Unbroken Promises of the Heart: (Promises of the Heart Book 2)

by Valerie Loveless

  Finally, her arms gave way, and only her legs were wrapped around his waist. Pauly had her under the arms and was still pulling.

  “Nan, you get off right now, or I’ll whoop you!”

  Nan let her legs unhook, and John fell on the bed. Nan fell back on top of Pauly, sobbing.

  “I’m sorry, Pa. I just love him so much, and he don’t love me at all.”

  Pauly cradled his sobbing daughter. “I’m sorry, Nan. I know you’ve had a hard year. I’m really sorry he doesn’t love you, but you can’t force your love on him. It ain’t how it’s done.”

  “I know, Pa.” Nan sniffed.

  John sat up and dusted himself off. He blinked several times strangely like the mermaid. Then his eyes rolled back as he fell backward onto the bed.

  “John!” Nan screeched as she jumped up to him. “I killed him, Pa! I killed him just like I killed Jed!”

  “Shh, child, he ain’t dead,” Pauly said as he put his ear near John’s nose and listened to him breathe. “He just fainted.”

  “Fainted? John Buxton fainted?”

  “What you mean you killed Jed?” Pauly barked.

  Nan looked horrified. “I—”

  “You best tell me right now if you murdered my best friend, child!”

  “I didn’t mean to, Pa!” Nan scrambled away to the door. “I just told him a fib is all, and it killed him.”

  Pauly shook his head. “You poor, ignorant child. You didn’t kill Jed. Years of being an angry ol’ cuss killed him.”

  Nan looked relieved and stumbled back to the bed. “Oh. I thought I killed him, Pa. I ran away and joined a gang of robbers because I thought I killed him, and I couldn’t come back home.” Nan fell to the bed and sobbed into the covers. Pauly stroked her hair.

  “You silly girl. You sure have a way of making a mess of things.”

  Then John opened his eyes.

  “See, he ain’t dead,” Pauly said.

  Nan looked up.

  “Oh, John, I’m sorry I almost killed you.”

  John shot up. “Lavender!”

  “John! Is that you? Have you come back to us?” Pauly hoped beyond all hope.

  John touched his neck; the pearl was gone. “The pearl! Where did it go?”

  Nan and Pauly looked around. Nan found what was left of it on the floor. It was smashed in hundreds of little pieces like grains of sand.

  “This is it, Pauly. This is how we are going to save Lavender! We need to get that pearl off of her and smash it. Thank you, Nan!” John grabbed Nan and gave her a big squeeze.

  “Oh, you’re welcome, John,” she said wide-eyed.

  John pushed her back and looked her square in the face. “Nan, I’m so sorry that I don’t have the same feelings for you. I know it must be painful. If you keep on being the kind woman who took care of me these last few days, you will find a good man that you will love as much as you deserve, probably more.”

  Tears welled in Nan’s eyes again, and John stood up abruptly. “We’ve got to find a way to get Lavender and Morose here, Pauly.”

  “Tell her Pa’s dying. Surely, she’ll come back for that,” Nan said.

  “I don’t know,” Pauly said. “She wanted to kill me before. I don’t know that she’ll care.”

  “We’ve got to find a way to trick her.”

  “Morose might make her come, if I tell him I’m dying. He’s the one who told Lavender to keep me close, and she listened to him. His conscience is burning him up. He knows that he’s done Lavender wrong and she is goin’ crazy because of what he done to her.”

  “The pearl seems to magnify the feelings of the one who gave it to you. That’s how I ended up here, because Serene wanted to see the world and everything that I loved about it, and that’s all that I could think about. Morose wants nothing but for Lavender to love him. She must be—pardon the pun—crazy in love with him now.”

  “That’s the only way to put it, for sure. She’d kill for him.”

  “John.” A voice from the doorway startled them. They turned and saw Serene. “You broke your pearl. I felt it.” Serene opened her palm and revealed another pearl glowing on top of it.

  “Ooh.” Nan was awed by the internal glowing of the pearl.

