Chapter Twenty-Nine

Clearing The Decks

Three days later:

"Well, dear…" Carolyn's mother pulled on her gloves with firm movements, studying her daughter closely. "It seems we may leave you in the Captain's capable hands and not worry for your future happiness. I will admit I'm glad you have finally found someone to take care of you."

Her thoughtful gaze assessed Carolyn's pale cheeks before she shifted to Daniel standing silently behind Carolyn. "Though I'm not sure what I'm going to tell Owen. He was so hopeful of you coming home with us today and leaving this odd house far behind."

She glanced around the foyer. "We did tell him we didn't think this place was suitable. It's so remote. But it is your choice."

"Yes, it is," Carolyn replied quickly, summoning a smile. "And please give Owen my best wishes for his own future and my final goodbyes. I doubt I will be seeing him again."

She reached behind her to take Daniel's hand in hers. "I know he would want me to be happy. And I am. I couldn't be any happier."

"That's all we've ever wanted for you too," Bradford added, walking down the stairs with their luggage in his hands. "But I never thought you would find such a fine man as the Captain. I will admit to being pleasantly surprised. I was very concerned about the last one we met. Thankfully that has been straightened out and we know where we stand."

He put down the suitcases. "I think we're leaving happier than when we came. We were both unsure of our welcome here a few days ago."

"Oh, you're always welcome at Gull Cottage," Carolyn was quick to reassure him with a warm hug. "Please, come back any time."

She glanced back at Daniel who raised a dark eyebrow at her. He shook his head and smiled. "Yes, please, you are welcome any time," He repeated the necessary lie with a straight face.

"Thank you, dear…" Her mother hugged Carolyn in turn and kissed her cheek. "I'm only sorry we must keep your engagement a secret. Even from Harriet. I don't know how we're going to do that. She's always so interested in the family doings."

"You know why it must be," Carolyn replied quickly. "And Harriet cannot keep a confidence for long so please do not tell her. It's for all of us."

She indicated Martha and the children standing in the kitchen doorway. Candy and Jonathan had already said their goodbyes. They were looking restless, keen to run back upstairs to play with all their new toys they'd received for Christmas. But they knew they needed to be on their best behaviour for the final act of their pantomime.

"But most of all, for Daniel…" Carolyn glanced behind her before turning back to her parents. "Are you sure we can't drive you to the airport?"

"We've already ordered a taxi," her father replied. "The snow's been cleared away for now. But they say there's another front coming in this afternoon. We felt it's best if you don't have to drive all the way back here again."

"Thank you for everything…" Carolyn kissed his cheek and hugged him again. "It has been a wonderful Christmas."

"Thank you, dear," Emily replied, kissing her daughter warmly. "We expect to hear the good news the very moment you finally set the date for your wedding."

"You'll be the first to know." Carolyn nodded, swallowing hard against a sudden need to cry. She wiped a hand across her eyes.

Daniel watched her anxiously. He hated to see any woman cry but especially his wife. He was desperate for her parents to be gone so they could go back to the way they were.

There was nothing more they could wish for. Well, maybe one last, very necessary thing…

Bradford had just opened the front door when the telephone rang. They all turned to stare at it.

"I wonder who that could be…" Carolyn frowned.

She walked to the foyer table and picked up the old-fashioned phone, lifting the receiver to her ear. "Hello? Carolyn Muir speaking…"

She listened to the hurried conversation on the other end, her frown deepening. "Harriet?" she queried finally when the caller paused for breath. "Please, slow down. What are you trying to tell me?"

Her confused gaze shifted to Daniel, doing his very best to look completely innocent and failing. The tiny light of blue devilment in his eyes gave the game away. He had made good on his word, it seemed.

"What do you mean, Owen's been arrested?" Carolyn's frowning gaze shifted to her parents, both looking on with real concern written large in their expressions. "Why has he been arrested and when?"

She listened intently to the garbled voice in her ear. After several long minutes, Harriet finally stopped talking as she ran out of breath again.

