Wrecked (16 page)

This was only Bess’s second trip to Boston, the first being
the hospital dinner that Ethan had taken her to a few weeks earlier, so after
breakfast Ethan took Bess by the hand and they walked along the river, stopping
to observe some historic sites and buy a keychain in a museum gift shop.

The hours spent exploring held more meaning for them now
that they felt invested in the history of the area. Andrew’s presence in their
lives had created a desire to know more about the birth of their country and
the lives of those who sacrificed everything in the War of Independence sobered
their exploration. No matter which side of the war you were on, the Rebels or
the Loyalists, they both gave everything to fight for what they believed in –
independence or their King.

The conversation centered mainly on Andrew, Elizabeth, and
Andie as Bess and Ethan strolled along the sidewalk, hand in hand, deep in
conversation. When they would stop to read a monument or sign, Ethan would
place his arm around Bess’s waist and hold her close. Bess would lean into him,
often resting her head on his shoulder, showing all those who saw them that
they were a couple in love. Surprisingly, to Bess, she never felt
self-conscious or uncomfortable with the public display of affection, or the
ease with which Ethan touched her or kissed her.

At precisely one o’clock, they entered Coogan’s Tavern, a
place Ethan and Evan frequented, and where they had suggested they meet Grace,
the genealogist that had some exciting news for them, so she’d said in a text
about an hour before they met.

With the introductions and pleasantries exchanged, Grace
wanted to get down to business immediately.

“You are going to be blown away with what I have
discovered,” she all but screamed in excitement. “I couldn’t believe it when I
found it. I even had my husband check to make sure it was all correct.”

“What?” Bess blurted. “What did you find?”

“Let me start at the beginning.”

Ethan ordered a round of drinks and they settled in for what
was to be a story of epic proportions.

“Elizabeth Jane Sherton Wentworth died on August 12
^th
,
1781, just as you had said,” Grace said. But her name wasn’t actually
Wentworth, although that is what was listed on her gravesite.”

“Is her grave still around?” Ethan asked, caught up in the
story immediately.

“Yes!” Grace nodded enthusiastically. “Here is the address of
the cemetery.” She handed Ethan a piece of paper.

“This is in Port Lincoln!” he exclaimed. “Right by my
house!”

“So we can go and see her?” Bess gasped.

“We can!”

“She never married Captain Andrew Wentworth,” Grace
continued. “At least nowhere I can find a record of their marriage. Now that
doesn’t mean in some tiny village in the English countryside there isn’t a
parish church with the record of it, but…”

“No. They weren’t married,” Bess confirmed.

“But she
did
take on his name,” Grace said. “Everything
I can find in England has her name listed as Sherton, but once she arrives in
America, it becomes Wentworth. And her daughter, Andrea Elizabeth Sherton, also
had the surname of Wentworth. It is on her marriage certificate.”

“She was married?” Bess cried out, drawing attention from
those seated around them. “When? And to whom?”

“She married a man named, ummm,” Grace looked at the papers
scattered in front of her on the table. “Here. She married James Arthur Simons
on April 8
^th
, 1798, right here in Boston.”

“Was she living in Boston? Before that?” Bess asked.

“It looks like it from everything I can find. She lived with
her grandfather, William. Although I can’t find a whole lot more about him
other than his death date in 1803.”

“So he left Port Lincoln and moved to Boston after Elizabeth
died,” Ethan reckoned. “That makes sense that he would leave and start fresh.”

Bess nodded in agreement. “So about Andie, Andrea.”

Grace pulled out a manila folder from the pile and handed it
to Bess. Inside was a copy of a marriage certificate and a birth record naming
her children with James Simons.

“They had eight children!?” Bess marveled.

“Yes,” Grace confirmed. “But only four lived past infancy.
Here,” she pointed to a column on the paper. “These are the dates of their
deaths.”

“Oh my God,” Bess choked. “They didn’t live more than a few
days, and this one, a boy named Joseph, died the same day he was born.”

“Medicine wasn’t the same back then,” Ethan sobered. “Today,
those babies would have a much better chance of survival.”

“I would say that close to half of all births resulted in
death,” Grace noted somberly. “I see so much of it. It’s heartbreaking. But,
there are four children who lived. Here.” She pointed to the names on the list
of Andie’s children.

