Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [124]
And let Parks get home to his family. He doesn’t deserve to suffer for my failings.
If Raleigh hadn’t failed so miserably, Parks wouldn’t be there.
Sure he was about to be sick on the deck, Raleigh entered the captain’s cabin. The odors of tar, bilge water, and unwashed bodies diminished inside the main cabin, with its fine woods, soft furnishings, and cleanliness. The aroma of lemons wafted on the breeze puffing through the open stern windows. Raleigh took a long, calming breath, smelled his own stink, and choked.
“Do not befoul my carpet, Trower.” Captain Roscoe glowered at Raleigh from behind an unlit pipe. “You’re in enough trouble already.”
“Yes, sir.” Raleigh stared at the black-and-white squares painted on a length of canvas to form a carpet. “I failed. Now I’m a traitor to America.”
“Be thankful for that.” Roscoe turned jovial. “We’d hang you otherwise. As it is, you’ll just get a flogging. Forty lashings at noon tomorrow.”
Forty. Raleigh sank to his knees under the weight of the number. “It’ll kill me.”
“Not likely. Just lay you up for a week or two. Now get back below. You’ll be kept locked up until after you receive punishment.”
“Yes, sir.” Raleigh turned and fell into the companionway.
A marine hauled him up by the back of his coat and half dragged, half carried him back to the bread room.
When the hatch closed and the marine’s footfalls died away, Parks asked, “What happened?”
“Noon tomorrow,” was all Raleigh could say.
Dominick began to pound on his door the instant the first rooster crowed. He needed to go to Tabitha, discover if she’d arrived home yet, and go after her if she hadn’t. If he remained confined any longer like a prisoner who’d broken parole, he thought he might tear the door off its hinges with his bare hands.
A shouted protest rose from the floor below. The words were indistinct, the tone unmistakable.
“Let me out and you can go back to bed,” Dominick responded, emphasizing each word with a rap. “Please, Letty.”
Below stairs, a door slammed. Footsteps thudded on the steps. Then the blessed grate of a key turning in the lock sang in his ears.
Letty shoved open the door. “What’s wrong?”
“I have to get out.” He waved his arm around the tiny chamber. “It’s stifling in here.”
“So it is.” Letty clutched her dressing gown to her throat. “How do you manage to look so cool when you come out?”
“Breeding.” He grinned. “Or lots of canings to get the manner correct.”
“Humph.” Letty’s face twisted. “You’d think they could have gotten you some courtesy while they were at it. Don’t ever wake me up again, do you hear me? If you do, I’ll use a whip on you myself.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Dominick kissed her soft, wrinkled cheek. “You love me too much.”
“Humph,” she repeated to empty air.
Dominick was already slipping past her and racing down the steps. He slammed up the bar across the kitchen door with one hand and tugged on the handle with the other. Sweet, cool morning air blew into his face. He paused to take in a healthy gulp, then sprinted across the garden and out of the gate.
On his way out of the village, he chose to walk. Seeing him out early wouldn’t surprise anyone. He had been before, fetching eggs and fish and milk for Letty. But if he ran, they might think he was getting away while Kendall remained in Norfolk.
If Kendall was in Norfolk.
His leg muscles quivered with the need to bolt past the trees and onto the dunes. If she wasn’t home yet, he would sit in her garden and wait. He needed to know what she had discovered in Norfolk. Time was running out for meeting his uncle.
Once past the trees, he began to run again. The sand might as well have been snow. His feet sank and slowed him. Then he reached the hard-packed sand near the water’s edge and the going grew easier, his speed faster. He leaped over bits of driftwood and other debris the tide churned up. Pale streaks of sunlight reached across the sky, shimmering off the water—
And the face of the woman crumpled at the water’s edge.
Dominick dropped to his