Chapter Five
A Fetching Little Piece
A week later, Carolyn walked into her bedroom, carrying a small cardboard box. The Captain was seated at their desk, reading through the first draft of their latest manuscript.
He looked up when Carolyn stopped before the desk. "What do you have there, my dear?"
Carolyn placed the box on the desk. "Something my mother mailed to me. She spoke about it the last time she visited us. It finally arrived this morning while you were walking on the beach with Jonathan."
She opened the box and looked inside. "I've been looking through it and I found something interesting."
She glanced up. "Do you remember when you talked about that young woman you turned away from the Rebecca? You said she'd eventually found passage from London to Boston on another ship."
"Yes…" The Captain nodded, putting his pen aside as he sat back in his chair. "That's what I was told by the captain of the Arabella who allowed her passage aboard his ship. He said she was a very determined young woman with a clear eye for what she wanted. He said she reminded him of his own daughter, so he was willing to indulge her need."
Carolyn nodded. "It was just as well. And if I remember rightly, it was in the late summer of eighteen-sixty-four?"
"Yes, it was." Daniel frowned. "But why all these questions about a woman who will have been long in her grave by now?"
"Because of this…" Carolyn drew a small, framed portrait of a lovely young woman from the box and held it out.
The woman's painted blond hair was long and curling. It had been artfully arranged over one shoulder, tied up in a long, red ribbon. Her smooth skin was pearly white and her eyes a deep sea-green that seemed to challenge the viewer with her frank and open gaze. The painted Victorian clothing was elegant and looked expensive.
"A fetching little piece…" The Captain took the portrait from her and turned it to the light from the windows behind them to see it better. "But I do not take your point, Madam."
"That's exactly what you said…" Carolyn breathed. "You said she was a fetching little piece…"
"When?" The Captain turned back to hand the painting to her. "I don't know this woman."
"Think…" Carolyn insisted. "Think about that morning. You said it was cold and dull. The sun had refused to shine, and it'd rained heavily that night. Everything was drenched and smelling of the filthy old Thames."
She shook her head. "You told me that the smog of the city hung heavily in the air and the stench from the dockside taverns took your breath away. You were occupied with the final tallying of your manifest when your first mate brought someone to see you. A young woman begging you to afford her safe passage to Boston…"
The Captain rested his chin on the tips of his upraised fingertips, looking back into the past. "She told me she was running away from a bad marriage…" he said slowly. "She was determined to sail out to Boston because she wished to secure service as a maid in a respectable household. She was in possession of more than sufficient funds for her passage. She'd sold her wedding ring along with some other trinkets."
He reached to take back the portrait, frowning at it. "How did you come by this?"
Carolyn stared at him. "So, you do finally remember her?"
"Yes, I do…" he admitted, shaking his head slowly. "She's hard to forget. Hers was a most forthright tongue. She cast some rather damning aspersions on both my manhood and my captaincy before she left my ship in high dudgeon. I was glad to see the back of her and I never saw her again."
Carolyn frowned at him. "My mother mailed this box to me last week. My parents were finally clearing their attic of things they'd collected from my paternal grandmother's house when she died over ten years ago. They found the painting in the bottom of an old jewellery box that had once belonged to my great-great-grandmother. There was also this diary…"
She lifted a small, red leather-bound book from the box. "Mother said she hadn't bothered to read it. She said she didn't have time. But she thought I might find its contents useful in my articles. It seems my father's mother was a bit of a hoarder."
Carolyn opened the diary slowly. "My great-great-grandmother wrote about how she was glad to leave England and all its bad memories behind. She sailed away to Boston in the late summer of eighteen-sixty-four aboard the very last ship of the season."
She reached to touch the portrait's ornate silver frame. "This is her and her name was Carolyn Mason. My mother told me I was named after her."
"That's impossible…" The Captain didn't move. He stared at the painting, his confusion writ large in his expression.
"But it seems it is very possible…" Carolyn contended.
"I'm still shocked that she was your great-great-grandmother…" The Captain stood up, turning to walk the space between the desk and his telescope. "It would not have changed my rules about not having women aboard any ship I captained, but still…" He raised his shoulders helplessly.
"I've been reading her diary…" Carolyn began turning the pages until she found the right place. "She wrote that she was indeed running away from a bad marriage, as she told you that morning. However, the true reason for her desertion was her discovery that her loving husband was already married. He'd been involved with two other women before her. She writes that her deep sense of shame drove her to flee."
She smiled. "Perhaps your flat refusal to agree with her request had unforeseen consequences. Also taking passage aboard the Arabella was a wealthy merchant who became quite enchanted with Carolyn's forthright tongue and her very fetching face."