"Yes, I understand…" Carolyn nodded quickly. "Yes, I see… Yes, they're still here and I'll be sure to tell them. Yes, and Merry Christmas to you too, Harriet. Goodbye…" She quickly replaced the receiver into its cradle before her cousin could begin to babble on again.

"I don't understand. Who on earth would want to arrest Owen of all people?" her father asked in astonishment. "I've never heard of anything so absurd! He knows everyone, all the right people. It can't be right."

"And why?" her mother chipped in anxiously. "We had dinner at his house only last week and he was fine then. He was really looking forward to finally seeing you again, Carolyn. I'm sure there's been some awful mistake."

"Um, it seems there's been some sort of mix-up in his accounting," Carolyn supplied slowly, keeping her eyes averted from her husband's. "Something about a second set of books he kept hidden in a wall safe in his office…"

"Oh, this is too much!" Bradford exclaimed. "We need to get back to the city immediately!" He gathered up their luggage in both hands. "Luckily, that taxi will be here any minute. I cannot think how confused and upset Owen must be right now!"

"I'm sure it's some kind of dreadful mix-up," Emily soothed him, as they both walked through the open front door. "Owen's not the sort of man to do anything underhanded. It must be someone he foolishly trusted with the running of his accounts. He's always been too generous with the people he employs. I'm sure it can all be sorted out and he will be vindicated."

"I'm certain it will be, Mrs Williams…" Martha turned to follow them, making all the right soothing noises. "I'm sure it's just a huge misunderstanding…" She winked as she cast an admiring glance back at Daniel.

"Do you think they used their handcuffs on him?" Jonathan asked Candy in a whisper as they followed their grandparents outside. "I'd wanna see that happen…"

"The scales of wilful blindness will be torn from your parents' eyes as soon as they get back to the city and discover the whole truth…" Daniel murmured with satisfaction as he escorted his wife out onto the front porch.

Carolyn covered her mouth with her hand. "What did you do?" she whispered in a marvelling aside.

"Nothing the charlatan didn't richly deserve," her husband replied softly. "He was an impediment who needed to be removed from our future together. Lucius made sure he was unmasked just as we'd planned. Nothing can be traced back to us."

"You didn't hurt him?" Carolyn demanded to know in an undertone as they all followed her parents down the front path to the gate.

"Only in his secret bank accounts where it will do him the most harm." Daniel smiled thinly. "Do not concern yourself, my dear. The man himself remains completely unharmed as you requested. But his future will not be as bright as he might have hoped. It will take a lot of effort on his part to extricate himself. It will take years, if at all."

"Good…" Carolyn replied swiftly, as they all reached the front gate just as the taxi drew up outside the wall. "Thank you…"

"You are most welcome," Daniel acknowledged, grateful to see the sharp look of tension leaving her expression. "The pilfering pick-pocket will never be able to reach for anything of mine ever again."

"And thank Lucius for me, too…" Carolyn drew away to say her last goodbyes to her parents.

The children hugged their grandparents again before Martha shepherded them both back behind the stone wall to watch them depart. Scruffy jumped up onto the wall to watch.

"We now know you won't be getting down to Philadelphia to see us any time soon." Emily shook her head. "But why don't you allow the children to come and visit us when you two finally get away?"

"Get away?" Carolyn questioned blankly.

"Why, with the Captain here…" Bradford waved his hand to Daniel standing beside the gate watching them closely. "When you finally get away from here and go on your honeymoon. You are going to have one, aren't you?"

"Oh yes, sorry. Of course…" Carolyn glanced at her husband. "Thank you. We'll think about it."

"Let us know the date and we'll be here," Emily replied as she stood aside while the cab driver opened the back door for her.

"Bye, everyone…" Bradford waved to the children as he got into the cab to sit next to his wife as the cab driver piled their luggage in the trunk before shutting the door behind them.

The vehicle drew away quickly, heading down the freshly cleared road. They all waved until it was out of sight.

"Thank heavens that's over," Carolyn was the first to express what they were all feeling.

"Yes, lovely to see them, but…" Martha nodded sharply as she turned to her young charges. "Come on, children, let's go inside and look at all your gifts. You deserve them for your great efforts these last few days."

