by Beth Byers
If he needed some quiet by the rail of a ship, staring at the stars with her, she’d be there. She suddenly understood why Jack had suggested not going back to London. A whimsical trip to anywhere wasn’t her Jack. It was Rita, Victor, Vi, even Denny, but it wasn’t Jack. However, avoiding London until they had a plan made sense to Violet.
“That sounds nice,” Vi said, patting his chest. “I should like to see the stars without the murk of London or fighting through the trees.”
They finished dressing and Vi finished a second cup of Turkish coffee before they started to hear other ship goers in the passageway. Vi’s dress was an off-white sheath that reached from her shoulders to her feet. Over the top of the sheath, a sequined black lace covering exposed a bit of an Egyptian mermaid pattern in the contrast between the off-white and black.
Jack lit a cigar as they stepped into the passageway, finding one of the twins they’d been watching earlier leaving her room at just that moment.
“Oh hello,” Vi said, grinning easily. She ignored the way the woman adjusted her shawl around her shoulders hiding an unfortunate bruise. Vi would have reacted, but it was so clear that the girl didn’t want them to notice the bruise that Vi pretended. “Lovely day.”
“Oh yes, hello,” the twin stuttered. Vi was a little surprised the woman’s accent was British when they’d been so convinced her husband had been Norwegian, but Vi kept her thoughts to herself. “Isn’t it just though.”
“Just visiting Norway?” Vi asked as they approached the same exit to the passage.
“Oh no—” The woman gave Vi and Jack a polite smile. “I live in Oslo now.”
“Visiting home must have been fun,” Vi said.
Another polite smile that didn’t reach her eyes and Vi guessed that nothing was very fun for this woman. Vi let her pass and then lingered back with Jack.
“Did you see?” Vi looked up at Jack and saw that his eyes weren’t smiling or even pretending to smile anymore. He nodded once and then they both sighed. There was nothing to be done for someone who didn’t ask for help. Even then, divorce was hard and messy and could ruin you.
Jack held out his arm and they entered the grand dining room with sickened stomachs. They gave their names and were seated at the same table as Victor and Kate. Then Vi noticed that the other twin and her husband were at the same table.
They introduced themselves to the others and got the name of the man and his wife. He was Oskar Nielsen and she was Ruth. Violet would have loved to know Ruth well enough to wonder whether her marriage were as seemingly unhappy as her sister’s. Vi also wanted to know how both British sisters ended up in Norway.
Instead, Vi asked, “You’re Norwegian, I think,” to Mr. Nielsen who nodded in reply, accepting his cocktail from the waiter with delight.
“Indeed,” Mr. Nielsen replied. “Born and bred.” He laughed as though his joke were quite funny and Vi’s friends echoed the laugh without the same eagerness.
Vi accepted her own cocktail, noting the limp mint and wishing her drink had been made by her twin. She noticed his unhappy expression after he sipped his own drink. “They’re not very good with their drinks, are they?”
“I find the Annabelle to be generally not very good,” Mr. Nielsen replied. “We’ve sailed on her many times, haven’t we, darling?”
His wife gave an uninterested nod, but Mr. Nielsen didn’t seem to mind or even notice. He glanced at her, saw the nod, and looked away. She sipped from her drink and then noticed Vi’s pearls.
“How lovely they are,” she said to Vi in a low voice as her husband caught the attention of Jack and Victor.
“Thank you,” Vi said, almost rubbing her hands together with glee. “They were from my twin.” Vi’s glance led Mrs. Nielsen to Victor who grinned at her.
“Oh,” Ruth Nielsen said, “I see it now. You are very similar, aren’t you?”
They were the male and female halves of the same coin. With sharp features, active expressions, slim frames, and dark coloring, they definitely looked related.
“I’m a twin as well.” Ruth Nielsen’s dark brown eyes moved to her sister a table over. Vi noted Denny and Lila at that same table and then winked at him when he saw her attention.
Vi turned and glanced at the woman she’d spoken to outside of her cabin. “How fun is it to look just the same. We would have caused endless trouble with that.”
