by Cathy Marie Hake, Lynn A. Coleman, Mary Davis, Susan Page Davis
“From the lighthouse?”
“Only if they can gain entry. I’m hoping they’re too tired to try.”
Jacob had left his hair down, and Hollan absentmindedly stroked it as she listened. Her touch made it hard to concentrate.
“We’ll need to warn Fletcher.”
“Yes. I figure if we can get an early start in the morning and stick close to the trees, we can intercept Fletcher before he makes it as far as the ship. We can hop aboard the supply boat and be out of here before David and his men get off the dune.”
“That sounds fine.”
He leaned on his lower arm, put his other hand against his heart, and feigned surprise. “ ‘That sounds fine’?” he mimicked. “You don’t want to add to the plan or take something away?”
“Very funny.” She pushed him back down and laid her head on his chest. Samson wiggled closer. “I trust you.”
“You do?” Jacob sat halfway up again. “You trust me completely this time?”
“I do. We’ve been through a lot during the past week, and you’ve stuck by me through it all. You didn’t have to risk your life to rescue me, but you did. I do trust you.”
“Thank you, Hollan. Your trust means everything to me. I’ll never break that trust again.”
She settled back against him just as Samson let out a low growl.
Jacob glanced at him and saw the hair raised on the back of the dog’s neck. The dog growled again.
A gravelly voice sounded from behind them. “What do we have here?”
Chapter 13
Samson barked.
“Samson, it’s just Papa.” Hollan laughed. “Your sudden appearance and hoarse voice must have startled him, Papa.”
Samson jumped to his feet and wagged his tail as he sheepishly hurried over to his master.
Hollan surveyed her father. “Are you feeling better?”
He definitely looked better now that he’d had some sleep.
“I feel much better.”
“Good.” Hollan turned to Jacob. “You said you brought more of our clothes back with you?”
“They’re in the shack.” Jacob’s voice was groggy. He hadn’t moved from his place on the ground.
“I think I’ll go a ways up the stream to bathe and change.”
“Don’t go far,” Jacob warned. He yawned. “I’ll rest while you’re gone.”
“Stay within calling range, Hollan.” Her father’s face creased with worry. “The men might come ashore.”
“I’ll be close by, Papa.”
“Actually, I think I’ll tag along and freshen up myself. That way I’ll be nearby if you need me.”
Hollan rolled her eyes. She might be a married woman now, but her father apparently didn’t see her as such. “As you wish, Papa.”
She knew he’d worry the whole time she was gone if he didn’t accompany her. And truth be told, she didn’t want her father far away after being apart from him in such a way.
They gathered their supplies and walked up the overgrown path. Hollan stopped and pointed out a small pool in the creek. “This looks like a perfect place. I’ll stay here.”
“Good. You’ll be protected and safe. No one can get through this foliage. Jacob is just down the path behind us. And I’ll go a bit ahead and stand guard from that angle.”
“Thank you, Papa.” She stopped and handed him a bar of lye soap. “I’m sure you can use some freshening up, too. You were on that ship longer than I.”
“I can’t wait to get in the water and then put on some fresh clothes. If we could light a fire, I’d burn these.”
“Burying them will do just as well,” Hollan teased.
Her father walked off, and Hollan savored the time alone. She slipped into the cool water and lathered up her hair. She scrubbed her body twice, just to make sure the filth of the ship was gone from her skin. Her skin tingled when she exited the water and dressed in fresh clothes.
She leaned back against a sun-warmed rock and contemplated the past few days while she waited for her father. She had her father back. The thought made her smile. More surprisingly, she had Jacob back. And for the first time, she felt confident that he meant it when he said he’d stay. He’d changed a lot during the past three years. They still needed to talk about why he’d left her in the first place. And she needed her father’s explanation about what had happened to her mother.
The warmth of the late afternoon sun lulled her into a drowsy state. She listened to the sound of the birds in the trees. The wind rustled through the bushes. At least, Hollan hoped it was the wind. She knew the gators came out at dusk and willed her father to hurry.
She heard footsteps along the path and shrank down behind the rock.
“Hollan?”
“Papa? Oh, I’m glad you came back.”
“Did something happen?” He glanced around.
“No.” She smiled. “I’m just hearing things in the scrub. I’m ready to head back to Jacob. I don’t want to meet up with an alligator any more than I want to meet up with David and his men.”
Jacob woke up as they neared the small clearing and rubbed his eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“Just fine.” Hollan smoothed her clean pink skirt and settled down beside him. He studied her fresh-scrubbed appearance. She couldn’t help teasing him. “Everything meet your approval?”
“Indeed.” He grinned. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re the same woman who walked away from here a short while back.”
“One and the same.”
“I think I’d better follow suit.” He hopped up to his feet. “Stay close to your father.”
“You stay close to shore and make sure to be careful.”
“What’s the matter? You don’t want me to end up as gator bait?”
She shuddered. “That’s not exactly something to joke about.”
“We have a bit of daylight left. I’ll be fine.”
