Page 51 of Unearthing the Smuggler's Heart
"Oh, come here." She sighed in exasperation, reaching for his hands. The ropes were not tight, but were firmly tied, and it took her a moment of fiddling to get the knots to loosen. "Maybe if you'd apologized to him, he would have cut you loose sooner."
"Apologized forwhat?" Mathias demanded, clearly aghast. "I haven't done anything to that man, short of being born to a noble family."
She shook her head, tugging at the loosened ropes until they fell slack around his hands. "You cannot be so unaware of the effect you have on people," she chided, lowering her voice so that she would not be overheard. "If you had extended an apology to Dumand, you might have avoided years of turmoil. The same likely applies to Charles."
"I did no wrong to Dumand," he countered, a thread of offense working its way into his tone. He flexed his hands, rotating them at the wrists. "I told you what happened! ‘Twas not my doing."
"You embarrassed him. You gave him a moment of false hope and then likely broke his heart. And perhaps worst of all, you made him live in fear afterwards, never knowing when you might tell others his secret." She flicked the rope away and heaved a heavy breath, reaching up to rub at her eyes. "Sometimes we apologize for the wrongs we were a part of unwittingly, because we know the other person has suffered."
He was quiet for a moment, although she could not say whether he was absorbing her words or dismissing them. Rather than responding, he followed the path Charles had taken and flung himself from the carriage, landing in the crunch of gravel below.
Unlike Charles, he waited there to assist her down, holding his hand up for hers.
She clutched the silver box to her chest and accepted his help, taking the short leap from the plush confines of the carriage into the dark of night.
CHAPTER22
For the first time in her life, Jade thought that silence might drive her mad.
She had been reared by the quiet, had reveled in it. But tonight, it stretched and wound around them all, tightening its grip with every passing moment with only the sounds of their movements to punctuate the air.
First it had been the scraping of furniture, the thumps of their luggage being quickly packed and spirited down the stairs. Now it was the slow, rhythmic lapping of water as it stroked the sides of the little boat in which she sat and the slick cutting of the oars, just as even and careful as the ticking of that grandfather clock, some hours ago.
Even Isabelle seemed shaken. She was staring off into the dark of the ocean, her face pensive and in shadow. She hadn't spoken a word of comment upon the news that they had to leave, not even to comment upon the silver box or ask after the success of their mission.
TheHarpywas awaiting them, a beacon light lit high on the center mast, bright enough to see without attracting unwanted attention.
Mathias had rowed out hours ago and sent a trio of crewmen back to see to the transport of the other passengers and any remaining luggage. Charles was still waiting on shore with the last of their things, dutifully devoted to seeing them safely off.
She was still holding the silver box in her lap. She had set it aside only while she had to at the inn, and wondered if she'd be able to fall asleep tonight if she weren't touching it in some way. Alone in her room, she had closed and locked the door to change out of her servant's uniform, but had stood in front of the box for far longer than she had spent switching out her clothes.
There was a coin in a velvet pouch, a tarnished tuppence, with a little note inside that saidFor luck, on your wedding dayin her grandmother's handwriting. She had held that coin and the note for some time before sliding them back into the box, wishing she could carry this memento closer, but too afraid of losing it altogether.
She had instead selected a strand of coral beads, which she looped around her neck and tucked into the front of her gown. The coral absorbed the warmth of her skin and she felt comforted by the weight of the beads resting against her heart, their brilliant color hidden in the darkness.
When they reached the ship, the man who had rowed them to their destination set about securing ropes to the hoops on either end of the little boat, so that they would be lifted directly from the water by pulleys and placed on the deck.
Jade had never experienced anything quite so strange as the sensation of being lifted up in the air from the surface of the ocean. It lurched in her stomach and made her wish to reach out and grab onto something that did not exist, some invisible reassurance of steady ground. The way the little boat swung to the side to land safely on the deck made her nearly choke on her own gasp.
She couldn't have scrambled out of the boat and onto the deck any faster if her life had depended on it. If not for the necessity of holding onto the silver box, she very likely would have toppled out onto her hands and knees and been perfectly content with herself for doing so. As it was, she was sure she'd looked a bit crazed while alighting.
Isabelle seemed perfectly composed, and stepped out of the conveyance as though it had been nothing more than routine transportation. She stopped and looked at Jade as though just now remembering that the other woman existed, and then stifled a large and sudden yawn.
"Oh, I'm absolutely drained," she confessed through the yawn. "What is it you English say? Knackered."
"My mother always favoredtoilworn," Jade replied with half a smile. "Rather dramatic, though."
"No, that is perfect. I am utterly toilworn. Would you mind horribly if we tucked in right away? I'm not even hungry tonight, and Cook wasn't expecting us anyway."
Jade paused, surprised at the thought of dinner and how it hadn't entered her mind even once all evening. "I don't mind," she said, having scanned her body for signs of hunger and finding none. "It is already quite late, and it has been a trying night for us all."
"Mm, then let's shut our eyes before the sun starts rising and ruins it for us, shall we?" Isabelle reached out and looped her arm through Jade's. "We will tell each other all of our respective adventures and woes over a hearty breakfast, after a very restful, very deep sleep."
Jade nodded and allowed herself to be pulled along into the cabin they shared. She set her box down and stripped down to her shift, hesitating with her hand to her throat before deciding that she should remove the beads to sleep. She'd hate to break the strand, after all.
Isabelle was already breathing evenly and deeply by the time Jade snuffed their lantern.
It wasn't until she was right on the precipice of vanishing into the land of dreams that she thought about what Isabelle had said, and wondered just for a moment what had transpired this night for the other woman.
