The Schooner Bay Home for Invalid and Indigent Seamen
"Fires"
by Julie Feldman
I do not own Ghost and Mrs. Muir canon characters which belong to R.A. Dick and 20th Century Fox. The AU and its characters belong to me. I make no money from this story.
Chapter 1: Prologue
It had been more than a year since the Schooner Bay Home for Invalid and Indigent Seamen, the heart-felt last wish of Captain Daniel Gregg, had been open. Its matron, Mrs. Carolyn Muir thought that even with the loss of one of the first cohort of men, its first year had been a great success. They counted eight men as inhabitants; Nate Douglas, the oldest seaman and acknowledged leader of the men, Joe Costa, Peter Cannon, Charlie Fish, Socrates "Sock" Demetriou (considered Nate's "second"), Sam Tudor, Hannibal Booth and Red Secor who lived in a little house to the side of the Home's Gull Cottage, in "Wren Cottage" with his wife, Amy Whitman, the sister of Reverend John Whitman. The Housekeeper and Cook, Mrs. Martha Grant was likewise a permanent resident of the house. And then there was "their" ghost, Daniel Gregg himself. Of course, only Carolyn, Nate and Amy knew about his presence and had talked with him, but after this length of time, he was ready to reveal himself to the others.
The winter and early spring had been a difficult time for various members of the Home. Amy had come to live with her brother and sister-in-law and was a 30-ish young woman with Down Syndrome. She had previously lived with her older sister after her parents had passed away but proved to be a poor fit for her sister's household. Once she moved to Schooner Bay she began to work at simple housekeeping tasks in the Home under Martha's direction. It came to pass that eventually she and Red Secor, who also had intellectual limitations fell in love and wished to marry. A.A. (Albert Allan) Cooper and his wife Phyllida Grover put up the money to build Wren Cottage, where Amy and Red could live with the assistance of the inhabitants of the Home. His father, also A.A. (Adolphus Adam) Cooper, who had renovated Gull Cottage, was in charge of building the little house with its bedroom, parlor, and bathroom. And so, after the winter getting to know each other and then falling in love, Red and Amy were eventually allowed to marry.
Hannibal Booth was not an original tenant of the Home. He arrived a few weeks before Thanksgiving the previous autumn, after the death of Ben Schultz. He had been a ship's cook and threw himself into helping Martha in the kitchen. At first it had been a surprise to her, and a quandary as to how to share her domain with someone else, but it didn't take too long for her to appreciate Hannibal's help. His presence allowed her more time for even more thorough cleaning of Gull Cottage, as well as the opportunity to do more sewing for the men and the house.
The Grover family had celebrated the wedding of the younger A.A. Cooper to their daughter that past February, but the whole affair was not without its own difficulties. Thanks to Captain Gregg's interference (due, it must be said, to his jealous preoccupation with the legacy and reputation of Foturna Grover's brother, Captain Horatio Figg), he had disrupted the wedding ball by throwing down Figg's portrait onto Fortuna's head. Unfortunately, this had not occured the day before, allowing Fortuna to fill her daughter's mind with all sorts of nonsense about the distastefulness of the marriage bed. It took many weeks, a confrontation between the younger Mr. Cooper and his mother-in-law and a honeymoon trip to Europe to set the newlyweds on the right track.
If that period had been difficult for others, it was downright painful for Mrs. Muir. The young widow met Col. Junius Porter, the widower of Fortuna Grover's late sister at Phyllida's engagement party. Although they spent most of the entire party together, it really wasn't the Colonel that Carolyn was with; Captain Gregg had "borrowed" him to spend the time with her. And what a wonderful, remarkable night it was. They danced and talked for hours, able to touch and share a unique evening together. It was what convinced Carolyn of her feelings for the sea captain. Unfortunately, the townspeople saw Col. Porter monopolize her and more than a few tongues were wagging the next morning. When he returned for his niece's wedding, Carolyn really felt that she owed the poor man at least some of her attention. He was very nice and decidedly handsome, although he paled by comparison to Daniel Gregg. For his part, Captain Gregg was in a royal snit over Mrs. Muir's unwillingness to help him expose the outrageous life of Horatio Figg and stop the wedding between the Cooper's and the Grover's. It had been weeks since he had spoken with Carolyn, but on the occasion of her reacquaintance with Col. Porter, he urged her to consider him as a marriage prospect. They were both aware that no matter how much they yearned to be together, it was not possible, at least not in this world. Over the course of the next few months Carolyn and Junius Porter corresponded and she felt a fondness forming for him. When she and Agnes and Amy Whitman went to Boston on a shopping expedition, the Colonel, who called the city his home, escorted them around the town. The night before the women were to return to Schooner Bay, Junius proposed to Carolyn, shocking her into realizing that only with Daniel could she be happy. But returning home only reinforced how much he had withdrawn from her life. Aside from a few moments at the church wedding, he hadn't spoken to her in months. It was only after her return, when she could no longer contain her pain and anguish that he came to her again. Then, finally he revealed what he had never wished her to know; that he could maintain solid form for her and love her, but never walk the earth again by her side. Much as she wished they could have a "normal" life, what they had was enough. She felt his presence at times during the day, and at night he would come to her after making his rounds of the house, insuring that everyone was safe and well.
