Captain Nemo_ The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius - Kevin J Anderson [64]
Caroline’s path had been set, regardless of her private dreams and ambitions -- impossible fantasies for a woman of her social standing in this place, in this time. She would be expected to remain home and while away the hours, as a good wife should. But she had other plans.
It would have made her miserable, had she meekly accepted society’s expectations. But Caroline Aronnax had always made her own expectations, and she had learned from Nemo never to listen to the impossible. Nemo had insisted that she could do whatever she set her mind to.
Married, but with her husband far away, Caroline thought her new situation might offer her a freedom that she’d never experienced before. As wife and head of the household, she controlled the captain’s finances -- enough money to make her wealthy. She would live in Hatteras’s home on rue Kervegan, where she could spend every day in her own pursuits. She’d hire private tutors, not only for music and art (neither of which would raise eyebrows), but also to study business. In particular, she wanted to learn about shipping manifests and accounting practices so she could help her overworked father at his merchant offices.
Yes, as far as she was concerned, Captain Hatteras could stay away from Nantes for as long as he wished. What could have become a trap for other women, Caroline considered to be an opportunity.
Cannons blasted as Captain Hatteras and his first mate strode in full naval attire down the docks and up the gangplank. The gruff captain waved to the assembled spectators before tipping his broad black hat toward where Caroline stood waiting for him. She even managed to show some tears, though they were not for Hatteras, but for a young man gone long ago . . . gone along with so many shared dreams. With an eerie sense of disorientation, she wondered if her husband even recognized who she was. . . .
Caroline thought of her younger years, of the wild childhood dreams she had shared with André Nemo and Jules Verne . . . and especially of that special night that had changed her forever, the enthusiastic promises she and Nemo had exchanged. Together, the three of them had bolstered each other’s optimism, made it seem that she truly could write her own music or run her father’s shipping business, that Verne could become a famous writer, that Nemo could sail the uncharted seas.
But they had drifted apart, and they had each failed their own fantasies.
Though Caroline wished Jules Verne could have been here, the young redhead had already gone off to Paris to begin training for his law degree. She understood why the lovestruck young man had wanted to make himself scarce during her wedding. She felt sorry for Verne, and promised herself that she would do everything in her power to help him achieve his dreams. With Nemo lost at sea, Jules Verne was the only kindred spirit she had left. . . .
The mayor of Nantes stepped up to a hastily erected podium and extended his ponderous congratulations and well wishes (as he had no doubt been paid to do by the Forward’s investors). Accompanied by more cheering, dock workers cast off the ropes, and the copper-plated Forward drifted into the current. Crew members pressed against the deck rails and waved back at the citizens of Nantes as the ship began to descend the Loire.
Caroline watched them, feeling strangely invisible. Streamers and confetti fell around her, clustering in damp wads on the dock planks or floating waterlogged in the river. The crowd jostled her, talking loudly, laughing. She dried her eyes.
Such a large ship. So many sailors. Caroline thought of all the warm clothes and supplies the men had squirreled away in the cargo holds. Before long, they would be facing a frozen white wasteland, searching for a passage that had already killed many other explorers in the past. Did the Forward have any better chance of succeeding?
As the ship entered the current, she watched the silhouette of proud