She looked up from the diary. "Alfred Mason had been recently widowed. He had four small children and was in urgent need of a new, young wife…"
"Incredible…" The Captain paused in his pacing to stare at her. "If I hadn't refused her request that morning…"
"Then she would not have met my great-great-grandfather and married him…" Carolyn closed the diary, her eyes shining with speculation. "Isn't it wonderful how life turns out sometimes…"
The ghost of Gull Cottage walked slowly around the end of the desk, coming to stand right in front of her. "More than wonderful," he agreed slowly. "Some things are nothing short of a miracle…"
"You know what this means, of course?" Carolyn smiled up at him.
"I do indeed." He looked down at her, once more wishing he could caress the lovely curve of her cheek. He sighed. "What title shall we give this one?"
After a long silence fraught with unspoken wants and needs, Carolyn whispered, "We'll have to change their names, of course. But how about 'Love Under Sail?'"
"I like it." He nodded. "Having briefly met your amazing great-great-grandmother, I think she would most certainly approve…" He studied her lovely, upturned face. "You know, Mrs Muir, that I –"
She held up one hand. "I really do think it's beyond time we dismissed such formalities, and you called me Carolyn…"
She smiled mistily at him. "You did once, remember? That time when my parents renewed their wedding vows." She sighed. "You said, 'I do…' that day. You said you wanted to hear how the words sounded, spoken on such an occasion as that..."
The Captain sighed heavily. "I did say, that, didn't I?"
"So, you will call me Carolyn from now on?"
"When we are alone together," he allowed cautiously. "I will willingly comply with your wishes. Thank you, Carolyn…"
"Fair enough…" She nodded. "I can live with that." She waited expectantly.
"And as payment in kind, I will give you my permission to use my given name," the Captain continued softly.
"Thank you… Daniel…" Carolyn whispered. "I would like that."
"Now we are truly a partnership," Daniel replied, looking down at her with a deep longing.
※※※※※
Three weeks later…
It was late in the afternoon when Carolyn crossed the foyer toward the kitchen. After lunch, Martha had decided to visit some of her book circle ladies. Jonathan and Candy had taken the car and gone to the movies. With the house to herself, Carolyn decided to spend the afternoon cleaning.
She'd just entered the kitchen to make a welcome cup of coffee when an impatient knock sounded on the front door. She hesitated to answer, being dressed for cleaning and not for receiving visitors. But the knocking came again, more imperious this time.
Carolyn knew she had no choice but to answer the summons. She walked to the front door and opened it warily, peering around the edge of the door.
Miss Elvira Grover was standing on the porch with her white-gloved hand raised to knock again. "Oh, Mrs Muir, you are home! How wonderful! How advantageous!" she declared breathlessly. "I just had to see you. It couldn't wait a moment longer."
"Good afternoon, Miss Grover," Carolyn replied formally. "Um… what can I do for you?"
"Oh, my dear, I've just had the most marvellous idea," Miss Grover declared, clasping her hands together. "I simply had to order my driver to bring me all the way out here, right away, so I tell you. It is such a long way from town."
She paused to frown at her hostess. "Ah, aren't you going to invite me in? I mean, it's not very polite for us to be seen conversing on the doorstep…"
Carolyn has been staring at her with deepening bemusement. "Oh, yes, sorry, of course. Please, come in…" She drew the door open, stepping aside for her guest to enter. "I wasn't expecting any visitors today."
"Thank you…" Miss Grover swept past her majestically. "Of course, I can see why you would hesitate. But even if one is buried in the wilderness, one must always be dressed and ready to receive guests, however unexpected. A lady should never be caught unprepared." She shook her head.
"What can I do for you, Miss Grover?" Carolyn replied with taut politeness, refusing to look guilty about her dust-smeared clothing. She remained standing by the open door, willing her unwanted visitor to leave.
"Oh, please, call me Elvira." Miss Grover waved an encouraging hand. "I think we are now on more familiar terms."
She turned to look into the living room, approaching the open double doors with curiosity. "This is such a charming little house," she declared, moving into the room, advancing on Captain Gregg's portrait above the fireplace.
Abandoning her position beside the open front door, Carolyn was forced to close it before following her unwanted guest. "How may I help you? Miss Grover?"
She sighed her deepening frustration. "I really am rather busy. I have a lot of work to do today."
Elvira ignored her. "Is this the same Midshipman Gregg, my dear Captain Figg mentioned in his journal? The man who built this house, I believe you said."
She stared up at the portrait with frowning curiosity. "He's not nearly as handsome or as commanding as my dear Captain Figg. I'm not sure I care for his nose or his chin."
