Seaborne (14 page)

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Authors: Katherine Irons

Tags: #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fantasy, #Chick-Lit, #Mythology

BOOK: Seaborne
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What if she could catch it? Its head looked really fuzzy. Maybe Mommy would let her keep it, and she could make a bed for it in her room. Nobody in her Head Start class had a pet duck. She could take it to school and show her teacher and the other kids.
But the duck wasn’t easy to catch. Every time Misty thought she was going to grab hold of it, it flew up in the air or waddled faster. Misty trotted after the duck down the rutted drive that ran around the back of the trailer park where nobody lived and the trailers were all surrounded by junk and spooky. “Here, ducky,” she coaxed as it stopped to eat a worm.
This time, Misty got a lot closer. She got so close she could see its black eyes. She started to sneak up on it, and then the duck ran down the path through the tall reeds that led to the beach. For a while, Misty just stood there trying to decide what to do. The reeds were way taller than her head and scary. And there were mosquitoes. But she could hear the duck quacking just around the bend, so she went a little farther.
And then, after she was a long way from the trailer, the duck just disappeared into the reeds. Misty sat down. She was still hot, hotter than ever. She was thirsty too. She’d never come this far by herself, and Mommy would be mad. But she remembered that this path led to the bay. There would be white sand and water and cool breezes.
Maybe, she’d just go and look at the beach. Sometimes, Hester took her there in the morning while Mommy slept. She fished and Misty got to play in the shallow water. Hester never caught any fish, but Misty didn’t care because the old lady told her stories of when her husband had a boat and they went out on the water every day.
“Never go into water past your chest,” Hester said. “There are monsters in the ocean that like to gobble little girls for dinner.” Mommy said that Hester was a silly old woman. There was no such thing as water monsters, but Misty wasn’t sure.
A mosquito buzzed around her head and she swatted at it. She had lots of mosquito bites on her arms and legs and she didn’t want any more. They itched almost as much as chiggers. Misty decided that since she’d come this far, she would just go down to the beach for a little while. Maybe the duck would be there waiting for her.
Suddenly, the reeds opened and there was the water. Misty scrambled over a few rocks and onto the shore. No one was on the beach but two seagulls. She didn’t like gulls because they always sounded mad and looked like they might bite if they got too close. She sat down in the sand and looked at the waves. They looked so cool and wet. Maybe if she just waded in up to her knees, she wouldn’t be so thirsty. After all, Mommy should know if there were monsters or not. Mommies knew everything.
At Seaborne, Claire joined Richard and Justin in the breakfast room at nine. The room had once been a spacious porch that ran along the eastern wall of the original house. Nana had brought in an architect who transformed the space into a charming informal eating area with ceiling-to-floor French doors, Mexican tile floors, an antique fountain, and space for lush greenery that included lime and lemon trees. It was Claire’s favorite place in the house, other than her apartment. And not even Justin could dim the pleasure of sipping Columbian coffee, and eating blueberry scones and fresh strawberries at the round table that had once graced a Spanish monastery.
Claire felt immensely surer of herself this morning. Somehow, Morgan had made good his escape from the balcony. She supposed he must have climbed down to the first-story roof and then found a way to jump the last fifteen feet without breaking his neck. She’d waited a good hour before getting into her wheelchair and going out to tell him the coast was clear and everyone had gone to bed. To her surprise, Morgan was already gone. She’d imagined all sorts of things, the worst being that he was lying sprawled in a boxwood hedge with a concussion. But since the alarms hadn’t gone off and Nathaniel hadn’t discovered him when he was mowing, Claire supposed that Morgan had been as inventive as usual.
She was expecting her physical therapy aide at ten, which left an hour to get rid of her ex and settle things with Richard. She loved her father dearly. Any other time, she would have been delighted at his company. But, first, she was still annoyed with him because he’d lied to her about being on the swim team in college, and second, he’d gone against her express wishes and dragged Justin to Seaborne.
She wanted them both gone. She wanted time with Morgan. If Richard remained, her mystery man would stay away. And, if she could help it, that definitely wasn’t happening.
“You really should have protein in the morning,” Justin said. His breakfast consisted of unsweetened bran flakes, a poached egg, a handful of vitamins, and a protein shake.
