Finally an elderly neighbor noticed her and picked her way through the debris.
“Adrella! Praise be to God! We thought you dead.”
Adrella glanced up at her, hardly acknowledging her presence. She blinked large green eyes, but said nothing.
The old woman sat down next to her. “What about your pa? Where’s he?”
Staring straight ahead, Adrella told her softly, “He’s dead, Mrs. Sims.”
Mrs. Sims sucked in her breath sharply. Reaching over, she patted Adrella’s hands where they clutched her soiled dress.
“I’m sorry, Adrella. This devil storm took too many lives.” Her birdlike eyes studied Adrella from the top of her mussy hair to the bottom of her muddy shoes. “But I don’t understand, where were you?”
Adrella explained about the storm, and the circumstances with her father. So engrossed was she in her own misery, she missed the darkening countenance of her elderly neighbor.
“You mean all this time you’ve stayed on St. George Island alone with Dathan Adams?”
Hearing the censure in her voice, Adrella turned to Mrs. Sims, her eyebrows lifting slightly. “I really hadn’t any choice, Mrs. Sims. I could hardly swim the gulf to get back to shore.”
Really? After all that had happened the old woman was concerned about propriety? Adrella could only shake her head in disbelief. Mrs. Sims had been their neighbor for some years and was well-known to be one of the town gossips. Heaven alone knew what she would make out of this difficult situation. Affronted at her audacity, Adrella fixed her with a steely-eyed glare.
The old lady mumbled something and quickly got to her feet. Avoiding eye contact, Mrs. Sims briefly told Adrella about her own plans to leave Apalach.
Though the elderly woman’s voice rambled on, Adrella barely heard her. She should make plans of her own, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care about anything right now. A sudden lethargy settled down upon her, and she gave up trying to think.
* * *
Mr. Carson finished his list, and nodded at Dathan.
“That should just about do it.” He smiled briefly, a rare occurrence for this rather taciturn man. “You’ve done well, Dathan. You’re to be commended.”
“Thanks.”
“You’ll be wanting to go the mainland?”
Dathan nodded. “Yes. There are things I need to attend to.”
Mr. Carson lifted a brow. “You’re welcome to ride back with us, but do you think you can make it back here in time to light the light?”
He would make it, one way or another. He had to make certain that Adrella was taken care of first or he would never be able to live with himself. The first order of business was seeing that she had a place to stay and funds enough to procure a good future. If she needed help in the store, there would almost certainly be someone who needed the work.
They began walking back toward the woods that led to the dock side of the island. Dathan held his impatience in check. There were things that needed to be attended to, he knew, but he was anxious to get to Adrella and talk with her.
“I’m sorry about the keeper’s cottage,” Mr. Carson continued. “We’ll make arrangements right away to get it rebuilt. It might be difficult, though, to get the locals to help. We’ll probably have to hire men from outside.”
Striding along at the other man’s side, Dathan shrugged, swatting the ever-present mosquitoes from his face. Right now that was the least of his worries.
“The people of Apalach are really good people. I’m sure they’ll help.”
Mr. Carson gave him an oblique glance. “That’s as may be, but their hands are pretty full right now. The whole town of Apalach was almost literally wiped off the map.”
Dathan jerked his eyes back to the inspector, his stomach taking a sudden dive. That certainly changed things. Did that include Mangus’s store? If so he would have to help Adrella find some kind of situation until he could think of a way to court her. He had every intention of fulfilling the vow he had made to Mangus, but he also knew he would have to give Adrella time to consider the proposition he intended to make to her.
“The whole town?” he asked sharply.
Mr. Carson nodded. “Pretty much so, except for those buildings that were made of brick or had some form of natural protection. But the people are determined to rebuild. Even now they are clearing the debris away and making arrangements. For some it will be impossible, though.”
More anxious than ever to reach Adrella, Dathan hurried his steps.
* * *
Adrella never knew when Mrs. Sims left. She sat stupefied, not even noticing the movement around her. She was unaware of Mrs. Sims across the street from her talking with some other ladies of the town. She was also unaware of the disapproving frowns thrown her way.
How long she sat there she had no idea, but she was suddenly conscious of long legs standing before her eyes totally blocking her view. She lifted tired, sad eyes and saw Dathan, his own gray eyes full of compassion. She clutched the money box tighter to her chest.
“Drell, I’m so sorry.”
His velvet voice had the effect of breaking her stupor, and with a cry she came upward, throwing herself into his arms. She buried her face in his chest and allowed all the grief to wash over her in waves, her salty tears adding to Dathan’s already damp shirt.
Taken unaware, Dathan wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He massaged his fingers through her scalp, holding her face against his shoulder. There was such tenderness in the way he held her that Adrella responded by crying even harder.
“It’s okay, Drell,” Dathan muttered. “It will be okay.”
Adrella lifted a tear-swollen face to his.
“How can it be okay, Dathan? How? I have nothing left!”
His brooding gaze wandered over her. She must look like a bedraggled urchin standing here in tatters. Embarrassed, she tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her.
