The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (39 page)

Kate was about to press the stop button when the next image came up. Corey was pounding on Stealthlin and Candol’s door. His face was twisted in agony as he screamed Kate’s name. He pounded on the door for what seemed an eternity, then ran around the house screaming in utter grief. He pounded on the window of the room that he and Kate had shared early in their jump. His mouth wrenching out her name over and over, he begged her to come home, then collapsed on the ground outside the window.

Oh God! Oh God! OH GOD! Kate couldn’t believe her eyes. Corey loved her. Corey had never stopped loving her! Of course Corey loved her, he had always loved her. The realization struck her with such force that she crumpled to the floor.

“Corey, Corey, Corey!” she wailed. “What have I done? What have I done?” The images of her sexual betrayals, so fresh on her mind after scrolling through them, stabbed deep into the pit of her core. All of the times she let Gregory have his way with her, all of the men who had taken what she so willingly gave, just to earn a moment of distraction from her grief. If she had just believed in their love, if she had just remembered that Corey was who he was, if she had just had faith, she would not have betrayed him so thoroughly.

The heaviness of her wicked stains weighed her down. She could never fix this. She would always be the unfaithful harlot. There was no way to be free of this overpowering guilt.

Then she remembered the clear blue eyes of Corey Chastain as they looked on her with love and forgiveness. The source to his perfect soul would beam their forgiveness into her. If she could just get to Corey, she knew his love would purge her from the horrors of the past thirteen years. If she could just get to him, before he took Trip and Tara home, she would be whole.

“Corey!” she whispered the name like a prayer.

Kate jumped as she heard footsteps coming toward the cabin. She quickly bashed the remote into the support beam until the lens dangled and then removed the power pack and chucked it out of the porthole. She shoved the broken mess back into the case, clamped it and shoved it back into Gregory’s trunk, then slammed the lid shut. She didn’t have time to move, so she turned and sat down on the trunk.

Gregory opened the door. “Kate, darling, you’re awake.” He moved over to plant a kiss on her cheek. “We are almost out of the Singing Cove. The Captain wants to make port to pick up a load of cargo headed south. We’ll be there overnight.”

She nodded groggily to give the impression she had just awakened.

“Why are you sitting on the trunks?”

“I stumbled. No sea legs.” She pointed at her legs and yawned. “Which one of these is mine?” She turned around and looked at the mass of trunks around her. “Oh there it is.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Famished!”

He smiled indulgently, pecked her on the forehead and said, “I will be right back with some fruit.”

“Is there any meat left? Or cheese?” she asked.

“I’ll ask. Do you prefer that over the fruit?”

“Both.” She patted her tummy. “Hungry!”

He chortled and left the room.

Kate ransacked her trunk for travel clothes. Nothing! No slacks, no riding breeches, only gowns! “Argh!” She shoved the trunk closed.

She looked at Gregory’s trunk and determination flashed across her features. She ripped it open, took out two pairs of his older pants from the bottom and three shirts. She grabbed a sheet and tossed the items in with some of her personal belongings and tied it securely into a sling that would fit over her shoulder.

She stuffed it under the bed and quickly dressed in one of her plain gowns, then sat at the bureau and began combing out her hair. Gregory came in bearing a huge platter of fruits, pastries, sausages and hunks of cheese.

“I got you a little bit of everything.”

She tied off her braid and reached for the sausages. She plopped one in her mouth and bit down. The juices sprayed her tongue with spicy goodness. She realized she really was hungry, for the first time in a long time.

“Mmmm.” She closed her eyes.

“I like to see your appetite returning.” He gazed at her profile as she ate. “It’s good timing. I hope you will be eating for two soon.”

Kate choked and coughed, her eyes stinging. “Greg,” she gagged out.

“I know, I know.” He patted her on the back. “We will talk more when we decide where we are going to jump next.”

She nodded and stared at the sphere shaped fruit on the platter in front of her.

“I will leave you to finish your breakfast. I don’t want to spoil your appetite.” He slipped out quietly.

Kate flew into action. She gathered up all of the food on the tray and rolled it into a napkin. She dug a flask out of Gregory’s things and dumped the vile concoction out of the porthole and filled it with water, then pocketed it along with all of the coins in the cabin. She heard the shipmates call out to their peers on the dock and knew they were securing the lines.

