Chapter Seventeen
Scuppering Cousin Hazel
"Harriet asked me to say she is so devastated she could not come with me," Hazel shared her news over their midday meal. "She was sure you would wish to see her again after all this time. But the poor lamb is just too ill to leave her sickbed. I swear there was something unpleasant in the water in Paris."
She sighed. "I did hesitate to leave her side. But she insisted I must come and stay with you, to make sure all is well and to care for you in the Captain's absence. My sweet sister is so brave and selfless."
She frowned at Carolyn. "And there are the family's messages I mentioned before. I would care to impart them to you in private when it is convenient."
Carolyn shrugged. "There is nothing my family needs to say to me that cannot be said in front of my husband or Martha. We keep no secrets in this house."
"Very well…" Hazel glanced significantly at the listening children. "Perhaps, later then."
Perched on their stools at the kitchen table, Candy and Jonathan regarded her with awed fascination. The enjoyment of the meal had been completely dominated by their cousin. They had never heard anyone talk for so long about so much no one was interested in hearing without permitting interruptions to her conversation.
"Told ya she could talk," Candy whispered giving her brother a knowing look before turning to her mother.
"Ah huh…" Jonathan nodded, also turning to stare at his mother through lowered lashes.
Carolyn addressed their pleading looks. "If you both have finished you may leave the table and take your dishes to the bench. Then you may go outside to play. Take Scruffy with you and do not go outside the front gate."
"Oh, dear…" Hazel watched the children clear their empty plates before they left the kitchen and disappeared out the front door followed by their barking dog. "I do hope they will not be making too much noise. I had thought to lie down this afternoon and rest after my long journey."
She looked around the three other adults still seated at the table with her. None offered an opinion on her need for quiet.
She shrugged. "I still cannot understand why you say you like living out here, Carolyn. It is so remote. You know how preceptive I am about these things, my dear. And I have to say I fear you are not happy. I suspect you're missing the city. Is there anything you wish to tell me? You know you can confide in me."
Daniel glowered at her. "I do not believe my wife's state of happiness is any of your concern, Miss Williams. It is my place to see to her contentment. Perhaps it is not Gull Cottage or its location that is at the bottom of her perceived discontentment."
"Oh, of course, of course…" Hazel nodded quickly. "I was merely expressing my familial concern for my dear cousin. Her mother shares the same view as mine. I do understand your anxiety for her well-being."
"You have not been around to express that concern for the last two years," Daniel replied hardly. "I do not see there is any need for you to start now. I will appreciate it if you will leave Gregg family business to the head of the Gregg family."
"Yes, well, of course…" Hazel subsided into mutinous silence, obviously detesting the fact that the last word was not hers.
"Ah, Henry has finished his bottle of milk, Mrs Gregg," the baby's nurse volunteered from across the kitchen.
"Thank you, Ellen." Carolyn nodded. "I'll take him now. You may help yourself to some lunch."
"Thank you." The young woman needed no further urging. Lifting the baby to her hip she carried him to his adopted mother. "He's such a good baby. He loved being down at the beach. He shouted at all the gulls and talked to everyone we met. He is becoming quite the Master Chatterbox."
Henry gurgled and smiled as Carolyn took him. He kicked his legs and bounced up and down on her lap, content to be the centre of so much attention.
"I did not know there was an infant in the house." Hazel regarded the baby dubiously. "I do hope he knows not to shout inside. It would not be seemly."
"He's a babe," Daniel supplied helpfully with a disinterested shrug. "He shouts or cries as often as he pleases. If you wish to stay here you will need to get used to it. We believe in our children being free to express themselves as they may choose."
"I do understand. But it's my nerves, you see…" Hazel pressed her fingers to her temple. "They can be so easily overset by too much disruption. You do understand?"
"Oh, we understand very well…" Carolyn regarded her husband's carefully neutral expression. "Henry is a growing boy. His lungs need to be exercised."
"Oh, I do like the sound of a healthy baby shouting the odds first thing in the morning," Martha contributed gleefully as she got up to clear the rest of the used dishes.
She'd quickly grasped the trend of the conversation and joined in. "The sweet noise does make one feel so alive and ready to face the day." She chuckled, shaking her head.
