The couple stood intrigued by the new facts uncovered by the Captain's great grandfather's letters. "We must inform the historical society at once," he said with determination. Alarmed, and not anxious to repeat the furor they had just settled, Carolyn raised her hands in protest, "Oh no, after what we've been through, let's let sleeping cornerstones lie." Wanting to achieve his point, he insisted, "But Madam in the name of historical truth . . ." Equally adamant, Carolyn stopped the debate with a loud, "Captain!"

After a moment, he acquiesced, "Very well Madam, we'll let them lie." Without another word, Carolyn, as the seeming victor, left the verbal field of battle. Yet, she worried that his sudden agreement might merely have indicated he was going for a 'workaround'. Waiting quietly outside the closed Master Cabin door, she was unsurprised to hear noises from the typewriter, and at the sudden clatter on keys on paper, she burst again into the room.

"Ah ha!" she shouted, as the Captain became instantly visible at the desk. "Really Madam," he chastised, "you startled me!" "Startled you! You're lucky I don't pick up the typewriter and hit you with it! Is this how you let 'sleeping cornerstones lie?" "Err," he stalled, looking anywhere but up into her furious green eyes. Happy that he finally surfaced a likely counterpoint, he turned, "Surely, you didn't think I would neglect, at minimum to write this down for posterity? At some point we must set the record straight, don't you agree?"

With raised eyebrow, she circled him warily, and reading over his shoulder, she let out a noncommittal grunt. "Okay. Fine. So it isn't a letter to Miss Stoddard, but you can't blame me, after all the times you've rewritten my work, for thinking you'd do it again, can you?" "Oh, I don't know," he smiled standing and walking over toward her, glad his dodge had worked, "seems to me that you like our collaborations, whether planned for or not?"

"Yet none of this," she said with a perturbed groan, "explains why you feel the need to meddle, to turn a simple step into something so personal and all too often embarrassing for me. Any explanation?"

To her surprise, he did not engage in their usual argument, but rather returned to sit at the desk and tapping his fingers together, looked woefully up at her. "My dear," he said quietly, "do you truly not understand?" Eyes wide, she shook her head and waited for his explanation.

His pause was long, and then he finally with a defeated expression, stood and walked out onto the balcony. "Clearly you have something to say," she said following him there, "come on, out with it!"

Grasping the wheel there, and giving it a comforting spin, he continued in his silent reflection. "It's certain," he began, "I have been unable to explain the complicated circumstances around my existence, or perhaps lack of it," he offered with a wry expression. "Surely, with your imagination," he asked her, "you know how difficult it has been, to be unable to interact with the world at large? How limited my life has been? And while I value you above all things, all living beings, to ONLY be able to express myself passively through you and your actions, well it is, as I said . . . limited." Sadly, he turned back to the ocean view, giving the wheel a small adjustment.

Unable to resist, Carolyn gave her forehead a rueful slap. "No," she said softly, "I am rather ashamed to say, I never gave that a single thought. I see you so very differently. To me you are a man. A man of power, insight and strength and it's impossible, or rather it was until just now, to see the world from your perspective."

Stepping closer to him, she raised her hand and tried unsuccessfully, to rest it on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she offered with a gentle glance. Turning toward her, he smiled, "Is this kind of growth, of understanding what all couples experience?" Laughing, she nodded, "Well, not EXACTLY like this, but yes, for all successful couples, it does take time to understand one another."

Looking down, and then smiling toward her, "So be it. I am dedicated to success for the two of us. You agree?" "I do Captain," she said with firm assurance.