Carolyn stood in the open doorway. "Yes, that is Captain Daniel Gregg, and I happen to think he was a magnificent man."
She walked up beside her. "Now I am very busy, Miss Grover. If this is simply a social call perhaps, we could arrange another time…"
"Oh, no, my dear." Miss Grover swung around to look at her. "Oh, no, no, no. I have come for quite a specific purpose." Again, she clasped her white-gloved hands together. "I have had such a wonderful idea…" She sighed rapturously.
"An idea… I see." Carolyn frowned.
"Oh, I don't think you do see, my dear." Miss Grover approached the couch, frowning with disapproval at Scruffy who was curled up asleep at one end. "I have not been able to sleep a wink for thinking about it all night. As soon as I could get away from my obligations, I drove out to see you."
She stripped off her gloves, holding them across her lap as she lowered herself gingerly at the other end. "I believe this is where you would delight me with the welcome offer of a cup of tea…"
"Of course, tea…" Carolyn held on to her temper. "Excuse me, I'll be right back."
As she crossed the foyer, Captain Gregg pounced on her. "What in the name of all that's holy is that harridan doing here? She doesn't even know my proper rank. And she never saw Figg blind drunk and rambling as I did on more than one occasion!"
"I have no idea why she's here," Carolyn hissed, as she continued into the kitchen. "I've just been ordered to provide her with afternoon tea."
Daniel followed her into the room. "Tell her you're fresh out of tea," he said unhelpfully. "Tell her there's no water."
"No, thanks. I don't need my presumed lack of refinement bandied around town by her tongue. She's already after me for not being dressed to receive visitors."
"Who cares a fig what that woman thinks!"
"I do." Carolyn set the kettle to boil and began to assemble the best bone china on the tea tray with less than careful movements. She declined to add a plate of refreshments. "She says she's had the most marvellous idea." She set her teeth.
"I'll give her a marvellous idea." Daniel rubbed his hands together. "Her hair might be white now, but just wait until I've finished with her…"
"You will do no such thing," Carolyn told him crossly. "We will play ladies and take tea, and she will tell me all about her wonderful idea. I will smile and say how nice before I show her to the door."
"I believe that was my notion, just not with allowing her to stay long enough to take tea."
"Elvira loves to spread gossip. Anything you do to her here will be all around the town by dinnertime." Carolyn shook her head. "Thank you, Captain, really. But Miss Grover is still someone in this town and she would make it her business to dig out the truth if you were to show her some of your ghostly magic. We cannot afford any more unwanted attention that could expose your presence here."
"But she called Gull Cottage, little!" Daniel declared. "My house! That is not to be tolerated."
"I am sure we can survive whatever Miss Grover thinks…" Carolyn muttered as she picked up the prepared tray and left the kitchen.
"Damn and blast the woman!" Daniel stared after her. "She has no business coming here." He dematerialised.
Walking back into the living room, Carolyn set about playing the hostess and pouring the tea. She sat beside Miss Grover before handing over her cup.
"Thank you, Mrs Muir." Elvira accepted it formally, waiting until Carolyn had poured her own. "Now we can be comfortable."
"But not too comfortable…" Carolyn warned. "I still have a lot of work I must get done today."
"Yes, yes, I can see that," Elvira declared rather testily, viewing Carolyn's working clothes again with a faint look of distaste.
"You said you had an idea?" Carolyn prompted, sipping her tea.
"This I have to hear…" Daniel materialised behind the couch, sinking down to lean on the back between the two women. "I won't allow her to glorify Figg."
Carolyn cut him a look of warning to behave, even as she pasted her best enquiring smile on her face. "What idea would that be, Miss Grover?"
"Perhaps I should send you my cleaning woman," Miss Grover offered. "I can recommend her services."
"Martha and I are more than capable of taking care of the house. We prefer it that way," Carolyn replied through her teeth.
"Of course, of course…" Miss Grover waved a dismissive hand. "But, if you agree to my idea, then you may find you will need extra help in the house. You will be far too busy."
"Can we please get to the purpose of your visit?" Carolyn demanded crossly.
"Oh, my dear, you will love my idea when I tell you all about it." Miss Grover put aside her teacup before she got up to approach Daniel's portrait.
She turned beneath it, taking up a position and smiling happily. "Mrs Muir, I have decided it's past time I became a best-selling author!"
Carolyn nearly spluttered her tea. She gulped down the hot beverage, coughing hard enough to make her eyes water.
"I knew it!" Daniel leapt up, pointing an accusing finger at Miss Grover. "The woman has finally gone barking mad!"
"I cannot see how my announcement could be viewed as unreasonable," Miss Grover commented in an injured tone. "If that mysterious Carol Gregg can do it, I don't see what could be so difficult about it."