"First thing in the morning?" Hazel's pale face lost some of its colour. "How early is first thing? I am not in the habit of rising until the clock has struck at least ten. I am never at my best until then, you see."
She turned to Martha. "I do wish to ask that my breakfast be served in bed each morning. If that is not too much trouble. Of course, I don't wish to be a burden to anyone. Just a pot of strong black coffee, no sugar, with some hot buttered toast and a good conserve will do nicely."
She looked around the kitchen. "I doubt your simple country menu would contain the likes of good French pastries. Those I do miss but I am accepting of the need for compromise." She nodded, smiling happily as if her point had been made.
"Breakfast in bed, is it?" Martha grimaced as she began to scrub the dishes in the sink with unnecessary force. "That's rich, I must say…" she muttered. "And no French pastries to be found in this kitchen. I never heard the like." She continued to grumble beneath her breath.
"Oh dear, have I said something I shouldn't?" Hazel asked innocently.
"Oh, no. Martha often talks to herself," Carolyn replied, trying not to smile.
She watched her husband's already dark expression hardening. Now she could see the depth of the plan he was formulating to remove Hazel from the house earlier than she anticipated.
"Of course, we are all up with the sun," she stated airily. "You will not manage to stay in bed for long in this house. There is always so much to do and the children are in constant need of our attention."
She shrugged. "And sometimes Henry can be up all night, talking and laughing. He is a very happy baby. I have missed hearing him while we were away in Boston. I want to make up for lost time by having him with me all the time."
Henry bounced up and down on her knee, gurgling his own opinion of the conversation. Carolyn encouraged him to make more noise by repeating his happy gabble back to him.
"And breakfast is always served in this kitchen. Nowhere else," Daniel stated. "I like to keep a tight ship when I'm ashore. I believe in maintaining a stern, disciplined routine."
"But surely his nurse is in charge of him," Hazel worried. "It's her place to keep him quiet and out of the way so we may eat and sleep in peace. Such young children certainly should not be seen, let alone heard."
"Ellen does her job well, but she does not live here overnight. Henry is with us upstairs at night," Daniel replied smoothly.
"In his cradle in our room, which is right next to yours, dear cousin." Carolyn was forced to duck her head so her smile at her cousin's horrified expression could not be seen. Beneath the table her husband nudged his foot against hers, urging her to keep her mirth under control.
"Then, perhaps I had better go up and lie down now," Hazel ventured, pushing back her chair. "I wouldn't want to have you changing your routine just for me. I am not one to expect adjustments to be made on my behalf."
She pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve, pressing it to her lips as she left the kitchen. "If you'll excuse me…"
Ellen, the young nurse, looked concerned as she approached the table. "But I do sleep here, with Henry, in my room," she said in bewilderment. "Am I to be dismissed?"
"Oh, no," Carolyn was quick to reassure her. "This is a temporary arrangement. You may have the next few days off. Go home and see your family."
Martha walked to the door to check that Hazel had gone upstairs. She returned to the table.
"It's all right, Ellen," she murmured. "Mrs Gregg's cousin has imposed herself on us without so much as a by your leave. We are simply making sure she does not wish to stay as long as she believes she will. Henry is very much a part of our plan."
"Oh…" Ellen said slowly. "Ohhhh, I see. Yes, she didn't seem to like the children or Henry."
She stroked the baby's soft downy cheek. "But he's such a sweet baby and no trouble at all."
"You see, Cousin Hazel has never married or had children," Carolyn replied. "She simply does not understand them. Now you run along and pack. Give your mother my good wishes and we will send word to you as soon as Hazel leaves us."
"Thank you, Mrs Gregg." The nurse dropped a quick curtsy before she left the room.
"I do believe the first salvo must go to us," Daniel declared with satisfaction. "We will have Hazel scuppered in no short order. She will soon be striking her colours and running for home."
"We'll place Henry's cot against the wall next to her bedroom." Carolyn bounced the baby on her knee. "I know she's family, but…"
"Cousin Hazel has only ever been interested in what's best for Cousin Hazel or Harriet," Martha told her. "She'll never change. We can only be grateful to whatever was in the waters in Paris for keeping both of them from descending on us, uninvited."