“See that you are. I have some questions to ask when you return.”
“Sounds serious.”
“Maybe. But it’s a conversation that’s been a long time in coming.”
“You’re right.” He nodded. “It has. We’ll talk when I get back.” He gathered his clothes and walked up the path from where they’d just come.
Hollan bent down and busied herself with cleaning and wrapping her sore feet.
“We need to talk, too, Hollan. Now’s as good a time as any.”
Hollan glanced back at her father. “About Mama?”
“Yes.” He eased himself down beside her. “The night she—fell—from the lighthouse, something happened. Something bad.”
“You don’t have to tell me, Papa.”
“I want to tell you. You need to know. You need to understand that she didn’t do what she did to hurt you. She was hurting so badly, I don’t think she gave anything else much thought.”
“She’d just left the cottage. What could have happened?”
“David waited just outside, and he grabbed her….” Her father stopped, his face both pained and angry.
“Papa, you don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.” He waved her words away. “David grabbed her, and he abused her. He—hurt—your mother. He violated her body. I was so close by, but I had no idea.”
“Oh, Papa. I had no idea either.”
“She didn’t want you to know.” He shook his head. “I was supposed to watch out for her, but I wasn’t there for her in her time of greatest need.”
“You didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t change things in my mind.”
“What happened next?”
“I went into a rage. I told her to go back inside, and I went after the vile man.”
“But you didn’t find him?”
“No. And I heard you calling, and I was afraid for you.”
“Why would David want to hurt Mama?”
“I don’t know. I’ll never know. He and his brothers and their father hurt a lot of people that ni
ght, for no reason anyone has ever been able to figure out.”
“I know what happened.” Jacob stood at the edge of the path, his voice tortured. “I think I’m starting to understand.”
They both spun around to look at him. He dropped his things beside the door of the shack and walked closer.
He sank down beside Hollan and took her hand. “He’d come to hurt you.”
“But why? I didn’t even really know him. Why would he want to hurt me?”
“Because hurting you would be the best way to hurt me.” Jacob shook his head. “David hated that I was different from him and our father. He constantly goaded me and tried to get me to go along with them as they destroyed everyone in their path. I wouldn’t have any part of it, and I spent most of my time with your uncle and aunt.”
“I knew your family was rough, but I had no idea they were that bad.”
“I didn’t want you to know.”
“Oh.”
“You were my refuge. You were the bright spot in my life. I didn’t want to dirty that up with my family’s reputation.”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything between us.”
“I know. I just didn’t want to sully what we had when we were together. Regardless, things weren’t good at home. That last night, they’d decided to skip town. The law was coming down on them, and they knew it was time to move on. I heard them talking and planning. David asked me to go along, and I refused. I tried to talk them out of it, and I tried to tell them about my beliefs. I told them it wasn’t too late to start fresh. David laughed in my face. They didn’t want anything to do with any of it. I said I didn’t want anything to do with their deeds. I had you, and I had my life there in town. I had no reason to run.”
Hollan saw the muscle working in Jacob’s jaw. “What happened next?”
He struggled for control. “David said he was going after you, that maybe he’d just take you with him instead. He hated that he couldn’t control me. He hated that I was so different. He wanted to be in control of everything.”
“Oh, Jacob.” Hollan tried to grasp everything he was telling her. The raw emotion on his face clearly showed his pain. “What did you do?”
“I went into a rage, just like your father did later. I’m not proud of the fact. David has a tendency to bring out the worst in a man.”
“But I don’t blame you. You were totally justified.”
“David laughed and said he didn’t really want to take you with them … he’d just take what he wanted from you and would leave it at that.”
He looked at her. Hollan continued to hold his arm.
“I went after David. All three of them, my dad and my other two brothers, jumped me while David hit me from behind.”
Hollan closed her eyes against the horrific image of Jacob being held by his own father and brothers while another brother attacked him. “That’s atrocious.”
“They knocked me unconscious.” He blew out a breath. “When I woke up, your uncle was bent over me and they were gone. It was daylight. My head was pretty messed up. I croaked out your name and your uncle said you’d been traumatized and it would be best if I left you alone for a bit.”
He threw a small stone into the creek and watched the water ripple out from where it landed. Hollan remained quiet, figuring he needed time to gather his thoughts before continuing.
“I figured—based on his comment—that David had succeeded in getting what he was after. I figured your uncle’s phrasing was his way of telling me to leave you alone.”
“So you just left?”
“No, I couldn’t travel. I was in and out of consciousness for a few more days, and your aunt and uncle cared for me. When I was finally well, I asked about you again.”
He shrugged. “Your uncle again repeated that you needed some time. You’d been injured. The whole town had been wronged. I had to go after my brothers. I couldn’t let them get away with what they’d done.”