He looked around at what had once been her home and his lips compressed into a tight line. Looking down at her, he gently pushed her straggling damp hair behind her ear. “We’ll think of something.”
We. She loved the sound of that. She wasn’t alone in this. Dathan was here to help. Whereas before she would never have given him a second thought for help, their friendship had grown to a point that she could no longer imagine her life without him.
“We’ll think of something,” he reiterated, his voice not more than a whisper.
He once again wrapped her in his arms and the tears that had almost ceased commenced once again in a torrent of misery.
Adrella finally noticed some women across the street watching them, their expressions full of outrage. Wondering about their odd behavior, she mentally shrugged and concentrated on the comfort she found being in Dathan’s arms.
* * *
It was a long time before Adrella’s tears ceased and her shaking stopped. Dathan set her away from him, his eyes searching hers.
“Drell, I have to get back to the light, but we need to talk.” He glanced around him, not certain where to go, but knowing that they couldn’t stay here.
He noticed some women across the street looking their way and whispering. When they observed him watching them, they hurriedly turned away. He frowned, continuing to watch them, and noticed that they surreptitiously looked his way from time to time. Probably a bunch of gossips appalled that he was holding Adrella so close. Well, let them gossip. Adrella needed his comfort right now and he wasn’t about to worry about what people might think.
But then he remembered the odd little comments the oarsmen had made to him on the way to the mainland. One of the oarsmen had made a lewd comment about being stranded on an island with a woman, but his mind had been elsewhere and he had paid it no heed. The others had responded with crude laughter. He
had made some biting comment to them and they had settled into silence. Things were beginning to make more sense now.
“Where will you stay?” he asked absently, his eyes searching the area around them, noting that several others had stopped to stare at them. He shifted uneasily under their regard.
Adrella shrugged apathetically.
From the looks on people’s faces, Dathan realized the conjectures people were making. For his own part he could handle the tittle tattle, but he refused to allow Adrella to suffer for something she’d had no control over. His chin settled into firm lines. “Come with me.”
Adrella took his hand. She was clutching a metal box that he recognized as Mangus’s money tin. He said nothing about it, merely offering to carry it for her. She handed it over without comment.
They walked down the street noticing the number of people scrounging through the debris. Apalach was a small enough town that most people knew everyone, or at least almost everyone, in town.
Dathan, on the other hand, knew hardly anyone. For an instant he felt ashamed that he hadn’t taken the time to get to know more people. Sure, he was isolated on the island, but he crossed to the mainland often to send mail to his family in New York and pick up supplies from the store.
They passed a young woman kneeling in the middle of what had once been a small cottage but was now little more than a shell. She clutched something in her hand and was softly sobbing, rocking back and forth. Adrella noticed her and hurried to her side, Dathan following more slowly. He had always had a hard time seeing a woman’s tears.
When they got closer he could see that she was holding a wedding picture tightly against her chest. Adrella knelt beside her, taking one of the woman’s hands into her own.
“Alice! Alice, what is it?”
The woman stared at them with tear-drenched eyes.
“John...”
It was all she could say before she once again burst out sobbing. Her keening cry raised the hair on the back of Dathan’s neck.
Adrella patted her hand comfortingly. “Is he...is he...?”
Alice nodded. “Dead. His ship was coming in from the West Indies but they were caught by the storm.” There was a catch in her voice. “The ship went down with all hands.”
“Oh, Alice!” Adrella wrapped her in a consoling embrace. “What can I do to help?”
Dathan stared at her in openmouthed amazement. She had lost everything, including the one person she loved most in the world, and here she was offering comfort to someone else. Perhaps it was because of that loss that she was able to do so, but he had to admire her for it. He was beginning to understand what a truly amazing woman she was.
Alice shook her head. “There’s nothing to do. I’m going back home to Louisiana to live with my folks.” She started sobbing again.
Adrella slowly, reluctantly rose to her feet. “Well, if you need anything, let me know.”
The other woman scarcely noticed when they walked away. Dathan could almost see the thoughts going through Adrella’s head. Alice had family to go to, what did she have?
They walked for some time in silence. As they were passing what had once been an alley between two buildings, they heard a soft mewling sound coming from the rubble.
“What was that?” Dathan stopped, listening.
They listened until they heard the sound again. He and Adrella searched through the rubble, turning over wood and other items that had been blown here by the hurricane’s forceful winds.
When they heard the cry again, Dathan followed it until he decided it was coming from behind a stack of splintered planks. Pulling them aside, he found a small kitten. Huddled and fearful, it made a pathetic sight.
“Oh!” Adrella pushed by him, lifting the sodden kitten into her arms, ignoring the further soiling of her dress. “Oh, you poor thing.”
It was hard to tell the kitten’s color it was so covered in mud. Adrella wiped as much of the mud off as she could, revealing what appeared to be white fur except for one black spot surrounding one of its eyes. The kitten shivered violently, its fur saturated with muddy water that chilled as the air hit it.
“Whose do you think it is?” Adrella asked him, her tone anxious.