"I'm sorry…" Carolyn gasped. "My tea was rather hotter than I expected…" she covered her dismay with a small white lie. "You were saying…"
"Think of it, Mrs Muir…" Elvira walked back to the couch to sink down beside Carolyn again. "My dear, dear Captain Figg is the perfect hero for a romance story. I have been inspired. I feel I have found a new direction for my life. He is positively begging me to tell his story."
She shook her head. "Since Sam Richards didn't secure the seat, he wanted on the town council five years ago, he managed to get me voted out of my position as president of the historical society. Ever since I've been at a loose end. I have the sense of being as rudderless as my good captain when he saved his ship from running aground in the Caribbean during the great storm of eighteen-forty-two," she concluded in a dramatic tone.
"He wasn't rudderless!" Daniel declared hotly. "He was laid out cold, drunk in his bunk! I steered the ship and brought us all safely through that storm! I think a work of complete fantasy is exactly where that confounded nitwit rightly belongs!"
"I'm so sorry you were voted off the society," Carolyn murmured dutifully, quickly glaring at Daniel. "I know it was your life."
"Water under the bridge." Miss Grover sniffed as she waved a dismissive hand. "I'm sorry that the elusive Carol Gregg simply refuses to make herself known to me."
She assumed a look of discontent. "I am still someone in this town, you know. Her secret would be safe with me. I feel we would get along very well together. Of course, she would have been my first choice of author. Given her experience in the genre. But it seems it is not to be."
"Yes, yes, of course," Carolyn murmured dutifully. "I completely understand. But writing is not something you just decide to take up one day. It takes years of hard work."
"Ah, but that's where you come in, my dear. I am quite settled on it." Miss Grover reached to pat Carolyn's hand. "You were happily prepared to write the article about my dear Captain Figg for a magazine. I think we managed to work together rather well. You found the dear Captain's grave. What could be more perfect than you assisting me to write a novel about the darling man's brave exploits."
Carolyn stared at her, completely unable to formulate the right words to refuse her offer. It was simply too outrageous and utterly impossible.
"God give me strength!" Daniel huffed, spreading his arms wide in disgust. "Now will you allow me to scare the harridan away before this gets any more ridiculous? Though I don't see how it possibly can."
He leaned down to stare closely at Miss Grover. He began to make all sorts of hideous faces at her. At the same time, the teacups started to rattle. The teapot rose above the tray, but Carolyn managed to get to it in time and push it back down. She shook her head at him, making Daniel subside with ill grace.
"Spoilsport," he complained. "I was just getting warmed up."
Completely unaware of the ghostly goings-on around her, Elvira had sat back, looking well-satisfied with Carolyn's stunned silence. "I knew you would agree with me, my dear. Of course, it would be my name on the novel. It would be only fitting because my role is in providing all the information on Captain Horatio Figg."
She smiled. "That will show the society. But I am more than willing to afford you a generous mention in the forward."
She sighed. "You will become my ghost writer. I can see you're intrigued. Don't answer me right now. Take a couple of days to think about it. I know you're as excited as I am. I'm sure you'll think my idea is completely marvellous."
"Marvellous…" Carolyn stared at her, utterly stunned by the complete absurdity of the whole situation.
※※※※※
"You cannot do it!" Daniel raged after Miss Grover had finally left. "I utterly forbid it!"
"It doesn't matter what you forbid. I don't see how I can get out of it," Carolyn replied with resignation. "Elvira Grover has been trying for months to uncover the truth about Carol Gregg. She only got into the Schooner Bay Ladies Reading Circle so she could discover the mysterious writer's whereabouts."
She shook her head. "She would see it as quite a coup if she uncovered the truth. It would eclipse anything the society has ever achieved without her at the helm. She would become quite impossible to live with."
"So, this was her ultimate purpose. She did say at the meeting with the ladies from Beacon Cove that she was looking to make that contemptible Horatio Figg into some kind of fictional hero."
He shook his head. "As I said, maybe that is the best place for him, between the pages of a sorry work of complete fantasy. He was certainly unbelievable."
"The poor woman is so in love with Figg's memory. She can't see past it. Even when she was shown his gravestone and its inscription. She's had the last few years to turn him back into a hero."
"Confound the woman." Daniel took a turn around the room. "Why must she push her way into our lives with her asinine ideas."
"I really think she's very lonely," Carolyn sympathised. "The Historical Society was her entire life, and when that was taken away from her, I think she felt adrift. Now she has a new purpose. A new beginning for the Captain Figg legend where she can make him over into whatever image she can imagine."
