Adam, Quentin and Sebastian have been restored, Hallie had her baby, Eliot, and won her battle with Zoya and sacrificed to Ra. The gypsy tribe recovered Petofi's hands. Peter, Iris' nephew keeps having visions of an enchanged ballroom. Derek and Patterson are going to dive for the treasure of the Russian ship. Richard Zimmerman, in his new body changed his name to Howard, and he and Frances Jackson are not together. Urien is being haunted in his dreams by Robert Loomis.
INTRUDER FROM THE SEA
Chapter 1
"You know the rules of the food pantry" Vicky told Barnabas as he wiped his mouth. "You get fed, you pay it in labor. There is a whole truck of donated food out there. You could unload it."
Barnabas smiled. It was only fair. He took box after box of cans and put them on the floor. "Do I put them on the shelves, too?"
"Someone else is coming for that. You just saved him then worst of it."
"Glad I could be of help. Seems that the need is greater than I imagined."
"Yes. people do not like to admit that they are in need. They never come from the door, they came from the back which opens to the church. "
"Could you have ever imagined you working together with a Trask on anything? Yet, here you are."
"Could you have ever imagined your having the sheriff as a lover? In 1967, 68 you'd think I was crazy if I told you of it. And yet here you are."
"yes, life takes some funny turns. At least I am glad that you are doing all right."
"Yes. I am at last a grown woman, not a child looking for approval. Say what you will of Megan, I will always be grateful to her for teaching me how to grow up."
"I have much to be grateful to her to... even thought the advice she gave to George still grates me.."
"What did she tell George?"
"George was considering whether he could be... like me, so that we could stay always together. Megan told him that I have an uncanny ability to get into trouble, and to attract people who meant to kill me, That she thought that if George became what I am, he'd end up lonely, because I would have managed to get myself killed one way or the other..."
"Well..." Vicky hesitated.
"I take it that you agree."
"Tell me, do you think that I am a jinx for men? First Burke, then Peter, and now Phillip. It is not safe to be in a relationship with me..."
"It is not true."
"It is... I am afraid that some things we cannot get rid off. you are a trouble magnet, and I am bad luck for any man who falls in love with me. That's the way it is."
Frances threw the feed and watched the chickens gobble it hungrily.
Howard grinned at her. "Are you sure that you are going to like it here?"
"Sure, why not?"
"I am not a dream prince." he said. "I have seen too much and endured too much. I am hard, and moody, and I get lost in my thoughts, of which you are not a part. I wonder if I am fit to marry anyone. And you are too nice a lady to be saddled with somebody like me."
"Come on, it is not so bad."
"It is. I got too many bad memories."
"I know that you do."
"No, you don't. You can try to imagine, but you cannot know. And it is part of me. I wish it was not. I wish that I could stop thinking about it, but it is not something that I can choose. I wonder if raising chickens in the middle of nowhere is for me. Yet what else can I do? I will try it, but I cannot ask you to try it, too."
"Then don't ask. But I will stay with you. For a while, at least. Until you prove to me that it really can't work."
"Why didn't you let me know?" Carolyn asked. "Why did you let me think that you had abandoned me again?"
Adam looked sheepish. "I was ashamed to admit what a mess I had gotten myself into. I know that I had Julia Hoffman for help, or at least a referral. but I did not want to do it. I was stubborn and stupid. And then I heard of something providing a quick fix and I fell for it.
"Oh, Adam, Adam.." Carolyn shook her head. "What am I going to do with you?"
"You could kick me out of your life." Adam said humbly "and it would be no more than I deserved."
"But how could you have believed in that? There is no such thing as a quick fix. No such thing as a free lunch."
"I wanted to believe there was. Because I did not want to owe anything to Barnabas and Julia. And now I owe him. And I owe Quentin and Sebastian, and that Indian shaman."
Carolyn caressed Adam's hair. "Adam you are such a child, at times."
"I know I am." Adam made a face. "I never had a chance to be a proper child. I grew up by fits and starts and I am still paying for it."
"I know, Adam, but still..."
"If I am not too proud to got to Julia for help, and I do as she says, will you forgive me?"
Adam looked so sad, so contrite, that Carolyn felt her resole melt. Adam could be so childish and so touching, too...
"Adam, Adam.." she repeated "you are such a child."
"Are you going back?" Quentin asked Sebastian.
"Yes. There is nothing for me here."
Quentin did not like it. He had wanted to do something for Sebastian, some way of making it up to him for what he had put him through. bur there was no way that he could. He had little money now. The return trip to Collinsport had eaten away to his meager capital, and while Angelique would be willing to help, he did not know how to contact her. And he was sure that Sebastian would no accept anything from her... He had talked about it with Barnabas, who confessed his inability to help. There was no way that they could return Roxanne to Sebastian, ever.
"I would not like it to end like this." Quentin said.
"How would you like it to end?' Sebastian said with irony.
"I'd like to make it up to you the trouble I got you in."
"Forget it. That's what I am going to do. I am going to forget all of you."
"You don't like us, then?"
"Why should I like you?"
"I had nothing to do with what happened to Roxanne."
'No, you did not." Sebastian shrugged. "But this town has little in the way of good memories for me."
Sebastian was right. He had little offered to him in Collinsport. Little future whatsoever for him in it.
As it was with himself now. He had to leave Collinsport, go someplace where his reputation had not preceded him and make a new life for himself.
Adam had given him the future. It was up to him what to make of it.
"Well, all I can do is wish you luck, them/ Will you accept that?"
"Don't see any harm in it."
"I promised to pay you when we started. I intend to, one way or the other. How much do I owe you?"
Sebastian named a figure. Not as high as Quentin had feared.
"That much?"
'Yes. Not a penny more, not a penny less."
Quentin wrote the check. He could cover it, though barely. He might have to go to the food pantry and ask Vicky for help for a while. But he owed that much to Sebastian.
The wharf was busy. The netted fish were thrown on it, proudly displayed under then sun, which made the shine like jewels. The air stank, but no one minded the stink. It was good. It meant a good catch, and plenty of work at the cannery.
They had also brought in clams, and the tourists looked at them with fascination, as if wondering what kind of creatures end up in clam chowders. And lobsters too, waving helplessly their claws.
Derek drank all this with his eyes, all the while paying attention to his own salvage operation. He had one regret. He should be diving himself, instead of standing there, listening to Patterson's comments. Patterson was too old, too fat, too lazy, and too malicious for him. And he came here only to make sure that Derek did not cheat him out of his share.
Derek did not like Patterson at all. If it was up to him, he would not be in it. But he had needed Patterson's money and he could not talk Sheriff Brant into investing. Brant still believed that the treasure hunt was a scam, and while he could not care less what happened to Patterson, he did not want any part of it himself.
It was such a beautiful day. No more rain, after so many days in which all you could see was gray skies, bleak bare trees against the sky and black birds on top of the trees. Suddenly you remembered that there were colors besides gray in this world. He should not let Patterson's snide comments ruin this day for him.'
He thought, guiltily, as he always did when the weather was this glorious, of Barnabas and Megan. They did not share of this glory in the sun. For them it would be deadly, as once it had been for him. And he wondered why it had been him and not them.
Hallie slept contentedly. Zoya had been claimed by Ra and now she held her heart in bondage. No one was to contest her. No one suspected what she really was. And she had a child to offer to Ra. Eliot Collins who was not only her son, but Laura's grandchild and great-great-grandchild. Eliot Collins who would become a phoenix when she offered him as a sacrifice.
