The Schooner Bay Home for Invalid and Indigent Seamen:
Fortuna Figg Grover
Chapter 2:
It was a much-distressed Fortuna who arrived unannounced the next morning at Gull Cottage. She had spent a sleepless night trying to devise a solution to her estrangement with her daughter and son-in-law. Despite tossing and turning until dawn, she could think of no direct way to even approach them, much less get back into their good graces. She thought of asking both her husband and son to speak to them on her behalf, but she knew that Thaddeus would just tell them to speak to her and get her off of his back. David would probably make a joke out of the whole thing if he even remembered to bring it up at all. She couldn't approach any of Phyllida's friends; that would cause a major scandal and start all the town gossips talking. As for her friends, she really didn't have anyone to confide in. She had acolytes and social acquaintances, not friends.
Finally, after seeing no other solution, she decided to call on Carolyn Muir. As the Matron of the Schooner Bay Home for Invalid and Indigent Seamen, she both worked closely with the elder Cooper on the Home's Board of Trustees and had become a trusted source of information and comfort among the women of the town. Therefore, Fortuna Figg Grover arrived at Gull Cottage at precisely 11 a.m. the next morning, wearing her usual "visitation suit", a very, very dark brown merino wool dress with a cavalier-style jacket. There was dark gold piping on the collar and the sleeves, along with old-gold buttons and the bustle was pulled up into a good-sized swag with pin-tucked pleats that made her look somewhat like an upside-down pea-hen from the back. There was an exquisite cameo at her neck and her hat, in brown and gold felt, sat at a jaunty angle on top of well-fashioned hair. The requisite feathers, flowers and other assorted exotica finished off the landscape on the top of her head.
Martha and Hannibal were starting the preparations for lunch and Carolyn was just coming downstairs after her weekly inspection of Nate's amputation stump when Fortuna knocked on the door.
"I'll get it," Carolyn cried out to Martha. Her surprise at the appearance of her visitor was obvious. "Good morning, Mrs. Grover! Please won't you come in?"
"Thank you, Mrs. Muir." Fortuna swept in, removing her hat at the same time.
"I'm sorry that I don't have social visiting hours, like other women do, but I am pleased to see you. I'll get Martha to make us some tea, and I'm sure there are plenty of her blueberry scones."
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary. I'm not here for a social visit, although your hospitality is well-known," stated the other woman. "If you don't mind, I am here to ask your advice about a family issue."
Carolyn had been with the crowd the day before to see the arrival of Phyllida and Albert Allan and strongly suspected what the "family issue" was. She led Fortuna into the parlor and invited her to sit down on the couch. To Fortuna's left was the fireplace and mantel with the portrait of Captain Daniel Gregg over it. As she sat down, she gave the picture a brief glance and then without changing her expression, neatly folded her hands in her lap and began her tale of woe. Carolyn had seen her look at the Captain's picture which reminded her of how he had thrown the portrait of Horatio Figg down on Fortuna's head at the nuptial celebrations the previous winter. She was hard-pressed not to smile and had to resist the urge to ask if the Grover's had the portrait repaired.
Fortuna, for want of anyone taking her hat and laying it carefully away in some undisclosed location, put it on the occasional table in front of her. She extracted a delicate lace handkerchief from her reticule as tears slowly formed in the corners of her eyes. This was no play-acting, Carolyn realized. Fortuna was really hurt by the turn of events.
"I really do think a pot of tea would do us both good, Mrs. Grover. I'll be back with it in just a few moments."
As Carolyn hurried out of the parlor, Fortuna, who had been sitting erect with her elegant carriage, slumped to the side of the couch, like a rag-doll. She closed her eyes as her tears spilled over, until she sensed someone bending over her. Her eyes flew open, and she gasped as the specter of Daniel Gregg bent over the back of the couch, looking at her intently. She did a double take between the ghost and his portrait, and she grew decidedly pale. But she didn't scream out. He had to give her that.
"So it's true!" she whispered, "you haunt Gull Cottage!"
"Indeed, Fortuna. And why are you darkening the door of my home now, when you wouldn't think to while I was alive?"
She sat up and resumed her haughty pose. "Mrs. Muir will be back in just a moment. There is no time to reminisce."
"Oh, but I can make time," Daniel answered suavely. He waved a hand and the air seemed to shimmer for a moment. He had made time stop.
He sat himself on the back of the sofa, facing Fortuna. He had to admit that she was still a fine-looking woman with an enticing figure. It was her personality that was unfortunate, something he had learned before he could remember much else.
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Unlike the Figg family, who had come to the British colonies and stayed put, the Gregg's came and went between New England, Ireland, and Britain generation by generation. This peripatetic habit didn't do much for the family's finances or standing in Schooner Bay, but it did produce group of strong-minded people. Daniel Gregg was much like the rest of his relatives; born in Ireland to an Irish mother and an Irish-American father, he found himself in Schooner Bay by the time he was ready for school.
