Page 55 of Unearthing the Smuggler's Heart
There was something unquestioningly bizarre about following standard procedure upon arrival in a foreign port. For the first time in his storied history as a sailor, Mathias had nothing to hide from the authorities awaiting them at the port authority. He even had a man on board to speak the native language to the Spanish customs officers as they gathered their things for their journey inland.
It was hard to shake the feeling that it was too easy, but then, of course, it was a strange thing to remind himself that he wasn't actually attempting any nefarious business, and as such, there was no need for any expectation of difficulty. He was pretty damned certain that this awareness had created the most suspiciously shifty behavior he had ever presented to anyone, ever, and judging from the expressions on the faces of the men on board, this was not an opinion he was experiencing independently.
He had no recourse but to laugh at himself, running a self-conscious hand through his hair and choosing to simply bow out of further interaction with the authorities.
The ladies were standing near the disembarkment, two tidily packed valises at their feet. Jade was absorbed in a phrase book of simple Spanish that she had somehow uncovered on board, in possession of a crewman with a sweetheart from Seville. She had also, somehow, talked this crewman into giving her the book for a presumably indefinite period of time.
She had not so much as glanced away from the pages since releasing a little huff of annoyance at the knocking about of theHarpyas it had been secured to the foreign dock.
Isabelle, however, was watching the entire theatrical episode with an open grin of amusement, fanning herself with one of the cipher fans from the captain's quarters.
"What are you smiling at?" he snapped with no real fire in his voice as he approached them.
"You're like a green lad on his first voyage," she observed cheerily. "I've never seen you fumble quite so much with anything."
Jade snorted again, though Mathias chose to believe it was in reaction to something she had come across in her book rather than a disagreement with Isabelle's observation
"You must admit it feels strange," he muttered back, squinting up at the bright rays of light escaping over the thick, white clouds in the sky.
"This entire endeavor has been strange," she replied. "Stranger by the day, I think."
They glanced at Jade to see if she would weigh in on this observation, but she did not so much as spare them a glance, her lips shaping new sounds and meanings. She was clearly well beyond absorbed. It was only when a young man came on board to retrieve the luggage for their transport into town that she looked up from her tome, and carefully enunciated, "Muchas gracias."
If the young man's nervous giggle at her attempt threatened her confidence, Jade gave no indication of it. She only repeated the phrase to herself again, and nodded in approval at the sound to her own ear.
"How long will it take us to reach the villa?" Isabelle asked, looking anxiously at the horse and cart that awaited them on shore. "I suppose a proper coach was out of the question?"
"We'll be there before sundown," he assured her, giving another quick glance at the thickly quilted clouds above them. "I think the rain will hold until tonight, anyhow."
"Oh, I really hope it does," Isabelle said with a grimace. "I should hate for us to show up all wet and bedraggled for a massive family reunionagain. It was bad enough when it happened to me."
The young man had stacked their cases into the cart and was waving them over, a broad and enthusiastic smile on his face. Mathias glanced at the port captain, awaiting his brisk nod of approval, and wasted no time ushering his companions down the docking ramp and onto the Spanish shore.
"Finally," sighed Isabelle, looping her arm through Jade's in a less-than-subtle effort to get the other woman to abandon her reading. "Let us race the rain, hm? Isn't it lovely here? Have I told you about our arrival in England on my journey to meet my brother? We arrived more bedraggled than you could possibly imagine..."
They climbed into the back of the cart as Isabelle chattered, jerking into motion so quickly that they were thrown into their seats, collapsing into a row with Jade in the middle.
Mathias remembered the scene Isabelle was describing all too well. They had stood in the foyer of Meridian House, dirty, damp, and shivering as they awaited the conclusion of their journey. Isabelle had experienced something very like what awaited Jade, but for Isabelle, it had all been a surprise.
Jade must have been imagining her father since childhood, wondering what sort of man he was and what sort of relationship she would have enjoyed with him, had he been present.
He would never be so bold as to say so, but he had often had the same fantasies and curiosities about his own father, whose mental presence had ceased to have anchor since their flight from France, when Mathias was still a child. He didn't have meaningful memories of his father as a different sort of man, but every now and then, his mother would say something that made him wonder.
In one way or another, the war had made victims of them all.
And now it was over, and no one could say what came next. How did one navigate peace?
If this morning's docking had been any indication, Mathias was woefully unprepared for a world where borders were open and dealings could be done in the light of day.
Beneath the folds of her skirts, Mathias reached for Jade's hand, lacing his fingers through hers in a hidden gesture of affection. She threw him a little half smile, a look of appreciation, and she returned the pressure of his grip while nodding at Isabelle's story, gasping in all the correct spots.
He could not say, however, who was truly comforting whom.
* * *
Jade wascertain that she'd pry Mathias's hand right off when the villa appeared in the distance, just at the end of a bending roadway along the rocky cusp of the beach.
She had to keep reminding herself to draw breath into her lungs, and somehow each breath felt tighter and more painful than the one that had come before. She couldn't even feel her hand anymore, so tightly clenched around Mathias's as it was.