“And Andie?” Ethan asked.

“She lived to see her children grow up, marry, and have
children of their own. She died an old lady in 1854. She’s buried here in
Boston. I have that address too, if you’d like it.”

“Yes!” both Ethan and Bess exclaimed in unison.

“Her husband, a very successful businessman, is buried next
to his wife. He died a few years earlier.”

“We found her,” Bess whispered as she looked up at Ethan.
“We can tell him all about her,” she grinned from ear to ear.

Ethan squeezed her hand and returned her smile. “We can.”

“Thank you so much,” Bess said to Grace. “May I keep this?”

“Of course! It’s all yours. But wait. There’s more.”

“You have the information on Andie’s children?” Ethan asked.

“Yes, I do. It’s all in there,” Grace nodded at the folder
safely in Bess’s clutches. “I have something very interesting to tell you.”

Bess took a sip of the beer Ethan had bought and looked up
at Grace. “What is it?”

“Elizabeth Marie Williams, born July 20
^th
, 1992…”

“That’s me!” Bess piped.

“Yes!” Grace nodded. “That’s you.
You
are a direct
descendant of Andrea Elizabeth Sherton Wentworth. She is your great, great,
great, and a few more greats,” Grace chuckled, “grandmother. Making you also a
direct descendant of Elizabeth Sherton and Andrew Wentworth.”

*****

Still in shock, over an hour after Grace had left them with
more information than they had ever dreamed of receiving, Ethan and Bess drank
another beer in total silence. What was there to say? How would Bess ever wrap
her head around the fact that Andrew, her favorite ghost, was also her
grandfather from over two centuries ago?

Ethan was in just as much shock. It was still incredulous to
him that he’d lived in a house that had a resident ghost and he never had the
slightest clue. Now to find out that the random woman who arrived in his sleepy
little town was the descendent of said ghost was just a little too much to take
in without a couple more beers.

“Do you believe in fate?” he asked.

“I didn’t think I did. But now?” Bess replied. “I don’t know
what to think.”

“It has to be more than just coincidence that you arrived in
Port Lincoln and in my ER.”

“I had no idea where I was going that day,” Bess remembered.
“I just got in my car and made two right turns. Then ended up at the diner
several hours later. I can’t give any explanation as to how I decided to get
off that freeway. I only know my bladder made me stop,” she grinned.

“Do you think Andrew knows? Ethan wondered out loud.

Shrugging, Bess said, “If he does, he hasn’t said anything.
But I would think he would have told me. And how would he know?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan sighed. “I’m just trying to understand
it all.”

“I’ve decided it will just give me a headache if I try. I
don’t think it will ever make any sense, but
this
doesn’t lie,” she
insisted, holding the manila folder. “It’s all in here. The chart that shows my
lineage going to Andie. It’s on paper right
here
!”

Ethan paid their tab at the tavern and escorted Bess out to
the street and hailed a cab to take them back to the hotel. Once back in their
room, Ethan pulled out his laptop and found all the websites that Grace had
listed for them to review and look at the information she’d found and how she
found it. They spent over an hour lying on their stomachs on the bed, searching
the web and finding old photographs and documents of homes purchased and certificates
of births and deaths, all the way down to Bess’s. Her father was the link in
the chain between her and Andrew. For some reason, it relieved Bess to find out
it wasn’t her mother’s line.

“What are you thinking,” Ethan asked as Bess lowered her
head onto her forearms.

She laughed. “How do I tell Andrew about Andie and then say,
Oh, and by the way, I’m your granddaughter a few generations down the line
.”

“Uh, just like that,” Ethan chuckled.

“I’m glad we’ll be here overnight before we go home. I’m
gonna need that to try and calm my nerves.”

“I think it’s really cool,” Ethan said as he rolled onto his
side, his cheek resting on his hand so he could look at Bess. “It means you are
supposed to be in Port Lincoln. Everything that has happened in your life has
led you to this moment… right here… right now. I am honored to be a part of
your story, Bess.”

She lifted her head and smiled. “I couldn’t have done any of
this without you. You healed me, both physically and emotionally. You gave me a
home to live in and a reason to live. I love you, Dr. Ethan James.”

