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

by Valerie Loveless

  “How do yer know Pauly?”

  “He told me to tell you that he came looking for me, after he left you.”

  “Ugh, that old bugger.”

  “He says he’s dying, and he knows he cannot break that which you have done, but he wants to offer the opportunity for you to be married in Lavender’s hometown. You are to do it for Lavender. She deserves this.”

  Lavender squealed. “I want to get married, my love! Please, can we get married?”

  Morose put his finger on Lavender’s lips. “You say Pauly be dyin’?”

  “Yes, he is not long for this world. He wants to see his adopted daughter, Lavender, be made an honest woman and get married.”

  Morose uttered some expletives. Lavender looked at him with pleading eyes.

  “Right, then. I suppose we be taking Lavy home to get married.”

  Lavender jumped around like an excited child on her birthday. Serene nodded at Morose and ran full speed, jumped off the ship, and into the water.

  “Isaac!” Harriet called as she pushed her way through the crowd. “Isaac!” Finally she broke free of the crowd and could see Isaac walking down the hill toward the beach.

  “Come on,” Liz said to Peter. “We must stop her!”

  Mary and Michael saw the commotion as they watched from a bench they were seated on near the dance floor. They both jumped up and ran after them. Harold followed the rest of them, confused.

  “Isaac, please stop,” Harriet said. He didn’t stop and Harriet ran to catch him by the arm. They were nearly on the beach, and the roar of the waves drowned out the sounds of the fair above.

  “Harriet, I really—I don’t suppose you could leave me alone?”

  Harriet stopped. “Leave you alone? I don’t suppose you could tell me why you lied to me.”

  Liz, Peter, Michael, and Mary stopped on the hill above the beach. Harold wasn’t far behind them. Because of the backlighting of the fair and a shadow cast by the church, Harriet and Isaac could not see them.

  “I don’t really owe you an explanation, Arie.”

  “I suppose you don’t, but I’d like one. You seemed as if you wanted to come, and then you lied about being out of town. Why didn’t you just come?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Arie. It worked out for you. You have your friend, the reverend, to keep you company.” He turned to walk away, but Harriet grabbed his hand. He relented and turned back toward her, sighing.

  “Isaac. I’m sorry. I—I really wanted to come with you. I just want to know why you don’t want to be around me. I need to know why it’s so hard for me.”

  “Hard for you? What is so hard for you?”

  “To find and keep someone like you! Someone that I feel so much for! I could have any man that I don’t want, but I can’t get you to give me the time of day.” Harriet looked down, and Isaac’s eyes followed as they both realized that she had not let go of his hand.

  Harold finally joined the others at the top of the hill. He looked at their faces and realized they were watching something below. He followed their gaze and saw Harriet standing very close to the man she ran after and was holding his hand.

  “Oh,” he said.

  “It’s not what you think,” Peter said to Harold, patting his shoulder.

  “Oh,” he said again, still confused. “Is he another brother? Or . . .”

  Harriet moved closer to Isaac. “I can’t stop thinking about you and I—” A whistle filled the air, followed by a large burst of light and sound. The fireworks had started. Harriet glanced up at the same time as Isaac. As they looked down from the bright display, their eyes locked together. Harriet leaned in to kiss Isaac, and he met her halfway. Harriet felt a burst brighter than the fireworks shoot through her, but it only lasted for a moment before he pulled away from her. Another blaze of actual light illuminated the hill, and Isaac saw the group standing above them. He made eye contact with Peter and Michael before he turned and strode away, shaking his head. Michael looked at Peter, who gave him a sincere and sad look before they both walked back to the fair.

  “So not a brother then . . . ” Harold said as he followed Michael and Peter back to the fair.

  “Should we go to her?” Liz asked Mary. Before Mary could answer, Harriet turned and saw them in the bright light of the fireworks.

  “Yes, we’d better.” They shuffled down the sandy hill and grabbed Harriet in an embrace.

  “My darling Harriet. I’m so sorry.”

