"Carolyn!" The painful call was swept away by the gale force winds pounding down upon the beach below Gull Cottage. "CAROLYN!" he cried, disappearing from the Widow's Walk and reappearing on the rocky outcrop where she had last been seen.
It was his fault, another happy, contented, even domestic evening had been torn apart by his inability to say the words he knew she longed to, and deserved to hear. His blasted stubbornness, his blank refusal to compromise, even for her had driven her in a fury out the door and down to the beach despite the furious storm outside.
'I'm not human,' he had told her, 'not a real man. Don't ask me to pretend otherwise. I can't let you forego a real life, and if I say what you want me to say, you'll have turned your back on the world, and I refuse to have that happen. You mean too much to me to watch you waste your life on a whisper of man, an echo, a. . ."
"The most compelling, exciting, intellectually engaging man I've ever known, ghost or not," she interrupted. "For heaven's sake, can you stop focusing on what you aren't and put your attention on what you ARE, especially what you are to me?"
He closed his eyes, and could sense, but not feel the spray breaking from the waves around him, swirling in the wind. He couldn't feel her presence anywhere. It had only been a few minutes. He knew her temper, and thought she'd, well they both, would benefit from letting her vent her feelings into the cold, bitter wind. 'Why in blazes would she go to the beach? She knows the tides are always unpredictable under these conditions.' "CAROLYN!"
Unheard by anyone human, his call carried out across the sea.
"Cold," she murmured aloud, 'I'm cold." "Oh we can help you M'dear. Just a moment" The elderly woman tucked another quilt around the young woman. Water still streaming off her blonde hair, it was a mercy as well as a mystery that she was there at all. "Now my dear one," she said, handing Carolyn a warm cup of tea, "what in heavens prompted you to go out into such a storm, eh?"
Carolyn opened her mouth to answer and realized there was no answer – if she known what had sent her out into the worst storm in a decade, she didn't know it now.
"I, I guess I must have been upset, maybe angry? I really don't know for sure. I just needed to get out, get away." "From what?"
Closing her eyes, Carolyn slowly shook her head. "Not sure, from something though, I'm certain of that . . . why can't I remember?" Opening her eyes again, she sipped the tea, thankful for its warmth. "You don't look familiar to me deary," the older woman said softly, tucking the covers around her. When Caleb saw you there on the beach you looked fairly like a drowned beast. Are you visiting relatives? What brings you up to the wilds of Maine during such a cold spell?"
Looking up blankly, Carolyn slowly shook her head. If she knew what had driven her out into the worst storm in memory, she didn't know it now. "I'm sorry," she said with a smile, "I must be giving you a lot of trouble, but honestly I'm not even sure where I am, much less how I got here."
"Hmmm," the woman said frowning. "I just thought you lost your way." She leaned closer the ran her fingers over Carolyn's head. "Ah, here's a rather nasty bump," she murmured, "that might explain a thing or two. Don't you worry deary, a bit of warmth and rest, and no doubt the clouds will clear soon enough."
"I do feel as if I could sleep a bit," Carolyn nodded. "I promise to be on my way, as soon as I know my way at all, that is." Taking her favorite embroidered pillow, the older woman slipped in under Carolyn's head. "Indeed you are not. You'll stay here with my Caleb and me at Gull Cottage until you are fully well. Heaven knows it's empty enough with the Captain away, heavens knows where. You just settle down and I'll come check on you in a bit."
Rolling onto her side, Carolyn settled down, looking about the parlor. "Gull Cottage, what a nice name for a house." and promptly drifted off to sleep.