Precious Cargo
Page 27
We’d arrived at the place where Sharon and I had once watched a Tibetan monk pour sand from an elaborate painting into the water to bless all beings under the sea; the place where, a year later, Sharon, sick from cancer, died in my arms on an evening just like this; the place where I returned the following year to let her ashes join the monk’s blessed sand.
After bridling the anchor, I walked back into the pilothouse and shook Kate gently. She woke with a smile. “There’s someone I want you to meet,” I said.
We slipped into the dinghy, and I rowed to the spot where I’d spread Sharon’s ashes. We drifted in the water. Blue smoke curled upward from a fire on the beach. Kate said nothing. I spoke to the water.
“Sharon,” I said. “I want you to meet Kate Sullivan.”
I thought I’d have more to say, but I didn’t. I just sat, allowing memories of the monk, Sharon’s death, and her ashes wash over me. Finally, Kate spoke.
“Hi, Sharon,” she said. “I want you to know that I love Charlie and he loves me. I also know that he still loves you. I hope he always will. Real love sustains life and survives death. You were a remarkable woman. One whom I could never replace. Nor would I want to. What I want is for Charlie and me to spend the time we have together creating a new life and nurturing our new love.”
Kate reached for me. We squeezed hands tightly, drifting in silence as darkness gave birth to the evening’s first star. Later that night, with the Noble Lady swaying gently beneath us, Kate and I made love. And for the first time since we’d been together, I thought only of her.
Copyright © 2008 by Clyde W. Ford
Published by Vanguard Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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eISBN : 978-0-786-72619-6
1. Noble, Charlie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Private investigators—Fiction.
3. Prostitution—Washington (State)—Fiction. 4. San Juan Islands (Wash.)—Fiction.
5. Bellingham (Wash.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3606.O724P74 2008
813’.6—dc22
2008019463