Page 82 of The Secret of the Three Fates
Fine. As we were in the middle of catching a killer, I supposed it could wait. But once this was sorted out, Ruan and I had yetanotherthing to discuss.
THEFIRTH OFForth was angry by the time we reached the ferry landing. Wind sang eerily through the rigging of the docked ships like the trapped souls of lost seabirds. Sharp droplets of rain pelted my skin, making it hard to keep my eyes open. I walked to the ferryman’s hut and knocked on the door. He answered, recognizing me at once from my trip earlier this week. His weathered face grew more and more incredulous as I explained the situation and asked if he could take us across in his skiff.
His eyebrows rose as he looked from me to the angry waters swirling in every possible direction. “To the Isle of May… in this storm? Are ye mad, lass? One wrong swell and we’d all be drowned.”
I could see he wasn’t about to be swayed.Five miles.It was five miles across the mouth of the Firth of Forth to the Isle of May. Nearly to the North Sea, if I recalled my Scottish geography.
“It’s imperative we get across…” I wiped at the rain, which pelted the side of my face.
“I don’t know what trouble you’re in, lass…” The warmth coming from his little hut was tempting. “But you can rest here until it passes, then I’ll take you both across.”
“It’s trouble we’re trying to stop—” Ruan interrupted.
The ferryman did not understand.
“A murder. There’s been a murder at Manhurst Castle and I have every reason to believe that there is about to be another if you don’t help us get to the Isle of May,” I spluttered out.
He straightened, looking far more imposing than he had moments before. “Are you threatening me?”
I held up my hands in a gesture of peace. “We’re trying to prevent one. I believe that the killer from Manhurst is headed to Rivenly.” Something in my voice must have reached him as his expression softened.
“No one is getting to the isle in this weather. No one. The last ferry went across perhaps two hours ago with an American lad, but that was before the winds picked up. I wish that I could help you, lass. I do. But until the storm passes, it’s not safe for anyone to go out.”
Two hours? Gracious! Elijah must have driven himself straight from Manhurst at breakneck speed to beat us here. I reached for my locket yet again, clumsily unfastening it with numb, half-frozen fingers. They moved too slow, but I found the clasp and pulled it from my neck and gave it a good final look—something I had not done in quite some time. I ran my thumb over the seed pearls which surrounded the stylized compass rose inset. The whole piece was crafted from both platinum and gold. In the very center of the compass was a deep green cat’s-eye emerald. The stone alone was worth a small fortune. I squeezed my eyes shut as I remembered my father’s parting words to me as he gave me the locket.
“You’ve always been an unbiddable thing, my darling girl. As is your mother. You are like her.” He’d tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. The ruby on his signet ring winked in the sunlight as I waited on the dock to board the ship to England. I’d known he would send me away—I only hadn’t knownquitehow far. My parents had moved quickly to remove me from the newspapermen and their cameras, far away from the scandal where my naïve heart could heal in private. Confused tears stung my eyes as he leaned close and whispered softly in my ear. “Do you know what we do with the most unbiddable of things, my love?”
I shook my head, wiping at the wetness on my cheeks.
“We let them go.” He brushed a kiss to the top of my head, his face soaked from his own silent tears. “You cannot tame wild creatures unless they wish to be tamed, remember that.” Then he pressed the small package into my palm.
I wasn’t ready to leave them. I didn’t want to go. It didn’t matter to me if I had an illegitimate child, I simply wanted to stay with my family—with my mother and little sister. But he didn’t care what I wanted—intent on sending me away for my own sake. I didn’t bother to look at what he’d handed me until I arrived in London weeks later. I hadn’t understood his parting words, not until I realized what he’d gifted me. He’d given me a compass—a means to find my way home.
I placed the locket in the ferryman’s hand, closing his fingers over it. “If I don’t return, sell it. You will have more than enough to replace the boat.”
“Ruby—this is madness,” Ruan said in hushed tones.
Undoubtedly, he was right, but I had already lost too many people I cared for in this world—if there was the remotest possibility that Mr. Owen was alive, I could not take any chances.
The ferryman quietly calculated the cost of replacing his skiff against the treasure he held. He couldn’t possibly know that it was worth more to me than my own life.
“It’s your heads,” he said in defeat and gestured to the skiff, docked nearby. This was by far the most dangerous thing I’d ever considered doing, but there was no other way to get there in time. I should have known Elijah was duplicitous. He’d shown me who he was back in New York, but once again I’d been too trusting. Too naïve.
Ruan gave me an apprehensive glance. “Are you certain this is what you want to do? We could wait on the storm…”
I looked up into his pale green eyes. Oddly brighter than before as he looked out onto the surging water.
“Do you trust me?”
The edge of his mouth twisted upward in answer, and he followed me into the howling winds and out onto the angry sea.
THIS WAS Amistake.
Even without the rapidly healing wound in my chest, this would have been a fool’s errand. My entire body ached from steering the small craft, and we were barely halfway to the isle. I could just make out the lighthouse perched high up in the distance through the sea spray. This far out, the waves were higher than I’d anticipated, and it took every bit of my strength to keep us to the flats.
The boat lurched, lifting high in the air on a particularly rough swell before crashing back down. The wooden hull made a sickening crack that reverberated beneath my feet. Icy seawater slammed over the sides, filling the boat and soaking me from the waist down.
We were going to die.
