Chapter Ten
Jonas tossed his laundry into the sea chest. Cambric shirts tangled with neck cloths which twined with stockings and breeches. He kicked the chest against the wall. It slid across the floor and banged into the wall supporting the window, the same window Livvy Halsey had climbed in and out of his bedchamber.
“Bloody sea chest,” he mumbled and lifted the lid.
“Bad day at the Halseys?” The Captain shuffled inside and his rump dropped into the winged chair by the fire.
“No.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
“No.”
Jonas rearranged the clothes, but it was all for naught. He added more chaos than order. From his crouch in front of the sea chest, he took a good look at the Captain. The lines on the old man’s face, the snowy hair peeking out of his night cap, the spindly ankles above his shoes. His grandfather sniffed and dabbed a handkerchief to his nose. He nursed his annual winter ailment, a mild fever with the sniffles. It came every winter when Jonas was a boy. The Captain would wear his banyan and nurse himself with beef tea, spending a day or two abed.
Holding on to the sea chest, Jonas’s heart cracked. His grandfather had been his rock, but the Captain, who was always old, was getting older. The finality of it hit him in the same place on his chest where Livvy had fisted her hand on her breast bone. Life’s threads were fragile.
Apparently, the thread between him and Livvy Halsey was fragile, too. He’d believed differently. Facing her had scared him, so too had her rejection. Emotion slid like quicksilver through his veins. His blood boiled worse than when he faced down real pirates.
“I always thought she was allowed too much freedom.” The Captain chuckled, settling in the chair. “A continental mother…what else can one expect?”
“Mrs. Halsey is a fine woman with a kind heart.” Jonas picked up the empty leather pouch that once held the watch. “So is Livvy.”
“Indeed. But one can only assume the disaster that comes from letting a girl have that much independence and book learning. Not to mention all that digging in the dirt she did with her father.” The Captain shivered visibly. “Disastrous.”
Jonas tucked the leather back in the sea chest. “Or it makes for a fascinating woman.”
“She’s a woman who wants her way.”
“Because she’s certain about what she wants. It’s refreshing.” His shoulders squared with a sense of purpose. Yes, Livvy knew what she wanted and she was not going to settle for anything less.
And she wanted his heart. Bared to him. Open. Honest. Ready to give and receive.
“Didn’t seem refreshing when you stormed in an hour ago,” the Captain said sagely.
He shut the sea chest. “Because I was angry.”
“And you solved your anger by stomping off?”
“No, she did.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned,” the Captain said, raising a bony finger to the ceiling. “With women, a man must try and try again until he gets it right.”
“What is the it in your wisdom, sir?”
The old man shrugged. “Understanding mystery of a woman. The right woman, the kind who makes a man move heaven and earth to have her because he will be miserable for the rest of his days if she is not by his side. That’s the it I mean.”
Jonas removed his earring and stared at the gold piece in his palm. He had crossed oceans, thinking of Livvy. He would cross them again if it meant reaching this ephemeral understanding. Slipping the gold onto his finger, it went past the first knuckle. Perhaps it wasn’t all that difficult. He didn’t have to cross an ocean. He had to cross a meadow and this time give Livvy what she wanted.
It was him. All of him. Even the parts he was scared to show.
“What are you going to do m’boy?”
“I’m going to try again. This time, I’ll get it right.” Jonas exited the room. From the corner of his eye, he caught the Captain’s fists clenched high in victory.
*
“The carving is amazingly intact,” Mr. Kendall said in awe.
Livvy wrapped her shawl tightly about, her breath fogging the tower window. True to form, Mr. Kendall insisted on seeing all items to be catalogued in the marital contract, especially the curule chair.
The rule of not allowing others into the tower was set aside.
Livvy stared out the mullioned window as lifeless and empty as she’d been since leaving Jonas at the tower door. The world of valuations and assets could hang. Her heart was broken. Pain stole her wish for conversation, and Mr. Haggerty thoughtfully left her alone. She’d tossed the blanket high up on the tower bed, but her betrothed saw the maneuver. His eyes flashed blackly and he stalked off to examine the broken gladius and breast plate, letting her stew while her mother and Mr. Kendall haggled over earthly goods.
