Forgotten Truths (The Forgotten Truths Series)

by Justine E. Domke

  “How fast?” I was getting used to the feel under me but wasn’t sure how I would do if he picked up the speed.

  “A canter, which is a little slower than a run. Let me show you.” He clicked his tongue again, and Buttercup went faster. I leaned back into James a little more, adjusting myself so I wouldn’t fall off. “How’s this?”

  “I’m fine.” I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch the road or the trees anymore. It wasn’t quite as relaxing as the swaying of the ship, but it was surprisingly close. I liked the rush of wind on my face along with the sound the hooves made as they hit the rocks on the road.

  James slowed Buttercup down and I heard voices. I opened my eyes and saw that we were on the edge of town. He slowed to a stop and I heard him sigh. I looked back at him. “What is it?”

  “Meredith Johnson.” He looked down. “Any time she sees me, she follows me around. It’s very annoying.”

  This surprised me. Something that actually annoyed him? Who would have thought? Instead of voicing this, I said, “Will she do it if I’m with you?”

  He slowly lifted his gaze to meet my eyes. “I’m not sure. But remember, we’re in town, so-“

  “So you’re going to have your hand on my back or something. I remember.”

  He handed me the reins as he jumped down and then took them back to tie to a fence post. He came back to me and held his arms up to me. When I gave him a confused look, he said, “Put your hands on my shoulders and I’ll lift you down.”

  I did what he said and moved my leg over the horse when he told me to. He put his hands on my waist and when he told me to, I slid off the saddle. Even though he had his hands on my waist and I tried to keep my balance, I still sort of fell on him. He held me against him for a moment, before he let me take a step back.

  “We’ll perfect the dismount later.” He smiled down at me. “But for right now, let’s get going.”

  He put his hand on my lower back, but I didn’t move. I scanned the small crowd in front of us, and looked for Meredith. “Which one is she?”

  “She’s the one with blonde hair and a blue dress.” He pointed, and I saw the girl he was talking about. She was short and had a small crowd around her. I couldn’t get a good look at her from a distance, but I could easily tell that she was pretty and that she knew it. She hadn’t noticed us yet, which was probably a good thing.

  “How much does she bother you?”

  He rubbed his hand over his face. “You have no idea. She’s very flirtatious and expects me to respond to her in a certain way, which she even tells me sometimes. I never do, and she won’t take a hint. She can have anyone she wants, but chooses to annoy me.”

  “And you aren’t sure if she sees you leading me around that she’ll keep her distance?”

  “I can’t say, but if you could do anything to help me, I would greatly appreciate it.” He lowered his gaze and then slowly brought it back up to me.

  “What do I get out of it?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure I was going to do whatever he wanted me to, from holding his hand to letting him put his arm around me. I was starting to feel pretty sure with the fact that I could trust him and that he wouldn’t do anything to me. With the men on my father’s ship, you could never completely trust them. Not even Mark, though he thought I did, and he was my best friend. I couldn’t even really trust Jason. But there was something about James that, so long as he didn’t surprise me, I didn’t have the same reaction when he would touch me. I still didn’t like it all that much, but I was getting better at it.

  “You get my gratitude and I’ll owe you.” He smiled. He knew that was enough bait.

  “Okay, just tell me what to do.”

  He went over some sort of plan, mainly how he would treat me if she came over and then we started walking. She stopped us outside the tailor. She gave me a look I’d never received before from a male, let alone a female. It was a look combined with disgust, jealously and annoyance. I was her competition in her eyes. I stared back innocently while James rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand.

  “Hello, Meredith. How are you today?”

  Even though Meredith was short, she tilted her head back so that her nose was pointed in the air. It had a snubbed end and looked too small for her face. She was still very pretty with her bright, rosy cheeks, flowing blonde hair, and sea foam green eyes. However, the expression on her face took away from all of that.

  She dragged her glare away from me and fixed him with the most forced smile I’d seen in awhile. “I’m great. Perfect in fact. How are you, James?”

  “I’m amazing.” He squeezed my hand and looked down at me.

  “And who is this?” She forced herself to sound interested, but I could tell it wasn’t going to last very long.

  “This is Andrea.” His look was so unexpected I almost turned away, but knew I couldn’t if I was supposed to pull it off.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Andrea.” She nodded toward me, but quickly turned her attention back to James, who still hadn’t taken his eyes off me. “What brings you into town? You’ve been gone a long time.”

  “I was taking care of some business. Then I found Andrea, left to fend for herself after a fire had taken her family and home.” He finally shifted his eyes away from mine. “So we’re here to get her some new clothes.”

  “That’s horrible, about the family that is.” She batted her eyelashes at him as she took a step. She was faking her sorrow just so she could stand closer to him. He shifted uncomfortably and moved closer to me. He put his arm around my waist, his hand barely touching me, but still there for her to see. She noticed and frowned. She wasn’t going to give up on him yet, but today wasn’t her day. She turned her attention to me. “You poor thing. I can’t imagine losing everything like that.”

  I looked at the ground. I pretended to be upset when I was really just trying to not say anything I was thinking. I knew if I opened my mouth, she wouldn’t believe this story. I felt James lean toward me and whisper, “It’s all right.”