“I had been injured. Just not as you thought. The weather was awful, and my mother was standing at the edge of the platform on top of the lighthouse. I was afraid she’d fall. I tried to take hold of her arm, to pull her back, but she just shook me away like I didn’t matter. I fell and hit my head. When I woke up, I couldn’t see. We hoped it would only be for a short time, that maybe it was caused from the trauma of everything that happened, but after several days passed … we had to accept that the loss of vision might be permanent.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Hollan nodded. “What happened after my uncle told you I still needed time?”
“I decided I’d go after my father and brothers. I wanted to find my own justice.”
“But you didn’t. You went to the law.”
“You’re right, I did. As I rode after them, God shook some sense into me. He placed some good people in my path. I decided I would bring them to justice, but I’d do it the right way. I didn’t want to become like them.”
Hollan’s voice was soft. “So, you didn’t leave me because you didn’t want me. You left because you thought you’d lost me.”
“Exactly.” He took her hand in his. “I never stopped loving you, Hollan. I just thought I’d lost you because of what my brother did. I thought when your uncle said to give you time, you didn’t want to see me again.”
“But David never came to me….”
Her father spoke up. “Yes, he did.”
Hollan was bewildered. “No, he didn’t—”
“But he did….”
She glanced back and forth between them. Realization dawned. Her breath hitched. “He got Mama instead.”
Her father nodded.
“Mama wasn’t his intended victim. He thought she was me. Then it was my fault David hurt her.”
Jacob pulled her close. “No, it wasn’t your fault at all.”
She pushed him away. “It was! He’d come for me. Mama went out there….”
“And in the storm, she looked so much like you that David mistook her for you.” Her father nodded again. “Hollan, your mother wouldn’t have had it any other way. She told me as much. She said he kept saying your name, even as she fought him. She said she was glad it was her he’d found, not you. She didn’t blame you, and you can’t blame yourself.”
Horrified tears poured down Hollan’s cheeks. “Then why did she do what she did?”
“I don’t know. She was hurt, angry, devastated. She begged me not to go after him. Not with the rage I was in. If I’d only stayed with her …”
“You can’t blame yourself either, Papa.” Hollan reached up to wipe her tears, but Jacob got to them first.
“Hollan, I don’t think she jumped of her own free will. Now that we’ve all shared our views of that night, I think your mother must have gone up to the top of the lighthouse to get away from everything, to feel safe. You were in the cottage. She wouldn’t want you to see how distraught she was. Your mother didn’t leave you intentionally.”
“I think you may be right.” Hollan nodded slowly. She turned to her father. “Papa, if you won’t let me blame myself, you can’t take that blame either.”
“None of us are to blame. It took me three years to realize that.” Jacob caressed her fingers with his thumb. His golden hair glistened. He surveyed her, looking deep into her eyes. She couldn’t pull her gaze away from his. “Only God can judge them for their sins. The law can try them for their crimes. Our responsibility is to forgive.”
“It’s hard.”
“It is, but if you don’t forgive … if you hold the anger and bitterness in … you’ll become just like them. Don’t let them win.”
She turned to her father. “Papa?”
“Your husband is right, Hollan. As hard as it is to hear, Jacob speaks the truth. David needs to be brought to justice, but as soon as that’s accomplished, we need to go on with our lives. We need to move forward. God has blessed us through all this.”
“I guess He has, hasn’t He? I’ll still have to work through the anger t
oward David, but God restored my vision. He brought Jacob back to me.” She smiled up at him.
“He led me back to you,” Jacob agreed.
“And He allowed you both to find me,” her father added.
“So we’re all in agreement.” Hollan stared back and forth between both men. “But what now? How do we bring David to justice?”
Her father considered her question. “We leave first thing in the morning and intercept Fletcher.”
“What if he can’t make it? What if he can’t get away? The hurricane might have caused a lot of damage.”
Jacob surveyed her expression. “You have something on your mind.”
“Yes.” She raised an eyebrow. “I do.”
“I’m afraid to ask … but …” Her father’s blue eyes twinkled. “Are you gonna fill us in?”
“David and his crew rowed ashore to get over here, right?”
“Right.”
“They’d have to leave their boats onshore, wouldn’t they?”
“I believe they would.”
Jacob exchanged a look with her father. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Her father nodded. “I’m pretty sure I am.”
They both looked back at her.
Jacob spoke first. “If they did leave the boats onshore, they’d surely have a guard.”
“Guards can be bribed.” Hollan shrugged. “Or overthrown.”
Jacob laughed. “You say that like it’s such a simple thing. And you’re volunteering us for the job?”
“I’ll do my part.” Hollan tipped up her chin and dared him to cut her out of the plans.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I could sashay over and distract whoever it is while you two strike from behind.”
“My wife is villainous!”
Hollan snorted. “I’m not. I’m just willing to do whatever needs to be done.”
Gunter sat in contemplative silence.
“Papa?”
“I don’t want to use you as bait. These men are very dangerous. Now they’re both dangerous and angry.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
“Well, I don’t as of now, but I bet we can come up with one before dawn.”
Jacob leaned forward and rested his arm on his knee. “They’ll be watching for us. If we leave before daybreak, we’ll have a better chance of getting away.”