There were more worthy things to discuss. Love or the lack of it.
But no one brought up that marital asset.
Livvy traced a circle in the foggy glass. This was not an auspicious beginning to her soon-to-be marriage.
Drawing in the glass, she spied a dark figure running through the meadow. She dragged her palm over the mullioned panes. Jonas? Snow kicked up behind him. His long legs ate up the ground as if the devil nipped his heels.
She unlatched the window. “Jonas?”
“Livvy!” He ran faster to the tower, his black coat flaring like a cape behind him until he was under her window. Jonas dropped down on both knees. He took off his hat and set it over his heart. “Livvy.”
There was a commotion behind her. Heels slamming the floor, voices, but she planted both hands wide on the windowsill and blocked them out.
“Is something wrong? Is the Captain in good health?”
“The Captain is well,” he said, panting from his sprint. “But, I am not.”
“What?” She leaned out at the waist.
“Livvy, I made a mess of things with you. I wasn’t entirely truthful.”
“What the devil is going on here?” Good Mr. Kendall tried to muscle his way to a spot at the window, but Mr. Haggerty grabbed his arm.
“Go on,” she said, facing out the window again.
Jonas pulled something off his forefinger and held it high between thumb and forefinger. Sunlight glinted on gold.
“It’s my earring. I told you and your mother only part of the story.”
“Why the devil does anyone care about the man’s earring?” Mr. Kendall said behind her.
“Mr. Kendall, please.” Her mother’s voice was at her shoulder. “I want to hear this.”
“The day I got the earring, I was waiting with the other sailors, but I was lonely. Sad.” His arms spread wide, hanging there a second before flopping to his sides. “I didn’t want to die alone. I wanted to be with people who meant a great deal to me. People like…you.”
Her breath caught. “Yes.”
“When it was my turn, I laid my head on the piercer’s table. He put a chunk of wood between my neck and earlobe. Just before he drove the needle into my ear he said something that changed everything. Something that made me decide to return to England…to return to you.”
“What was it?” her mother whispered at Livvy’s back.
“He warned me there would be pain.” Jonas smiled as if the weight of the world had come off his shoulders. “And then he said, ‘Think of what makes you happy’.”
“And?” Livvy’s hand balled tightly on her breastbone.
“I thought of you.”
Air gusted from her. Emotions twined, soft and endearing for the man pouring out his heart to her.
“I thought of years of laughing with you, of wading in the River Trent, and you speaking your mind and me listening. And I wanted more. I wanted the rest of my life to be that and more with you, because I love you, Livvy Halsey. I think I always have.”
“Oh, Jonas! Stay right there!” She tore across the room and sped down the stairs, her plain, leather shoes beating a staccato rhythm.
Outside the tower, she tromped through muddy snow, splashing her skirts. Jonas waited for her, both knees in the snow. She tackled him and showered his face with kisses as they rolled in the snow.
“I love you, Jonas,” she cried between kisses. Tears began to flow, wetting her cheeks and his. “I will marry you.”
“A tale of a painful ear-piercing?” Mr. Kendall’s voice carried from the tower. “That has to be the worst marriage proposal I have ever had the displeasure of hearing.”
“I think it’s wonderful,” her mother said, her voice joyful.
Jonas wrapped his arms and the ends of his coat around her, keeping his back in the snow. He kissed her tears and her cheeks. From her side vision, she spied Mr. Haggerty looking out the window, an odd half-smile on his face as she hugged Jonas.
Livvy couldn’t be sure, but she thought he said something about, “…this is a good time to renegotiate the price of the curule chair…”
She took the gold earring and slipped it on her finger. “I’ll wear this ring forever. Because whatever we do, whatever adventures are to be had, we are in this life together.”
Jonas caressed her cheek. In the tender touch was a promise of forever. “Always together, Livvy.” Slow and sweet, he kissed her, finishing with a whisper against her lips, “Always.”
The End