  Harriet was crying silently. “It’s fine. I must go find Harold,” she said as she pulled away from the loving grasp of her sisters.

  “Harriet,” Mary said, “Harold saw everything, I’m afraid.”

  “Oh no,” Harriet gasped. “He’s going to think I am a sinful, horrible, no good, deceiving harlot!”

  “No!” Liz said. “He is too kind to think such things. Let’s just go home. All right?”

  “No, Liz. I feel I really must explain myself to Harold. He deserves more than to be treated like this. I didn’t mean for it to happen. It’s just Isaac—”

  “Makes your heart sing?” Liz said.

  “You know, Liz, usually you are entirely too much for me with your romance and your imagination, but yes. He makes my heart sing, so loudly!”

  “That’s really the sweetest.” Mary began to sob.

  “Mary, are you all right?” Liz asked. “It’s not like you to be so emotional.”

  “No. Michael and I have been fighting. And I’m so upset about him not letting me have the shop. I feel like my heat hasn’t sung for quite some time!”

  “I’m so sorry. Here I am going on about losing a love that I never had, and you are having real difficulties in your marriage.”

  “No, Harriet. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up now, but my heart hurts so much right now I couldn’t keep it in hearing about hearts singing and all that.”

  “Let’s not think about any of these things for tonight. Let’s go back to the fair. Let’s apologize to the people we have offended and enjoy the rest of the evening. Come on, perk up.”

  “All right. You are right. I will be brave. I will apologize,” Harriet said.

  “Yes. I suppose I’d rather dance the night away with Michael than sit and stew at him. I can do that tomorrow when I have nothing better to do.”

  “There we go, come on.”

  Michael and Peter were standing by the dance floor and having a heated discussion when the sisters returned to the fair. Peter saw Michael and held up a hand for him to cease. Michael looked up and immediately stopped.

  Mary glanced sideways at Liz and gave her a cocked eyebrow.

  “Tomorrow,” Liz said.

  Harriet found Harold on the steps of the church, reading the Gazette.

  Nan was happy to see her new friend Serene return. “It’s only been a few days, Serene. Did you find them?”

  “Yes. I almost killed Lavender, and then I gave them Pauly’s message.”

  Nan smiled wickedly. “You are my best friend, Serene.”

  Serene smiled without knowing why that made Nan so happy.

  “Let’s go tell Pa! Any idea when they will get here?”

  “Morose’s ship is very slow. I think a moon or two.”

  “A moon or two? Serene, how fast do you swim?”

  “How fast I swim?” Serene’s eyes blinked in confusion.

  “Never mind. I’ll see you later.”

  “Bye,” Serene said as she glided back into the water.

  “Pa, Serene says they’ll be here in about a month, maybe two.”

  Pauly nodded. “Good, that’ll give us plenty of time to prepare. We’ve got a wedding to plan, my girl!”

  Harold looked up and saw Harriet coming. “Your sister puts a lot of adversity into her love stories.”

  “Yes, she do
es,” Harriet agreed, sitting next to Harold on the step.

  “You know, it doesn’t have to be that way.” He rolled up the paper and set it on the step next to him.

  “I heard you saw what happened on the beach with Isaac and me.”

  “Oh, so that was Isaac.”

  Harriet blushed. “Yes. I just wanted to apologize. There’s nothing going on between us. It was a moment of unconstraint on my part.”

  “Yes. Unconstraint. You could choose me, Harriet. I would give you all the happiness you deserve and desire. There would be no games. No heartache.”

  “That sounds very tempting at my age, I assure you.”

  “Well, it’s the truth.” He held up the Gazette again and shook it a little. “It all sounds good on paper, but trust me, I’ve seen lots of romantic couples struggle. In real life, these romances are hard and painful.”

  “I hear what you are saying, Harold. The only problem is that I feel very little romantically for you. How would that be fair to you?”

  “It can come with time. With memories, with children, the love will come.”