“Oh we would have,” Victor agreed merrily, setting his drink aside with another scowl. “Our poor stepmother would have yanked her hair out of her head in sheer frustration.”
Violet and Victor grinned at each other, not needing to interpret the other’s thoughts. Possibilities were unfolding between them as they considered the idea. It ended with identical evil smirks and they glanced in unison at Ruth Nielsen.
She chuckled low. “You are twins, aren’t you. I feel like Margaret and I have read each other’s minds since before I can remember.”
“Does your sister live in Norway as well?”
“Oh yes,” Ruth grinned. “She moved with me when I married Oskar. It wasn’t very long before Liam and Margaret married. She’s Mrs. Hanson now.”
Vi examined Ruth’s face for any emotion about that statement, but there wasn’t anything to see. Vi tried to hide her own thoughts and watched as Jack idly chatted with Oskar Nielsen. Vi wouldn’t be surprised if Jack had discovered far more information from Oskar without even trying, than Vi had. All she’d discovered was names to go with the guesses they'd already made. Vi’s mouth twisted and she tried her cocktail again to her immediate regret.
Chapter 4
The dinner was fine without being good and Vi thought back to her Turkish coffee, instantly grateful that it, at least, had been quite good. When dinner ended, Vi and Jack slipped out of the dining room as did the rest of the guests. It was being converted from a dining room to a ballroom and guests of the departing seafarers were able to join for the evening just before the ship departed.
They found Lila and Denny near the end of the ship gazing at the arriving guests. People were dressed almost as luxuriously here as for a night at the opera and there was an air of frivolity. Vi sidled up to Denny and asked, “Did you see the bruise?”
“Oh, I saw it. Did you get a good look?”
Vi shook her head. “Was her husband awful?”
Vi paused when she caught sight of one of the twins, but it took a moment to realize it wasn’t a twin at all, but was Oskar Nielsen and the curvy little blonde who had boarded the ship with them. They were in the shadows of a doorway, and Vi elbowed Denny and jerked her head when she realized that the couple was kissing fervently.
“Oh bloody hell,” Denny breathed, shaking his head. “Anyone could see them out there.”
“He isn’t even the violent one,” Vi said. “Doesn’t seem like either of the women are happy in their marriages.”
“Did you see the bruise, Vi? You could see each finger of the fellow on her shoulder. It made me sick. Felt the need to apologize to Lila even though she’d murder me rather than put up with that nonsense.”
“You’d get arsenic chocolates for certain,” Vi told Denny easily.
“It would be my duty as a mother,” Lila told Denny dryly. “Allowing myself to be abused in front of Lily would make her feel like it was just how things were. I won’t have that.”
Vi blinked a little rapidly. Anything serious from Lila was so rare, Vi was almost surprised.
“I would rather you protect Lily than me,” Denny said, patting her hand on his arm.
Vi laughed and glanced at the others.
“Did Denny just give Lila permission to murder him?” Victor cleared his throat to hide his laugh.
“For Lily’s sake.” Denny shrugged. “What wouldn’t we do for our daughters?”
Kate squeezed Victor’s arm. “I don’t have to worry about Victor. He was trained by Vi long before I came along.”
Vi snorted and giggled at the same time and had to steal Jack’s handkerchief
to collect herself. As soon as she was recovered, she pushed up on her toes to see if Oskar Nielsen and not-his-wife were still in the passageway, but they had disappeared.
“They went down to the cabins,” Jack told Vi. His tone told her what he thought they were going to do and how he felt about disappearing on a wife with another woman.
“They could try a little harder to hide things,” Lila muttered. “Any woman with half a wit would notice them disappearing and coming back rumpled.”
“Maybe she doesn’t care,” Kate suggested.
A moment later Rita and Ham appeared in the passageway. “Guess what we saw?”
“The blonder of the gents we followed onto the ship,” Jack said quickly. “With the not-his-wife disappearing towards the cabins?”
Rita glanced at Ham and slowly shook her head. “The twin with the bruises and another fellow. Not-her-husband…”
Vi gasped and then said, “I wonder if that’s why she has the bruises. Did you see them too?”
