An Inconceivable Deception

by Sydney Jane Baily

She settled a dazzling smile upon the first clerk she encountered and a few minutes later, upon his superior. Within a short while, she was seated at a desk with records of all claims made after the Garrard’s sinking. It was a goldmine of information.

  Naturally, Kelly’s yard was represented and had been reimbursed by the underwriter, as well as the ship’s owner, Mr. Dilbey. When she saw a private individual’s name, she took note of it with a slight frown and a feeling that, unfortunately, her intuition would be correct. Someone had made money off those men’s lives, someone who’d gambled that the ship would sink and had won. Even stranger, she was sure she’d read the name before in one of Rose’s saved papers.

  Adjusting the green shaded desk lamp, she compared the names to the ship’s manifesto from the newspaper, and then the real mystery began.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Claire and Rose waited arm in arm on the sidewalk next to Thompson’s Spa on Washington and Court streets. It was their favorite place for a doughnut and a drink although they weren’t allowed to actually go inside the males-only cafe. They’d given Robert their orders instead.

  “I’ll have the egg phosphate,” Rose had declared.

  “You’re joking,” Claire had said, eyes wide. “That’s a man’s drink.”

  “How can a drink be a man’s or a woman’s?” Rose had shot back. “Especially if it’s nonalcoholic.” She’d gestured at the sign that said “This is a temperance bar” in case there was any doubt. “Anyway, I was only teasing. I knew you’d raise an eyebrow. I’ll have the egg lemon, please, Robert.”

  “I’ll have an orangeade, dear brother. And don’t forget the doughnuts.”

  They’d handed him two dimes each and waited.

  “There,” Claire said, pointing to a bench from which two men got up and walked away. “At last. Let’s sit.”

  In another moment, Robert returned, followed by a soda clerk carrying a tray.

  “You know,” Rose said to the young man, “if your establishment would let us come inside, it would save you these extra steps.”

  “It’s all right, miss. I don’t mind. If you came inside, two lovely ladies such as yourselves in particular, it would be bedlam and mayhem and every other kind of trouble. If you know what I mean. You’d simply be a distraction to honest men trying to slake their thirsts.”

  Robert cleared his throat nervously. “Take your things, ladies, so this nice clerk can get back inside before we all get in trouble.”

  Rose shrugged before helping herself to her glass and her plate off the tray. Claire did the same. Halfway through her snacks, she saw Finn come out of a nearby alley that housed the Bell in Hand, which definitely was not a temperance bar.

  Before she could process seeing him, he ducked into an office across the street. The unexpected sight of the man set her pulse to racing. It was still so very strange that he was alive and breathing.

  She tried to make out what type of business he’d gone into, fairly sure it was a newspaper publisher. After all, this was informally known as “Newspaper Row.” Of course, she was nearly certain that whatever he was doing, it had something to do with the Garrard’s sinking. Didn’t everything in her life suddenly have to do with that cursed ship?

  She stuffed the doughnut into her mouth, chewing with her cheeks puffed out like one of the chipmunks that ran about the Common.

  Should she investigate? What about Claire and Robert, who had taken a seat next to his sister with his own selection, a cup of Russian tea and a piece of pie?

  She swallowed with difficulty and sipped her drink to wash it down, keeping an eye on the business’s doorway and trying to listen to Claire’s chatter about Franklin’s superior intelligence.

  “Superior to what?” she heard Robert ask, and it was the first time he seemed to show a spark of wit and not merely go along with his twin’s opinion. Rose smiled.

  At that moment, Maeve came walking along with her aunt, Franklin’s mother. How fortuitous! Perhaps Maeve and Robert could be a match if only they took a slight interest in one another.

  Robert stood at once, and Rose and Claire joined suit as soon as they’d wiped the crumbs from their mouths and brushed them from their laps.

  “Good day to you all,” Maeve said, glancing warily at Rose as she always did since their encounter at the Lowell’s party.

  Still feeling a tad ashamed of her behavior, Rose had tried to make amends. This was a good day to do more than that.

