AN: This features Elizabeth, and how she is trying hard to reconcile with having no one in her life worthy of trust – until a misread act of innocence changes everything.
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Summary: Will wanted to believe that his new wife was in a safe, hidden place during his long absence, but places don't stay hidden or safe if there is something of value at stake.
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Part 1 - From Across Deepfall River
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"Daniel McMurghan, is that you skulking in the bushes?"
Amid soft rustling, a ginger-headed face appeared, pale eyes round with excitement. "Oh, Missus Turner, it's you!"
Elizabeth climbed down off the rickety wagon to meet her neighbor's eleven year-old whom unfortunately reminded her of a miniature, ragged Ragetti with his unkempt hair and furtively darting eyes. "Of course, it's me," she sighed, "I've made this my home for two months as you well know, who else would it be?"
The boy's only response was a pensive look toward the small cabin to her left, his fingers curling and uncurling undecidedly in the air close to his face, too reminiscent of yet someone else she didn't want to think of.
When the child said nothing, however, Elizabeth shrugged off the remark and rounded the wagon, reaching in for one of the large baskets of berries, which she had been gathering on the southern hillside since sunset. The modest provisions which Will had unloaded from the Empress were all but gone and Tai Huang's next agreed supply run was not due for another few weeks. Will, she recalled, had informed Huang that Feng's ship was his, but with the provision that he made monthly supply runs until he returned. The island, once called Prosperity, had been picked by Will's father, Bootstrap, because of its small, but friendly village of English families once shipwrecked there on their way to the Colonies.
Unfortunately, the place had changed since Bootstrap last visited: The pleasant, thriving village had gone, nothing but deserted huts in disrepair, overgrown footpaths and wild fields. A blight had overtaken the crops one season, and for many years since, according to Daniel's uncle, Mathew, no one had wanted to live on the eastern part of the large island but the McMurghan family, descended from the lost captain of the sunken Prosperity.
"Visitor..." the boy's eyes darted left toward the distant ravine dividing the island in half by a wide, rushing river. "From o'er across, p'rhaps?"
Elizabeth scoffed at the child's imagination and lifted the closest basket. "I'm told by your uncle that that's not possible, Daniel. The sea is the only way to reach East Deepfall. And even that's dangerous if you don't know where the rocks under the water are."
Daniel's uncle had said the inhabitants now called it East Deepfall, but didn't explain why, only that there was little to eat but fruits, fish and small animals which he faithfully provided for his widowed sister and her son. Even the cabin below the hillside, where she now lived, had once belonged to Mathew and his family. He'd abandoned it to live with Natalie after her husband had been lost at sea years ago. Will had accepted it graciously, and although their meeting with the new captain of the Dutchman was brief, the widow spoke reverently about her Nathaniel as if Will should be honored to know him.
It wasn't until days later, after Will had left, that Elizabeth learned about Mathew's own family. Apparently, Daniel's uncle never spoke of his wife and young daughter, Emily, other than they had 'gone across' years earlier and weren't coming back. And oddly enough, when young Daniel talked of West Deepfall in front of him, Natalie hushed the boy, and made the sign of the cross before hastily voicing the usual hope that crops might grow this year. Elizabeth had left their cabin that evening with several jars of preserved jams and an odd sense of discomfort.
The impatient boy climbed into the wagon and pulled one of the baskets to the edge of the cart. "If I was ta say..." he hedged, grabbing a handful of red berries and smashing them eagerly into his mouth. "What if I was ta say how I'd seen one?" He absently rubbed berry-stained fingers on the tattered, over-sized shirt and leapt off the cart bare-footed.
"One what?"
"A guest... maybe?"
"A guest?" Elizabeth hesitated at the door to her modest cabin, glancing back over the top of the basket. "Then I'd say you were neglecting the weeds in my garden because you would have certainly not seen one here."
The boy pursed his berry-stained lips. "And if I was ta say... I did?" he pressed curiously, animated eyes large. He trotted over to the door in front of her and shoved it wide open as if to show the woman how easy it was to get inside her home.
"I know I latched that when I left," Elizabeth remarked half to herself, entering the small, but comfortable cabin. "Daniel?"
"A man," the boy insisted, skinny arms flailing about the tidy interior. "Saw 'im, myself, Missus Turner, what big as life, he be!"
"You saw a man here?" Elizabeth looked about her dwelling skeptically. Nothing seemed disturbed at first glance, yet something told her not to dismiss the words of this observant child so easily. The boy certainly had secrets to keep and she already knew about one.
Well, part of one, anyway - or so she believed.
TBC:
Part 2 – Wish For A Boy
AN: This story, despite obvious similarities, is not related to the ABSENTIA/LIES TRUE arc, therefore an automatic Sparrabeth label does not apply here.