IT WAS TWILIGHT WHEN A TROUBLED FALLON MADE HIS WAY TO THE fisherman’s shack on the edge of the marsh. He tried to put Caleb Visser’s problems out of his mind, to compartmentalize his thoughts, for this was the special place where he and Elinore met to be alone, to talk and make plans and make love. It would not do to be preoccupied.
When he knocked and the door opened he gasped.
She was wearing nothing but a grin.
He slid his arms around her waist and kissed her softly, smiling through the kiss and then laughing out loud. Elinore giggled and began tearing at his clothes, throwing his jacket aside and pulling at his shirt to open it and feel his flesh against hers. She pulled him to the small bed and then down on top of her as he fumbled for the buttons on his breeches. When at last the two of them had his clothes off they kissed deeply, no laughing this time, only the quick breaths of anticipation that came like small gasps.
He began moving over her slowly, kissing her neck and moving to her breasts. She squirmed and reached down to guide him inside her, but he pulled back, back and down to the delicious scent below her waist. When finally he nuzzled her there, kissed her there, she gripped the bed-covers tightly and gave herself over to him, to whatever he wanted to do. In a moment she began crying softly in spasms of ecstasy.
And when she was sated and spent and almost incapable of movement, she moved. She turned over and presented herself to him and he mounted her from behind. They began a rhythmic back and forth that didn’t end until he cried out in release and he collapsed by her side.
In minutes, they were both asleep.
The fire slowly began to die and the shack grew darker, the single candle on the table flickering its light off the walls when they awoke sometime later. It was now dark outside and Fallon rose to put some wood on the fire and light a second candle. Elinore had brought early spring flowers for the little table, a bottle of wine and some cheese. The fire made the shack warm and, obviously, romantic.
“Your backside looks good in candlelight, Nico, I must say,” Elinore giggled.
“I bet you say that to all the sailors,” Fallon said as he poked the flames.
“Only to the ones who promise to marry me,” Elinore replied. “Speaking of which, perhaps we should open the wine and talk about the wedding.”
This is the moment he’d been waiting for, dreading actually, a moment when the night could grow colder. He sat at the table and faced her.
“When are you thinking it should be, love?” he asked, and something in his voice put her on notice that the conversation could take a turn she wasn’t expecting.
“When do you want it to be?” she asked, suddenly wary. “Do you want it to be later?”
“Maybe late June, I think,” he said, trying to sound normal. “When it’s warmer and the flowers are all blooming.”
“Late June is fine, Nico. But something is on your mind that you’re not saying. Tell me. Do you still want to be married?” She held her breath.
“More than anything in my life,” he said, and said it like he meant it. She exhaled.
“But…?” she asked.
“No, no but,” he said, unconvincingly. “I’m just worried about Caleb Visser, I think. He’s been on my mind a bit. That’s all you’re seeing.”
“What are you worried about, Nico?”
“Ahem,” he began.
“Ahem,” again.
Then: “I have been reading quite a bit about the Barbary situation. It’s very complicated and could be extremely dangerous. I hope Caleb knows what he’s getting into, is all. He’ll probably be fine and it will all turn out well, but… well, that’s it.”
There, it was out. He’d said it out loud and now he winced in the darkness, afraid to look at the woman he loved for fear she knew what was coming next.
“And…” she said. Wanting him to get it all out, whatever was bothering him, put it on the table next to the wine and cheese. Come on, Nico.
“And, I’m worried that he’s a cod fisherman, really, and not prepared for what he might find over there. It… it could be beyond him, all alone like that.”
“You want to take Caleb to Algiers to get his father, is that where this is going?” she asked, knowing that’s exactly where it was going.
A silence. The fire glowed red and the wine stood unopened on the table.
“What about the wedding, Nico?” Elinore asked, barely masking her sadness.
“If I start now I believe I can be back in plenty of time for the wedding,” answered Fallon, knowing full well that Elinore knew that wind and sea were unpredictable. But, in truth, he was worried about missing Visser in English Harbor more than he was worried about missing the wedding. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been, and it was not something he wanted to admit to Elinore. But ships came and went from English Harbor frequently and Visser could get lucky and find one quickly and then finding him on the Atlantic would be difficult, if not impossible. As with so much at sea, there was not a moment to lose.
“Nico,” said Elinore, a sadness in her voice now. Her mother was long dead and her father would be useless to help her plan a wedding. Fallon wasn’t supposed to be going anywhere. “There are a million details to a wedding. I thought you would be here to help me. I always imagined it would be fun to plan it together.”
There was nothing he could say to that, and he didn’t try. Whether he would actually add anything to the planning or not was really beside the point, and he knew it.
“Tell me why, Nico. Why do you have to go?” she asked with full eyes.
It was a simple answer, and yet it wasn’t. Fallon would be putting himself and his crew into danger, perhaps grave danger. He now knew enough to know that much. But the problem was that Caleb Visser didn’t know what he didn’t know. He could be innocently sailing into the maw of the lion on a noble mission to save his father, and everything in Fallon’s body said that neither of them would come back alive.
“It… it’s what I feel I should do,” he said simply, knowing it was inadequate but absolutely true. “I promised Caleb when we rescued him that he would find his father. And that I would stand behind him. Frankly, I never expected he would find his gold.”
Elinore stared at the ceiling. This is not how she imagined the next few months would go. Fallon had been away so much, and now he was choosing to go away again. And who could know if he would even be back by their wedding day? That sent her lower still and tears ran down her cheeks and into her ears. She was about to get up and get dressed to leave when she looked at him sitting at the table looking sadder than she’d ever seen him. Terribly sad, and naked.
In spite of her hurt and anger her heart went out to him. Perhaps he really could be back in time if he left right away. And maybe, in the scheme of things, planning a wedding didn’t compare to what he felt he had to do to protect their friend.
“Perhaps I could wait a few days, Elinore, and we could begin plan–”
“No, Nico, you have a ship to get ready to sail,” Elinore interrupted, raising up on one elbow. “So I have a better idea. I’m going with you to English Harbor. At least we’ll have a little more time together and I can ask Paloma to help me plan the wedding. She’s the one person I can think to ask.” It was true that Elinore and Paloma were great friends. No doubt Paloma would be more than happy to help.
But … was all Fallon could think to say, and then he thought better of even saying that. Elinore was giving him what he needed, as she so often did, and asking very little in return. He looked at her with love and astonishment. He could see she was obviously disappointed, but she had fought for clear air, and instead of making it difficult for him, she’d made it easy. Somehow his deep appreciation and respect for her went deeper still and when he opened his mouth no words would immediately come.
“Don’t,” she said, holding up a finger. “I will never keep you from doing what you think is right. Just take me along on the way, please. Include me in your heroic ideas, Nico, if we’re going to have a life together.”
And then she opened her arms and pulled him back to the bed again and very soon Fallon couldn’t imagine sailing to English Harbor or anywhere else without her.