A powerful weariness came over me. I knew I shouldn’t sleep—my life was at stake—but my body could no longer hold on.
* * *
“Frannie!”
I woke to the sound of Mercy’s shouts. My gut seized, dizziness nearly overtaking me. For a moment, nothing made sense. I didn’t understand why Mercy stood on the moonlit beach, waving her arms frantically, nor why I’d been sleeping on the wherry at sea. Then I remembered with a gasp.
Saints…what had I done?
Taking the tiller, I steered for shore. The sea was still rough and the wherry had taken water from leaks, but I managed to cruise right into the shallows, where she met me.
“Lord, Frannie!” Mercy wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me out. “You’re bleeding so much!”
We stumbled through the water together, my legs shuddering and shaking, my mind still not understanding. This was our beach, the beach where we turned cartwheels through the shallows. Where we danced round bonfires and watched sea turtle hatchlings scurry into the sea, so tiny and brave. But I didn’t recognize it now. All manner of items were strewn everywhere. Anchor cables and shattered timber. Shoes, hats, bottles, and jars.
“It’s wreckage,” Mercy said. “Don’t stop, Frannie.”
We stumbled up the beach, clearing the reach of the waves. “In heaven’s name, what happened?” She took me by the shoulders, the fear plain in her bright eyes.
I opened my mouth to tell her. A sob left me instead.
“Hush now.” She drew me down. “Here, sit. Breathe a minute and calm down. Lord, you’re cold.” She scooted beside me, wrapping an arm over my shoulders.
I breathed and breathed, till I’d shored myself up. Then I told her that Sewel had struck me, and that I’d knocked him overboard. It seemed unreal as I said it, like something I’d imagined.
“About time,” Mercy said. “But you ought to have finished him. He’s at your house and he’s in a fury, Fran. A murderous fury.”
“I can’t go home,” I said numbly. The sand was falling away from beneath me. The whole word, sinking.
“Never again, Frannie. If he catches you, he’ll kill you.”
“Where am I to go?” Everyone I knew lived on this island. I looked at the wherry, so battered after such a rough night. “Even if I had anyplace else, how am I supposed to get there?”
My eyes pulled to a splash of red floating beside it, the color bright even in the darkness. As a wave swept past, I saw a slender arm. The pale curve of a shoulder.
A body.
“Mercy, do you see that?”
“Hush.” She tensed beside me. “I hear something.”
More than anything, Mercy feared the runaway catchers that came to the island from time to time, but all I heard were the waves throwing themselves against the beach and the wind shaking the palmetto leaves. Finally, I heard someone calling in the distance.
“Hallo, there!”
“Is anybody out there?” called another voice.
They were around the bend, the sky around the point brighter with the glow of torches, but their voices carried clear to us on the wind.
“It’s only a search party,” I said. “Looking for survivors from the wreck.” And they wouldn’t find any. I looked toward the body floating in the shallows. A warm wave of hope swept over me. Suddenly I found myself walking over to it.
The woman looked younger than I expected. Much younger. Near in age to me. She swayed with the waves, her dark hair waving like a flag about her head. Her eyes were half-closed and her mouth was slightly open, giving her dreamy look. A look like she’d just blown out a candle.
I turned to Mercy, who’d followed me. “Mercy, do you think she looks…”
“Yes. Close enough.”
“Quick, then. Help me with her gown.”
“Thank the good Lord,” said the big man with the shining buttons as he shook his head in amazement. “Miss Emmeline—you’re alive!”
Miss Emmeline—that was the dead girl’s name. The name of the girl I’d just become.
He handed his torch to one of the men behind him and took a careful step toward me, opening his hands in the air. “Please…have no fear. My name is Ruben Jansen. I captain the Ambrosia for your father. Your humble servant, madam.”
He swept off his hat and bowed.
No man had ever bowed to me before.
Was it possible? Was my hastily thought-out disguise working?
Captain Jansen settled his hat and stared at me for long moments. “Miss Emmeline, can you hear me?”
Fresh panic fired through me. I could hear him fine—what I couldn’t do was speak. I knew how I sounded, gritty and coarse. Two words from my lips and I’d surely give myself away.
I nodded and dropped my gaze to the crimson silk that poured over me, my heart pounding crazily. The gown was made for a taller, rounder body—a body that now floated not far from where I stood. What if they saw her?
“Her skin’s blue as polar ice, Cap’n,” said one of the sailors. “She’s froze to death.” There were a dozen of them, all gawping at me, their torches flickering in the dawn.
“That’s a wicked crack on ’er head,” said another.
“Unnatural, a lass surviving such a trial. God’s had a hand in this.”
“Or the devil.”
That started them discussing whose hand it was that’d saved Miss Emmeline from a shipwreck no man had survived.
As they carried on, I glanced toward the beach trail. Where was Sewel? If he appeared, my life would truly be over.
The captain took a step closer and crouched on his heels. “Miss Emmeline, we must get you out of the rain,” he said gently. One of his eyes was clouded, like milk had been stirred into it. He held his head slightly askance to give the good eye a fuller view. “We must get you to a warm place.” He pointed. “Around that bend are boats that will take you to the Ambrosia. I shall be with you every step of the way and, on my life, miss, I promise you will be perfectly safe.”
This was exactly what I wanted. A way off this island.
I began to walk, my tired legs shuddering beneath the heavy, soaked petticoats. The cut above my eye kept bleeding, blinding me on that side and worsening my dizziness.
Halfway to the bend, my strength gave way. The captain swept me up before I hit the sand. I found myself in the basket of his arms, tensing as needles of fear sank in.