  “Maeve, Mrs. Brewster. How lovely to see you? Can Robert get you both a refreshment from Thompson’s?” Rose asked, smiling sweetly.

  They stared at her, but she blinked at them all. What? she wondered. Was she not always gracious and thoughtful, even in the middle of Washington Street?

  Claire spoke first directing her remark to Franklin’s mother. “The doughnuts are most delicious. I do recommend them most wholeheartedly.”

  Mrs. Brewster glanced at the front of Thompson’s, then back at Claire with a scowl, tugging at her short fitted bustle coat. “They won’t do for my waistline, I’m afraid. Rather thoughtless even to suggest.”

  Claire gasped, although Franklin’s mother continued as if she hadn’t heard. “I have an advertisement to place for a new housemaid,” she said, speaking only to Maeve. “I can’t seem to keep a girl these days. I’m stopping at both the Daily Advertiser and the Courant so I’ll be a few minutes. You may stay here with your friends.” And with that, Mrs. Brewster hurried off.

  Rose noted with worry that Franklin’s mother wasn’t exactly warm toward Claire. In fact, she was downright rude and dismissive. She hoped the old biddy — who, truthfully speaking, wasn’t that old yet acted like a biddy nonetheless — didn’t stand in the way of Claire’s fondest desire. The idea of having her for a mother-in-law though, how awful!

  Maeve stood a tad awkwardly in their midst.

  Rose opened her mouth to offer her a seat when Robert cleared his throat.

  “Surely, I can get you something from the Spa,” he offered.

  Claire and Rose exchanged a glance. How wonderful! Perhaps Robert wouldn’t need her matchmaking help after all.

  “Why, you’re only a tad fatter than my sister,” he finished.

  Fatter! Dear God. Rose nearly groaned aloud. What an imbecile!

  Maeve gasped, and Claire swatted her brother with her handbag. Rose knew her own eyes must be as wide as dinner plates because Maeve’s were certainly bulging. The young woman looked positively apoplectic, and Rose couldn’t blame her. For Robert to even comment on Maeve’s body at all was utterly beyond the pale.

  Taking a deep breath, Rose tried to think of something to help the situation.

  Claire simply took Maeve’s hand and said, “If only I had your figure, I’d be in heaven, so feminine and shapely.

  Maeve seemed to take that well.

  “Perhaps I will have a lemonade,” she said, not offering Robert any money for her drink. She merely stared hard at him until he turned and went inside.

  Rose breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, she saw Finn emerge from the door across the street and head down Washington Street away from her.

  “I’ve just caught sight of an old friend with whom I’d lost contact,” she told Claire and Maeve, hoping her best friend understood her meaning. “I’m going to run and catch up. Excuse me, ladies.”

  Without waiting for a reply and admitting to herself she was behaving impulsively, Rose took off at an unseemly trot. She didn’t want to lose sight of Finn on the busy street. After he turned right onto School Street, she feared she had, indeed, lost him. Scanning the crowd of pedestrians, she spotted him cutting through the old Granary Burying Ground. She did the same.

  Giving a nod to Paul Revere’s statue as she had since she was a child, she increased her pace as Finn crossed the street and entered the Common proper. She could go no faster, not with her fashionable corset and heeled shoes, so when he began to outpace her, she gave up all sense of discretion and called out to him.
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br />   “Finn.”

  He stopped and turned at once. When he saw her, he rushed back toward her.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Wrong, indeed! She realized that in a moment of impetuousness, she’d done precisely what he’d asked her not to — demonstrate to anyone watching that she knew him.

  “Oh,” she murmured. “Nothing actually. I simply saw you and . . .,” she trailed off uncertainly when his face became a scowl of disapproval.

  “Good God, woman. It’s not safe,” he muttered, already looking around them. “Haven’t I told you that?”

  He did not want to see her anyway, and now he was angry.

  “Where can we go?” he asked suddenly.

  So he did want to see her. That lifted her heart. She considered.