She shook her head. "I have often wondered why the Good God ever saw fit to create two of them where one is more than enough for anyone to cope with."
She pulled a face. "Breakfast in bed, indeed."
"She came here to see if I am the right man for you, my dear." Daniel reached to take his wife's hand between his. "I find that both very forward and impertinently presumptuous. She has no right to be in our business or our lives. I know and understand you have your reasons for suffering her attentions. But she will soon discover she made a huge mistake in imposing herself on us."
He stood up. "Now if Martha is happy to take care of Henry for a few hours, I do believe we have work we must get on with in our bedroom. Miss Hall is impatient for our next manuscript and we will not disappoint her. Hazel will just have to make the best of our absence."
"Give him here…" The housekeeper reached to take the baby. "He'll do just fine with me. You two go on upstairs and don't come down again until you've completed at least three chapters. Hazel will just have to put up with your being in the room next to hers talking and making all sorts of noise." She laughed knowingly and winked at them.
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Four hours later Carolyn was sitting at the desk in their bedroom going over some of Daniel's notes for their next manuscript. "You know, some of what you have written here is just beautiful. It's almost poetry. Perhaps Miss Hall should have put you under contract, after all."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that…" her husband replied modestly, seating in the chair beside hers, reading over her arm.
"Yes, you would," Carolyn replied turning her head to smile at him.
"Very well, yes I would," Daniel whispered, kissing her temple.
They both laughed. It helped to ease the tense atmosphere in the room. Neither of them was happy about Cousin Hazel sleeping only a wall away.
Carolyn drew a heavily written page from among the notes and began to read it through. The paper was a better quality linen and as she read she shook her head in bemusement.
She stopped reading to sigh then said, "You truly do have such a way with words. I love this. 'Beloved, the loneliness I harbour in my heart is the loneliness of a single ship adrift on the endless ocean. I wait suspended in the silence of a windless doldrum… The memory of your beauty sails the lonely watery wastes with me – and I am alone no more…
I see your radiant face in my mind's eye, and rough and raging seas grow calm. Your hair is like the radiant softness of the dawn and your eyes, translucent pearls drawn from the ocean deeps. Your voice is an angel's song in the wind…
Beloved, I am bound to you, for now, for all eternity. I can chart no other course, but homeward to your arms. I must return to you as surely as the sea birds flying with my ship return every season to the distant land.
Your loving arms are my harbour, my shore, and my anchor in a storm-tossed world. I fly to you as truly as an arrow flies into the sun, to be lost in the brilliance of your smile, the warmth of your greeting and the certainty of your endless love…'"
She stopped reading to wipe away a tear from the corner of her eye. "It is true and sweet poetry. So fresh and timeless…"
"What happens between a man and a woman is timeless…" Daniel replied softly. "That was the letter I was writing to you on my last voyage before we were wed. I had quite forgotten to give it to you. I have no idea how it got in among our papers. But I'm glad you found it. It tells you how I truly feel about you."
"Well, I'm glad I found it too…" Carolyn leaned close to kiss him, almost dropping the sheath of papers in her need to get closer to his vital warmth.
She drew back reluctantly, cupping his bearded cheek in her palm. "You may wish to deny it but you do have the heart and the soul of a poet."
"If only we could be alone to make our own poetry, right now," Daniel commented longingly, glancing pointedly at the bed beside them.
"Yes, but making love with you while knowing Hazel is right next door…" Carolyn shook her head. "She's just as likely to walk in on us or look through the balcony doors. She seeks to find fault where she may to have family gossip to pass along. Being caught making love together in the afternoon…" Her sense of disappointment was tangible.
"Well, if Hazel did intrude, she would see how a married couple truly should be with one another," Daniel replied grimly. "I will not make love with you in the dark. I want to see you. And we can always lock the windows and the door. I want to love you, right here and right now."
"Please stop making it so hard for me to concentrate," Carolyn begged. "We must get on with our work. We have so little time left before you sail."
"Very well…" Daniel sighed with real regret. "Where were we?"
"I think we should call this next novel, 'An Angel's Song.' What do you think? We wish could use parts of your letter. It is so lovely, thank you."