“There’s no telling where he came from,” Dathan answered, listening to see if he could hear any other movement in the pile. “It’s a miracle he’s still alive. He must have been able to scavenge for enough food to survive.”
Adrella lifted the kitten. “She,” she answered him before once again cuddling it close. “It’s a she.”
Dathan pushed a hand back through his hair, frowning. “So now what are we going to do about her?”
Adrella stared at him in surprise. “We’ll take her with us, of course.”
That’s what he was afraid of. “Adrella...”
She looked up at him, eyes glistening with unshed tears. He sighed heavily. Somehow he knew how this was going to end.
“She’s all alone, Dathan!”
“I’m sure we can find it a good home. We can’t take it with us. We don’t even have a home.”
Her bottom lip started to tremble and Dathan closed his eyes, gritting his teeth.
“Be reasonable, Drell,” he told her in exasperation. “I can’t take it to the island and you have nowhere permanent to stay.”
“I’ll take care of her,” she stated firmly.
He could see there would be no way to sway her. The kitten was a way to replace something she had loved and lost. He knew it as certainly as he knew that his name was Dathan Adams.
She looked up at him hopefully. He sighed again.
“So,” he yielded. “What are you going to name her?”
Her eyes went from tearful to glowing in an instant. The first smile he had seen since he’d arrived in Apalach made him glad he had capitulated.
Adrella hugged the kitten close. “Grace. I’m going to call her Grace. It’s only by God’s grace that she was spared.”
Dathan picked up Adrella’s money box. Somehow he just knew this wasn’t a good idea but it didn’t look like he had much of a choice. Taking her by the arm he started down the littered street.
“Fine. Now let’s see if we can find you a place to stay.” He looked from her to the kitten. “One that will take cats.”
He took her to the church, but there were already an enormous number of people lodging within its walls. Built of brick, it was one of the few buildings that had managed to weather the storm.
“I’m sorry,” the minister told them, his tired eyes sympathetic. “There’s really no room.”
People were in every chamber, more people than he would have thought the building could hold at one time. Still, where else did the people have to go?
“Is there nowhere you could put Adrella up?”
The minister looked harassed. “I’m sorry. I wish we could house more, but there just isn’t room. Every house that survived this monster storm has more people than it can comfortably fit. Any more and conditions could become dangerous.”
Dathan’s next words jerked Adrella’s attention to him.
“Will you marry us then, Mr. Evans?”
* * *
Adrella was limping up and down in the parlor of the church, her green eyes flashing with anger when Dathan entered the room. Her flushed face warned of an impending storm and she saw him stiffen in preparation for the battle to come.
“You’re loonier than the gulf!” she expostulated. “Have you gone daft?”
“I promised your dad...” he began, but she ruthlessly interrupted him.
“Oh did you, now,” she fairly purred, her Irish brogue intensifying. “Well, and isn’t it a good thing that I’m not me da! Now you won’t have to keep your promise.”
Dathan moved toward her warily.
&n
bsp; “I have every intention of keeping my promise,” he told her inflexibly.
Adrella stood feet apart, fists braced on her hips. Fiery green eyes glared into cold gray ones. A warning flashed through her eyes that Dathan chose to ignore.
“What are your alternatives?” he asked, his voice dangerously low.
Stumped for an answer, Adrella merely glared at him.
He took her by the shoulders, but she slapped his hands away. “I’ll walk the streets first,” she hissed between gritted teeth. Regretting the words the instant they’d left her mouth, she glanced at Dathan, intent on recanting her statement.
The savage look on his face took much of the ire from Adrella. She took a hasty step backward in retreat, but she was too late. Dathan jerked her forward, his fingers biting into the flesh of her upper arms. She glared impotently into his outraged face.
“Over my dead body,” he ground out ferociously. “Don’t ever let me hear such nonsense again!”
Adrella gave a few seconds thought to fighting him, but never having seen Dathan in such a black mood, she prudently decided not to.
“You don’t need me,” she told him stonily, and allowed her body to slowly relax against him as the anger faded only to be replaced by hurt. The tautening of his features assured her that he hadn’t missed the pain in her voice.
“It’s not a matter of what I need.”
Loosening his hold slightly, he pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. The brief contact made her shiver.
“Don’t you see, Adrella? You need me, and I’m beginning to see that I need someone as well. Someone who will keep me from turning into a crotchety old hermit.” He stared hard into her eyes. “We would be good together.”
Adrella watched the emotions chase across his features. He had said nothing about love, but looking into his face, she came to the startling conclusion that she really did want to be this man’s wife. Although he hadn’t said he was in love with her, she was in love with him! That was why she felt so unsettled around him, why she felt her heart give that odd little jump whenever he was near, why he was forever in her thoughts. It all made sense now! Following this thought, another one brought her head up sharply. Had Da known even before she had? Was that why he had arranged a match between them? And if he had surmised Adrella’s feelings, was it possible that he had seen something in Dathan, also? Was it possible that he might care for her, and not even know it himself?
There's Always Tomorrow Page 8