  “I’ll walk toward the Frog Pond, there’s a thick clematis bower there. We can see if it’s deserted.”

  He nodded. “You go first then, and I’ll join you.” Minutes later they stood in close confines, the leaf-covered trellis above them like a protective arch.

  “I saw you on Washington Street,” she told him.

  “I went to the Post’s archives to read about the sinking. I wanted to see who said what.”

  She nodded. “I have every one of the local paper’s coverage for weeks after the sinking. I saved them all.”

  His eyes widened momentarily as he realized what that meant. Did he understand how she had scrutinized every line for information of him?

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Truly, I am.”

  She lowered her gaze. She wanted to say that it was all right, but the pain of his having let her think him dead bubbled to the surface anew. She tried to tamp it down. She would not shed another tear over Finn Bennet.

  “If you would like to have the entire collection, I will bring them to you.” Then she remembered that they were no longer in her possession, and she was not about to tell him that she’d spoken to Charlotte, even if she hadn’t mentioned his name. Finn would not approve. She would simply wait for her sister-in-law to finish with them first.

  “That would be most helpful.” He offered her a gentle smile.

  They stood in silence, and she wondered at her rapid pulse. Staring at his closed mouth, she couldn’t deny that she wanted him to kiss her again. Whenever she was in close proximity, all she could think about was getting closer.

  Rose felt her cheeks grow warm as he studied her.

  “You didn’t mention me to anyone else?” he asked.

  “Of course not. And you don’t have to ask. I’m not stupid. I used to be quite adept at all this secrecy,” she finished bitterly.

  It used to be her choice to hide Finn from everyone in her life, and now that she wanted to drag their relationship out into the light, she had to keep her mouth shut. It was intolerable, though she had no choice except to endure it.

  “Stupid? No. Adept? I would have said you were, yes, until you called my name aloud a few minutes ago in the middle of the crowded street.”

  She rolled her eyes. Maybe she was stupid.

  “After all, Rose, we simply don’t know how any of this will turn out.”

  “What do you mean by that?” She heard the cantankerous tone to her own voice but couldn’t help herself. Not that long ago, her future had been perfectly set. Then Finn had arrived, tossing everything into uncertainty.

  “Precisely what I say — I don’t know. If I can’t determine who is behind this whitewash, I may have to leave. I don’t know how else to keep you safe.”

  She gasped. Disappear again? Only this time, she would know he was alive and would be unable to move on with her life. Neither free nor belonging to anyone.

  “Without seeing me? Without a goodbye?”

  “To protect you? Yes. Without a backward glance.”

  How could he be so cold?

  “If you abandon me again with nothing resolved, Finn Bennet, I swear I will shout our marriage from the rooftops. You may have a life overseas that captured your interest and, for all I know, someone there has your heart, too.” It wasn’t the first time she’d wondered if he’d remained faithful or found himself some sweet British lass.

  “However, if you choose that life over this one without giving me a proper divorce, then I warn you, I will ask my brother to use any legal means he can to prosecute you.”

  She felt tears welling up. “For abandonment.”

  Rose backed a step away from his shocked face. “And for cruelty.” Then she added, “You may not want me for yourself, but there is a decent and kind man who does.”

  She felt her emotions had got the better of her and turned heel, running out of the bower and along the wide path of the Holmes Walk.

  Finn caught up to her in seconds.

  “Rose,” he said, not loudly yet with an insistent tone that halted her steps. Taking a deep breath, she turned. Gracious! Would the sight of him forever make her heart skip a beat, or would she get used to his being among the living?

  He took a step closer while still remaining a good three feet from her.

  “To me, you are still mine,” he said, his blue-gray eyes boring into hers. “Do you understand that? The moment I looked down from the rigging of the Francis and saw you, like a dark-haired witch, staring back at me, I knew you were meant for me.”

  “You left me,” Rose protested, anger warring with sadness, making her absolutely wretched. “You left me. Left me! For so very long.”