  “Serene, do you think I could have one that won’t make me crazy?” Nan asked.

  “Crazy?” Serene said. “This is for John, my love. Do you feel pain now, John?”

  John straightened up, his spine cracked, and he grabbed his neck, which was quite sore from Nan choking him. “I feel everything now, Serene. Which is how it should be. You can’t do this to people. You can’t take away who they are so they feel nothing but what you want them to. I know you are lonely and want someone to stay with you, but this is not the way.”

  Nan reached for the pearl. Pauly slapped her hand, and she yanked it back quickly, frowning.

  Serene looked around at these strangers. Her skin began to turn grayish green, and water dripped from her hair.

  “Oh, Serene.” John sighed. “You poor, lonely creature.”

  “I’ll be your friend, Serene,” Nan said, tears forming in her eyes. “I’ve got no friends. No husband. All I’ve got is Pa. I could love you like a sister.”

  “I’ve never had a sister,” Serene said as she held out the pearl to Nan.

  “No, I better not. I don’t need a pearl to be your friend. We can just talk, and you can teach me to swim!”

  Serene smiled and her skin returned to a natural, human-like pink. “Maybe you can get me some real pearls, not the kind that make you murderous or crazy.”

  Serene nodded. “Then we will be very good friends.”

  Nan smiled and clapped her hands together.

  “Serene, I wonder if you could take a message to Morose. Do you think you can find him?” Serene nodded. “Wonderful. Come, Pa, it must be written in your hand. Invite Lavender to come back and have her wedding to Morose here because you are dying, and she needs to come quickly.”

  Volume Eight

  Pie Contest

  The Black family walked in a mass of moving parts to the fair, laughing, teasing, and singing. They could hear music and the crowd from down the road where the fair took place around the church’s extensive lawns. There, anyone could set up a game or an activity to share with the town. A miniature theater was set up with hand puppets and did shows all night long. The Willises sold food, bunting, festive costumes, and ribbons. A band of local musicians would play all through the night, and everyone could dance away on the dance floor.

  There was a pie and pickle contest, which Gretchen won almost every year. New this year was a play put on by the Acting Society of Pleasant View, also known as ASPV.

  “Mary, is that Sarah?” Michael pointed to the stage.

  Mary looked. “Yes, that’s her. Dressed as some harlot. Oh, dear. We must go speak to her.”

  Mary, Michael, Peter, and Liz approached Sarah, who was speaking loudly to a young man they did not know but who was dressed just as strangely as she was with a crown of leaves and a long length of fabric draped around his shirtless body several times.

  “Sarah, what are you doing? If Pa sees you like this . . .” Mary eyed her sister’s own length of fabric that revealed a bare shoulder and barely covered her ankles.

  “Oh, Mary!” Sarah shouted above the music. “Pa knows I’m here. I’m going to be in The Once and Forgotten Rose.”

  “She’s going to be in the play, Mary,” Michael said. “She’s dressed as Christine, the forgotten rose. It’s a Greek play.” Michael winked at his little sister-in-law.

  “I am most impressed, Mr. Black. Or perhaps you have earned the title of brother.” Sarah bowed deeply and Michael laughed.

  “You are telling me that our father knows you are dressed in bedsheets, in public?”

  “Yes, Mary!” Sarah
was becoming irritated. “He’s quite proud of me. He watched our rehearsals, and he thinks I’m very good.”

  “All right, I am sorry. I suppose we will see you on the stage then,” Mary said.

  “Really, Mary? You will watch me perform? You promise?” Sarah began little jumps up and down.

  “Of course,” Michael said. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Sarah threw her arms around Michael’s neck as she frowned at her sister. Then she was pulled away by some other performers begging her to come read more lines.

  “I’m always surprised by that girl.” Mary shook her head.

  “Harriet and I told Mr. Dixon to suggest to her that she try acting,” Liz said.

  “It makes sense,” Peter said. “She’s quite dramatic and overly expressive.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Liz said. “It makes perfect sense to me.”

  Mary shook her head and sighed. “Oh, well. If Pa doesn’t care, who am I to say she can’t act?”

