Raven Quest

by Jo Ann Ferguson

  “Captain, you’ll have to find your ship by yourself. I have no idea where anything is now.”

  “My ship is fine.”

  Cruikshank’s eyebrows shot nearly to his dark hair. “It is? Where is it?”

  “By Fort Charles.” Before Cruikshank could ask another question, he said, “We’re looking for a friend.”

  He snorted in disgust at what he clearly considered a foolish question. “Good luck.”

  “We were told folks were coming here,” Rory said.

  “Some are. Others are going to Dr. Heath’s house.”

  “Dr. Heath?” asked Ernest.

  Rory put her hand on his arm. “Dr. Heath is the rector at St. Paul’s.”

  “The rector?” Nathan asked, smiling. “He’s still alive?”

  Not sure why he was smiling, she turned back to Cruikshank. “Are you certain of that? St. Paul’s is gone.”

  “The rector’s house is still standing, from what I’ve been told. If anyone can help you, it will be Dr. Heath. He always hears about everything that happens in Port Royal, sooner or later.” He paused, then said, “Captain Lawler, if there’s another tremor, you may consider your ship the property of the government as a refuge.”

  “Of course. If necessary, the Vengeance is available to help.”

  Thanking Cruikshank after he had given them directions to the rector’s house, Nathan hurried them toward the other side of Port Royal. Wanting to ask him why he was in such a rush, Rory saved her energy for keeping up with him. This was a part of the city she had visited seldom. Even if she had been familiar with it, many of the landmarks she knew were gone. She had not realized before how she had used St. Paul’s bell tower to guide her.

  She was astonished to see that the brick houses in this neighborhood were straight, and the fancywork on the metal balconies had not tipped awry like the rest of the city. Yet there was damage. Cracks crawled up many walls. People crowded streets which usually were quiet. Every stoop had people hunched on it. Most doors were thrown open, and the residents were tending to those who had lost everything.

  Nathan knocked on a door that was not open. A white-haired butler in immaculate livery drew it back and asked as calmly as if catastrophe did not surround them, “May I help you, sir?”

  Rory wanted to hug the tall man. The sight of him comforted her as much as Cruikshank’s stacks of papers and books.

  “Please convey my respects to Dr. Heath and tell him Captain Nathan Lawler of the Vengeance wishes to speak with him about some private matters.”

  Matters? She saw he was smiling again. What else did he wish to speak to Dr. Heath about? The rector could not help them with Yellow Hal and the gold.

  “Come in, sir,” the butler said, “and I will see if Dr. Heath can spare a moment to speak with you.”

  They were ushered into a wide hallway which ran the length of the house so the breezes from the sea could cool the rooms. Fine rugs covered beautifully polished stone, and a wide staircase led to the second floor.

  She turned slowly, staring at everything. She had never imagined anything this lovely could be in Port Royal, for this house surpassed even Padre Fernando’s La Casa de las Flores.

  The butler returned on silent steps. “Please follow me, gentlemen.”

  Nathan smiled as he motioned for Rory to go first. The butler walked toward the back of the house. He held open a door, and they entered what seemed to be the rector’s study, for the walls were covered with bookcases. She had not guessed so many books existed in the whole world.

  A handsome man with hair as white as his butler’s stood and held out his hand to Nathan. His clerical collar and dark shirt were wrinkled, but his voice was sincere as he said, “Welcome, Captain Lawler. I am Dr. Heath. Please be seated and tell me what you have seen.”

  Rory realized quickly that the rector knew most of what Nathan was telling him, for he nodded with a distressed expression as he listened.

  “It grows only worse and worse as I hear more,” Dr. Heath said. Sighing, he asked, “How may I help you?”

  “Two things. First, we are looking for a lass named Olive …” He paused and glanced at Rory.

  “Olive Poole.” She hesitated as she glanced at Dr. Heath’s collar, then said, “She’s a friend of mine who worked at Yellow Hal’s place, not far from the king’s warehouses on the harbor.”

  Dr. Heath sighed again, more deeply. “I hear that area is completely gone. However, I can have a few queries made.” Getting a description of Olive from Rory, with more than a few comments thrown in by Ernest, he rang for a young boy. “See what you can find out before sundown,” he added as the boy ran out of the room.

  “Before sundown?” Nathan asked, astonished. “That can’t be more than three or four hours from now. That seems an incredibly short amount of time.”

  “I don’t want the lad out after dark. To be honest, it should not take long to discover if anyone survived down by the wharves. So few did.” He squared his shoulders. “What is the other thing I can do for you?”

  Nathan smiled and laced his fingers through Rory’s. “We’d like to get married, Dr. Heath.”

  “Married?” he asked at the same time Rory did.

  She stared at Nathan, who chuckled softly. As he raised her hand to his lips, she whispered, “You want to marry me? You never said anything about that before.”

  “We didn’t have a minister around before. Will you marry me, Rory?”

  “You don’t have to marry me.” She drew her hand out of his.

  “Have to …” His eyes widened along with his grin. “Are you telling me that you carry my child?”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it. Taking a steadying breath, she whispered, “You didn’t know, and you still want to marry me?”