  “My, you really don’t believe in romance, do you?”

  “No, I do. But just a more practical romance.”

  “Harold, do you love me?”

  He paused and smiled to himself. “I feel a great deal of romantic love for you, yes.”

  “Do you suppose it fair that I don’t get to feel that?” Harriet asked solemnly.

  Harold sighed. “I suppose, at your age”—he smiled—“if you’ve never experienced it before, it’s not.”

  “I don’t want an Enduring Promises of the Heart Romance, but I do want to feel something.”

  Harold nodded and smiled at her. “Perhaps you and I can continue to be friends.” He sighed. “And then maybe, in the future, it could be more. We’ll just have to wait and see how our story plays out.” He handed the paper to Harriet and stood up. “Come on, friend. Let’s go try some of your mother’s pie.”

  Harriet smiled and offered her hand, which he took and pulled her up. “If I don’t try your mother’s pie—mind you I only did this once—she will bake another tomorrow and bring it to my house and practically force feed it to me.”

  “That surely sounds like Mother.” Harriet laughed. “Come, we must go watch the play that is starting now.”

  Volume Nine

  Diva

  The stage emptied, and in a panic Sarah entered stage left.

  “Oh dear,” Mary muttered to Michael, knowing Sarah would make a fool of herself.

  Sarah stopped in the middle of the stage, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “I know not what this feeling be, for in my soul I know that I, and only I can see the pathway out of this savagery. This war of hearts, of brothers of lovers. For what could possibly end this tribute to Ares. For I am but a thorn on the rose of my kingdom’s thicket. For I am but a dull and broken thorn. Who am I to be such a one as to save us from the mighty wind of the east?”

  Sarah spoke with a maturity that Mary had never heard before. Her voice was so mighty and clear, her movements with the words so tender and honest. A tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek.

  As Peter approached the warehouse door, he heard arguing. Michael and Isaac were having a heated discussion, and Peter knew instinctually what it was about.

  “Listen, Harriet’s a grown woman. She can handle the truth, and she has a right to court any man she wants,” Isaac said as Peter entered the door into the large room with a tall ceiling.

  “Yeah, Isaac. I know, and we agreed that you wouldn’t court her until we got things working around here and had a chance to talk to our wives, who are her sisters! Remember?”

  “Whoa, gentleman,” Peter said, holding his hands in surrender. “Let’s sit down and talk about this after we talk about money.” Peter gestured for the boys to come sit at an unfinished table and chairs that Isaac was working on.

  “What about money?” Michael asked. “I thought you had some socked away.” Michael began to sit uneasily.

  “Not there,” Isaac said, pointing to the leg of the chair that was not installed but simply rested on.

  “Oh, thanks,” Michael said, taking another chair.

  “Now, I thought I had some money in my wife’s account. But when I went to get it, it was mostly gone. I took the liberty of checking the balance on your savings with Mary, and I’m afraid there is not enough in there either.”

  “Peter? What are you saying? Mary drained our savings?”

  “I’m afraid so. I don’t know what happened. I’m afraid our wives have been up to something as well that we are not privy to.”

  Isaac snorted. Peter and Michael gave him an obstinate look.

  “Listen, it was a lot of money. We had more than two hundred between the two of us, and now we have less than thirty dollars. It’s not enough. We’ll never be able to make any of our orders, and we don’t have enough inventory to sell to turn that profit into cash. We must pay rent on this warehouse in a week. I think we might have to call this one.”

  “Now hold on!” Isaac said. “Pay the rent, give me some time. I’ll get these sold; we many have to stretch out our orders, but we can make it.”

  “I’m afraid not. I’ve run the numbers every which way, and we don’t have the cash—even if we sell all of this inventory at top dollar—to make it through the end of next month.”

  Michael sat still and quiet. Finally he looked up. “I’m going to go find out what happened to all our money.”

  He got up solemnly from the table. Without another word, he walked out the door.