He and Fortuna were of an age. He was a bright and copper-haired, blue-eyed boy. Sturdy and proud, he easily made friends with the children of the school, especially the other boys that liked to fish and play fake battles with the branches littering the ground. At that early age girls were acknowledged to be generally kept far away, but Daniel wasn't the only boy who noticed that they were pleasant to look at – as long as no one saw you looking, most especially your friends and the girl in question. And, if pressed, all the boys would have to admit that Fortuna Figg was the prettiest girl in the school. Even at age six, she shone more brightly than the oldest of the girls, 15-year-old Alice Longwood, who was her young uncle Horatio's girlfriend before he left for sea.
And not that Fortuna would admit it either, but this new boy, with his exotic accent, had caught her eye as well. But, as her mother had put it, "he was a Gregg", and that was obviously not a good thing, even if she didn't understand why yet. He did have extraordinarily blue eyes that reflected the waters of the town's bays and his hair curled irrepressibly. But most of all, he believed in himself, and he moved about with a swagger that would have been laughable if he wasn't so serious about it.
At first Daniel and Fortuna avoided each other, but it didn't take too long before they started to tease each other in a very determined, and sometimes unkind way. From ages six through nine, it was the usual childish things; Daniel would quietly grab the end of one of her pigtails and dip it into his inkwell, and she would hide his book-strap. At age ten Daniel would hide in the trees along her path to and from school and pelt her with apples and chestnuts while Fortuna would find ways to place prickly burrs on the back of his pants to stick him when he sat down. Thereafter, they began to argue incessantly and over the most unimportant things, which usually culminated with the all-encompassing statement, "I wouldn't look at you even if you were the last person left on Earth!". Needless to say, the entire town thought they were destined to marry each other.
There was a moment in the spring of their 14th year when the infatuation finally burst free of the teasing. It was the Friday before Daniel's birthday and when school let out, Fortuna ran up to him, for once not looking him in the eye and not looking to pounce in the latest round of one-upmanship.
"I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Daniel."
"Thank you, Fortuna," he answered, startled by her apparent meekness. He looked about for an accomplice but found no one. There didn't seem to be anything hidden in her hands or coat pockets, either.
"I'm sorry, I don't have a present for you," she continued, "so I thought I would just give you this," and she stretched up on her toes and kissed his cheek. Daniel was startled, to say the least, but when she made to take a step back, he grabbed her arm to keep her from running off.
"Thank you," he whispered, and he pulled her back to him, and placed a simple kiss on her lips. "Would you like to be my girl?" he asked.
Fortuna nodded "yes", and for the next six weeks until the end of the school year, they would walk hand in hand to and from the one-room Schooner Bay Grammar School and share innocent kisses.
That was until school was out and some of the young mid-shipmen who were friendly with Uncle Horatio arrived with him just at the start of July. The were men compared to Daniel, they had some coins in their pockets and knew, really knew how to kiss a girl so that she felt faint. Fortuna forgot all about Daniel Gregg. By September, feeling like there was nothing for him in Schooner Bay, and jealous of the looks and respect Horatio's young seamen received, he had gone to sea. Anytime he returned home and passed Fortuna on the street, she turned her nose up and cut him dead.
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"Fortuna, you are heartless, and you are finally reaping what you've sown."
"And you, Daniel Gregg, have already gotten what you deserve! A suicide, trapped between heaven and earth!"
"I DID NOT KILL MYSELF! I kicked the blasted gas heater with my blasted foot! Why won't anyone listen?"
"Hah! I wouldn't believe you for all the tea in China." Fortuna looked him up and down in a superior, smug way. "You were just a sea captain who built himself a little cottage. My uncle was a hero!"
"Not by half," Daniel leered, leaning close to her, "not by half. I was on his ship, and he mutinied against us. He was never at the Battle of Vera Cruz. He was on Jamaica where he went about pickling his liver with rum!" He straightened up. "Enough!"
He waived his hand and time resumed.
Carolyn backed through the door with her tray of tea and some of Martha's blueberry scones. When she turned toward her guest, she was surprised to see the ghost of the Captain standing there and Fortuna Grover looking at him. She knew that it was his intention to slowly introduce himself to the town folk, and after Captain Samuel Biggs, his next revelation had been to Reverend and Agnes Whitman. He chose them so that if the Reverend's sister Amy slipped up, they would understand. Naturally, his revelation to a man of the cloth caused some consternation in the Whitman household. Eventually, the Whitman's came to accept Daniel's presence. Then he had to convince the reverend not to pursue the issue of his so-called suicide for the time being so that he could remain by Mrs. Muir's side.
But now, it was very clear to Carolyn that Fortuna Grover had been introduced to the spirit of Gull Cottage and seemed not to be upset by his presence. In fact, it was equally clear to her that the two of them had some history together.
"Quite some history, in fact," she thought to herself.