  “Come on, Mary, let’s go dance,” Michael said.

  “I don’t really feel like dancing,” Mary said, still giving Michael a cold shoulder.

  “What about you, Liz? Do you want to dance?” Peter asked.

  “Yes, I’d love to! But I’m afraid I won’t last long.”

  “That’s okay, my love. We’ll dance only as long as you feel like it.”

  Peter took Liz out on to the dance floor, where Harriet and Harold were already dancing.

  “Look at them,” Peter said. “Do you think she’s beginning to fancy him?”

  “I don’t know . . . I’ve always thought kindly of Reverend Lyons, but there is something odd about him that I don’t know that I could look past romantically. Then again, I’ve only ever had eyes for you, so I’m really not the person to ask.”

  Peter carefully spun his wife and then pulled her close but bumped her growing belly.

  “I really think he could be good for her. They could be good for each other. I don’t know what awkwardness you are talking about,” Peter said. Just then Harold laughed loudly and sounded like a pubescent boy whose voice was changing. “Ahh,” Peter said. “Now I see what you mean.”

  “Yes, that was it. It’s his laugh. Everything else about him is quite perfect.”

  “Well, do you remember the wedding? He nearly got strung up by Mary for ruining their vows because he couldn’t seem to focus with Harriet in the pews.” They snorted a stifled laugh.

  “But that’s just sweetness, isn’t it? It’s not a reason not to be with someone,” Liz said.

  “He’s a really great man. But I see what you are saying about his awkwardness.”

  “Not every man can be as perfect as you, Peter. We are just going to accept that and move on.”

  “I’m far from perfect.” Peter blushed and looked down, ashamed of the secrets he had been keeping.

  “That’s just simply not true. You are the kindest man, the most handsome of all men. You are a hard worker and a simply wonderful husband. I—I wonder if the world will end when you become a father and you are so positively perfect that it cannot continue to exist.”

  “You flatter me, wife. I am none of those things, and I cannot compare to the amazing woman you are.”

  “I don’t know that that’s true, but do go on.”

  “You are beautiful. Any person with eyes can see that, and your mind is even more beautiful than your body. You are so talented. I brag about you constantly. Mr. Vohn made a bank rule that I am only allowed to mention your brilliance once per day.”

  “He has not!” Liz laughed.

  “No, but I think he has thought about it.”

  Liz stopped and Peter stepped on her foot.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry—” He looked up to see what had stopped her. Liz was staring at her sister and her dancing companion, who was about to be cut in by Mortimer Dixon.

  “Come, dance closer to them. I must hear what transpires.”

  Peter swirled Liz as close as possible.

  “May I cut in, sir?” Mortimer bowed to the couple.

  “Uh, of course. Or perhaps you could wait, and I’d be willing to concede the next dance,” Harold said.

  “No, this dance would be fine,” Mortimer said as he grabbed Harriet’s hand and clumsily spun her by lifting her hand over her head. She hit her head on his wrist, and he quickly grabbed her waist and pulled her in tightly.

  “Harriet, I wonder if you delight in frolicking around town with other men right in front of my eyes.”

  Liz’s mouth fell open.

  “Mortimer, I do not belong to you. I can frolic with whom I please.”

  “You look badly on all of us when you do. It’s an embarrassment to have a woman with little character and morals working for us at the Gazette. It makes us look very bad.”

  Liz made sure to make eye contact with Mortimer this time, but he only glanced and shied away from it.

  “I would get rid of that rubbish story your sister writes too, if I could,” he whispered to Harriet.

  “Please, Mortimer, I am done dancing now.” Harriet tried to leave, but Mortimer held on to her too tightly. “Please let me go.”

  “I make you this offer one more time, Harry. Marry me, and I’ll let you keep editing the recipe section of the Gazette until our first child comes.”

  “Mortimer, let go of me.”

  Liz and Peter stopped dancing, and Peter put his hand on Mortimer’s shoulder. He immediately let go of Harriet.

  “How are you, Morty?” Peter said kindly, but his tight grip on his shoulder made Mortimer wince.