  I had to chock back laughter. I started coughing to cover the sound and then faked a sob. I lifted my hand to my eye to pretend to wipe at a tear.

  “We better get going. We’re just here to get her sized,” he said. I could tell he had turned back to Meredith and by the way he was moving his body, he was trying to put some space between her and us. He slid his hand from my waist to my back and pushed a little.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you. Tell me when you come back into town though, James. I would love to get together sometime.” But she was already fading away from us.

  I lifted my head as we entered the store. I bit my lip and looked up at James. He grinned at me.

  “Thank you. You did a perfect performance.”

  I shrugged. “I was just trying to keep quiet so I didn’t say something that would give me away. And I was trying not to laugh. She has a very fake personality.”

  “Yes, she does.” He ran his hand through his hair and gazed above my head. “We need to find the tailor and get out of here.”

  “What’s the rush?”

  He glanced down at me before he turned away. “Captain Brown is going to be back soon.”

  I looked down. Of course that was the reason. Before I could say anything though, an elderly man came up to us.

  “Ah Mr. Cony. How nice it is to see you again.” He turned to me. He was older, much older than Captain Brown, but he was smaller and seemed a lot friendlier. “And this must be the lady we are getting measurements for. And it looks like we’re just in time. You don’t want to be in those clothes much longer, right?”

  “Right.” I forced a smile. Talk about fake personalities.

  “All right, let’s go to the back room to measure you, and then we’ll make the dresses. Beautiful material you’ve picked out Mr. Cony.” The man turned around.

  I started to follow him when I felt James put his hand on my shoulder. I looked at it before I lifted my eyebrow in an unspoken qu
estion.

  “Just remember, when he touches you, don’t punch him in the face.”

  I rolled my eyes as I pushed his hand off my shoulder. I followed the man into the back room, and when I was at the door, I turned around and stuck my tongue out at James.

  ~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~

  When I was finally allowed out of the room, I felt more than a little shaken. I was, by no means, used to people touching me in the places that the workers did. I held all the panic and shaking in and now that I was out, I walked right toward James. He was standing by the counter, and as I walked by, I grabbed his hand and pulled him out into the open. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and let go of his hand as a huge tremor went down my body. I wanted to scream, too, but I figured that would pull more attention our way than what I was getting now. When it finally stopped, I felt exhausted. How did women do this all the time?

  I slowly turned around to James, who was watching me closely. He wasn’t surprised or worried, and as a matter of fact, he didn’t even look curious. He was just showing a little interest as if finally understanding what I felt like when people touched me. He was the only exception, which I knew he was figuring out, and I was sure he was curious about.

  “Can we go back now?” I asked quietly. I took a few steps toward him.

  “Absolutely.” He lifted his arm as I leaned against him, too tired to think about what I was doing. He lightly placed his hand on my waist to hold me up. “I can try to find the carriage if you want and then have them send it back for the captain.”

  I shook my head. “Let’s just go now.”

  He walked me back to where the horse was. He helped me up, and once I was settled, he climbed up behind me. He clicked his tongue and the horse started walking back toward the house. James didn’t make the horse go faster this time, but just let her walk at her own pace. I leaned back into him even farther and rested my head on his shoulder. I felt him bring his arm closer to me as he started to hum. It was very soft, so quiet that I wasn’t sure if he actually meant for me to hear it, and it was very soothing. I closed my eyes and listened to him. He stopped after a moment before he cleared his throat.

  “What?” I asked, not bothering to open my eyes.

  “May I ask you something?”

  “Yes.”

  “When people touch you, you don’t respond the same way. You told me it’s worse when you can’t see them and it’s from behind. But you’re starting to let me touch you more, like hold your hand or put my hand on your waist. I’m not sure why this is, but I’m assuming it’s because you’re starting to believe that I’m really not going to hurt you. But then we go to the tailor, who obviously just wants to get your measurements to make the dresses, and you come out of the room shaking, looking about ready to explode. I’ve been measured before, so I know where they measure. But they don’t really ever touch you. So why’d you act the way you did?”

  I took my time to respond to him as I thought about all the things he had said. He was most likely correct with the reasons behind why I was starting to let him touch me more. The reason behind the tailors was because they did touch me, not in any way he hadn’t, but it was more about personal space in a room full of people all focused on me.

  “There were too many people in the small space.” I went with that instead, not commenting on anything else he had addressed.

  I felt him nod. “And you still won’t tell me why you respond like that.”

  I lifted my head off his shoulder and stared at him. “Don’t you have secrets about your past that you would rather not share?”

  “Yes, but I think whatever it is that you’re hiding is a lot worse than any secrets I have.” He looked away.

  “I don’t want to tell you because of the fact that I haven’t told anyone and I don’t want anyone to know. I also don’t want to tell you because I don’t want to remember it. If I start thinking about it, I won’t be able to stop and I’ll start having nightmares again.”

  He narrowed his eyes, and I realized I probably shouldn’t have added the last sentence or so. But since I couldn’t take it back, I leaned back into him and watched the road.

