Thanks for your encouragement, DimmDimms. This chapter is dedicated to you. This is the final chapter but for the epilogue. Enjoy.

55.

While Anne was eating dinner at the Weevelforth plantation, Frederick was feeling restless and out of sorts. He had tried to have mess with the officers, but soon gave it up as a lost cause. He was irritable and short tempered with them, and even though the food they were eating was fresher and more flavorful than what they had when out at sea, it tasted like sawdust on his tongue. Therefore, he excused himself giving a vague reason and wandered onto the deck. With his spyglass, he swept the land as if he could spot the location where Anne was eating, and see her through the glazing in the dining room. But it was too far away, he only had a vague notion of where it was from his vista at the dockyard, the sun was setting, leaving the land half-shadowed, and doubtless it would have been an impossible task under the best of conditions.

Frederick knew that Anne had successfully managed her life without him for five years, had been in her majority for more than three years, had doubtless encountered many men after he left, and had turned down at least one marriage proposal. He knew her to be a capable, wise woman. She had only truly been his for three days, and yet, yet, he felt he most certainly should be at her side and should not have let her go to Mr. James Weevelforth's home alone.

No that is not right, he reminded himself. She certainly is not alone. Anne has Sophia and Admiral Croft, and the most loyal Mrs. Holmes. Certainly the three of them should be enough to keep her from harm.

Somehow that thought was not as reassuring as it should have been. Frederick went down to his cabin, thinking that perhaps if he could read a little, that would do him good. But he could not focus on his book and within a few moments had thrown it down, and his tapping feet urged him up. Feeling slightly ridiculous, he nevertheless penned a quick note to Benwick to tell him he would be off ship for the evening, and walking back toward the deck flagged down a cabin boy to deliver it. He made the deck and ordered the jollyboat prepared, selecting a few volunteers to convey him to shore and wait for him there.

Frederick was not certain if he had picked well, for he was only seeking who was available to him without too much trouble, but as they rowed him to shore he entreated them, "I am trusting to your good behavior and loyalty while I go to meet Mrs. Wentworth. You may have a bit of liberty while I am gone, but see that you fulfill my expectations and be each other's keepers, for if you are not all back with the boat when I return in an hour or two, the others shall suffer for your failures and I doubt I shall grant anyone shore leave for the rest of the year. But if you do well, you shall have my thanks, I shall view you with a kindly eye, and I shall even tell your masters of how well you have done.

Frederick believed he had chosen well when one of the old salts told the younger ones, "See that you all behave yourself and give your captain your loyalty. I shall box your ears myself if you wander afield. Antigua is not so large that you shall get away from me," and one of the younger ones replied, "There is no need to worry, uncle, for Captain Wentworth has my loyalty" and his fellows joined in "hear, hear."

Frederick managed to hire a man with a cart of convey him to the Weevelforth plantation. The horse moved too slowly for Frederick's liking, and Frederick almost thought he could have walked faster, had he known the exact way to go, but there was nothing to it but to bear with it. All the time while he was traveling, Frederick was debating with himself as to whether when he arrived, he would make his presence known and seek admittance to the house, or whether it might be better not to act the fool and simply await his party's exit from the home. He did not want to embarrass Anne, or anyone else, and he thought it was very likely that he was acting the fool to not simply accept Anne being away for the evening.

Frederick was still perhaps twenty minutes from the Weevelforth plantation when Anne was talking with Mrs. Weevelforth, and perhaps five minutes away when Anne was accosted by Mr. James Weevelforth. The closer Frederick got, the more he fretted, and he knew that he could not possibly bear to wait outside. No he would have to storm the castle and have to be taken to his wife, even if he might thereby embarrass her and interfere with Mrs. Holmes's plans.

Anne, in finding herself suddenly alone with Mr. James Weevelforth behind a closed door, was quite perturbed. "What is it that you think you are doing, Mr. Weevelforth?" she asked, standing as tall as she could and glaring at him. "I cannot, will not, stay here alone with you."

"Your womanly modesty does you credit," said he, "but can you have any doubt? I proposed marriage to you the last time you were here, and given that you returned, you must be ready to accept me now."

Mr. Weevelforth's grip had not loosened, not in the slightest.

Anne anticipated there was danger in simply refusing, as she wished to do, but also danger in not responding. She settled for saying, "I hardly know you, Mr. Weevelforth and you know little of me."