  “I’m fine, but we were having a private conversation if you don’t mind.” Mortimer tried to spin out of Peter’s grip, which allowed both him and Liz to come between him and Harriet.

  “I heard enough, Mortimer. You ever touch my sister again—” Liz began but Peter stopped her.

  “There are a lot of people in this town who would advise you leave everyone in this family alone, sir.” Peter put his hand on the front of Mortimer’s shoulder again.

  “Harriet, are you all right?” Liz asked.

  “Yes, Liz, I’m fine. I quit, Mortimer. Try to hold that over my head now.”

  “No, Harriet. You shouldn’t have to quit. He should have to leave you alone.”

  “Liz, no. I don’t want anything to do with him.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Mortimer said. “I didn’t need you around anyway.”

  Harold had been chatting with several old ladies before he noticed the commotion over by Harriet.

  “Come on, Harriet,” Harold said as he came up and offered her his arm and escorted her away.

  “You are a devil, Mortimer!” Liz scolded as Peter led her away as well.

  “Are you all right?” Harold asked.

  “Yes, yes. I’m fine.”

  “Mortimer is a bully of the worst kind. I’m sorry you lost your job.”

  “It’s fine. Really. I hated it anyway.”

  “Harriet,” Liz said, “you didn’t hate it; you only hated him.”

  “I know, Liz, but it doesn’t matter now. I can’t go back there.” Harriet began to cry, and Harold pulled her into an embrace. Harriet looked over Harold’s shoulder. As she settled herself and pulled away from him, she saw Isaac walk past. Isaac, the man who wasn’t supposed to be at the fair or even in the town. He made eye contact with her and quickly slipped away in the crowd.

  “Was that Isaac?” Liz said.

  “Isaac?” Peter asked nervously.

  “Yes, it was,” Harriet said. “Excuse me.”

  And she followed him into the crowd.

  Bordeaux banged on the heavy wooden door of Morose’s cabin. “It be a mermaid for yer, Captain. She be mighty scary, sir. She requests yer come out here as she’s got Lavender by the neck, sir.�
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  Morose jumped up from his bed and rushed to the door. He threw it open and came out shirtless, shoeless, and very uncaptain-like. Before his eyes he witnessed exactly what Bordeaux had described. Serene had legs, but that’s as human as she looked. Here eyes were black, and her hair was wet and long down her shoulders and body, dripping onto the deck. In her right hand she held Lavender at arm’s length. Lavender flailed as she tried to fight Serene but to no avail. Serene stood, unmoving against Lavender’s attempts not to escape, but to attack Serene.

  “Please put her down,” Morose said gently.

  “I can’t. She is trying to kill me,” Serene said emotionlessly.

  “Lavender, please stop attacking the nice mermaid,” Morose cooed.

  Lavender immediately put her arms down and stopped fighting. Serene responded by releasing her neck.

  “Come over here, Lavy, me love.” Morose held his hand out, and Lavender ran to him quickly and fell into his arms. She glared at Serene. Morose looked around at his men and realized that they all had swords or pistols pointed at Serene. Many of them were shaking with fright at this other worldly creature.

  “She’s a harmless lass, men. Come now, put yer weapons down and show the lady some respect.”

  The crew eyed each other first, but eventually they all put their respective weapons down and backed away. Serene responded by turning a more pinkish hue, and her hair lifted and dried, even though it still dripped with water. The blackness of her eyes shrank until they looked human and white. A red dress bulged from her skin.

  “That’s better,” Morose said carefully, holding his hands in surrender.

  Serene looked at Lavender, who was still glaring at her. “She doesn’t love you. It’s just my magic. I tried to make you love me, but it doesn’t last. It only lasted as long as you were with me. Then when you left you didn’t love me anymore. My friend says real love lasts, no matter the distance or troubles you have.”

  “I do love him, you watery, fishy freak!” Lavender yelled.

  “Lavy, me love, do yer mind not screamin’ at the strong lady?”

  “I have a message from Pauly. He’s my friend.”