy said over-brightly.