  “Okay, then tell me something else. Are you close with any of the men on your ship?”

  “What do you mean by close?”

  “As in, like, you want to be in a relationship with any of them?”

  I looked down at my fingers and fiddled with them. “I’m close with two men on the ship, both are good friends, or at least have been until recently. It has to do with something Mark asked me.”

  “What did he ask you?”

  “He wants me to marry him,” I said quietly. When I felt his body shift and straighten up, most likely ready to say something, I cut him off before he could get the chance. “I hadn’t given him an answer, and I told him I only thought of him as a good friend, my only really close friend. He then said that we should take our relationship to the next level and he was going to go talk to my father. That bothered me because I really don’t want to marry him, and when I told him I hadn’t answered him, he told me he was the kind of man who gets what he wants.”

  “So what happened then?”

  I sighed then closed my eyes. “I was kidnapped.”

  “Have you thought about him at all since you’ve been kidnapped?”

  “Why should it matter?”

  “I’m just curious.” He relaxed a little.

  “I just know that he’s going to be looking for me just as hard as my father is. I have no intention of marrying him, and even if my father did say yes, I wouldn’t do it. I’d do everything in my power to stop it.”

  “Why is that? I mean he is your best friend. Why couldn’t it become more than that?”

  I didn’t want to admit this, let alone to James. I also didn’t have to tell this to James, either, but for whatever the reason was, I heard myself say, “There’s something about him that I don’t trust, that just doesn’t feel right.”

  He didn’t say anything else as we rounded a corner and the house came into view. He clicked his tongue, and the horse started to trot. Her ears perked as she noticed the house. She probably knew she’d get more sugar. I planned to give her some if James didn’t.

  We stopped outside the barn and dismounted. I followed him as he led Buttercup back to her stall. He took the saddle and blanket off and then carefully removed the straps from her face.

  “Do you have any more of those sugar cubes?” I asked as I stepped closer to the gate.

  He nodded while he pointed to a cabinet between stalls. I went over and looked in a leather pouch full of them. I scooped several out before I came back over. James was latching the stall door as I stopped. Buttercup looked at me, and when I held up one of the cubes she neighed loudly. James looked up at her and then over at me. When he saw me holding the sugar cube he smiled. Then he looked at my hand and saw how many I had and laughed.

  “You’re going to give her all of those?”

  I glanced down at my hand. “She deserves them. She gave me a very good first ride.”

  He stepped closer and hesitantly placed his hand under my chin. When I didn’t pull away, he lifted it so that he could look me in the eye. “That is very sweet.”

  I snorted and looked at Buttercup while I gave her several more. “It is not.”

  “Whether you want to admit it or not, you, Miss Andrea, aren’t as hostile as you pretend to be.” He moved his hand to my cheek. He turned my head so that I had to face him again. “There is a very gentle creature inside of you. I’ve seen her. It’s not a bad thing either. You don’t have to try to be so tough all the time.”

  I blinked, surprised. No one had ever told me that I had a gentle side. I did always act tough, and sometimes I didn’t want to. But nobody noticed that and being surrounded by pirates, I had never expected anyone to notice. But James did. James somehow noticed a lot more about me than I wanted him to know.

  I felt something cold, soft, and very moist on my hand and yelped.
The sugar cubes dropped to the ground as I looked at Buttercup. Apparently during our conversation, she had gotten tired of waiting for the cubes and had started eating them. While I stood there processing this, James picked up the cubes and fed them to her.

  “Looks like she got a little impatient.”

  I stared at him. Things had suddenly shifted between us in a way I wasn’t sure how to deal with. I quickly turned and ran out of the barn toward the house.

  “Andrea, wait!”

  I heard him coming up behind me, but I didn’t stop. I ran up the steps, through the door and stopped in the foyer. It was so abrupt that James slammed into me. Captain Brown stood at the bottom of the stairs as if waiting for us to come in.

  “Ah, Andrea. I’m very sorry I have been so busy the past few days. I’ve been meaning to be a good host, but I haven’t done very well, have I?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say, but then James stepped around me.

  “Captain, she’s very tired. She had a long day at the tailors and I believe she would just like to go upstairs and rest.”

  Captain Brown turned his attention to James. “Son, I will be leaving for a few days. I would like for us to have a meal before I go.”

  “Captain Brown, look at her. She’s exhausted. Can’t this please wait until after you come back? It’ll only be a few days, just like you said.”

  Captain Brown glanced at me. He kept his gaze on me for so long that I was the first to turn away. I felt very uncomfortable under it. I faked a yawn to try to get out of this.

  Captain Brown noticed and then turned back to James. “I guess it is for the best then. As soon as I come back, we’ll sit down to dinner.”

  “Absolutely,” James said, as he reached his hand back for mine. I took it, suddenly being hit with the fatigue I had been feeling earlier. He pulled me past the captain, and we were almost upstairs before we heard him take in a breath.

  “I’m glad you went to the tailors. Dresses are much more suited for a lady.”

  As soon as we were upstairs and out of Captain Brown’s sight, I rushed past James to my room. He followed closely behind, but I hadn’t realized how close until I turned to slam the door and he was already in the doorway.