"What is there to know?" Mr. James asked rhetorically. "You have seen the house of which you would be mistress, and the plantation is large and fine. Why, we harvest more sugarcane than half of the other plantations here. I have many slaves to see to all your needs, and you shall have nursemaids a plenty to care for your children. I need a wife and you, my dear, are here and are pretty enough to suit me. We can be married tomorrow and you will become mistress of all that you see. It is more than you deserve."

Looking down and trying to act demure, even while she felt some panic inside, Anne replied, "Tomorrow? Oh no, I must have more time to consider. I am still getting to know you, Mr. Weevelforth."

"No, you may not, Miss Elliot," he said firmly, tightening his grip on her left arm, tugging her a little closer, and giving his words a hard edge. Anne was quite sure he was bruising her. "You do not get to play games with me. You have come to my house thrice, and let me make love to you over dinner. No, your time is quite at an end and I will see to it that Admiral Croft sees it my way. One way or another, tomorrow you will be my bride." He yanked her toward him, her slippers sliding on the smooth floor and Anne had a sudden premonition that if she did not do something now, that he planned to kiss her and perhaps even force himself on her.

Time seemed to slow down, and to Anne it was almost as if she could see the whole scene from a distance. She half-wondered, half-prayed, My God, what am I to do? As he pulled her, she felt something hard bump her right hip. Anne had scarcely recalled the stone heart she had in her reticule before she was swinging it at Mr. James's head with all her might.

Smack! The momentum of her swing connected against the side of his head with a satisfying thunk. But Mr. James was too hard-headed to be felled or even much disordered by such a development. He was certainly surprised however.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" he asked, or at least he tried to ask that. He only got out "Just what do you-" when Anne pulled back and swung again, far out in an arc to the side and over, harder than the last time. Whack! the stone thudded when colliding with the top of his head. With this blow Mr. James quite forgot what he was trying to say and his grip on Anne's other arm loosened and she was able to slide it free.

Anne was pleased with this development, but dismayed that her would-be suitor showed no signs of dropping or giving up the chase. Worse yet, his hands reaching out, seeking her reticule. Anne knew she would have not a chance if he took her weapon away, and she was determined that he would not take away her beloved's token.

She backed away (unfortunately in the opposite direction of the door) and said "Mr. Weevelforth, you are operating under a grave misapprehension."

His face showed confusion even as his hands pursued her.

"For you see, I am already married and no matter what you do, you cannot have me."

The confusion on his face deepened. "Do not lie to me, Miss Elliot. It is not to your credit." By this time he had backed Anne into a corner and with nowhere to flee she felt helpless as he plucked her reticule from her hands and threw it several feet away with a thunk.

"But it is true!" Anne insisted, regretting the deception which had made Mr. James believe she could be his. "When your uncle would not marry us, Captain Wentworth and I sailed to Nevis and married at St. Thomas, three days ago."

Anne thought she might be getting through to the younger Mr. Weevelforth, for his eyes showed some doubt, but then he rejoined with stubborn bravado, "If you are married, where is your ring? Where is your husband? The whole thing is ridiculous."

Mr. James seized her by the shoulders, and though she struggled she could see that there was a crazed look in his eye and seemingly little she could do. So with nothing left to lose, Anne screamed, "Frederick, please help me."

Logically it made no sense, to scream out her husband's name, for she knew that he was far away aboard the Laconia, but he was the one she really wanted above anyone else.

A moment later, she heard a thumping and banging at the door. Someone was trying to get inside, which was a mighty hard proposition as the key was turned in the lock. "Anne, Anne, are you in here?" It was Mrs. Croft's voice and logic dictated that the person struggling with the stout door must be the Admiral.

"Help!" she cried, even as Mr. James grabbed her dress at the neck and ripped it open, exposing a wide swath of her shift.

"You're as good as married to me now," he exclaimed with triumph.

What more he might have done, he and Anne would never know, for at that moment, a frantic Frederick who was circling the house when the butler would not let him in, ran in the direction of Anne's first scream when he heard it, and located the room she was within by her second scream.

It might have been many years since Captain Wentworth had gone aloft himself, but some skills are never lost even if the one doing them may not be so nimble as before. The good captain climbed up a nearby tree across from the room in which he was almost certain his dear wife must be, and balanced on a thin branch that was not nearly as sturdy as a cross-piece for a sail, and finally when the branch below him seemed on the verge of cracking and pitching him off, reached out to grasp a dangling branch that angled down from an upper limb. He grabbed the upper branch, swung, and his booted feet shattered the glazing as he splashed in after it, feet first. With the skill of one who has both fallen and jumped from the rigging many times and with practice learned to land on his feet, Frederick bent his knees and stuck the landing. He wobbled mightily, but did not fall.