"It is your letter," Daniel studied the picture she made in the sunlit room. "I meant every word of it and more…"
He reached to kiss her, drawing her closer. The sheath of papers fluttered from Carolyn's grasp to the floor. Finally surrendering to her own desires, she needed no further urging to move into his arms as their kiss deepened and changed in its intent.
"Oh…! I do hope I'm not interrupting…" a feminine voice commented from the doorway.
"Blast…" Daniel muttered against the softness of his wife's lips.
They fell apart to find Hazel standing next to the open door staring at them with wide eyes. She shifted her stance uncomfortably.
"I woke up from my nap and heard you talking in here. I assumed you were not involved in anything…" She waved one hand helplessly. "Anything…"
"Anything a man and wife may choose to be doing in the privacy of their own bedroom," Daniel replied pointedly, glaring at her. "Without interruption."
"But it's barely three o'clock in the afternoon…" Hazel stammered, her pale cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "And it's still daylight outside."
"Really, Cousin Hazel, you should have knocked first," Carolyn reprimanded her as she bent down to gather the scattering of papers. "It was too bad of you to just barge in like this."
"How was I to know what was happening? All I heard was the two of you talking." Hazel chose to deny the chastisement. "Though I did hear you reading something that sounded quite… ah, quite intimate."
Her flush deepened. "What are you doing in here anyway?"
"I was reading something aloud to see how it sounded. I am looking at writing some new magazine articles," Carolyn lied without compunction.
Hazel frowned at her. Her mouth opened but nothing came forth.
"Well, we have finally found a sure way to silence her…" Daniel leaned closer to whisper. "I have never seen anyone so confounded." He chuckled wryly.
"Why are you staring at me like that, Cousin Hazel?" Carolyn asked, doing her best to ignore her husband's aside. "Say something."
"I don't wish to upset you, my dear," her cousin finally managed. "But your mother did assure me quite firmly that you'd given up on the absurd notion that you could ever become a published author. It is not at all seemly or ladylike."
"Some of the best authors happen to be women. Mary Shelley, for one," Carolyn replied evenly.
"Yes, but she wrote such a dreadful novel," Hazel replied. "That cannot be your fate, my dear."
She wrung her hands together. "Dearest Carolyn, I'd hate for all those tangled emotions I just heard to spill over into one of your articles. It is no trade for a lady. Is dear Emily wrong in her assumption?"
She frowned at the sheath of papers in her cousin's hand. "What do you have there?"
Carolyn glanced sideways at her husband. "They are just letters written to me by my husband. We were working with them."
"Oh…" Hazel looked deeply doubtful. She put a hand to her cheek. "Surely you are not planning to publish them? They sounded so… so personal."
"I haven't decided." Carolyn stood up to guide her cousin out. "Now if you will excuse us. We do have things we need to get done before sunset."
"My, my… a ship's compass and a telescope…" Hazel moved quickly into the room, looking all around. "There's even a cutlass. Oh dear, this is such a masculine room. It seems more like a ship's cabin than a bedroom."
"We like it this way," Carolyn replied repressively, still trying to shepherd her cousin back toward the door. "It is a perfectly lovely room."
Hazel turned, pointedly avoiding any mention of the wide, comfortable bed that dominated the far side of the room. "Of course, you are keeping the room the same."
She glanced at Daniel. "Just the way he likes it to be. A ship's captain ashore is still a ship's captain," she said huffily. "He said he must always be in charge even when he's ashore."
"Have a care with your unwarranted accusations, Madam…" Daniel warned as he rose to his feet, his hands flexing at his thighs. "Or you will be leaving this house long before the sun sets."
"Oh, Carolyn… how can you allow this husband of yours to threaten me so?" Hazel sobbed, pressing the back of her hand against her lips as she backed away toward the open door. "I swear it's this house. I can see Emily was quite right. I said so to Harriet before I left. Everything is so remote and wild out here in Maine. Including the menfolk!"
She clung to the door handle, staring back at them with wide eyes. "I can see it all now. Headstrong and wilful you have always been. Set on going your own way without a care for the feelings of others. But why did the family ever allow you to run away so far away from Philadelphia?"