  “Isn’t that what two people in love do?” His hand curved along her cheek. “Sweetheart, when the earthquake sent us reeling, I feared I would lose the Vengeance, the gold, my life, everything. But then I realized, the only thing I would regret losing was you. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes.” Tears ran along her face, but she did not wipe them away as she brushed her lips across his. She tried not to touch his broken arm.

  Ernest chuckled. “It’s about time, Cap’n. I thought she’d have to grow as round as a barrel with that baby before you noticed the cause of her sickness the past week.”

  “You knew?” Nathan asked, then laughed and squeezed Rory’s fingers.

  Dr. Heath looked uncertainly from Rory to Nathan. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. You’re speaking as if this lad is with child.”

  Rory drew off her hat and shook out her hair. “We thought it prudent for me to wear a disguise in Port Royal.”

  “Why shouldn’t it be safe for you when you’re with these two men?”

  “I have a vicious enemy. Yellow Hal Warwick.”

  Dr. Heath’s eyes slitted. “A very dangerous enemy, young lady. Rory, did you say?”

  “My real name is Aurora Mullins. My mother was Kassy Mullins and my father Captain Stuart Powell of the HMS Raven. My mother was a member of your church, I’ve been told.”

  “Over twenty years ago, I would guess.”

  “Yes, she died the day I was born.”

  “And a shame it was.”

  “You remember my mother?” Her fingers tightened around Nathan’s.

  “Not well, Miss Mullins, but once having met Kassy, it was hard to forget her. As I would guess it would be hard to forget you. She was not only lovely but quite spirited and unquestionably intelligent. How she loved Captain Powell!” He chuckled. “She actually convinced him to come to church with her a few times. He was a fine man as well. It was a match I was pleased to see, Miss Mullins.” He paused, bafflement wrinkling his brow. “Miss Mullins, did you say?”

  “Yes, Dr. Heath.” She wished she had known to come to him years ago. All around her had been the answers to the mysteries of her past, but she had never looked for them.

  “Here is some
thing you might wish to see.” He reached for a volume behind him on a bookcase. He opened it, flipped through the pages, then returned it and selected another. Thumbing through it, he smiled. “Can you read?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Then look at this entry in the church’s records. It’s as I thought.”

  By the date July 17, 1670 was written: “Married by special license Stuart Powell, master of the HMS Raven, to Kassy Mullins, spinster of the city.”

  Rory glanced up in shock. “They were married?”

  “I remember it so well because they were in such a great hurry but were kind enough to wait an extra day. Your father was eager to put to sea, and your birth was imminent.”

  She nodded numbly. “I was born in July?”

  “No, at the end of August.” He paged through another few pages and pointed to a page listing her baptism. “The woman who brought you was insistent you be baptized Aurora Raven Mullins, rather than Powell. I thought that odd, for your father was as excited about the marriage as Kassy. She had been a member of my congregation from the time she arrived in Port Royal as an indentured servant. When she took up with a privateer, I had been concerned, but he was a good man, even though, like so many, he ended up dead.” He smiled. “Perhaps that explains why your mother wanted you to have her name. It would protect you from his enemies.”

  “Like Yellow Hal?”

  He shoved the book back on the shelf. “Exactly. Now you would like to marry Captain Lawler?”

  She nodded, wondering if she could speak her vows past the lump in her throat. As with everything else she had learned in the past weeks, seeing the entry in the book brought her parents heartbreakingly to life.

  As Dr. Heath went to get his books and the papers necessary for the ceremony, Nathan stood. “Are you all right, Aurora Raven Powell?”

  “After all this time, a name shouldn’t matter, but it does. All these years I hated my father for leaving my mother. Now, I am learning over and over he loved her and he loved me.” Her grin returned. “Let’s not keep our wedding a secret from our child, Nathan.”

  “I will make him—or her—a sign to wear around the neck that says: ‘My father and mother are married and love me and each other dearly.’ Would that suffice?”

  “Just barely.” She laughed as he kissed her. Then she pulled back. “But, Nathan, are you sure you want to marry me?”

  “Very sure.”

  “I know you have worried about how I would be received in Maryland.”

  “You do?”

  She laughed again, unable to restrain her joy. “I know what I would have been thinking if our places had been reversed.”

  “Then you know that I don’t care a rap what anyone else thinks of my wife because I love her.”

  “And do you care any longer what they’ll think of you?”

  “Sweetheart, I found the gold. I did what I said I would, but they’ll never know because I’m not going back.”

  “You aren’t? Where will you—we—be going?”

  Before he could answer, a call from the hall told them Dr. Heath was ready. Five minutes later, on the terrace with Ernest and one of the house servants as witnesses, Dr. Heath married them. He told Nathan he would obtain a license for them and would arrange for the proper date to be written on it. When she was asked to sign the church’s register, Rory proudly signed, for the first and last time, “Aurora Raven Powell” beside Nathan’s name.