"Okay, cool!" Candy exclaimed.

"Yeah, groovy!" Jonathan followed his sister's example.

The children didn't need any further urging, racing each other to be the first inside. Scruffy followed them, joyfully barking.

Daniel stepped closer to his wife. "You played your part splendidly, my dear. I am proud of you. I hated to see you so overset."

"Yes, well, when I first saw you standing at the bottom of the stairs next to my mother, I thought I was dreaming…" Carolyn shook her head, pressing a hand over her heart. "I felt sure we were about to be sunk without a trace. You certainly took my breath away like you never have before."

"Instead, we sailed on through with flying colours and have found safe harbour once more," Daniel reminded her, putting an arm around her shoulders and hugging her close. "Now we must work on making my existence real enough to pass the inspection I'm sure your father will initiate once the clamour around Mitford's arrest dies down."

"I'm glad you didn't hurt Owen. And happy you have finally dealt with him for me. I couldn't have done it on my own."

"You know I would do anything you ask of me…" Daniel turned with her held close to his side as they walked together slowly back up the front path. "And much more besides. Now and always…"

"Yes, and I love you for it so much. We certainly do not need anything or anyone else in our lives…" Carolyn nodded as they walked up the steps and went inside, closing the door firmly behind them.

※※※※※

Two weeks later:

Daniel stood naked on the balcony outside their bedroom staring out to sea. "…like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; For thy sweet love remembe'd such wealth brings, that then I scorn to change my state with kings…" he whispered his favourite of the Bard's sonnets, watching the sun rising from beneath the horizon to paint the restless ocean with streaks of gold.

The words meant so much more to him now than they ever did in the last hundred years. Now he truly understood their meaning. He knew he would change not a single thing about his present life. Even the limitless ocean had finally ceased sending out her siren's call to his yearning soul.

He shivered in the early morning cold but didn't move. It felt too good to be so alive and he wanted to savour it all. He'd become aware in the last few weeks that there were places within him that felt as if they were still changing and shifting. To what and why he had no idea. Recently some of these changes had caused him physical pain.

He'd done his best to hide his discomfort from Carolyn. He had no wish to upset her when he had no answers. He prayed these new changes would soon be absorbed by his new physical body. As a ghost, he felt no pain or cold.

It seemed Lucifer's extraordinary gift was truly a double-edged sword. But Daniel was not about to summon the demon Turner or ask for an explanation of the finer points of his master's gift of life. Something that could so easily be snatched away again within a heartbeat.

Another firm point against rousing the demonic Turner once more. He would take great delight in making his nemesis squirm. Daniel knew the thirst to take his revenge still burned bright in Turner's traitorous mind and it would for all eternity. There would always be one more battle to fight…

"But, right now, it's so good to feel so alive…" Daniel whispered fiercely to the wheeling gulls as he spread his arms wide and inhaled the cold air deeply, savouring the taste of it.

If his beloved wife had not been asleep behind him he would have released it all, every tangled thought and emotion, in one long and loud shout of joy. He would rather die than go back to the nothingness of his previous existence.

"Daniel?" Carolyn sighed as she opened her eyes and rolled over in the bed.

Seeing him out on the balcony, she sat up and study the picture he made, standing there in the dawning light, like some great, mythical warrior from another time long, long ago. He stood tall and proud with his arms spread wide as if he was waiting expectantly for a call only he could hear.

And he was all hers, now and forever. In both the spirit and human worlds. It hardly seemed possible that they'd come so far and achieved so much in a few short weeks.

The thought of making love with him again made her shiver with anticipation, even as the chill draft from the open windows prickled across her bare flesh. At their spirit wedding, they had made a pact. A pact that would last for this lifetime and beyond. Now, as soon as it could be arranged, they would be making their vows in the human world as well. It all seemed to be unreal.

She watched Daniel's darkened shape becoming rimmed with lambent fire as the sun rose into the sky, lightening and outlining the solid shape of his muscles and powerful frame. The long firm lines of his back and buttocks always attracted her undivided attention. She knew she would never tire of looking at him, no matter how long they lived and loved together.

