by Harmon, AJ
It was difficult for her to make friends. The assumption she made was that if people knew who she really was, they wouldn’t like her. And men? Well, they weren’t to be trusted and she kept as far away as possible from them. Her stepfather was a man and look how that had that turned out. She had no use for them… at all.
The emergency came just two years after she’d moved into the studio apartment. Finally, on her own with no roommates to contend with anymore, her move to her very own place had cost her more than she had planned but she could handle it as long as nothing else went wrong. It was touch and go every month but she’d somehow been able to manage. But then she found herself sitting on the side of the road in her car, smoke billowing out from under the hood. The repairs to her Subaru took every last penny of her small emergency fund that remained. When she became ill and missed so much work, it was just a matter of a few weeks before she was so far under there was no way to crawl out of the enormous hole she was in. Being evicted was just a matter of time.
That was the day her life changed again.
Bess sat on the edge of the enormous hotel bed and looked around. She placed her small purse beside her and watched as Ethan opened the closet and placed their bags inside.
“Well? Now what?” he asked. “We have just under four hours until we meet Grace.”
Bess shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just glad we are here and nothing will make us late to the meeting.”
“Are you hungry?”
She shrugged again. Bess was nervous, even though she was glad she was with Ethan. She felt very much out of her comfort zone.
“Why don’t we go down to the restaurant and have breakfast.”
Bess picked up her purse and stood up. “Okay,” she said and followed Ethan out of the room, down the hall, into the elevator, and back down to the main floor and to the restaurant. They were seated and handed menus and Bess was able to relax for a moment or two.
Ethan could sense her anxiety and was doing everything he could think of to ease her nerves. As he glanced at her over the menu he held in his hands, he was sure that the last few months had taken a huge toll on her and was trying to be sensitive and accommodating in all he did. It only made him love her more.
While being a child with an ill mother, Ethan, and his brother Evan, grew up never wanting for anything, attending good schools, and not ever experiencing poverty or want. In the summers, his grandparents took over the caretaker rolls for the boys and the three months spent in Port Lincoln was the stuff dreams were made of. They were carefree and happy months, playing on the beach and climbing on the rocks. The boys built forts and a treehouse, which fell down in a storm the following winter, and ate corndogs and nachos. They went roller skating and to movies and science camp. They were carefree and loved every moment.
For Ethan, going to college was another summer camp. Naturally smart, he whizzed through his first two years with ease, and played hard. He discovered beer and marijuana, girls and sex, and all the time living his life with no responsibilities. It was when his mother died that he got serious about life and what he was going to do with his. As a boy, watching his mother suffer, he’d dreamed of becoming a doctor so that he could fix her. And while that never came to fruition, he knew he had found his calling after his first rotation in the emergency department in a Chicago hospital where he spent his years as a resident. While he may have been unable to cure his mother, he’d helped thousands of people over the years and it gave him a real sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
He was a natural nurturer. He wanted to take care of people and it was the first thing that had drawn him to Bess. And after getting to know her a little better, she needed someone to take care of her. Not that she wasn’t capable of taking care of herself – she’d been doing it for years. But it was time for her to take a needed and well-deserved break and let someone else take over for a little while. And Ethan had been eager to apply for the job. It had started as just that – someone looking out for her, but the more he got to know her, the more he liked her. Like turned into something much, much more. It made him happy and excited to think about the future, knowing that Bess would be a part of it.
And here he sat, in a Boston hotel, waiting for the evening to begin so he could show her, without any words, just how much he loved her.
25.
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 12th, 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 8th, 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 20th, 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.
26.
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 wou
ld 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.