“Thank you, Aiden. Now, when Pauly brings the pirate through that door, you be sure you are ready with a jail cell open for him.”
“You can count on me, John.”
John heard footsteps and Pauly’s voice.
“Now, it’s not proper for the groom to see his bride on the wedding day, so we arranged for you to get ready at my neighbor’s.”
Pauly opened the side door to the jail and Morose walked in. John stood in the middle of the room. Defenseless. Morose met his gaze and simply shook his head and smiled.
“I guess yer got me, Johny boy. I knew yer would.”
“How could you think otherwise?”
“Just one problem, yer highness. Yer can stop the weddin’. Yer can take Lavender back from me, but she won’t love yer.”
John circled around Morose. “Perhaps not. Perhaps I will just have to win her over again. You don’t think I could do it? I can. I could win Lavender over again even if she is under your mermaid spell.”
“She not be under a spell.”
“Don’t lie! I too was under the mermaid’s spell not long ago, and I defeated it. I can undo the spell again. In addition, I have the friendship of the mermaid.”
Morose looked at Deputy Aiden. “That be me cell then?”
Aiden nodded and Morose walked inside.
“What is this? You so chicken livered now that you wont even try to fight.”
Morose sat on the little cot inside of the jail cell. “Yer see, yer highness, I been fighting this whole time. I been fighting to win the love of Lavender. I lost this battle long before I arrived on yer shores. Yer right. She be bewitched and I can’t watch her go another day trapped inside herself. I do love her, yer see. I’m letting go now, Peegee. Now yer see me love is true.”
“I’m going to need your hat.” John waited as Morose tossed his old captain’s hat to him.
Liz, Mary, Jessi, and Megan had been working throughout the morning clearing out the new store. It was dusty and needed new paint—nothing that the girls couldn’t handle on their own. Liz had neglected to mention it to Peter since she knew he may not be happy with her giving Mary all the money. He was so worried about money lately. But it was all her money from the Gazette, so she didn’t feel like she needed his permission. Still she felt guilty enough about it not to bring it up.
From the corner of her eye, Liz saw a man walk in. She looked up and gasped. It was Michael. She knew that Mary had not told Michael about the shop but had opted to keep it a secret until it was done and surprise him with it, thinking he would be happy that he didn’t have to spend any of his or her money to open it.
Michael looked at Liz and recognized her surprised face. He signed, “You weren’t expecting me, were you?”
Liz bit her lip and signed back, “No, Mary wanted it to be a surprise. Leave, let her surprise you.”
“Oh no!” he signed indignantly. “You are going to explain to me how you talked my wife into this after I told her we couldn’t do it.”
“Me?” She signed defensively, knowing in her heart that it was her responsibility being the one who paid for it.
“Michael?” Mary said disappointed as she came in to the room from the back. Liz nodded at Mary, and Michael looked at her. “I didn’t want you to see until we fixed it up! I’m so disappointed. Oh, well, now you know.” Mary shrugged.
“Know what?” Peter said as he walked into the open front door.
“Peter!” Liz said in surprise. How could he possibly have known where to find them?
“Hello, Peter,” Mary said happily. Liz, however, felt her face getting hot. “I know you didn’t want to do this because you are worried about money since I bought Liz that typewriter, so Liz paid me back by paying for all the rent and deposits on this place!”
“Typewriter?” Michael asked.
“Yes, I wanted to help her with her stress. She’s been having a heck of a time getting her stories written with that baby coming. Harriet told me that typewriters are faster than writing, so I bought her one.” Mary smiled, but when she studied Michael’s, Peter’s and Liz’s faces, she understood something was not right. “What is wrong?”
“So, you spent all of our savings on a typewriter—”
“Not all of it,” Mary interrupted.
Then Michael turned to Liz. “And you spent all of your savings on this shop?”
“Yes, Michael. What’s the problem? Liz paid me back. I thought you knew about the typewriter. I thought you wanted me to have the shop. It was just a matter of money.”
Michael sighed and put his head down, then turned sharply as he ran his hand over his head.
“Peter,” Liz said as she approached him. “I know I should have consulted you about it, but you aren’t mad, are you? It was my money, after all. I didn’t take from our rent or our food money.”
Peter stood with his hands on his hips.
“What? What is the matter with you two?” Liz finally said, being unable to bear their silence anymore.
Peter began reluctantly, “We needed that money . . . for our business.”
“What business?” Mary hissed, realizing that the problems of the last two months had come full circle.
“We have been starting a business in secret. A—a furniture business, mainly luxury boat items. Isaac is our craftsman. That’s where we’ve really been late each night. That’s why we needed your savings. That’s why we’ve been lying to you.”
“What business do you two have making boat furniture?” Mary hissed again. “You”—she wagged her finger at Michael—“you didn’t want me to open a hat shop! A sure thing, because you are trying to make boat furniture!”
“Mary, I’m just trying to keep up with you!” Michael said, throwing his hands in the air.
“Keep up with me?”
“I—you are so successful. You make loads more money than I do, and I work for my own father. It’s embarrassing. I was just trying to get in on something that could be successful.”
