Chapter Eight

I craved the house. I needed it, needed its crystal embrace, and its smooth, hard certainness to guide me. The key was already in my hand, safe and warm, and all I needed to do was wait. I waited until I heard Maxie outside. I slid from the window, giving her my cold dinner before I went to the cottage. I did not look back at the fortress, though I could almost feel his eyes on me.

I felt the familiar warmth of the house curl around me. The air was still and strangely quiet and I walked boldly over the glass floor, no longer afraid of the rocks beneath me. Outside the window the moon was just a sliver of brightness, and the lights from the other side of the island twinkled against the darkness.

I heard Lucas at the door when he stepped inside, full of such confidence and surety, yet my coming to meet him was reduced to stealing away. I wished that there was a simple solution to my predicament, but I could see none.

Our lovemaking was brief and intense, and I left him inside the glass house when he shook me awake, just before dawn.

When I climbed back into my window there was a figure sitting on my bed. Mrs. Amber. I hesitated, frozen in the sill, and then realized that there was no choice but to continue, and I did so with the most dignity I could manage.

“Reyna.” Her voice was full of an emotion that I would never ascribe to her. It was full of sorrow. “Why wouldn’t you listen to me?”

“Mrs. Amber, it’s so complicated.”

“It’s really not, Reyna. Sad to say. Tell me, do you think you love him?”

“I…I do.”

“Christ alive.” She rubbed her temples with her fingers. “What have you done? Are you in a bad way?”

“No, not at all.”

“You know I’m only trying to protect you from…” She came toward me and I backed away.

“From what?” I asked. A strange sensation, an uneasy feeling passed over me.

“From making a mistake…” She reached her hand out to mine, and seemed to want to hold my hand, but instead the key tumbled out.

She gasped, a sharp noise that sliced the air between us. “No. You didn’t…this whole time you’ve had it?” Backing away from me, she put her hand over her mouth. “Why would you deceive me? Trick me? Pack your bag and leave,” she said. She held up her arm and pointed to the door before continuing on. “I can understand the misplaced, stupid passions of a young girl. Trust me, I can understand that. But, for you to sneak around like this, to connive and steal my key.”

“No. I am not a thief. That’s wrong. I can explain.” But could I? “Y-you can’t fire me,” I stammered. “You can’t.”

“I can and I did.”

“What about Lucas? He and I…”

“Of all the girls I’ve fired, he’s never complained once. See if you’ll be the one.”

“Please,” I begged her. I tried to angle past her, into the main house. I had to find him. She blocked me.

“Go.” Her voice was cold, so different from the sorrow she had just shown me.

I was angry and struck out at her. “You have no heart. I have feared and hated you since I was a child, and now is no different.”

Her lips pinched together and her voice came out in in a rush of anger. “I learned two things when I was your age. The first is that they never, ever come for you, and the second is that it’s best to avoid pain instead of recover from it, and I hope, one day, you’ll thank me for it.”

Bitterness raged inside me. “Never. I’ll never thank you for it.”

She turned away from me and scooped up the key “You have five minutes to dress and pack. Go.”

* * *

Tears blurred the world before me as I threw my belongings into my father’s old suitcase. It felt lighter than I remembered, because my heart and soul were no longer in it. I fled through the servants’ door and out onto the lawn. The steps, the doors loomed above me and I couldn’t bring myself to walk up them, to pound on them and yell for Lucas. If only I had the glass house around me. It would be easy.

I stood there, a lone figure, like a ghost that wouldn’t leave. A shutter opened just an inch, and I saw Mrs. Amber peeking out at me. She closed the shutter. I turned and walked away. The gates that seemed so ominous when I arrived put up no resistance, and I walked away from Devlin Manor and into the darkness below.

Even though the road led downhill, my pace was slow, each step hesitant. When I reached the dock, I learned that I had missed the late morning ferry back to my side of the island and that it would not arrive until evening. It didn’t matter, because I had nowhere to go. I walked, and without thinking I found myself in front of my father’s old fish stall. Roberto, the man who had bought the stall, stood behind the stand.

His milky-white eyes were kind, and he nodded a greeting at me. “Reyna,” he said kindly, and invited me to sit with him I put my suitcase down and tried to make small talk, but it was useless.