“A shawl isn’t a very good disguise,” Ham said. “We saw them when we were leaving the dining room.”
“Who is the fellow she was with in the hallway?” Vi asked, glancing at Jack. She saw the smirk on his face and said, “Yes, we’re incurably nosy.”
“Maybe she has a lover,” Rita suggested. She hesitated long enough that Vi waited for an expansion of her thoughts, but Rita just scrunched her nose and shrugged.
“Did they not look like lovers?” Vi asked.
“They were awfully close together,” Ham added, but he shook his head too. “Far closer than strangers would ever be.”
“Maybe they were just conspiring about something,” Vi said, given that they’d both paused. “Maybe she owes the fellow money or knows something about him.”
“Maybe they’re friends,” Victor added. “We are all rather comfortable with each other.”
“Then why were they hiding in the shadows?” Ham asked. He shook his head and said, “I’m not sure why I’m thinking about this. I don’t even care.”
Jack snorted and Vi elbowed him lightly.
“So who is the bruiser of Margaret?” Denny asked with too much relish. He got a dirty look from every woman around him and winced, but his interest was peaked, and he couldn’t hide it. “I’m not happy she’s bruised.” There was a bit of a whine in his voice. “I’m just interested in why.”
“The most likely person to hurt a woman is the person you would tell yourself wouldn’t.” Ham looked disgusted and he glanced down at Rita with an expression that was unreadable. It was, however, guessable given the conversation. Vi bet Ham was incapable of even imagining hurting Rita. That’s what made Ham and Jack and Victor and Denny the men that they were.
“You mean her husband?” Lila asked. “I’m not surprised. Most of the women I know who’ve been hurt have been hurt by a husband, father, or brother. Men as a rule are rather undesirable risks.”
“Their fathers?” Denny gasped and then shook his head, rejecting the idea vigorously.
“Surely we know far more men,” Rita countered, “who wouldn’t leave their wife bruised and hurt.”
“Let alone fathers,” Denny said fiercely. Vi was almost surprised, but there was more to Denny than giggles and chocolate even if he rarely showed those parts of himself.
“So,” Vi added easily, hoping to lighten the mood, “you’re saying that more men are good than bad?”
“Yes,” Denny muttered and then gasped dramatically when the bruised twin’s husband appeared. He whispered loudly, “What’s his name?”
“Liam Hanson,” Jack replied low.
The fellow was looking for someone. He was standing tall and straight scanning the crowd. Was he looking for his wife? Would he be enraged when he found her? Would there be more bruises?
Maybe he wasn’t even looking for his wife. Maybe… “What if he’s looking for the curvy blonde?”
Denny gasped and said, “Vi! You have a diabolical mind.”
She grinned evilly at him, and he matched her. The others groaned a bit and Rita said, “I feel certain this steamship journey will end with us knowing far too much about those twins, their lovers, their husbands, and their details.”
Vi gasped, but she was already plotting how to get more information. An idea occurred to her and she glanced at Jack. A moment later she shook her head.
“What?”
Her answer was to tell Denny, “Ask the twins to dance.”
“And the curvy blonde,” Lila added. “Flirt with her and see if she responds.”
“It really should be Victor as well. He could play the twin angle, he’s clearly expensive…”
“I’m what?” Victor gasped.
“You’re like a fine wine,” Rita told him. “Expensive and pretty.”
His mouth dropped and he looked to his wife for assurance, but she was too busy laughing to comfort him.
“Denny is too much like a puppy for not-his-wife if she’s looking to upgrade from lover to wife.” Lila glanced at him with consideration. “You should ask the bruised one to dance. You aren’t alarming and she might be nervous of men.”
“I could be alarming,” Denny said with a frown. He paused and then laughed. “Perhaps not.”
“Perhaps not,” Vi agreed in unison with Lila. They laughed and then Kate said, “It’s not a bad thing to be someone safe.”
“You’re so nice,” Rita told Kate. To Victor, Rita said, “She’s so nice.”