So here they all were, on the lawn of Gull Cottage, at the beginning of June of 1877, celebrating a year of successful operation with a party on the lawn of the house. Not only were the inhabitants of the Home there, but so was it's Board of Trustees and other town folk who had been instrumental in bringing the project to fruition. Of course, Captain Samuel Biggs was a favorite of all the men and had been an old friend of Daniel's. He had only returned from a long voyage a few days before. His schooner, Lass of the Bay would be going into drydock soon to prepare for the next winter's voyage. His crew had dispersed, and he was spending a few days at leisure in his home on the other side of town, before beginning the process of seeing to the Lass's repairs and contacting cargo jobbers for the next voyage.
A tall, sturdy, sandy-haired man, Biggs was the first to arrive. He knew how much the old seamen of the home would want to talk to him, to hear his stories of this most recent voyage, and relive a little of their own days at sea. In particular, he was happy to see that Nate was as spry and alert as he had left him, and he made sure to express to Red and Amy his regret at not being able to attend their recent wedding. He had brought them a Chinese rug for their little cottage, which they both "ooohed" and "ahhhed" over, while they pulled him over to it to help them lay it in the living room.
Reverend and Mrs. Whitman were next to arrive. With Amy living in Wren Cottage, they visited nearly every other day, so everyone thought of them as just extended members of the Home. Although Martha and Hannibal had prepared a large cold lunch of salads and cold meats with homemade rolls, bread and pies, Agnes also brought four dozen iced cupcakes for dessert.
As Agnes was in the kitchen arranging her cupcakes on a large platter, Dr. Everly and his wife Sara arrived with Josiah Turner and his wife Margaret. When Captain Biggs returned with Amy and Red, the two women accosted him, asking if he was finally going to find a wife, or live out his later years as a lonely bachelor. He of course laughed at them gently, knowing that they probably had a long list of nieces and second cousins for him to review. Like Captain Gregg, Biggs had many female "friends" scattered about the globe, but none of them were marriageable. He thought for a moment about Carolyn Muir. She was a lovely, intelligent woman. She was likely a woman who could survive the long stretches when a sea captain was away and comport herself with dignity while waiting the long periods between letters telling her that her husband had survived yet another rough crossing. But there was something that he could not put his finger on about her, that made him hesitant to approach her in anything more than a friendly manner.
Next to arrive was A.A. Cooper (the senior), his wife Jane along with Hiram Smith, the town constable and widower. Last to arrive were the Callan families; Tom, the blacksmith and Henry, the farrier. Their wives were Editha and Ruth. The women had never been up to Gull Cottage, considering it too far above their station in life while Daniel Gregg lived, and since his death, they never had occasion to make their way up Gregg Road.
The younger Cooper's had not yet returned from their European honeymoon, although their abundant and long letters indicated that they were having an excellent tour and would have many exciting things to share when they returned to Schooner Bay. The Grover's had not been part of the founding of the Schooner Bay Seamen's Home and wouldn't have been invited at any rate because of the coolness between them and the Cooper's, not to mention Captain Gregg feelings about Fortuna's uncle Horatio Figg.
Once everyone had arrived and all the chairs and benches had been occupied, Nate Douglas stood and thanked everyone who had been involved in the establishment of the Home. Invisibly, Daniel stood and watched the proceedings, happy at how his last wish had been fulfilled. The last thing that tied him to his ghostly after-life, his desire to overturn the finding of his death as a suicide, was not important to him for the time being. If the truth had been found out now, and he had been able to continue on to the golden light, he would lose his soul-mate, Carolyn. Since the affair with Colonel Porter, they had agreed that they would make the most of what they had now, but upon Carolyn's death, the proof of Daniel's accident would be published, and they would at last be on the same plane of existence. He had been thinking about this during Nate's not-overly long speech and suddenly realized that everyone was clapping politely. Reverend Whitman stood and gave the blessing and suddenly, everyone was attending to their plates.