The unfortunate Mr. James Weevelforth, who was much closer to said window than Anne (indeed his bulk protected her from the errant pieces of glass that shattered inward), was struck by several long pieces of glass. He was protected from the worse of the deluge by his coat, but one fragment grazed his head and cut the top of his right ear off from his head.

Frederick, of course, did not know what had prompted his wife to scream, but he was certainly not in any kind of a reasonable mood. He rather thought anyone who would hurt his wife ought to suffer a cropping and it was too bad that this man's ear might later be repaired.

Oblivious to the fact that he himself had received a cut on his cheek for his trouble, Frederick grabbed Mr. James by the arm and swung him about. Past Mr. James, Frederick caught a glimpse of his wife and the state of her dress.

If Frederick had thought himself upset before, that was nothing to how he felt after seeing that. Before Mr. James was able to utter any more than "What was-" that phrase was replaced by an "ooof" when Frederick's fist connected with the man's stomach and he folded in two. Frederick landed several blows in quick succession, to Mr. James's body and his face, whatever was most accessible at that moment, acting with a frenzy that made him seem to Mr. James to be twice as powerful as could have been expected, with every blow impossible to counter.

Meanwhile, Anne opened up the door, clutching at the two halves of the top of her dress with one hand, and admitted the Admiral, Mrs. Croft, Mrs. Holmes, the Reverend Mr. Weevelforth, and Mrs. Weevelforth. The woman surrounded Anne as the men went to sort the others out, Mrs. Weevelforth taking her own yellow shawl from around her shoulders to drape around Anne to conceal her shame.

Frederick nearly struck Admiral Croft when he grabbed at his arm, and likely would have if not for him softly murmuring, "Wentworth, your wife is well."

At this reminder of Anne, Captain Wentworth dropped his fists and turned, looking for her.

Mr. James Weevelforth took advantage of Captain Wentworth's distraction to land his first blow, a mean right hook to the side of Frederick's face, which whipped him about and left him stumbling. It was more than anyone thought Mr. James had in him. But that was all he had, and after that Mr. James simply stood about dumbly, watching as Frederick walked to Anne and received her attentions. Anne dabbed at Frederick's cut face with a handkerchief she had retrieved from her reticule and fussed over his swelling eye.

Mr. James understood when he saw that, that everything he had hoped for with Miss Elliot was slipping from his grasp. Whether she was married to the captain or not, he could not have her for himself.

Once Anne was satisfied she had done what she could at the moment to aid her husband, she took a quick look around the room, dashing over to retrieve her reticule where it lay discarded on the floor. She noted with satisfaction that there was a little dried blood on it, which she attributed to being from when she had hit Mr. James in the head with it. She pulled out the stone and observed that it was not the least bit worse for wear, apparently being made of stronger stuff than her attacker's head.

Anne then looked over at Mr. James. She observed with delight that he was bruised and bloody, but it was the small details that she liked the best. She noted the half severed part of one of his ears hanging down at an odd angle but unfortunately his nose and teeth appeared to have been spared. She also saw as he turned that there were two forming goose egg lumps atop his balding head that she attributed to her blows to him.

Anne also noted the drips of blood down Mr. James's neck from his head and ear wound, which led her eyes to notice the splatters of blood from the men's wounds. She did not understand how blood could have gotten on the twelve foot ceilings, but there it was. There was also blood on the wall and on the sofas, which was easy to spot where it had struck the pink upholstery and pink portions of the wallpaper (there were undoubtedly bits of blood upon the red portion of the furnishings as well, but they were less obvious at a distance). The shattered glass was scattered about, shining from the candle light. There were tracked spots of blood on the wood floor.

Mr. James and the room were certainly a mess, but Anne thought it was no less than he deserved, in fact he deserved much worse. No she did not feel bad for him at all, but she did feel bad for his slaves who would be tasked with cleaning the room up. If only he had to clean it himself! She certainly would advise Frederick that he ought not feel obligated to make recompense. Anne saw no point in remaining there longer, thought it likely such delay might lead to such a discussion about damages. Therefore, Anne announced with as much dignity as she could muster, "Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Weevelforth, but my husband and I really must be going now."

The rest of her party joined her in walking down the stairs. The Weevelforth men remained in the room, but after several moments Mrs. Weevelforth dashed after them. When she caught up with them at the bottom of the stairs, she asked Anne breathlessly, "Is it true? Are you married to him?"