Ethan lowered his head. Closed his eyes and touched his wet lips
to hers in a sweet and simple kiss. “I love you, Elizabeth Marie Williams.” And
he kissed her again.

Bess rolled onto her side and Ethan pulled her closer. Their
bodies touched from their lips down to their feet. There was another sweet kiss
and then another until desire replaced the sweetness and Ethan deepened the
kiss by pressing her lips apart with his tongue and tasted the deep recesses of
her mouth. Bess responded in kind as her breathing became labored with the
passion and heat that was building inside her. Since the first time Ethan had
kissed her, a desire deep in her core had simmered silently. Coming to a boil
was just moments away as Ethan ran his hand across the small of her back and up
her side until it brushed the side of her breast. Her gasp told him all he
needed to know. She wanted more. More is what she would have.

As Bess closed her eyes as Ethan entered her, there was no
fear.

Love made all the difference.

Bess had shyly admitted to Ethan as he’d pulled her jeans
down her legs just a few minutes earlier that she was a virgin. His reaction
was one that she would remember forever.

“I will be the only one who will love you then,” he’d smiled
and then kissed each ankle as he pulled the denim off her feet. “I will be the only
one who knows what you feel like… what you taste like.”

She’d shuddered at the intimacy with which he’d kissed the
insides of her thighs and then the undersides of her breasts. His lips brushed
over her skin in feather-like kisses all over her body as he’d slowly removed
each article of her clothing. She’d been so nervous that she’d just laid there
as he did as he wished. And then when his clothes were lying in a pile on the
floor, and he was poised at her entrance, he kissed her sweetly on each cheek
and then her lips and instructed her to relax.

“Easier said than done,” she’d moaned as her back arched
involuntarily, waiting for him to fulfill her desperate need.

And he’d done just that.

The intimacy of having sex with Ethan was an amazing
experience. She truly felt that they were joined as one and he inherently knew
exactly what would pleasure her and had done so with skill and obvious
enjoyment.

But there was more - another layer of intimacy that Bess had
not expected. No amount of experience could have prepared her for the raw
emotions that their lovemaking had produced. Her heart beat faster. Yes, it was
from the physical exertion, but also from the profound sense of belonging she
felt in his embrace. She belonged with Ethan, and in his arms, and he belonged
in her heart.

Once, a long time ago, a man had tried to take from her what
she just voluntarily and without hesitation had given to Ethan. There was no
comparison in the two experiences. Ethan had earned her trust and had promised
never to violate it. She believed him. She loved him. Somehow, in the past few
weeks, and now with this new intimacy that she cherished with Ethan, Bess was
able to let go of the pain and anger that she’d held on to for so long. Her
life was no longer anchored in the past. She had a future… a future filled with
dreams and hopes… and Ethan.

As they lay wrapped in each other’s’ arms, the sweat
glistening on their naked bodies, their hearts slowly returning to a normal
rhythm, Bess couldn’t believe her luck that she’d found this amazing man to
love. She kissed his neck and snuggled as close as she could get, Ethan pulling
tighter and holding her in his strong arms.

“I could stay like this forever,” he whispered into her
hair.

“Mmm, me too. But what about dinner?”

Ethan chuckled. “I take it you’re hungry?”

“Well, I just burned a lot of calories. You know how my
appetite has grown since I got well,” she grinned and then kissed him again.

“So what you’re saying is that before we go to bed tonight,
you are going to have to consume a lot of calories in order to… burn more?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Ethan extricated himself from Bess and jumped off the bed.
“Then I’d better feed you quickly because I am eager to get back here,” he
winked.

Bess spent a few minutes in the bathroom freshening up
before they went down to the restaurant and ordered dinner. She felt
conspicuous, like everyone knew what had just happened in their room upstairs.
She fiddled with her hair and with the utensils on the table and after a few
minutes, Ethan placed his hand over hers and grinned.

“Breathe,” he said.

The next morning, after a delightful thirty-minute shower
together, Bess and Ethan were ready to start their day. They checked out of the
hotel and found a small café next to the river to grab coffee and a pastry for
breakfast. Then it was time to find Andie.