I said goodbye to Roberto and went tosit at my old favorite spot, right at the edge of the dock. I peered over wooden boards and the woman that looked back at me was dressed in somber colors and scuffed boots, and her eyes had the weight of the world upon them.

For a long time I sat there, until I heard a sniffling, chortling noise at my side, and turned to see Maxie, wagging her tail wildly, sitting right on top of my mended nets. Seeing Maxie snapped me out of my trance and I noticed that the sun had moved across the sky. I had been sitting and staring for a long time.

“Maxie!” I cried, and threw my arms around her. The first joy I had felt all day coursed through me. I breathed in the scent of Maxie, and put my face against her. I was delighted. She tried to wriggle into my lap, and almost pulled both of us into the water. We swung a little outward, and I saw a man in the reflection.

Lucas. I turned.

“I looked for you and you were gone,” he said. He sat down beside me. Maxie wiggled between us. “I spoke to Mrs. Amber, she accused you of—”

“I know,” I said quickly, fervently.

“Well,” he replied. He turned to me. “We both know the reason behind that. I don’t ever want to look and not be able to find you.” He threw the words at me like stones, like arrows intended to hurt me. But I saw that he was angry from deep emotion, and that made my heart leap.

It seemed that Maxie could sense my excitement, and she started wiggling again. I hadn’t noticed it before, but something dangled from her neck. A leather collar was wrapped around her neck, and dangling at the center of her chest, right above the white star of fur, was a ring, a yellow diamond fatter than my thumb.

“Lucas,” I whispered. I pulled at the collar and it unwound from Maxie’s neck. The ring slid along the rope and dropped into my open palm.

Lucas took my hand. “Reyna…” he said. He took a deep breath. “Will you marry me?”

Just like all those years ago, Lucas came to the docks and changed my life. “Yes!” I cried out, so loudly that those who were left on the pier turned and looked at us. Lucas drew me to standing, drew me into his arms and kissed me. Maxie clamored around us. I was happy at last.

The evening ferry arrived. It motored into the harbor slowly and bumped against the far dock. There were only a few passengers that late in the day, and they shuffled quickly from the boat, spilling onto the docks. The conductor called out the last call for boarding, his lonely voice echoing over the water. A handful of islanders boarded, and I realized with a shudder that I could have been one of them.

Lucas squeezed my hand suddenly. “I don’t want to wait,” he said. “Let’s go right now to the magistrate’s office and have them marry us.”

“Can they do that?” I asked. “Besides, they’re closed, the sun has set. Business hours are over,” I protested, but the blood in my veins raced along in excitement.

“You’re forgetting. I’m a St. Claire. Come, it’s not far.”

He led me to the offices, just outside the dock area. He pounded on the door and when there was no answer, he strode to a small house that was beside the building. A small wooden sign hung above the door that read Harbormaster.

The man who opened the door had clearly retired for the evening. His shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, and his suspenders hung loosely around his hips. “What is it man?” he shouted, but when he saw who it was standing in the darkness, his tone changed. “Sorry, sir.” He nodded. “St. Claire.”

“I need you to open the magistrate’s office. Now. I need a wedding performed.”

“Now? The man’s gone home.” The harbormaster protested.

“You’ll do. You’re a captain. An official. Hell, I’m an official. Grab a lamp, and unlock that door.”

The man did as he was told, scurrying around and gathering the keys and a lamp. He shot quick, curious glances at me, at the dog and finally at Lucas. He unlocked the door to the magistrate’s office and by the light of an oil lamp he dug around for the stamps and paperwork.

When he finally found them, he scribbled our names on the paper and we signed it before he pressed the stamp upon the paper. By the flickering light of the lamp, in a dark office with shadows of the furniture looming all around us and with a white dog at my feet, Lucas and I exchanged vows.

It was the best ceremony that I ever could have wished for, because I was marrying Lucas St. Claire. Those moments were bliss, pure bliss. Even if I’d had the foresight to know the troubles ahead, I would still have married him, because that ceremony was so meaningful and unexpected.

When we arrived at home, the mahogany doors were there waiting for me, and it felt no easier to walk through them. I needn’t have worried, though, because Lucas lifted me high into the air and carried me straight through them. The house was quiet and it was just he and I and we walked quietly down the hall and on to to the next part of our lives.