Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [136]
“Lord, this choice hurts too much.”
The temptation to run surged through him. He could ask Kendall to send him to the interior or sell his indenture to someone far away. He wouldn’t have to risk accomplishing his mission and could avoid the choice between Tabitha and his father—marriage to Tabitha or service to God.
Honor demanded he remain, discover who wanted to start a war, and choose. To accomplish that, he needed to talk to Tabitha about how she could help him.
She would help him leave her in order to restore his honor.
The thought of that much love turned him into a creature the consistency of a jellyfish. With effort, he forced himself to his feet and out of the pew. As he exited the church, he thought someone called his name. He didn’t look back. Staying in the quiet safety of the sanctuary felt like too much of a temptation. He had to reach Tabitha’s house and return to Kendall’s before dark.
He hastened on his way, raising a hand or giving a nod to people he passed. Other than a few who had blamed him after Parks’s and Trower’s disappearances, he seemed welcome in the town, even liked. It was a pretty place there by the sea, a much warmer and kinder sea than the English Channel near his home. His former home. He didn’t even mind the heat that much, except at night in his stifling attic. It was better than the freezing garret he’d stayed in for the week before a ship left for the other side of the Atlantic, before his uncle had found him.
Most of all, he liked the little cottage on the outskirts of town, where a wall protected the garden from the wind off the sea. The garden where roses vied with herbs for the lady’s favor. She healed with the herbs. She ate the roses.
The notion made him smile. He was still smiling as he let himself inside the gate and trotted up the path to the kitchen door.
“Mr. Cherrett.” Patience swung around to greet him, spraying a stream of steaming water from a kettle. “We wasn’t expecting you.”
“I know.” He stepped over the threshold and reached for a towel to mop up the water before the woman slipped. “I didn’t mean to startle you, but I had to ensure that Miss Tabitha arrived home safely and is resting.”
“She’s safe enough, sir, but she’s not resting.” Patience began to pour the kettle’s contents into a washbasin. “Mr. Parks came crawling in about an hour ago.”
“Parks?” Stooping, Dominick lost his balance and sat in the water. “How? I thought he’d been taken.”
“And so he had.” Tabitha’s low voice drifted from the doorway. “He got away, thanks to Raleigh.” She stepped gingerly over the spilled water and offered Dominick her hand. “He probably died so Donald could get away.” Her voice was flat, her eyes red-rimmed.
“Oh, my dear.” Dominick scrambled to his feet and drew her to him.
A sob shuddered through her. He stroked the tail of hair tumbling down her back and murmured nonsense sounds while she wept.
Patience slipped out of the room, balancing the washbasin of hot water.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Dominick asked at last.
Tabitha nodded and pulled away. “They got picked up the other night and were rowed out to a frigate about a mile offshore. Donald was semiconscious and Raleigh completely gone. They were locked in a storage room, and the guards kept telling them Raleigh would be hanged for desertion.”
Dominick winced. “They didn’t?”
“No.” Tabitha smoothed his hopelessly wrinkled cravat. “The captain said he needed men so he would only flog Raleigh instead.”
“God have mercy on him.” Dominick’s back muscles tightened, and nausea filled his belly. “Was it . . . harsh?”
“It never got past the second blow.” Tabitha told Dominick what she knew of the events that followed. “Donald glanced back long enough to see someone go over the rail.”
Dominick heaved a sigh of relief. “So Trower could still be alive.”
“It doesn’t seem likely if—if he was shot.”
“But if he was running, he might have jumped into the sea and not fallen. It’s difficult to strike a moving target with a musket.”
“You think