"You are being far too kind to that harridan. If she's as lonely as you suppose, she should get a dog. Or better yet, a husband!"
"I think Sam Richards' sudden take-over as president of the Historical Society has cured her of the need to have a man in her life." Carolyn shook her head. "Now she's perfectly happy with embroidering Figg's memory however she pleases. That way she can do and say anything she wishes."
"Being voted off the society has caused her to be at quite a loose end for the last few years…" Daniel stroked his beard in thought. "An idle woman with time on her hands is a dangerous thing. They're inclined to get into mischief."
"Thanks, I think…" Carolyn shook her head at him as she gathered the cups and picked up the tea tray. "I could say the same about nineteenth-century sea captains."
She left the room, her head held high. Daniel stared after her with a furrowed brow.
"Blast!" he huffed. He tugged at his beard. "So, the contemptible Richards wanted a seat on the town council, did he?"
He rubbed his hands together. "Well, I know the very man to make that happen and solve all our problems. Or it will be the worse for him…"
※※※※※
"She asked you to do what?" Martha stared at Carolyn across the dinner table. "Oh, that's just too priceless." She began to chuckle. "The woman has no shame."
"Yes, it would be funny if it wasn't so serious. I can't see how I can get out of it." Carolyn pushed her food around her plate with her fork. "Elvira was most determined she was going to succeed."
"Well, I refuse to move again because of her," Jonathan announced stoutly. "I love it here. All the best people live in this house. Maybe we should send Scruffy over there to bite her."
The dog whimpered loudly in denial from beneath the table.
"All my friends are here," Candy asserted. "I will miss them soon enough when I go away to college. I don't plan on starting any time sooner than that."
"Well, I wanted to scare her out of the house, but your mother wouldn't allow it," the Captain commented. "I would have seen her off in fine style."
"As soon as the word got out about that happening, it would bring all the town's busybodies to our door." Carolyn shook her head. "We can't afford to cause such attention."
"Well, I think you should march right over to her house tomorrow and tell her you cannot possibly do it," Martha ordered. "The cheek of the woman, calling you her second choice. And to think she only joined our ladies' book club to spy. As president, I have a good mind to blackball her."
"She's given me a couple of days to think about it. I don't wish to hurt her feelings. I really don't think she would bother with it at all if she was still running the historical society. Then she could write any book she pleased about Captain Figg and leave me completely out of it."
"I could make Sam Richards disappear…" Daniel offered helpfully, getting up to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee.
"Tempting, but no." Carolyn tried to suppress him with a frown. "We need to be a lot cleverer than that. I will think of something to say to her and let her down gently."
"I doubt she would even be listening." Martha shrugged. "That woman has far too much money and very little common sense."
"I could make Richards wish he were dead," Daniel continued, unrepentant. "I could scare him into becoming a gibbering idiot or a blathering fool." He rubbed his hands together. "Just say the word."
"Behave," Carolyn replied tersely. "We need a practical solution. Miss Grover is not someone who is used to being refused."
"I told you before, she needs to get a dog." Daniel shrugged.
Beneath the table, Scruffy whimpered again before running from the room with his tail tucked between his legs. Shooting into the living room he leapt up onto a chair to bury his head beneath a cushion.
"Do you want me to have a word with her, Mrs Muir?" Martha offered. "Our next meeting is at her house tomorrow night."
"Thank you, but no. This is my mess to sort out. I should have refused her this afternoon. I was simply too shocked at the absurdity of it all."
"If you will allow me, Madam, I've been thinking, and I may have hit upon a possible solution to our thorny dilemma." Daniel stood from his chair.
"Only if you promise not to frighten anyone or make them disappear or wish they were dead," Carolyn warned. "Other than that, you have my permission to do your worst, Captain."
"Madam, I wasn't aware I had neither sought nor needed your permission," Daniel replied softly, shaking his head. "But in this case, only one deserving person will end up wishing they were dead if they decide not to comply." He grinned before he vanished.
"Just what do you think he's up to now?" Martha stood to gather the dishes.
"I don't know, but that smile of his bodes no good for someone." Carolyn got up to help her.
"I don't envy whoever's on the receiving end." Jonathan chuckled as he filled the sink with hot, soapy water. "The captain can be very persuasive when he puts his mind to it."
He sighed. "I'm going to miss living here when I finally get to go away to college. Nothing so exciting will ever happen there."
"We'll all be here when you come home for the holidays. And I'm sure the Captain will provide you with all the excitement you can handle." His mother kissed his cheek.
"But I guess all we can do is cross our fingers and hope that whatever the Captain is up to it will all work out for the best." Carolyn sighed as she picked up the dishtowel.
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