In defiance, Claire spread clotted cream on her scone and took a bite. She rarely ate more than a few mouthfuls at breakfast, but she had no intention of letting Justin give her orders. Childish, maybe, but she’d earned the right to be immature where he was concerned. Childish wouldn’t be adding empty calories to her scone; it would be spilling the pitcher of fresh-squeezed orange juice in his lap. She wouldn’t do it, but the thought that she might made her feel better.
“I hope the traffic is better on your way back to the city,” she said pointedly. “I’d hate to see you stuck on I-95 again.”
Richard looked hurt. “I’d hoped you’d see things differently today. I know it was a surprise, showing up without warning, waking you—”
“Out of a sound sleep,” she finished. “You know very well, Daddy, dear, it’s not you I object to.” She looked directly at Justin, and he had the decency to flush, just a little. “It’s him.”
Her father set his cup on the table and leaned forward. “It’s not good for you to be alone here, Claire. I want you to at least read this brochure from the clinic I mentioned in Switzerland. You can’t ignore the chance of regaining more of your life.” He removed a glossy booklet from his briefcase and pushed it toward her. “Please. Say you’ll at least consider it.”
“I’m sick of hospitals, doctors, sick of physical therapy that doesn’t—”
“Do it for me, Claire,” Richard begged. “Please.”
“Listen to Richard,” Justin said. “You’re young. You have years ahead of you. Why would you turn down the possibility of walking again?”
Claire’s throat constricted. What if her mind was playing tricks on her? What if Morgan only existed in her imagination? “I’ll read your brochure,” she said. “But I’d really like you and Justin to leave Seaborne after breakfast.”
Her father half-rose in his chair, leaned, and put his hand over hers. “I know you want us gone,” he said. “But I have to do what I think is best for you. I’m staying, at least through the weekend. And if you don’t want me, if having Justin in the house upsets you so much, then you’ll have to call the police and have us escorted off the property.”
CHAPTER 14
“Y
ou can’t continue this,” Alex said. “A prince of Atlantis hiding on a human’s balcony? It’s embarrassing. And for what? It’s not as though the two of you can be together for more than a hot interlude. They’re fragile, these earthlings, and your Claire sounds more delicate than most.”
The twins had joined Morgan a few leagues off Seaborne’s beach in a forest of kelp no deeper than forty fathoms. His brothers had come in answer to his plea for help against the horde, but they’d taken one look at him and pronounced him unfit for battle.
“Look at you,” Orion scolded. “You’ve aged a decade since we saw you at the palace. We aren’t adapted to breathe on land. We can do it when we must, but it drains the life force. And you, big brother, are drained. How did you think you could take on Melqart’s shades if you came upon them? A dozen of them would devour you. A waste of a crown prince, I’d say.”
Morgan brushed away their concern. “I’m fine. Tired, but nothing more.”
Alex drove a fist into his shoulder, knocking him backwards through the water an arm’s length. “Right, just tired. Weak as a clown fish. Mother would have our fins if we let you dash around playing hero for a few humans. And humans you don’t even know. How much danger would they put themselves in for one of us?”
Morgan rubbed his shoulder, knowing he’d be black and blue for hours. His little brother carried a mighty punch. He always had. But Alex wasn’t nearly as callous as he pretended. “I thought you two had your fill of playing games with Caddoc and his buddies. Of course, if you’re reluctant to take on the outriders …”
Orion arched a blond eyebrow. “And who said we were?” He drew his massive black sword and arched it dramatically through the water.
“No need to impress me,” Morgan said. “I know how lethal you are with that.”
“It’s you we’re worried about,” Alex supplied. “Nothing wrong with either of us.”
“We were just saying that it had been too long since we’d had any serious hunting,” Orion said. “The shades have been decimating young mer folk off the Isle of Skye. My friend Dolaidh lost a niece and nephew, nothing left of them but bloody skins.”
“Not to mention the attack off Crete,” Alex added. “Eleven dead there, one an Atlantean warrior. You may have known her, Morgan. Iphigeneia? An older woman, but fit, very well respected as a fighter. Her crack team of dolphins died beside her, one an alpha. They held their own for hours, but there were just too many, and then the sharks moved in. We wouldn’t have known what happened if it hadn’t been for a naiad cross who was wounded and left for dead. He managed to take shelter under the keel of a wreck. Poor thing succumbed later, too badly injured to recover.”