The drive took about thirty minutes with the insane Sunday
morning traffic and Bess had road rage the entire trip, getting angrier and
angrier with each delay. But when they finally parked at the cemetery across
the street from an old stone church, she hesitated when Ethan opened the door
for her.

“What is it?” he asked, concern in his eyes as he crouched down
next to her.

“This suddenly feels very different, Ethan. On Friday, this
was all about Andrew and helping find the closure he needs to move on from this
world to wherever it is he needs to go. But now, well, it’s so much more than
that.”

“This is finding where
you
came from… finding
your
family.”

She nodded. “Family was never important to me, for obvious
reasons,” she sneered. “And now I feel like… like I really belong to… to you
and to Andrew.”

Ethan stood, pulled Bess from the car and into his embrace.
After all this time, she had what she so desperately wanted – a family – roots
– a future. She was going to get a happily ever after. He would make sure of
it.

They walked slowly, glancing at the grave markers and head
stones. This was an old cemetery with death dates going back much further than
Andie’s. There was so much history in the little plot of land that Bess was
near tears by the time they came across the burial plots of Andrea and James
Simons.

Reverently, Bess knelt on the grass and placed the flowers that
they’d bought earlier at a little flower stand by the café where they’d had
breakfast, at the base of the headstone. Tears fell freely as she accepted her
place in Andrew’s family. Ethan stoically stood behind her, his hands on her
shoulders as she wept silently. Everything that had been bottled up inside her…
everything she had refused to feel… every dream that she had been denied… every
fear for her future came pouring out of her in tears and hushed sobs.

For several minutes Ethan gave her the time to purge herself
of the emotions that had eaten away at her for so long, and then he knelt
beside her and pulled her into the safety of his loving arms as she cried some
more. But these tears were not of things lost… not of hurt and pain, but of
hope, acceptance, family and love. These were the happy tears of a future
filled with all things good.

The two of them spent almost an hour sitting by Andie’s
grave. They talked about their future and how they both wanted to remain in
Port Lincoln. It would be the ideal location to raise a family and when Ethan
noted that the children he wanted to have with her would be raised in the same
house that Andie had been born in, the tears flowed again.

“There is nothing… nothing in the world that would make me
happier than marrying you and making beautiful babies together.”

“And if I can’t have babies?” Bess whispered, knowing it
would be harder to conceive with only one ovary.

“Then we will adopt beautiful babies together,” he smiled.
“The point being that we will do it
together
. You and me, Bess.
Always
.”

Later that afternoon, just before getting to the turnoff for
their house, Ethan pulled off on a gravel road, following the directions of the
GPS to the small cemetery where Lizzie was buried. They realized as they parked
the car, that it was literally just across the highway from their house and
they could have walked.

They found her grave quickly – it was a small cemetery and
Lizzie’s headstone was the largest, signifying the importance of her family in
the community at the time. But as they started to read the inscription, the
realization of what they’d found was not lost. It wasn’t just Lizzie buried
there, but Andrew too. They had been placed next to each other as husband and
wife.

Bess placed her hand over her mouth as she knelt down on the
grass. It was impossible to articulate to Ethan what she was feeling. But as he
knelt beside her, she gazed into his eyes and knew that they didn’t have to say
a thing – they both were experiencing the same emotions.

They stayed there for a while, not speaking, but sensitive
to the reverence that marked the moment. To be there with Andrew and Lizzie at
their final resting place was surreal but also tinged with melancholy of what
might have been… of a love that was cut short and a life that might have been.

Just as they done at Andie’s grave, Ethan pulled out his
phone and took some photographs, not only for them, but for Andrew. They knew
he would need to see where his daughter was buried.

After a short time, they drove across the street and pulled
into the driveway of Bess’s house. It was time to tell Andrew all they had
discovered.

*****

Andrew met them at the door.

“Well?” he asked anxiously. “How was your trip to Boston?
Did you get to do all the things you wanted to do?”

Ethan looked at Bess and grinned. “We did,” he answered
Andrew.

“It was a wonderful trip,” agreed Bess. “But way too short.”

“Tell me all about it?” Andrew insisted.

“Can I put the bags down first?” Ethan laughed as he walked
in the house following Bess.

“We have some exciting stuff to show you,” Bess smiled
brightly.

“Really? Like what?” inquired Andrew.