Mary was speechless.
“Peter? Is this what you were trying to tell me the other day? That I make you feel bad because of my success?”
“It’s not that you make me feel bad. I just feel bad about it all by myself. I just want to do something really successful. The great Elizabeth Black is married to the bank teller. It’s emasculating,” Peter admitted sheepishly.
Mary had calmed down by now and took Michael’s hands. “I’m really sorry. We didn’t know. You should have talked with us about this. Secrets have no place in a marriage.”
“We didn’t mean to keep it secret so long, but we kept running into problems and we didn’t want to tell you until it was a sure thing.”
“So Issac isn’t some vagabond? He is a furniture craftsman, here to work with you?” Liz laughed.
“Yes, he’s a stand-up chap, really,” Peter said, shaking his head. “He’s out of a job now, I’m afraid. We don’t have enough money to continue on now.”
“I’m very torn. Part of me feels you deserve it for lying and deceiving, but the other part of me feels very bad that we ruined your business,” Mary said.
“You are right. If we had talked to you about this in the beginning, perhaps things would have turned out differently. And for Isaac and Harriet as well. We asked Isaac to keep his distance from Harriet until we had a chance to tell you, and it ended quite disastrously,” Peter said.
“Especially for poor Reverend.” Liz sighed.
Peter nodded in agreement as he took his bride by the arm and pulled her in close. “I’m sorry I lied to you,” he said. “I just so much want to be a provider for you. You hardly need me.”
“Peter! I need you so much. I have needed you to support me through this time,” Liz said as she rubbed her growing belly. “I will need you even more once the little one is here.”
&n
bsp; “Michael, I need you now as well. Jessi, Megan, and I will need you around here, fixing things up, painting, helping with deliveries. We could grow this together!”
“I—I gotta go,” Michael said as he stormed out of the building.
Lavy looked at herself proudly in the mirror. She looked like the perfect bride for Morose. He would appreciate the way her cream-colored dress matched the precious pearl he gave her.
Nan gently peeked her head through the door. “It’s time, Lavender,” she said.
“Finally!” Lavender grinned at her reflection, then quickly picked up her skirt and train and headed out the door, pushing past Nan without a care. Nan pursed her lips but said nothing.
Lavender had not yet seen the spacious tent set up in the middle of town. It was in the same spot where she had once been swept away by a hot air balloon. It seemed so long ago now, like a story from another person.
It was almost sunset. The sky began to turn fuchsia and orange, and the smell of her rose bouquet perfumed the air.
The tent was full of people that Lavender remembered a little from before. They smiled at her, and some cried. They can’t wait for me to Mary Morose, she thought proudly. Lavender paused at the entrance of the tent right in front of the aisle that ran down the middle. It had a white rug with pink rose petals sprinkled across it. At the end of the rug stood Morose in his wedding clothes. Lavender couldn’t see his face as his back was turned, but he looked simply dashing, hardly like a pirate in a black suit except for his hat. Pauly came over and took Lavender’s arm. She noticed there was no priest. What happened to Bordeaux? He was to marry them. Lavender tightened her grip on Pauly’s arm as anxiety took over her, but a priest stood and nodded his head, first at Morose who nodded back and then at Lavender. If Morose was fine with a priest instead of Bordeaux, so was she. She began to walk down the aisle as Nan played the harpsichord.
She couldn’t get down the aisle to Morose fast enough. She had been away from him too long. She longed for nothing more than to be his wife and make him the happiest pirate ever. Morose held his hand out, and Lavender quickly let go of Pauly and took it. Morose turned and put his other arm tightly around Lavender’s waist.
Lavender smiled. Morose was so silly. He pulled her in and kissed her, and Lavender felt familiar lips. But they did not bring her comfort or joy. They instantly made Lavender rage. She withdrew her face, but her body could not back away. The impostor was holding her so tightly that she couldn’t move. She tried to headbutt him, but he threw her to the side, and she missed.
“Now, Pauly!” John yelled. Pauly tried to get the pearl from Lavender’s neck, but she tried to bite his wrist. “Hurry, Pauly, I’ve trained her well!”
Seeing the struggle, Nan jumped from the harpsichord and rushed over. She tried to hold Lavender’s head as her father tried to grab the pearl, but Lavender snapped her jaws like an angry dog. Nan, feeling years of frustration and jealousy rise in her, lifted her hand and slapped Lavender harder than she’d ever hit anyone or anything before. Shocked and in pain, Lavender hung her head just long enough for Pauly to grab the pearl.
“No! Please, no!” Lavender pleaded as Pauly set the pearl on a rock that was placed under a nearby chair and lifted another rock above his head. “John, please,” Lavender cried. “You love me? Please, don’t do this!” She began to sob, and John almost had second thoughts. Pauly waited for John to nod the go ahead, and then with all his might brought down the rock, shattering the pearl into a million pieces of sand.