Watching him now, she knew that, despite the cold, he had no present intention of returning to the bed and her embrace. He seemed to be embracing the cold instead and revelling in its icy touch. Shaking her head, she got quickly out of bed, dragging the wide quilt with her to hurry outside to throw its warmth around them both.

"You'll catch your death from the cold out here," she warned, leaning close into his shoulder to kiss the side of his neck.

"I think you'll find it's a little late for that," Daniel teased, looking down at her. "But I thank you for your concern."

He drew her close to his side, wrapping his arms around her beneath the thick quilt before resting his chin on the top of her head. He pressed a kiss into her hair.

"Are you feeling better now that it's all over? Now that you can relax."

"Yes, my headache has finally gone away. If only we could always be like this," Carolyn murmured, bringing up one of his arms to kiss the pulse that beat within his wrist as they watched the sunrise together. "Wouldn't that be truly wonderful?"

"A blessed world where your parents, Harriet nor Claymore could not intrude upon our peace and isolation?" Daniel queried softly with regret. "It would be heaven, indeed. But impossible, as you well know."

He shook his head against her hair. "You also know, as I do, that your parents will not be able to keep our secret for long. Cousin Harriet will manage to worm it out of them, then she will hot-foot it back to our door to uncover the truth. We must be ready for her next assault. Lucius and I are working on placing me firmly within the human world where my existence will stand up to the closest scrutiny. Even her nosiness will be stymied."

"Blast…" Carolyn replied with feeling. "I know you're right. We cannot escape Harriet once she discovers the truth."

"My thoughts exactly…" Daniel chuckled wryly. "But it must be done if we are to be truly together for always…" He turned her within his embrace to kiss her slowly and lingeringly.

"It's Sunday, and it's still early…" Carolyn drew back to murmur, reaching down to tug at his hand beneath the cover of the quilt. "The children won't be up yet. We can still go back to bed for a little while and get warm again…"

"You read my mind…" Daniel turned to follow her when something down in the front garden suddenly caught his attention.

"I don't believe it…" He sighed roughly.

"What is it?" Carolyn joined him in looking down into the garden. "I don't see anything…"

"That's because you're human. You cannot see them, but I can sense they're down there. I'm afraid we have some rather unexpected visitors…" Daniel urged her inside and closed the windows behind them. "Go back to bed. I won't be long…"

"Oh, but who's out there?" Carolyn protested as Daniel suddenly transformed into his clothed, ghostly form. "And where are you going now?"

"To see a blastedly inconvenient ghost and his blasted cat…" her husband replied cryptically as he dematerialised, leaving her looking after him in frustrated consternation.

"I might have gone back to sleep by the time you get back!" Carolyn warned in a loud whisper, knowing she would not receive an answer.

※※※※※

"Oh, Sir… Thank you, Sir…" Able Seaman Fourth Class Leroy Applegate stood beneath the tree in the front garden, saluting haphazardly. The depth of his relief was written large across his anxious expression. "I knew you would know we were here, Sir. I said so to Mr Peabody."

Beside him, in the snow, the cat sat looking deeply discontented with his lot and the cold conditions. He sneezed pointedly.

"Well, out with it, man!" Daniel demanded. "Why are you here? What's happened at the camp? When I visited there before Christmas, I warned you what would happen if you burned it to the ground by your carelessness."

"Oh, no, no, no, Sir!" Applegate looked horrified at the suggestion he was at fault. "I followed all of your instructions to the letter. I welcome your inspection at any time. Everything's in tip-top shape. Mr Peabody will testify to that."

He waved an anxious hand at the cat. The animal yawned and didn't answer.

Applegate grimaced. "Well, it was in tip-top shape until a couple of days ago. But it's not my fault. Nothing I did, Captain."

"You're giving me a headache…" Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger in frustration. "Then why are you here at all? You have your orders. I did not give you permission to come aboard."

"I know, Sir…" Elroy leaned closer, looking right and left. "But, Sir, we've had a visitor…" He frowned. "Well, more of what I'd call an unwanted intruder."

