Forgotten Truths (The Forgotten Truths Series) (16 page)

“I’ll only be convinced if Shawn tells me himself.”

“How will we know where he is?”

“Mark’s around here somewhere, which means my father has to be around somewhere, too.”

“I’m not convinced he was here, Love.”

“I saw him. I know I did.” I stood up and went over to the window.

“Even if you did see him, you don’t know where he went. Who says he didn’t leave?”

“He hasn’t. I know he hasn’t.” The feeling in the pit of my stomach seemed to confirm this. I felt a little sick. I wasn’t sure if this was because I knew Mark would do everything he could to take me back to my father or if it was because I knew James would do everything he could to stop him.

“Well, there isn’t much more we can do today about this. The captain wants us to have dinner with him. Maybe we can talk to him about it, since he’s supposed to be your father and would definitely remember something useful.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want him knowing I know this until I’m absolutely positive about it.”

“But are you good with dinner at least? You’ll have to wear a dress.”

I looked down at my clothes and sighed. That was the last thing I wanted to think about. “I’m fine.”

“Ok
ay. I believe Captain Brown will be back soon so you better go upstairs and change.”

I kept my head down as I turned around. I just wanted to get some
time to myself, but now I was going to have to suffer through dinner. I hadn’t realized that James had come up behind me while I’d been at the window until I saw his shoes right next to me. He pulled me into his strong arms.

“It’ll be all right, Love.” He kissed the top of my head. “Everything will be fine. Just take it one step at a time.”

I slowly nodded. Was I supposed to be angry or frightened or happy? I was so confused with my feelings and my life that I just wanted to run away and be able to think alone. Since that wasn’t an option, I was just going to have to do what James said and take everything one step at a time.

He led me into the foyer and let me go up the stairs by myself. I took my time
going down to my room. I didn’t want to think about anything. I was successful until I opened my wardrobe and saw the dresses that had been put in there at some point. I pulled one out and saw that the front was much lower than the first one I had put on, which was nowhere in sight. I picked through the other ones and none of them had a high collar. This wasn’t good.

I took off the men’s clothing that I was wearing. I
t didn’t hurt to at least try on one of the dresses. I shifted through the selection and pulled out one that was a deep blue. It was fairly simple, which was why I was drawn to it. The little bit of detail was done in a black thread and it only showed along the bottom of the skirt and along the edge of the sleeves, which would come down to about my elbows. As soon as I had it on though, I knew the neckline was too low.

I turned to the mirror, and
I could see the scar. It ran from my shoulder, across my chest, and disappeared below the neckline. I couldn’t wear this. I looked through the other dresses and saw the same problem. I couldn’t wear any of them. I didn’t want the captain seeing this, let alone James. I traced the scar, out of habit whenever I saw it. It was ugly, and I turned away from the mirror. I was going to have to figure something else out for dinner.

A
loud bang came from downstairs which startled me and distracted me from my negative thoughts.

“What in the world?” I
turned around, but James was suddenly there. He slammed the door behind him and leaned back into it as his fingers fumbled with the lock.

“James, what’s going on?” I heard another loud bang from downstairs.

“Someone’s trying to break in. Well, more than just someone.” He rushed around the bed to the balcony door. He opened it with me following closely behind, and once we were out there, he stared down the side of the house.

“What are you doing?” I asked
.

He pulled at a vine
, displeased with it before he moved on to another one. “Looking for a way down.”

“What?”

He finally took his focus off the vine and glanced at me. “We’re trapped up here, Andrea. Men are breaking in downstairs. For whatever reason, they’re coming for us.”

Was it Mark? Was he finally coming for me?

“Maybe it’s Mark. Maybe I can talk…” I cut off immediately with the look I got from James.

“Andrea, I don’t think its Mark. Something tells me whoever these men are, they mean us harm.”

That didn’t sound like Mark. He would have wanted to hurt James, but he never would have hurt me.

While I
stood there thinking, James grabbed a vine and yanked on it. I focused back on this.

“How do you think we’re going to
get down with a vine?” I asked as another loud bang echoed inside.

He looked at me slowly. “We’re going to have to climb down. I told you we’re trapped up here. We don’t have any other option.”

I watched him as he climbed over the railing and gripped the vine as he started to climb down. I leaned over as he got out of view and watched how he did it. I hadn’t realized how much muscle he had in his arms until just then as I watched him slowly move one hand under the other one. He repeated the pattern until he hit the beach below. He tugged on the vine and then looked up at me.

“You’ve got to do it, Love! We don’t have that much time. Just climb over like I did and slide down.”

I slowly climbed over the railing as I heard another bang coming from inside.

“That’s it, Love! Now, just slide down. There you go.”

My hands were burning and my face cringed as I slowly slid down. I heard a popping noise and looked up. The vine was starting to break.

“James! The vine is going to snap!”

“You’re going to have to jump. You aren’t that far from me, and I promise I’ll catch you. You have to trust me.”

“I can’t!” I closed my eyes as the vine twisted again.

“You have to. Trust me!”

I let go just as the vine broke. I was about to scream when I felt James’ arm under me. He had caught me just like he had promised. But just as quickly as I realized this, he set me down, grabbed my hand, and took me around the house. We went through the garden, something I had wanted to do for a while, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Of course this time, I couldn’t actually look around and enjoy it. When we got to the edge of the house, he stopped and peeked around the side. Since he didn’t seem to see anyone, he pulled me forward and we ran across the street into the forest. 

