And now his side to round it out.
Enjoy...
I shouldn't have lied to her. I shouldn't have loved her either but then I'd have no happy memories to ward of the regrets and I've always been a selfish man.
I can admit that now. Now that I know what was dream and what was reality and how my thirst for adventure confused them in my mind.
I'm still in London. Still trying to get back to the new world. I see the man. He is named John Rolfe and the men around the docks speak of his familiarity with the Indian princess that saved Jamestown from starvation.
I want to hate the other man for having her time and possibly her love. I cannot hope to have a return of the feelings I willingly abandoned. A person cannot love a corpse and I've been dead to her and my heart for four years.
Rolfe overhears me ask for any work to pay for my passage and he waves me over. He proposes a job guarding his tobacco and I accept desperate to see that warm smile that I can no longer claim but long to view one more time.
I gather my things and in the morning as I climb up the gangplank he hands me a piece of parchment. I read my name next to someone named Rebecca and I look at him in confusion. A woman speaks up and that is when I notice the ring on her finger and the hold on Rolfe's arm.
He introduces her as Mary, his fiancée. I congratulate them and he nods with quiet gratitude. His fiancée casually mentions that the princess is now one of us with a new name.
He smiles tightly and I realize his sacrifice, one that continues even now. I thank him for being the man I was too self-centered to be and head to my spot by the rigging. I wave at the couple wishing them every joy.
The months at sea pass quickly and even the many chores aboard the vessel help mark the time. My nights are left contemplating the parchment that is wrinkled from repeated handling and which resides next to my heart during the daylight hours to keep me company.
The ships line up and before I can throw myself overboard in my eagerness to disembark I am given a sack of food and shoved forcibly down the gangplank with my parcel. I deposit it and drop off many more before I am finally allowed to retrieve my own satchel and disembark for good.
I am determined to find the wife I should have been present to marry but who has haunted my dreams since I left.
Standing at the shore's end is a boy no older than five and he eagerly asks if I am Captain Smith. I tell him I am and he runs off with the enthusiasm of the very young.
The boy returns not more than a few moments later dragging his poor mother behind him and I smile indulgently ready to be polite to the woman.
She is more beautiful than I remember and the boy's obvious charm is now understandable. I look to him then her and she nods in that silent but tender way of hers and I rush and pull her into my arms. I catch up my boy and kiss his ma and she blushingly explains who I am to the boy.
It takes a few months but he grows accustomed to his mother and me together and I bask in the glow of the love of a woman I don't deserve but that I was lucky enough to have wait for me.
I tell both I will never leave them and she tells me she knows and that she never doubted me. In a few months time I will hold my second child and I will thank the great mother for the gift given to me.