She retrieved her knapsack, slung it over her shoulder, then decided to buy herself some time. She wrote a note to Gregory, stating she needed some personal items in town and that she would be right back.

She rolled her eyes a bit at the idea that this would buy her any time and set the pencil down, then paused and picked it up again and wrote one more sentence.

I’m told there is a carpenter in town who specializes in baby cribs.

That would either make him wait for an eternity or send him crashing after her. Either way, she had to leave now. She slipped out of the cabin, then stole down to the crew quarters. It was going to be tricky to get off the ship in broad daylight but she had an idea.

COREY, MEL, AND
Donnie escorted Starlythe and Staid back to the QHR.

“When you have found everyone, please come and be my guest. We would love to have you and Kate, all of you stay with us,” Staid said and grasped Corey’s forearm.

“You will find her.” Starlythe laid her lovely arm on his chest, then kissed his cheek with a teasing expression. “Cheulseti would be a lovely site for a second honeymoon.”

“We will get word to you somehow,” Corey promised. “Don’t be surprised if everyone is waiting for you when you get there.”

Staid dropped one brow and raised the other in confusion. Starlythe laughed and dragged him onto the jump pad. They crossed their fists over their chests in salute and Corey, Mel, and Donnie echoed the gesture. The sphere fell and took them home.

Donnie stood and stared into the empty space. Mel and Corey sauntered over to the couch and collapsed into it.

“I have said more goodbyes in the last two days than I have my whole life,” Corey moaned. “I have decided I don’t like them.”

Mel took his hand and squeezed it.

Wallace called out. “Well don’t get too comfortable, we’ve got another sphere building.”

Corey and Mel just had time to turn their heads when a sphere landed on the pad and Krenne and Manifus appeared. They stepped off the pad with long faces. Corey’s heart dropped.

“What happened?”

“We just said goodbye to our grandchildren,” Manifus explained and wrapped his arm around Krenne.

A tear trickled down her cheek. “They left the Sissepaas region to move west, our son got a job as a baker at Watshfeau. It was a great honor. They were the only thing keeping us there, so we decided to jump home.”

“The vaccine?”

“Oh yeah, we passed that out years ago. People were willing to take it for the most part. We decided to stay and raise a family anyway, double the chances of survival,” Manifus explained. “We stayed there for twenty five years.”

“Has anyone else come back?” Krenne asked.

“Starlythe and Staid just went back to Cheulseti.”

“Well, come on Mani, let’s get back and start another family.”

“Krenne,” Mel called. “The baby?”

Krenne’s face dropped. “He was a beautiful blond bundle who grew into a mighty warrior. We lost him three years back in a skirmish with sea barbarians.”

“I am so sorry.”

“He died honorably, in the land of his forefathers. We are very proud of him.”

“Let’s go home.” Manifus escorted her back to the pad and they stood face to face wrapped in each other’s arms when the sphere took them home.

Within seconds another sphere dropped and Stealthlin and Candol flew into Corey’s arms.

“Corey!” Candol laughed and cried simultaneously. She kissed his cheeks and hugged him until he broke down and cried. Stealthlin stood with his arms around both of them.

“You’re back,” Corey whispered, clapping Stealthlin’s shoulder and touching Candol’s hair. “You’re safe.”

They grinned and nodded then reluctantly they all broke apart.

“How did it go?” Donnie asked.

Candol wiped tears and turned to him and Mel. “Fine. The people of the Mortia Crevasse Region are vaccinated. The Southwest Coast is seeded for fourteen generations. We’ve been busy.” She grasped Stealthlin’s hand.

“How long were you gone?”

“Four hundred years,” Stealthlin said. “We just kept moving down the coastline and then into the Crevasse region, leaving our grown children like a trail behind us.”

“That must have been difficult.” Mel sympathized and touched Candol on the arm.

“Yes, but I found my heart expanding. My love for Ampeliagia has grown into almost a state of worship. I feel kinship toward all Ampeliagians now.”

“What are your plans, now?” Donnie asked.

They both looked at Corey, and said in unison, “We find Kate of course.”

Corey’s face fractured into broken gratitude as he clamped his grasp around their forearms.