  She watched him swallow, and his cheeks reddened.

  “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation right in the middle of the damn Common, and you an engaged woman.” He looked heavenward, then back into her eyes. “I made a terrible mistake, and I’m asking your forgiveness for something unforgiveable, for making you suffer.”

  Finn ran a hand through his sandy brown hair. “When we parted, you were still such a giddy young woman. After the ship went down and I lay on the deck of that damn fishing vessel with nothing to do but think, I realized you most likely regretted your hasty action in marrying me. And if you didn’t, then you should.”

  She opened her mouth to interrupt him. However, he didn’t let her talk.

  “Much as I wanted to be your equal, I was a laborer in comparison to your father and brother. You knew from the outset that your family wouldn’t accept me with open arms. Believe me, I understood you were trying to protect my feelings by keeping us a secret. I didn’t think the situation would be any different when I came back. Still, I fully intended to do exactly that. Right up until this happened.” He gestured to his leg.

  Rose found herself taking a step toward him.

  “If I had returned,” Finn continued, “it would have been worse. You never would have let me actually claim you as my wife the way things stood, and honestly, Rose, I couldn’t bear the sneaking around, hiding how much I loved you.”

  She took another step in his direction, wondering if her own cowardice had caused their current situation.

  “I’m sorry you felt you weren’t good enough to be with me. I always thought you were. I was just afraid—”

  “I know, love.” He offered her a small smile. “It doesn’t matter. When I was with you, I felt like a king.”

  Rose smiled, watching as he reached out a long arm toward her, nearly touching her cheek before letting his hand fall.

  “After the accident, with nothing else to offer you, I decided I needed to be like McKay or Curtis, so I studied and worked as quickly and as hard as I could, I promise you that. Always with the idea that I would come back to you a better man. One with a promising future.”

  She shook her head at his reasoning. Even she had heard of Donald McKay and his record-setting clipper ships, though the other shipbuilder was unknown to her. In any case, she hadn’t needed a better man — only Finn, just as he was.

  “I took too long, Rose. For that I will be eternally sorry. As soon as I earned a degree in naval architecture, I booked passage on the first liner home.”

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nbsp; Home. “To Maine,” she reminded him. “Not to me.”

  “To see my father, yes, and to get my thoughts in order. I knew what I faced here.”

  Rose sighed. “You came back with what purpose?”

  “Don’t you know?” This time, when Finn reached out his hand, he did touch her cheek. He stroked it lightly with the back of his fingers, sending tingling sensations coursing through her body. Then he started to pull her into an embrace.

  “Take your hands off her,” William’s voice sounded harsh and very close.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Even though her fiancé’s words were not directed at her, Rose jumped back as if touching fire, feeling all the color drain from her face. How could William be there? Why would he be at that precise moment?

  She looked at him — the expression on his face was nothing short of murderous. Her stomach seemed to sink like a stone in a pond.

  William grabbed Finn by the arm, and Rose cried out, not knowing what would ensue though terrified it would be violent.

  Through it all, Finn remained silent. Equal in height to William, he simply stared at the man who currently held his upper arm in a tight grip.

  Cocking his head, William asked, “Who are you?”

  Finn’s gaze flew to Rose’s, then he looked back at William, his demeanor remaining calm. “Release me. We don’t want to embarrass the lady.”

  William glanced at her. “Rose, tell me now, who is this man?”

  All the moisture left her mouth. The only thing she was certain of was that this was not the time nor the place to confess to William.

  “A friend, an old friend,” she stammered.

  At last, William dropped his hand from Finn’s arm and focused only on Rose.

  “Old friend, you say? How is it that I have never seen him before, not at any gathering or ball or party—” He broke off abruptly and looked at Finn again. “Wait. I have seen you before. At our engagement party, before the speeches. You were loitering by the doors, talking to no one.”

  To Rose, he said, “He was at the Tremont, yes?”

  “I didn’t know he would be there.” This confrontation was exactly what she had wanted to avoid. Tears welled up in her eyes.