  Volume Ten

  The Final Scene

  Morose had felt anxiety since they began their journey back to Lavender’s hometown. He wanted more than anything to marry Lavender, but in truth he didn’t want her like this. She was a dog—loyal, cute, easy to incite, and utterly useless other than for playing fetch and a cuddle. He could never have children with this person. He couldn’t grow old with her. He considered removing the pearl. Perhaps, he thought, if it did come off she would still love him. No. He knew it wasn’t true. She didn’t love him. But it was too late. If he wanted Lavender, he would have to take her as she was, even though his guilt was racked higher and higher because he knew she must be trapped in a prison of her own mind. She was a slave to his love via the pearl.

  “We be here, Captain,” Bordeaux said, hiking his pants and interrupting Morose’s deep thoughts.

  “Aye. I know yer all wanted to see the wedding, but I be afraid yer all be too rough for this place. It be just me and Lavy goin’ to shore.”

  “Aye, Captain!” Bordeaux jumped as he saluted.

  “I be bringing back all the spirits yer can drink in celebration!” Morose knew if he didn’t offer them something, they would just take his ship and leave him. It was the pirates’ code.

  “Morose, my love, what if John is here to stop us?”

  “It’ll be fine, me love,” Morose lied. He had made up his mind then and there, if John was there to stop him, he would let him. To save Lavender from the prison he had created for her.

  John watched from the crag in the rocks by the shore as Morose and Lavender skipped the dinghy onto the beach. He thought she looked very well. She almost glowed, even though she was dressed like a pirate wench and her countenance had changed drastically from that of a strong and feminine woman to that of a wild and unruly girl.

  John watched them still as they made their way up the beach and toward the town. When he turned around, he saw a fin break the waves. Serene. She was to help him take Morose’s boat so there was no means of escape.

  Once Morose and Lavender were far gone, John jumped into the waves and swam until his female fish friend took his hands and quickened him to the Lily.

  He held onto the chain of the anchor and nodded to Serene to g
o aboard. She effortlessly jumped from the water and landed on the railing of the deck. John heard the ruckus begin as the crew scrambled to defeat the sea witch.

  “Shoot it, men!” Bordeaux bellowed. “Shoot the sea witch!”

  John climbed the chain and slipped above deck, sword at the ready. When he looked around, he did not see a mob of pirates in a frenzy; he saw a pile of pirates.

  “Well done, Serene.” John sheathed his sword and began to tie up the band of stinking men and throw them in the hold, where once, long ago, he was thrown with Lavender.

  “They are here, Pa,” Nan called out, eyeing the dashing Captain Morose. “Why does Lavender get all the handsome men? I mean, really, Pa! Why?”

  “Shush, Nan Fey. Don’t be too nice. Lavender will notice.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that!”

  Lavender and Morose trod up the street. The townsfolk moved aside, as they were unaccustomed to pirates in their town. When they realized it was Lavender Johnson, the whispering began.

  “Lavender. Morose.” Pauly smiled. Nan smiled too, but only at Morose.

  “It be most kind of yer to host our wedding, Peegee.”

  “I’ll be like a father to you now. You can call me Pauly.”

  “Very well. Perhaps you’d prefer Pa?” Morose laughed lightly and Lavender smiled.

  “I can make him your real pa.” Nan grinned at Morose.

  Morose, trying not to frown, simply nodded. “

  Quit it, Nan.” Lavender rolled her eyes. “There is no man in this entire world who would choose you over me.”

  Nan huffed and went inside.

  “Please, me love, be kind. They plan a whole wedding for us. Least we can do is be kind.”

  “Yes, I apologize. Thank you, Pauly.”

  “We are ready to start right away. We’ve been ready for days now! Captain, you come along with me to get dressed. Lavender, there’s a dress for you in Nan’s room.”

  John left Serene in watch of the Lily as he returned to the town to prepare their plans. He was careful that no one would see him as he crept back into town and over to the jail. The deputy was ready for him and opened the side door when he knocked.