Under the Moon Gate (29 page)

“Out where?” Patience wanted to know.

“Into town to shop.”

“But I don’t need anything.”

“Well, then, I’ll do the shopping. I just think you need to get out. You’ve been cooped up too long in this house. The only time you’ve gone out is for that business meeting. You need to have some fun.” He worried that if she continued to remain cooped up, she’d have too much time to focus on the stranger who was stalking them.

“Okay, then we’ll take my car,” she agreed.

“No, we need some adventure. Let’s take the scooter.”

“Oh, no, not the scooter. Not with you driving.”

“Get dressed. Your transportation leaves in ten minutes. I assume you have a helmet. Doesn’t everyone in Bermuda have a scooter?”

“Of course, but you’re not going to wear those shorts, are you?” she mocked. “Or I’ll have to bring the first-aid kit.”

“I’ll be changed into my jeans before you even make it to your closet.”

“Fine,” she said.

“Okay, then. I’ll start locking up the house.”

Patience went into the bedroom to change into slacks and closed-toe shoes, grabbed a sweater, her helmet, and her handbag, and joined Nathaniel in the driveway.

“Hop on,” he instructed.

She got on the bike and placed her hands around Nathaniel’s waist. He turned around and stared into her eyes.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said and turned to the front. “It just feels good to have your arms around me.”

“Don’t take it too personally.” Patience loosened her arms a little, thinking it felt good to be sassy.

Nathaniel started the scooter, and they sped out of the driveway and out onto the winding roads into town. Patience tightened her grip against the real possibility of colliding with the rough-cut limestone walls that bordered the highway.

“Nathaniel, you drive like a maniac. You’d do better staying off the roads and sticking to the sea.”

“I can’t hear you,” he shouted.

Or you don’t want to.
She had to admit it felt good to get out, to smell the fresh ocean air and the scent of the flowers, feel the wind against her face, and see other people. She loved to watch them as they went about their daily business, lived their quiet lives. And it felt so right to have her arms wrapped around Nathaniel.

When Nathaniel got to the first traffic circle, she closed her eyes, hung on tight, and screamed.

“Nathaniel, we almost got hit by that public bus.”

“I had plenty of room.”

By the time they arrived in town, parked on Front Street, and locked the scooter, her muscles were aching from gripping her hands so tightly around Nathaniel’s waist.

“That was scarier than a roller coaster ride,” Patience said.

“Have you ever been on a roller coaster?” he asked quizzically.

“Well, no,” she admitted.

“I didn’t think so. I’ll bet there’s a lot of things you haven’t done.” Nathaniel looked at her intently and she blushed. “But the ride was exciting, wasn’t it?”

Patience frowned. “Yes, for a near-death experience. Well, where do you want to go first?”

“I’d like to talk about where you want to go and where you’ve been. Cecilia told me you’d never been off the island. Not even for school?”

“We have fine schools here,” Patience remarked, thinking back to the only time she ever remembered her grandparents argue. Her grandfather had fought to keep her in school on the island. Her grandmother thought sending her to a school in England would be best for her. In the end, her grandfather’s will was stronger. Anytime her grandmother had suggested a family trip off-island, her grandfather had voiced his objections.

“Why do we need to see the world, when we’re living right here in paradise?” She recalled his words and his effort to make light of the situation. When her grandmother had started to cry, he had kissed her and taken her into his arms and said, “We don’t need anybody else. We have each other. I need to keep her close, Diana.” And something about the way his voice had pleaded and the fear his eyes had communicated had quieted her. Patience couldn’t explain his reaction, but she loved him, respected his wishes, and knew he was doing what he thought best for his family. She had never felt stifled. She loved Bermuda and she didn’t care if she never left.

“I attended locally.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “Never even been to Europe?” he inquired.

“No. I told you. But I’ve always wanted to go to Virginia.”

“Then you should.”

****

Nathaniel had been all over the world several times now. Always running from something or toward something. He wasn’t sure which. But whatever he was searching for, he hadn’t found it yet. Until now. He was thinking he’d like to be the one to show Patience the places he’d been so they could experience them together.

Whitestone or von Hesselweiss or whatever his name was had kept his wife and granddaughter under lock and key. He’d probably convinced himself it was for their protection, but that hadn’t been fair to Patience or her grandmother.

“Where do you want to go first?” Patience repeated.

“How about Gibbons Company? I’ve heard some good things about that store. Or A.S. Cooper & Son’s, or maybe Davison’s of Bermuda.”

“Fine,” she said. “They’re all great department stores, and they’re all on Front Street. Let’s walk to the end of the block and start there, and work our way back.”

Crowds poured into the street and flooded into the stores and boutiques to load up on designer clothing from Europe, jewelry, china and crystal, woolen fabrics, perfumes, local products and crafts, and tacky T-shirts. It seemed Patience had been in all the shops at one time or another, knew most of the shop owners, and was even related to some.

****

Patience looked forward to sharing everything about Bermuda with Nathaniel.

There were the touristy things that were a must on any visitor’s shopping list—Outerbridge’s Original Sherry Peppers sauce, Gosling’s Black Seal rum, black rum cake, and Bermuda fish chowder.

“I want you to see all the galleries and studios, too,” Patience said. “There’s Carole Holding, Diana Higginbottom, Birdsey prints are wonderful, and Michael Swan has the prettiest prints of pastel cottages and shutters. And then there’s Pegasus. The shop is a bit of a walk from here, but it’s got some great botanical prints and antique maps. It’s a sailor’s paradise.”

“Now why should I buy from any other artist when I have my very own talented artist right at home, and I could have a PKW original?”