“Where are we going?” I finally asked. I tripped over a tree root and cursed.

“Deeper into the forest. But we have to be quiet.”

We went on for about another hour in silence. When we finally stopped, we were by a stream and I collapsed against a tree. James sat across from me so he could lean back against a fallen tree trunk. We sat there to catch our breath for a few minutes. I kept my focus above James’ head so that I could look up through the trees. I could tell by the way the forest looked that the sun was starting to set. I brought my attention to his face. His eyes were focused on my feet, and he opened his mouth to speak as he shifted his stare to my face but stopped. His eyes focused on my shoulder, and I knew he was staring at the scar. I brought my arm up as I looked away. I felt so uncomfortable as I tried to cover the scar with my arm and hand.

James stood up, and I
focused him again. His eyes were on the ground. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”
The panic in my voice that wasn’t meant to be heard made me wince.

He looked down at me. He kept his eyes on my face this time. “I’m just going to the stream. Your feet are pretty badly cut and I need to clean them.”

He walked past me as I pulled my foot toward me. There were a couple deep gashes, but most were little scratches. I didn’t feel any pain, but then again, I was used to walking barefoot and getting my feet scratched. James came back, his shirt off and in his hand. It was sopping wet. He knelt down at my feet and gently pulled them onto his lap to wipe them off. I leaned back into the tree and closed my eyes as he gently cleaned my feet.

James cleared his throat nervously. “The scar on your chest… that’s from when you were… from before isn’t it?”

I moved my hand up to my shoulder again and gently traced it. “Yes.”

“How did it happen?”

“It was with a knife.” I didn’t want to explain any more of it than that, so I lied when I said, “That’s all I remember.”

“I’m sorry, Love.”

I looked at him. “Sorry for what?”

“That you had to go through with whatever it was you went through. From what I’ve seen and how you act, I can’t even imagine. I just know that no one should have to go through it.”

“I don’t think a lot of people have.”

“No one should have to though.” He glanced down at my feet. “You have some pretty bad cuts here.”

“I’ve had worse.” I waved my hand as I dismissed his comment.

He slowly lifted his gaze to my face, and then lowered it to the scar on my chest, which I immediately covered again.

I turned away. “I meant I’ve had worse on my feet. I go barefoot all the time and I tend to step or trip over things.”

“Oh.”

We sat quietly as he continued to wipe the blood off my feet. When he was done, he tossed his ruined shirt behind him and moved next to me.

“How long are we going to have to wait out here?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“I’m not sure. The captain and Will are going to find out what happened to us quickly, and they’ll start looking for us. But we have to remember that those other men are searching for us, too.”

“So we have to sit here and wait?” I
gazed at him.

He stared down at me. “I didn’t know what else to do. We’ll be fine though. There are plenty of things to eat out here, and in a few days we’ll try heading into town.” He
reached his hand up to my face and rubbed his thumb over my cheek. “Don’t worry about a thing, Love. We’ll be all right.”

~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~

We sat quietly as darkness fell. He had drawn his knees up to his chest after awhile and was sitting with his head propped in his hand against his knees. I knew he was probably thinking about our next move and what he was going to do to keep me safe. I had turned my body so that I was facing him, but was still leaning into the tree. I was looking down at my hands. My mind racing around all that I had been told today.

I had no reason to believe Captain Brown’s letter. There was no real evidence that I was the girl they had been looking for. Ten years was a long time, and her appearance could have drastically changed. And if Captain Brown said that I looked just like his wife, then maybe that was it. Maybe I did just look like her. There was no way for them to be sure it was me. But James had a point. I couldn’t remember anything from my life before being kidnapped the first time. And when Shawn found me, I remember that I was so confused and distraught that I didn’t question him when he told me to come with him. To me, he was a safe person. And if he wasn’t my father, then that could explain why there was always an awkward feeling between us. He knew he wasn’t my father, and he knew I’d find out one day. And maybe that explained why he treated me more like a girl than one of the guys. Maybe he had intended to return me to my real father, and if I got seriously hurt he would feel responsible. But did he really think like that? I’d never seen him care for a person’s well being besides my own. I just wasn’t sure what to think of it.

James shifted and put his arm around me. I realized I was shaking as he pulled me into his side. When I looked at him, his head was still propped against his hand, but he was watching me.

“What are you thinking about?”
He moved his hand up to my face. He traced my chin with his thumb, which sent a strange feeling through me.

“I’m just thinking about my life and if there are any clues that could lead me to believe that Captain Brown is my father and not Shawn,” I admitted. After all, James hadn’t wanted to tell me, and he technically hadn’t. But none of this was his fault, and he deserved to know what I was thinking, if not to have someone to bounce my ideas off of.

“Have you found any?”

I shrugged. “Some things maybe. But then again, who’s to say that Shawn didn’t act like he did because he doesn’t know how to treat girls since I’m the only one he’s been around?”

He lifted his eyes over my head for a moment, and then pulled his gaze back to my face. “That’s a good point. Does he ever talk about your mother?”

“No.” I felt a
another tremor go through my body. The temperature had dropped several degrees and I was starting to get cold. I rubbed my hands over my arms. “He told me long ago that she died when I was born and he didn’t want to talk about her because it was too painful for him. Maybe that’s why he and I have a difficult relationship. I remind him too much of my mother and it’s hard on him.”