"Human or ghost?" Daniel demanded to know, instantly alert.

"Human…" Applegate nodded quickly. "Snooping and poking all around, using all sorts of funny things I've not seen the likes of before. Just like he owns the place. The more me and Mr Peabody tried to scare him off the more he seemed to like it." He paused significantly, shaking his head in confusion.

"Go on…" Daniel demanded warily. "Tell me the rest. I have a feeling I already know what you're going to tell me."

"Well, I guess that's why you're my Captain." Applegate frowned doubtfully. "He was all funny-like, looking at everything, running between the cabins. He forced his way into the smaller one. He's living there now."

He shrugged. "I keep a sharp watch on him. He keeps saying things like, 'This time I'll show them I'm not crazy… This time they'll listen to me and believe me. Or my name's not Paul Wilkie…'"

"Wilke!" Daniel pounced on the name, spitting it out with distaste. "What does that blasted faker want now, as if I didn't know! Claymore told me he'd been snooping around, demanding access to the camp that was not his to give. But I'd not have thought the man foolhardy enough to invade us before the spring thaw!"

"I just knew I was right to bring it to you, Sir!" Applegate exclaimed, saluting smartly this time, looking very pleased with himself. "I said to Mr Peabody, we gotta go tell our Captain. Before it's too late and calamity befalls us. If that blasted human burns the camp down, I'll get the blame. Just like my dear little cottage. Not my fault either. But no one believes me."

"You did right to come to me," Daniel replied evenly. "I had hoped the man was bluffing. It seems he has more backbone than I gave him credit for." He stroked his bearded chin thoughtfully. "He must have heard the rumours about the camp being haunted. The same reason he darkened our doorstep two years ago."

"What are you going to do to him, my Captain?" Applegate drew closer, his eyes alight with keen anticipation. "Hang him from the yardarm? Keel-haul him? Maybe we could boil him in oil? Mr Peabody and me can help with that, Sir."

"For the moment I am going to do nothing," Daniel told him. "We need to make plans to be rid of that man with the minimum of fuss. His nose is keen, his mind is sharp and his hunger for discovery is vast. He seeks answers about our world that we are not going to give him. He will depart the island, a very disappointed fellow."

"Well, if you say so, Sir," Applegate looked confused. "But what will your lady say? She might not like her things being poked and prodded at by a strange man. Better we shift him on now."

"Wilkie is no stranger to Gull Cottage." Daniel shook his head. "Mrs Muir has already encountered him and sent him packing. He's also already tried his blasted tricks on me and failed."

"All right, then…" Applegate straightened smartly. "Nor shall he trick us. Not while there's breath in my body. Or my name's not Elroy Applegate. What do you command me to do, Sir?"

"Nothing right now," Daniel informed him shortly. "You will go back to the camp and keep an eye on Wilkie and report back to me if he does anything different. But do not alert him to your presence. You will both keep as silent as the grave."

"No moaning or chain rattling? No howling in the night? Mr Peabody does a very nice show with his disembodied red eyes…" Applegate looked crestfallen. "But, Sir, I thought—"

"Thinking is not one of your strengths, Seaman Applegate," Daniel said repressively. "Just do as you are ordered and leave the rest of the planning to me. That is why I am the Captain and you are my crew."

He closed his eyes briefly. "To my eternal cost…"

"Yes, Sir…" Applegate knuckled his forehead disconsolately.

"Cheer up," Daniel encouraged him. "You did right to bring that man's unwanted intrusion to my attention. If he is left alone long enough, he will finally come to his senses and depart. For now, we will add a deeper winter to his burden and maybe a few convenient rats to rustle around in the attic and disturb his sleep. We will drive him out that way."

"I did do right, didn't I?" Applegate brightened. "Mr Peabody and me will do as ordered, Sir. I'll summon the rats and make sure they know their stuff."

He saluted again as he dematerialised. The cat gave Daniel a thoughtful stare of dissatisfaction before he too faded away, following his master. Silence settled once more on the snowy garden.

※※※※※