Patience, unused to compliments about her watercolors, blushed.

Nathaniel slid his hand down Patience’s arm and latched his fingers around hers. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, and a little like a teenager on a first date.

She looked up at Nathaniel as their hands touched and she felt a tingle right down to her toes. She didn’t cast off his hand. It felt too good in hers.

“We’re here,” she announced. He kept his hand in hers as they walked through the doors of Davison’s.

The manager stepped up to greet them.

“Patience, it’s so good to see you out, finally. I was so sorry to hear about your grandmother.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate the card and the flowers you sent.”

“This must be the cousin,” the man said, amused, causing Patience to guiltily let go of Nathaniel’s hand.

“Uh, this is Nathaniel Morgan, from Virginia,” Patience explained. “It’s his first time in town.”

“Fantastic. What can I help you find?”

“Well, right now, we’re just browsing.”

“Lovely. Just let me know if you need anything.”

As Patience and Nathaniel walked through the store, she was stopped by at least five more people who offered their condolences.

“Do you know everybody in Bermuda?” he asked.

“Almost. That’s what happens when you live in one place all your life.”

Two hours later, loaded down with shopping bags, Patience suggested they walk across the street to the harbor and rest on a bench while they looked at the waterfront.

“It’s so serene, isn’t it?” Patience asked. “I never get tired of watching all the boats.”

“Yes,” he answered. “Can you recommend a good jewelry store?”

Patience looked at him warily. He said he had no one to go home to, but he probably did have a girl back home. She had just assumed he was unattached. For all she knew, he might even be married. What an idiot she was, to think she even had a chance with him. He was leaving, and he wanted to bring his special girl a trinket, a sign of his affection. Why did the thought of another woman with Nathaniel make her feel so horrible?

“Of course. Astwood Dickinson,” she replied without enthusiasm.

“Let me guess. It’s on Front Street too.”

“That’s right.” She laughed and gave him directions.

“I need to make a quick run, and I’ll be right back here. You rest on the bench and guard the packages.”

She watched him cross the street in hurried strides.

****

Patience hadn’t asked him why he had a need for a jewelry store. Had she asked, she would have discovered how nervous he was around such places. The last time he’d been in one, he was with his college sweetheart looking for an engagement ring. And that experience had ended badly, with his fiancée walking out on him the week before their wedding to run off with a golf pro. And not just any golf pro.
His
golf pro. It was humiliating.

If he had read the signs, he would have known from the beginning he had nothing in common with Jenna. When he spoke of history, he came alive with the magic of it, while her eyes glazed over. History bored her to tears, and she complained about his “obsession with something that was dead and gone.”

In an attempt to bridge the gap, Nathaniel had arranged for Jenna to take private golf lessons at his club to get her interested in another one of his hobbies. He thought perhaps that would give them some common ground. As it turned out, the pro must have given her some extra lessons on the side. Her game never improved, but the pro had evidently scored a hole in one.

Nathaniel had wondered what Jenna could possibly find so stimulating to discuss over the dinner table with a golf pro. Then he discovered talk wasn’t the only thing she found stimulating about the guy.

Jenna didn’t see the connections of history like Patience did. Instead, she had been obsessed with picking out silver, crystal, and china patterns, and dealing with guest lists and invitations. Marriage had been her idea, and he had gone along with it, like a ship without an anchor, adrift in the ocean.

In a moment of honesty with himself, Nathaniel had been certain history would repeat itself in the form of another failed marriage like that of his parents. And if by some chance they did have a child together, Jenna would probably take off just like his mother did. And that would leave another devastated child to grow up without a mother.

As the wedding date approached, Nathaniel had been filled with a growing sense of dread instead of the happiness he knew he should have been feeling. It went deeper than a simple case of pre-wedding bridegroom jitters. Gran had called it. Gran, who had taught him everything he knew about people, the importance of family, and even about love.

“She’s not the one,” Gran had announced with simple conviction.

And with a sudden flash of clarity he had known it, too. But he would stand by his promise to Jenna. He was blindsided when she called him and told him things weren’t going to work out between them. Adding to the indignity, she had broken off the engagement over the phone, afraid to face him—or not caring enough to bother. She danced around an explanation and never admitted there was someone else, never really apologized. So Nathaniel bailed on his life in Virginia and sailed away, leaving Gran to explain everything away to the relatives and guests. He never looked back or regretted his decision, except for the trouble it must have caused Gran.

By the time he returned to Virginia his grandmother was dying, and Jenna and the golf pro were married. So much for true love! It was no less than he expected. As a result, he had given up on golf and on marriage in general.

****

Patience looked at her watch. Nathaniel had been gone a long time. She dozed off again and woke up when he nudged her shoulder. She didn’t see a package. Maybe he didn’t find what he was looking for at the jewelry shop. It wasn’t her place to ask, anyway.

“Patience, I think you must have sleeping sickness,” Nathaniel said. “Where were you just now?”

She had been dreaming of sailing to strange and interesting places, of doing unpredictable things, instead of the expected, every day for the rest of her life. She wanted to see the world. All the places she’d only read about. And she wanted to have the freedom and flexibility Nathaniel had to live his life how he chose. Instead of being suspended in a protective and suffocating cocoon spun by listening to all the tales her grandfather had spun for her and all the lies he had told.

“Nothing, really,” she answered wistfully.

“Hey, I’m starving. You must be, too. Where can we eat?”

“The Lobster Pot. That’s my favorite place for lunch. They have the best local lobster, and I’m craving an apple fritter with plenty of whipped cream.”