" The captain shot him a sharp look that he met unflinchingly. "Her father isn’t taking her back home.""What do you mean," she asked sharply.
"Jonathan did some checking when I sent him up the docks to watch for them this morning. He’s booked passage back with the same captain he came in with and is leaving tomorrow. But, he’s only booked a trip for one." Morgan frowned deeply. "There’s a younger man who accompanied her father who has booked two tickets for Ireland. His name is Joseph." Morgan’s jaw muscles flexed rhythmically as she absorbed the information and Jacob watched her quietly.
"When do they leave," she asked. Jacob felt a smile tug at his lips and smothered it.
"Not for two weeks." Morgan nodded and looked at her hands, absently twisting the heavy ring on her finger. Jacob leaned forward and held his hand out to Morgan, receiving a confused look as he did.
"Open your hand," he said firmly. Morgan frowned but did as she was asked, reaching her hand out, palm up. Jacob carefully set a ring in the middle of her palm and sat back. The dark-haired woman cocked her head and took the ring in her other hand to look at it more closely. Her eyes widened in recognition and she looked up at Jacob in shock.
"Where did you get this?" Jacob smiled at her.
"Your father gave it to me for safe keeping, told me to give it to you when it looked like you might settle down. Well, you have had his for a long time, but I think it’s time you had this one, too." Morgan looked at it for a long moment.
"Are you saying you think I need to settle down, Jacob?" she asked quietly. Jacob shook his head.
"No, Morgan, I’m saying that I think you need to think about what you want." He pushed himself to his feet and slowly headed for the door. "I will stop by after lunch to get her trunks if you would pack her things up for me." Morgan turned to say something else to him but he had already shut the door firmly behind him. She sighed deeply and walked across the room to the table, setting the ring in the middle of it before turning to face her next task.
She spent a while carefully packing up Allison’s trunks and pulling them into the middle of the room before turning her attention to the pack she had taken up to the cabin with them. Morgan swallowed hard and set about unpacking the contents, carefully laying them out on the bed. After she had emptied her things from the bag she started to resolutely pack the gifts she had given Allison back into it. Morgan resisted the urge to flip through the redhead’s journal as she picked it up, merely letting the memories of watching the young woman fill it’s pages wash over her before she carefully set it in the bottom of the pack along with the box of pencils. She added the little trinkets to the bag as well, then, after a moment’s hesitation, she added the shirt she had given the younger woman to sleep in as well. An unbidden smile curved her lips as she remembered the sight of her young lover in the shirt and she reveled in it for a moment before resolutely shoving it away.
Morgan looked at the puzzle box she had given the young woman and, picking it up, she made her way over to the sunlit table. She sat down and set the box in front of her, looking at it for a long time before picking it up and methodically dissecting it. She easily triggered the first two hidden drawers and then carefully set her fingers in the three pressure spots it took to release the third. The third and final compartment revealed itself to her then and she set the box carefully in front of her, staring at the small space thoughtfully, a war going on inside her head.
What are you doing…do you know? She’s gone, just accept it you romantic fool! You need to put her out of your mind and get over this infatuation.
What if Jacob’s right and she is the one? I can’t deny that the days I spent with her were some of the happiest days I’ve had since I was a child. How can I just throw that away?
You already did you fool! She’s gone. Her father is introducing her to her future husband right now and I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes sure that they’re married before he leaves tomorrow. Get over it. The ship’s almost done, so just concentrate on getting back out to sea and forget her in the rhythm of the waves. Like you could settle down!!!
Morgan sighed softly and reached out to pick up the ring Jacob had given her earlier. Her mother’s ring, the counterpart of the one she had worn since his death, the one she would have sworn had been lost forever. Turning the ring she gazed at the inscription that curled around the inside of the band, Love Conquers All. A pensive expression flickered across her face, then, quickly, before she could change her mind she tucked the ring into the third hidden compartment. Pulling her log book to her and her quill and ink bottle she wrote a couple of lines out then tore them out of the book, separating the two lines and folding them to put one in each drawer.
What are you doing!!!!
Morgan determinedly ignored the voice screaming in the back of her head and took the small box over to the bed to pack it along with the rest of Allison’s things. She wrapped the straps around the bag to secure its contents then carried it over to pack it into one of the trunks. She strapped the trunk shut then stood in the middle of the room for a long moment, a wave of exhaustion crashing over her. Alright, I need to get some sleep before I collapse. She thought to herself. She glanced out the window and figured she had a couple of hours before Jacob came for the trunks. She pulled her breeches off and tossed them on the back of her trunk then tossed her jacket over it as well before letting her exhausted body relax into the comfort of the bed. She took a deep breath as the smell of Allison filled her senses and felt an overwhelming sense of melancholy overcome her. Her body’s bone-deep weariness helped her move past her sudden loneliness and she slowly drifted off, sinking into the seductive world of her dreams.
Allison huddled in the corner of the hired carriage, staring out the window with unseeing eyes as her father’s voice droned on beside her. She absently rubbed at her upper arm where he had grabbed her, the skin tender and sore, and wondered if it would bruise. Her stomach clenched and tears threatened to overcome her as they moved farther and farther away from Morgan and she twisted her shawl around her hands so her father wouldn’t be able to see how badly she was shaking. She listened with half an ear as her father continued on, telling her about her friends and family, until a name jumped out at her and she turned to look at him.
"I’m sorry, Daddy, but what did you just say?" Her father looked at her in exasperation.
"I said, Allison dear, that I’m glad you dressed so nicely this morning, because Joseph is waiting at the inn to meet you." Allison stared at him in shock.
"He’s here?? But I thought you were taking me back home?" Her voice started to quiver and the tears threatened anew.
"He sailed for Charleston from New York where he had been waiting for you when he heard what happened. He wants to make sure that his bride doesn’t get kidnapped again! Now, Allison, honey, he’s a nice man and will make you a fine husband, so don’t go being pigheaded again, ya hear?" Allison stared at her father for a long time, pondering pleading with him again, before turning and looking back out the window.
"Fine. What I want doesn’t matter anyway." Her father sighed heavily behind her but held his tongue, and the rest of the ride passed in stony silence. Soon they rolled to a stop outside of a building that was quite similar to the inn that Morgan stayed in, just much larger, and her father walked around the hack to hand her down. He shot her a warning look before offering her his arm and she carefully blanked her expression.
Andrew escorted her into the inn, the first floor similar to Carolyn’s inn, with a small lobby and the obvious sound of a common room off to one side. He nodded at the clerk sitting at the desk and led Allison past him and through an archway opposite the common room. The room was fair sized, with a writing desk in one corner and a settee and some chairs grouped in the center of the room. There were windows on two walls of the parlor, and looking out one of them was a tall man. His reddish hair was cut close to his head with silver already feathering back from his temples. His clothes were well tailored; jacket cut perfectly to his broad shoulders, fawn colored breeches spotless and riding boots brushed to a shine. He was trying to impress her, Allison knew that, with his affectation of English gentry, and she found it somehow amusing.