Frederick, whose right hand was grasping Anne's left one, lifted Anne's hand up and asked "Mrs. Holmes, may Anne have her ring back now?"

Mrs. Holmes twisted it off and handed it to Frederick, who slipped it onto Anne's finger.

"Yes," said Anne and Frederick together.

"Then why did you . . . ?"

Anne and Frederick exchanged glances. Neither of them wished to tell Mrs. Holmes's business. But what they did not know, was when Mr. James ordered Mrs. Weevelforth away, she had immediately sought out the women to help her get to Anne, and Mrs. Croft had interrupted her husband and the Reverend Weevelforth to fetch the Admiral, and Mr. Weevelforth the elder had come, too.

"I had some business in this house, for there were some slaves with whom I wished to talk," Mrs. Holmes replied, "and we believed that Mr. James Weevelforth's interest in our Anne was the only thing that could get us admitted to the house."

Mrs. Weevelforth wrinkled her brow. "Are you an abolitionist? a Quaker?" she asked.

"No," answered Mrs. Holmes, "just the widow of a man who was born into slavery on this very plantation."

Mrs. Weevelforth's eyes got very wide and her mouth hung open. They bid her adieu, but seemingly lost in astonishment, she made no reply.

The cart that Captain Wentworth had hired was still waiting, which was a good thing as they had no desire to ask to use Mr. James Weevelforth's carriage. They all piled into the back, for a slow and dusty ride back. Without a care as to who might see, Frederick wrapped his arms about his bride.

Now that the danger was past, Anne was weepy. She sobbed for a few minutes and then said, "I am so sorry, Frederick, that I broke my promise to you. I had not any intention of being alone with that man, but he grabbed me and pulled me into that room."

"Oh Anne, do not worry about that, all that matters is that you are well. You are well, are you not?" He brushed her cheek with the lightest of touches.

"Yes, I am, but for a bruise or two on my arms and the fact that he ripped my dress and saw my shift. He was determined to have me as his bride, no matter what it took and he was of no mind to believe me when I told him I was married. Who knows what might have happened if you did not come for me when you did? I had your stone heart in my reticule and managed to swing it at him and land a couple of hits to his head with it, but he took it away from me, and then I felt helpless."

"How clever you are!" Frederick exclaimed, "However did you think to take my heart with you and use it that way?"

"I do not know." Anne shrugged, "And how about you? How did you know to give me that stone heart, on today of all days? How did you know to come here? How did you know I would need you?"

Frederick shrugged. "I do not know, either. I was feeling very uneasy and simply felt that I had to get to you, invitation or no."

"I am so glad," rejoined Anne. "Perhaps, perhaps God was working in both of us to help us fulfill those words said in the solemnization of marriage, 'Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.'"

This seemed too fantastical of an explanation for Frederick, but he was not about to gainsay his wife in such a moment, and he would take any help that heaven might send if it meant he could keep his wife safe.

Anne dabbed at Frederick's cheek again. "I hope this wound does not scar, but as for that vile man, I dearly hope his ear becomes infected and the whole thing falls off."

"Yes, he certainly deserves a cropping for what he tried to do, but as for me, what should it bother me if my face should scar? It would be a well-earned scar, that I would be proud to bear."

Anne could resist no longer, a scar earned for her seemed much better to her than her husband choosing to get a tattoo to acknowledge them. She leaned forward and her lips met his. Frederick responded in kind, and everything faded away for them.

The others did their best to ignore the Wentworths as they kissed, but Mrs. Croft already had plans for how she and the Admiral would spend their time after they returned to their cabin; after all, he too had played the hero and she was mighty keen to reward him. Mrs. Holmes simply felt her own singleness more keenly, but she thought it unlikely that heaven would smile on her a third time and give her another good husband.

Soon they were back at the merchant's harbor and the party divided in two, each group to go back to their own ship. Frederick was pleased that all the men that had conveyed him there were accounted for and ready to row.

That night, Frederick held his wife tenderly in their bed, immensely grateful that she was well, and was his wife and no one else's, that he had gotten a second chance to be with her that he hardly deserved. His life on the sea had certainly been filled with adventure, but he thought it likely would pale to the greatest adventure of his life, being married to his beloved, smart, and brave, Anne.

A/N: I am not sure that this is the ideal ending, but that's what I've got. An epilogue will follow soon (and it will resolve the outstanding issues).

In case you are wondering, cropping is an old-time punishment in which a person's ears were cut off. It was more common in America than in England, but very rare by this era anywhere.