“Oh,” Bess relied coyly. “Just some things we found out…
about Andrea.”

“Andrea?” he exclaimed. “
My
Andie?”

“
Your
Andie,” Ethan nodded.

“Well, come, man! Tell me!” Andrew demanded

“My goodness! You’d think you’d been waiting around couple
of hundred years or something,” Bess teased.

“Let’s go in the dining room and sit around the table,”
Ethan suggested.

Bess grabbed the manila folder from her bag and walked
quickly to the dining room. Ethan pulled the chair out for her and she sat,
with him right next to her. Andrew stood behind her looking over her shoulder.
Bess just smiled.

“She lived a long a happy life,” she told Andrew as she
showed him the photos of Andie that Grace had given her. “She married a
respected and wealthy man and had beautiful children.”

“She was beautiful,” Andrew whispered as he looked at the
photo of her later in life with her grandchildren seated and standing around
her.

“She was,” Bess agreed.

“Andie moved to Boston after her mother died,” Ethan
explained. “She lived with her grandfather and was well cared for.”

“I am glad to hear that. I hope she was happy.”

“I think she was as happy as she could be,” Bess replied.
“She’d lost her mother, never knew her father, and was raised by an old man.
But he loved her and she was able to have a family of her own. I’m sure because
of her own childhood, she loved her children even more and made sure that they
knew how much they were loved and wanted.”

“You and Lizzie began a long line of Wentworth-Simons,”
Ethan added. “From that one child you created together, you have literally
thousands of descendants.” He looked right at Bess. “Would you like to see your
pedigree chart?”

“I don’t know what that is,” Andrew frowned.

Bess pulled the folded up piece of paper from the folder and
handed it to Ethan, allowing him to take charge of the conversation. He
unfolded it, spreading it out on the large wooden table.

“See here?” He pointed at the top of the page where
Elizabeth’s name was and next to it was Andrew’s.

“Yes,” Andrew nodded.

“Right here, below you and Lizzie, is Andrea’s name. This is
your child.”

“Yes,” Andrew nodded again.

“And here is Andie’s husband, Simon, and here are all their
children.”

Andrew followed Ethan’s finger and nodded along as he grew
to understand what he was looking at.

“So here are all your grandchildren, and the ones that got
married have their spouses’ names next to them and under that is
their
children. And then
their
children got married and have spouses and then
underneath is
their
children, and we go all the way down to present day.
All the way down here,” Ethan pointed.

“I see,” Andrew marveled. “This is magnificent.”

“Yes, it is,” Ethan agreed.

“Now, if we use this pedigree chart,” Ethan said as he
reached for the other chart in the folder, “we can see it go the other way, from
present day all the way back to you and Lizzie.”

“Really?” Andrew questioned. “How did you do that?”

“Grace did it for us,” Ethan explained. “This is what she
does for her job. But see here? This is what’s so amazing.” His finger ran down
the paper until it stopped right under Bess’s name.

“Hmmm,” Andrew nodded, looking at all the names on the
chart.

“Here.” Ethan encouraged Andrew to look to where he was
pointing.

“Ah. I see you Elizabeth. That’s you, correct?”

“Yes, that’s me,” she smiled.

“And here is her father, and his mother, and her mother and
we go all that way up to here, going back many generations, and look who that
is!” Ethan gasped.

“What?” Andrew uttered in confusion. “That’s Andie and her
husband… uh, what’s his name? James?”

“Right,” Ethan acknowledged. “Bess’s great, great, great,
great, double and triple great grandparents are Andie and James, by their son,
William, and his wife, Rebecca.”

“You are my daughter’s granddaughter?” Andrew whispered.

Bess nodded meekly.

“But that would make you…”

“Your granddaughter,” Bess smiled, a happy tear rolling
slowly down her cheek. “You are my family.”

“You are
my
family,” Andrew repeated.

“I was not one to believe in fate… or destiny… or ghosts,”
Ethan chuckled. “But there is no denying that the two of you were meant to be
here in this house at the same time.”

“I knew you were special,” Andrew smiled. “I knew there was
something about you.”

“And I know why I wasn’t ever scared of you,” Bess laughed.
“I mean, I should have packed my bags and run, but somehow I knew I was…
safe
with you.”