She turned and hurried from the room, closing the door sharply behind her. The strong scent of her cloying perfume hung in the air as her hurried footsteps could be heard, running along the hallway and then down the staircase. Carolyn looked after her, totally at a loss to understand what had just happened.
Daniel frowned at the closed door, shaking his head. "That woman's mind is becoming unhinged. The sooner she leaves the better. But you'd better lock the door just in case. We cannot afford any more interruptions."
"Yes…" Carolyn did as she was bid before returning to her chair at the desk and sitting down. "But I am beginning to wonder what exactly my mother has told Hazel and Harriet about how and why I first came to live in Schooner Bay. And the reasons for it."
She reassembled the sheath of papers. "I was sent here against my will like a naughty child who would not behave and get married again to someone I detested as my mother demanded. I did not simply run away."
"If I know your mother she will have said things that would put her in a good light. She did try to warn Hazel against coming here. I gather for her own ends. She would not want the truth of her involvement to come out. That would be difficult to explain, even to a spineless ninnyhammer like Hazel."
"But my father knows the truth. Of how he answered Claymore's letter asking for a satisfactory clerk for his office. And then appeared to abandon me here for months without a single word of comfort or support."
"Well, we both know who's ultimate doing that was." Daniel shrugged. "Claymore has reformed himself. But I would wonder if Bradford had even been allowed to speak with your cousins. From what I know of such women, once your mother and the twins got together to catch up on all the family gossip any sane man would have been looking for the nearest door."
"Yes, my poor father would have been driven out to stay at his men's club. He has always preferred the quiet life and he never interfered in family doings if he could help it. The twins wouldn't care for his opinion and they left the city before Robert died so they knew nothing of my circumstances."
"Then the way would be clear for your mother to put her best spin on the unfortunate events. She certainly would not wish it to be known that she was at the bottom of your sudden desire to leave the city. She has happily painted you as being headstrong and wilful. Almost uncontrollable."
He smiled teasingly. "It seems I have married a veritable termagant. What will I do with you?"
Carolyn sighed. "Even if Hazel or Harriet had been told of my penniless state I doubt they would have helped. The family were convinced the fault was mine. All the Muirs wanted to do was remove my children from my care to raise them."
Her lips twisted with a wry grimace. "But I do wonder what Hazel believes now. They had been gone for too long."
"We are not about to ask because we do not need to know. Do not lose your focus now, my dear. That woman does not deserve your sympathies. The battle has been joined and we are gaining the upper hand. Her guns are smaller than ours and her resolve to remain beneath our roof is weakening. We will now include the children's help in our plan. We'll soon have her on the run and charting a hasty course for home."
"As I said, you do have a way with words…" Carolyn shook her head as she regathered her sheath of papers. "Now where were we?"
"Wishing heartily that the woman was already gone so we may continue where we left off on our last night at sea," Daniel growled. "I am still working my way to the bottom of your likes and dislikes in our lovemaking. I want to know so much more than our limited time now allows."
"Me, too…" Carolyn shivered beneath the sensuous look burning in his blue eyes. "'Your loving arms are my harbour, my shore, and my anchor in a storm-tossed world…'" she quoted softly. "'I fly to you as truly as an arrow flies into the sun, to be lost in the brilliance of your smile, the warmth of your greeting and the certainty of your endless love…'"
Daniel pushed his chair back as he reached for her, drawing her into his strong arms and settling her on his lap. "That is not fair of you to be quoting my own words back at me…"
Carolyn was deeply aware of his powerful body stirring beneath hers. "She may come back…" she whispered raggedly.
"I doubt it…" Daniel shook his head. "I think Hazel has learned a valuable lesson about what her boundaries are this afternoon. Besides, the door is locked and if we are very quiet..." He grinned.
"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" Carolyn moved, settling closer to his vital masculine heat than she was before.
She played her fingers once more through his dark curls. "'Your hair is like a storm at midnight and your eyes, the incredible colour of the vast ocean depths. Your voice is an angel's song whispering to me on the wind—'"
Her soft quotation was swiftly silenced by her husband's seeking lips and the sheath of papers fell from her grasp once more. A deeply sensual mood settled over the sunlit room and there was no longer any need for verbal communication.
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