  The rector was called away as soon as the quick ceremony was completed. He told them to make themselves comfortable on the terrace while they waited for the boy to come back from his search for Olive.

  Rory’s happiness ebbed when she saw Ernest’s sorrow. When he walked away to another section of the terrace, Nathan put his arm around her. He stroked her cheek. “My dear Rory Aurora Raven Mullins Powell Lawler, you have more names than any person I know.”

  “I think I will be simply Rory Lawler, Nathan. I like that name. When our child is born, I want him or her to have a very common name. Mary or James or something like that.”

  “Whatever you wish, sweetheart.” He brought her lips to his. Her hands slipped behind him as she returned his kiss with all her love.

  A woman’s cry tore Rory out of his embrace. “Rory! Rory Mullins! It really is you!”

  Rory whirled to see Olive standing by the door with a smiling Dr. Heath behind her. Olive had a bandage wrapped around her head and along her elbow. That did not keep her from flinging her arms around Rory.

  “I never expected to see you again.” Olive grinned so broadly her cheeks puffed out. “Yellow Hal said—”

  “Look!” Smiling, Rory pointed to the other side of the terrace where Ernest stood.

  Olive ran to him, nearly knocking him from his feet as she kissed him.

  Tears clung to Rory’s eyes as she heard Ernest say, “There, there, Olive, my dear. Don’t cry. Didn’t I tell you I’d come back for you when I was a wealthy man? I’m not rich, but … will you come away from here with me?”

  “Yes, Ernest. Oh, yes. I will go anywhere with you.”

  Ernest took her hand and walked across the terrace with her. “Cap’n, can we delay sailing for one more wedding?”

  “Marry?” Olive flung her arms around him, kissing him again soundly.

  As soon as Dr. Heath performed the second ceremony, Rory asked about Caroline. Olive’s smile vanished.

  “They’re dead, Rory. All of them.”

  “All of who?” Nathan asked. “Yellow Hal, too?”

  “Yellow Hal returned to Port Royal just before the calm struck, keeping everyone in the harbor. He didn’t come to the tavern, for he did not dare to leave his gold. He sent for us to come out to the ship. Or I should say, he sent for Caroline. I was told to run the taproom.” She frowned. “She told me that the men on the Scourge were flush with gold and bragging how they’d tricked you and Cap’n Lawler.” She glanced toward the harbor and shuddered. “They were on the Scourge when the earthquake came. I heard someone say the ship was so heavy with that gold that the wave tipped her right over to the bottom.” Closing her eyes, she whispered, “I didn’t see that. I was too busy trying to escape.”

  “Yellow Hal is dead?” Rory whispered, not daring to speak the words more loudly, afraid they might call the pirate back from hell.

  “They all are. I was lucky a man in a small boat picked me up out of the water and got me to shore.”

  Nathan took a deep breath and released it slowly. “The gold is back where it should be, inaccessible beneath so many fathoms even the wreckers will not be able to recover it. Too many have died for it. Let Warwick keep it with him in hell.” He raised Rory’s fingers to his lips. “Let’s go back to the Vengeance, Rory. Let’s go home.”

  “Is the ship going to be our home?”

  “Can you think of a better place than the one where we fell in love?” He grinned. “I think it’s about time I took your suggestion to use the Vengeance to trade between the islands. That will give us the life we love.”

  With a smile, she took his proffered arm. After thanking Dr. Heath, they walked toward where the ship waited in Chocolatta Hole. She realized, with a pulse of amazement, that Yellow Hal had saved the Vengeance. If they had moored in the main harbor, it would have been destroyed. She knew her father and the Blindman would have enjoyed this final twist of irony.

  Only an hour later they sailed away from Port Royal. Leaning on the rail at the high stern, Rory rested her head on Nathan’s shoulder. Neither of them glanced back at Port Royal. They looked toward the horizon where the sun was being extinguished by the sea.

  Softly she said, “‘Look for the blackbird of the dawn, the shepherd’s tale will give you the clue to steer on between the low gods and Spain, seek the coral key if treasure you yearn to gain.’ We solved the riddle, Nathan.”

  “And found what we were looking for from the beginning, sweetheart. Stuart Powell’s most precious treasure—his daughter.”

  She laugh
ed. “Isn’t it amazing that we found our love when we weren’t even looking for it?”

  “Typical Lawler luck.” He placed his fingers under her chin. “How do you feel about spending our honeymoon on Raven Isle, Rory?”

  “Raven Isle?”

  “Can you think of any place more private? We’ll build a shelter on the beach, far from anyone else, and make love in the moonlight … and the sunlight. Don’t you agree?”

  “What do you think?” she asked with a laugh of joy. “Yes!”

  In the rosy glow of the sunset, their two silhouettes merged to become one. Their lips met to share the love which brightened two hearts with a sparkle finer than the purest gold.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright ©1998 by Jo Ann Ferguson

  Cover design by Neil Alexander Heacox

  ISBN: 978-1-5040-0890-7

  Distributed in 2015 by Open Road Distribution

  345 Hudson Street

  New York, NY 10014

  www.openroadmedia.com