“This probably is a different pack,” Morgan mused, “but it doesn’t matter. One outrider is as bad as another. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of New England shoreline. I’ve been hunting for them, but I don’t know where—”
“Alex knows,” Orion said. “We passed a school of wild dolphins a few leagues away. He asked them. You know he has the knack for inter-species communication. And they were eager to share. It seems the horde killed another human this morning. The dolphins were leaving the area. You know how humans are. A little blood in the water and they start hunting sharks with guns and depth charges.”
“Which includes anything with fins or flippers,” Alex said. “Melqart’s crew is still here and still up to mischief, not far north.”
“So we’re wasting time,” Morgan said. “When we should be cleaning up the trash.”
Alex smiled. “A man after my own heart.”
After her disturbing exchange of words with her father and Justin, Claire left the breakfast room for her regularly scheduled pool workout. Three days a week, physical therapists came to Seaborne to provide the exercises she needed to prevent her legs from atrophying and to maintain upper body strength. Two of those days were scheduled for water therapy, and she’d had an indoor pool addition built adjacent to the main house after she’d come to Seaborne to live.
The therapist, Paul, was a new one from the agency. He was pleasant but efficient, and the hour went quickly. As she left the pool house, she wheeled herself along the passageway and took the elevator to the second floor. As the elevator door opened, just down the hall from her bedroom apartment, Justin was standing there waiting.
Surprised, she frowned. “You.”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
She’d almost forgotten that he was still here. She’d been thinking about Morgan, hoping to get down to the beach alone, thinking of what she’d say to him if he appeared there … hoping to explain her father’s unannounced arrival in the middle of the night. “I’d hoped you’d taken the hint and left.”
Justin effected his best clinical expression of concern. “We can’t leave you when you’re in this state.” He moved behind her and pushed her chair down the hall, away from her suite, to a book-lined sitting room. “I was hoping we’d have a chance to talk about my offer.”
“Your offer.” Claire tried not to let him know how annoyed she was. The library was cool, and she was still in her bathing suit under the robe. She was chilled and wanted a shower. She didn’t want to contend with Justin now.
“Marriage counseling,” he said. Smiling, he took a seat in a leather lounge chair a few feet away.
This was a family room, full of comfortable furniture, pictures. When she was a child, she and Nana had come here to watch home movies on a pull-down screen. She’d rarely come in here since her accident. Justin wasn’t part of this room, and she didn’t particularly want him here.
“Us getting back together. Perhaps even considering a family.”
“Just like that.” She wanted to smack him. Instead, she focused her gaze on a silver-framed photograph of her grandmother and Richard standing beside his first car, a gently used but aging green Volvo, a gift for his sixteenth birthday.
“Claire?”
She glanced back at him, trying to control her temper. “And you expect me to forget everything that happened, buy into your ‘happily ever after’ fairy tale, and say ‘I do’
?
” She shrugged one shoulder. “I may be brain injured, but I’m not a fool.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “This isn’t like you, Claire. It’s simply further proof of your depression. You used to consider all your options before you slammed the door in my face.”
“You’re blaming me for our divorce?”
“I did things I shouldn’t have. I admitted that, but I was provoked. If you think the breakdown of any marriage is the fault of only one partner, you’re deluding yourself.” He took her hand in his, and it was all she could do not to flinch. “I love you. I don’t think it’s too late for us to have a second chance.”
“At my fortune?”
He blinked, once, twice, but his lips remained soft.
Good recovery
, she thought.
You always were a cool one, Justin
. “The award was something over thirty-seven million, but I’ve been fortunate in my investments.”
“You’ve changed, Claire. You were never so crass. And you didn’t mind spending my money when we were married. Designer fashions. Imported shoes. Trips to Brazil and Germany to one horse show or another.”
She sighed. “I was young, and that was a long time ago. I don’t see how we could possibly—”
“There’s more. Something that may interest you.”
He steepled his beautiful hands, hands that were as manicured and cared for as carefully as any society chairwoman. Justin had never favored rings, not even a wedding ring, but she noticed that he wore a diamond that must have three carats.
Expensive
, she mused,
if it wasn’t cubic zirconium.
“I doubt it,” she answered.