Lavender looked into John’s eyes helplessly and then fainted. John let his tight grasp on her go and lowered her carefully to the ground. He touched her bright red cheek gently, knowing it was necessary if Pauly and Nan wanted to keep all their fingers. Lavender stirred and blinked her eyes open. Pauly and Nan leaned over her.
Lavender looked at the three of them. It only took her seconds to realize that she was under some sort of spell and she had returned to herself. “Oh, John!” she cried as she remembered all that had happened over the past year.
John took her into his arms.
She looked up at Pauly and remembered how she had tried to kill him. “Pauly, I’m so sorry.”
“No need, my darlin’, no need.”
Nan smiled at her father and then smiled at Lavender’s pulsing red face.
“Lavender, can you stand?” John asked.
“Course I can,” she said as she tried to get up. John pulled her and she easily stood.
“John, where is Morose? What happened?”
“I’ll tell you all about it, but first we need to get married.”
“Right now?” Lavender asked. She looked around and realized that she knew all of these people. They were her friends and neighbors. The priest was the same who was to marry her and John the first time.
“Yes, I’m not waiting another minute!” John said.
“Yes! Please! Straight to the end.”
“Very well,” the priest said. “Do you, Lavender, take John Henry Buxton the Ninth to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“Yes! I do!”
“And do you, John Henry Buxton the Ninth, take Lavender to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.”
“Then by the power vested in me, and in front of God and these witnesses, I pronounce you man and wife!”
Before the priest could say another word, John and Lavender kissed. This time, those familiar lips felt warm and safe, and the love Lavender had for them bubbled up inside her until tears of joy began to fall. She had walked into this tent to marry the perfect man for her, and she had.
Volume Eleven
Brokenness
It was an utterly hot July day. Harriet fanned herself while standing on the back porch of her childhood home. The sea breeze smelled especially fishy today, but the breeze felt cooler than the house. Her mother came around the side of the house. “What are you going to do to occupy yourself today?” Gretchen asked. “No job, no man. I wonder that you won’t go mad.”
“Why do you have to rub salt in my wounds, Mother?”
“I don’t mean anything by it. I’m just worried is all. So is Pa.”
“I’m going to look into some new teaching positions, something closer to home. Maybe something up the coast.”
“Well, that’s wonderful! That will give you something to look forward to. I think Bessie ought to dump that old rag of a paper after what they did to you.”
“No, Mother! I would never ask or expect her to do that. That is her passion and her livelihood.”
“She has a husband that does well enough, not to mention my grandbaby on the way. She’s not going to have time for writing silly stories anymore.”
“I suppose, but you know Liz will never stop writing.”
“Oh, I know it. I begged her to last year after she got caught with her tail between her legs. She refused to quit.”
“I don’t see a problem with that. I think it’s wonderful she loves it so much. I only wish I felt the same way about teaching.”
“Did you feel that way about editing?”
“I don’t know. I was so tormented day in and day out by Mortimer that I never had a chance to figure out if I loved it or not.”
“Ah, well. You will find something you love to do.” Gretchen leaned on the porch post. “I wonder if being a preacher’s wife would be so bad . . . ”
“Oh, don’t start with that!”
“Come now! He is a handsome and wonderful man, he is the right age, he has never been married, and he loves you.”
“I don’t know about that last bit anymore, not after the Fourth of July.”
Gretchen folded her arms and sighed. “I don’t think he’s the kind of man to hold that against you.”
“Maybe not. We agreed to just be friends. At least for now.”
“Friends? H
a.”
“Mother, stop it.”
“I’ll stop it if you will. Never a man alive that said he just wanted to be friends that meant it.”
“Do stop splattering the paint, Mary,” Liz said as she held the ladder while Mary painted the ceiling.
“I can hardly help it, Liz,” Mary said as she attempted to wipe white paint from her cheek but only succeeded in smearing it.
“Do be careful, Liz. You could injure yourself and your baby could come early,” Jessi said as she painted the far wall.
“Is that a possibility?” Liz gasped.
“Yes, of course. My mother came early with Megan when she still had a month left to go. Luckily Megan suffered no ill effects, but I do remember she was the smallest baby I’ve ever seen.”
“Go sit down and rest, Liz. I can manage on the ladder just fine.”
Liz walked over to an overstuffed chair that had been pushed out of the painting area and plopped herself down with a grunt. Because they were painting, she was wearing old pants and one of Peter’s shirts. Mary and the girls were wearing old men’s clothes as well.
“I still have three months to go, and I am so exhausted. I don’t know how I will make it.”
“You have no choice, that’s how.” Mary laughed.
“Don’t worry, it will be all worth it. At least that’s what my mother always says to comfort others,” Jessi said and came over to rub Liz’s belly.
“Mary, I wonder if Michael has come around to the idea of this shop yet?”
“Well,” Mary started as she climbed down the ladder, “I don’t think so. I think he is still rather cross at both of us. He really wanted to start that furniture business. I feel just terrible, but there is no going back now. Is there?”
“Just keep apologizing. I know he loves you and will come around. He’s not being mean to you, is he?”
Unbroken Promises of the Heart: (Promises of the Heart Book 2) Page 18