Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [74]
“I don’t usually talk to the filth on my shoes,” Tabitha responded. It sounded like something Dominick would say. With an effort, she managed not to smile, since she couldn’t imagine why she would want to at that moment. “Then you should have recognized Dominick’s accent.”
“Tabbie, why are you so friendly to him?” Raleigh held out his hand to her. “He’s no good, you know.”
“I don’t know.” She rose and began to pace the parlor into which they’d carried Raleigh, with its carpet rolled up and its chairs under cheap muslin coverings, preserving them for guests’ use only. “I’m afraid you’re right. He doesn’t obey the curfew, which makes him look suspicious for a bondsman. And him being English makes matters worse. But then I think maybe I only don’t know whether he’s an honest man because he is English and my basis is unfounded.”
“But there are bad things happening around here,” Raleigh reminded her. “Men are disappearing right off our beaches or soon after they go to sea. I was one of them.”
“And Dominick could be involved with the disappearances.” Tabitha paused at the window.
Outside, the night raged with wind and rain. A quarter mile away, the surf slammed into the beach with such force, its boom was barely distinguishable from the thunder that accompanied the lightning flashes. Inside, the parlor and house lay quiet save for an occasional murmur of voices, the clink of crockery from the kitchen, the creak of a floorboard. Shivering in the lowering temperature, Tabitha fingered the crocheted lace of the curtains. Raleigh’s grandmother had been an Acadian who’d evaded deportation to Louisiana when England took over Quebec, and she had made them herself.
England, a nation with the audacity to think it should conquer the world, wouldn’t hesitate to send a spy into the heart of a seaside village and rob the country of its young men. The men that fledgling land would need if hostilities flared into war.
“Tell me what happened tonight.” Tabitha faced Raleigh, turning her back to the wild night. “How did you encounter . . . this person who struck you down?”
“I was in the shed.” Raleigh’s words grew slurry again. “You know, we have another anchor in there. Gotta get it to the Marianne.”
“You were looking for the anchor at ten o’clock at night or thereabouts?” Tabitha arched her brows in disbelief. “In the dark?”
“I haven’t been sleeping well of late. Tuesday upset me. The sloop. That man fawning on you. You refusing to go to the festival with me.”
Tabitha dropped onto the nearest chair, weary in body and spirit. “Raleigh, you’re not being honest with me. Dominick said he saw you in the village. Please start from the beginning and tell me what really happened.”
“May I have some laudanum?” Raleigh responded. “I hurt all over.”
“And you don’t want to talk to me.” Tabitha remained still, torn by her desire to force the truth from Raleigh and the responsibility she had as a healer not to withhold aid from any human.
“Nothing to tell.” Raleigh’s words were barely discernible. “A man came in and said a few unpleasant things to me and struck me.”
“But you didn’t recognize his voice?”
“It sounded kind of muffled, like he didn’t want me to recognize him. Now, may I please have that laudanum?”
“All right.”
Tabitha retrieved the squat green bottle from her bag, measured two spoonfuls of laudanum into a glass, and took it to the sofa. She knelt beside him and slipped an arm beneath his shoulders, raising him just enough for him to drink with as little discomfort as possible.
“Thank you.” He curved his fingers around hers. “I love you so much, Tabbie. Please forgive me.”
“I prayed for you tonight. I haven’t prayed for anyone in two years. But I wanted you to be all right so badly, I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Does that mean you still love me?” Hope flared in his eyes, even as the drug began to make them glaze.
“I—” A door seemed to slam on her throat, cutting off her ability to say yes.
Dominick