“She is. She made the puppy feel better,” Victor said, sliding his arm around his wife’s waist.
“At least I’m not pretty and expensive,” Denny muttered. “Victor sounds like a courtesan.”
Vi gasped, choking on a laugh. She turned to hide her giggles in Jack’s arm.
“It does sound like a courtesan,” Ham told Victor. “Sorry, old man.”
“Oh thank you,” Victor said wryly. “I so appreciate your concern.”
Vi glanced at Jack. “We’re going to go for a walk before we dance.”
The others nodded and Victor said, “I’ll be visiting the bar and making my own drink.”
Vi grinned at her twin and then let Jack tug her away. They could hear the sound of stringed instruments tuning, and the lights of the dining room were shining out onto the walkway around the ship. The guests began to move back into the dining room that had been transformed into a ballroom.
“Jack,” Vi said carefully when they found themselves alone. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Jack said.
“You are not,” Vi countered. “I can tell that you’re not feeling yourself.”
He wound their fingers together and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “Perhaps I am not. Perhaps I even have a touch of the grey days, but not entirely, Vi. I am happy. I would choose this life with you over any other possibility.”
Vi searched his gaze and then pushed up on her toes, taking his face in her hands. “I just want you to be happy.”
“And I just want you to be happy.”
Vi lifted a brow and then wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning against his chest. “I suppose I know all about grey days. It’s possible to know you are blessed and still wish things were different.”
“I don’t even feel unhappy, Vi. It’s not that. I feel unanchored.”
Vi didn’t blame him. She’d felt that way when her great aunt died. She’d felt like that when she realized she was running Aunt Agatha’s businesses. She’d felt like that time and again as she and Victor had been tugged apart by their own lives.
Even now, she missed her twin desperately. He was aboard ship with them, and at dinner, they’d share coffee and talk about books, but a part of her just wanted to revisit the days when they’d shared rooms and lived in each other’s pockets.
Vi squeezed Jack’s hand and took a deep breath.
“Shall we dig into those twins’ lives?”
“I’d rather not,” Jack admitted.
Vi laughed. “But I
only packed a dozen books.”
Jack rubbed his chin over the top of her head and suggested, “Perhaps write one with Victor then.”
Vi narrowed her gaze on Jack and then she turned to face the sea. They were still in the London port, which was always busy. If you paid attention, the sound of the shore, the sound of water traffic, the lull of the waves all contributed to a sort of busy, appealing song.
“What if we purchased a yacht?” Vi asked when they saw a luxurious one in the distance.
“Do we enjoy sailing?” Jack asked. “Wouldn’t you rather have a place by the sea?”
Vi considered, “Perhaps in Lyme?”
“Or Southwold?”
“Ooh,” Vi agreed immediately.
She was leaning into Jack when Liam Hanson appeared. He wasn’t looking for anyone anymore, but was leaning over the railing smoking a cigarette. If he’d found who he’d been looking for, there was no sign.
Vi shivered and Jack warmed her by placing his suit jacket around her shoulders. She felt the weight of Jack’s hands on her shoulders, and a part of her imagined Jack digging his fingers into her body like that. She knew he never would, but what if he did?
How heartbreaking would it be to have Jack betray her trust like that? She wondered, if Mr. Hanson were the one who hurt his wife, did he apologize? Did he just assume it was his wife’s due? Maybe, if it started before they were married, he apologized then? Vi wished she could take aside Mrs. Hanson, demand a name of who was hurting her, and then convince the woman she had options beyond just accepting what was happening.
“Thank you for being you,” Violet told Jack with her gaze on Mr. Hanson.
“Mmm,” Jack said, seeming to understand the nature of her thoughts. “Why don’t we dance until the ship leaves and then find a place to watch the stars?”
Vi was sold on the idea before he had finished saying it.
Chapter 5
Vi had spent some time on a steamship or two. It wasn’t all that shocking to walk into a ballroom and be awed. The Annabelle, however, did not inspire awe. She’d been in there earlier for dinner and hadn’t been expecting a miracle, but if anything, she was a little surprised it was so poorly done.