His eyes narrowed. “Hear me out, darling. A colleague of mine mentioned that he knows of a student at Julliard who is interested in making an adoption plan for her baby. She’s of Korean heritage, with a fantastic future in modern dance, and being a single mother isn’t an option. The father, I’m told, is doing his residency in orthopedics, Caucasian, and fully invested in placing the child. The mother doesn’t drink or smoke, and the baby seems to be growing normally.”
Claire was stunned. It was one thing for Justin to talk about a theoretical adoption and quite another when there was an actual child involved. For a moment, she found herself speechless, and then, she asked, “How far along is she?”
“Five months, nearly six. If we’re going to do this, we have to act quickly. You can imagine how many couples would like to adopt this child.”
“Are you telling me the truth?”
“Of course.” He removed his cell phone from his shorts’ pocket. “If you don’t believe me, I’ll ring my friend. Or you can reach him through his office. I wouldn’t lie to you about this.”
“Just about being faithful?
“For a woman who pretends not to care, you’re carrying far too much baggage.”
Claire shivered. Why did Justin always strike where she was most vulnerable? “All right. I’ll try. But you have to be honest with me. How much of this sudden desire to raise our marriage from the dead is inspired by my rosy financial situation?”
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you that discussing money is poor manners?” He rose and strolled to the window, staring out across the rolling fields.
Claire ran a hand through her damp hair. “As a matter of fact, she didn’t. I can’t remember much she did teach me, other than which fork to use for seafood.”
“I’m sorry.” He glanced back, his smooth features again composed. “I forgot that your relationship with her wasn’t ideal.”
“Not ideal? You could say that. I was an intrusion on her life, an unwanted annoyance, or a rival for Richard’s attentions. Take your pick.”
“Self-pity doesn’t become you, Claire. I thought you’d resolved your issues with your mother a long time ago.”
“My adoptive mother.”
“Yet, you entertain the idea of motherhood yourself, and you claim to want to adopt. Is that how you see yourself? As something less than a biological mother?” He scoffed. “If you feel like that, then the child in question would be far better off with someone else.”
“You missed your calling, Justin. You should have been a trial lawyer. You can draw blood without using sharp objects.”
He returned to the chair and leaned forward, his gaze intent. “Since you’re determined to make this difficult, I’ll play devil’s advocate. What if I did want to marry you for your money? We have a history. We enjoy many of the same pleasures, and I genuinely like you, Claire. At least, I like you when you aren’t wallowing in self-pity.”
“What are you proposing? A business arrangement?”
“If you care to put it like that. Since you refuse to believe that I still hold strong feelings for you—which I do. Your maimed body doesn’t revolt me. I’m more concerned with your mind, your opinions, and your interests. We did have good times. Can you deny it?”
She shook her head. “No. But to marry just for selfish reasons …”
“You need someone to take care of you. No, don’t deny it. Your father won’t live forever. Then what? Do you want to sit here alone, old and forgotten? You’re hiding from life. You’ve been dealt a bad hand, true enough, but you can make the most of it.”
“With you?”
“Yes, with me. To begin with, we’d investigate these specialists in Switzerland. We’d do everything humanly possible to make certain you’re taking advantage of the best science has to offer. And you could have the child you seem so desperately to want.”
“You’ve stated your case. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get in a hot shower.”
“You will think about what I’ve said? You won’t close your mind to the possibilities? To the advantages?”
“And if we did marry, what’s to keep you from deciding to place me in an institution? To shut me away somewhere, leaving you full access to my fortune?”
“Do you think Richard would allow such a thing? You could take legal precautions, an iron-clad pre-nupt. Unless you believe that I’m some sort of psychopathic monster? Why stop at imprisoning you in some hospital? Why not murder?”
She chuckled. “Even I never thought you were capable of murder, Justin. Dirty dealings, perhaps, but not violence. You aren’t a violent person. That was always something I admired in you. My father has far too much of the killer instinct when it comes to getting something he wants badly.”
“That’s reassuring, that you don’t believe I’m capable of murder.”
“Seriously, if we did marry again, and I’m only saying
if
, why would the mother choose to place a child with me, in my ‘condition,’ as you put it?”
“Money.”
Claire’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me that you offered to buy her baby?”
“No, nothing of the kind. We’d pay medical expenses, assist with college tuition. She’s practically destitute, a scholarship case, and she’s struggled in life. It’s my understanding that she wants her child placed in a financially stable home, one where if she or he chooses to follow a dream, the child won’t be held back by lack of funds.”

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