“I’ve nodoubt,” he replied and stretched out on the floor. “But I’m notsure I can say the same for your husband.”
“Henryunderstands,” I told him and fought back another yawn. “I’ve toldhim a great deal about you. Aboutus, and what we went through. He hoped for your survival just as Idid.” And then I added, before my tired head sunk down into mypillow, “Welcome to the family, Benjamin.”
ChapterFourteen
“Where exactly are we going, again?” Lottie asked andcrossed her arms defiantly. She’d been furious when I’d showed upat The Siren’s Call earlier that morning with a strange man in tow,after being gone all night with no word of where I went.
“To a farm upNorth,” I reminded her again. “A friend’s home.”
“This friend,”she said, “Pleeman?”
“Yes,” Ireplied and stole a glance out the carriage window.
“The one whois dead?”
At my side,Benjamin grumbled under his breath and turned his attention out thewindow on his side. He and Lottie weren’t exactly off to a greatstart. He’d bellowed at her to shut up when she went off on me thatmorning and she’d been giving him the silent side-eye the wholetrip.
“Look, Pleemanwas a kind old man. He saved my life on that island. And then againaboard the ship.” I grasped my cloak at the neck, calming my breathat the memory of Abraham’s hands on me. “He… gave his life to savemine. I owe him this.”
“We’re almostthere, sweetness,” Benjamin said.
“Stop callingher that!” Lottie cawed.
His eyeswidened in annoyance. “I’ll call her whatever the damn Hell Iplease, woman!”
She reachedher foot across the carriage and kicked his leg. Benjamin growledand kicked her back. Before an all-out kicking fight ensued, Ishifted in my seat to block my two childish friends.
“What theHell, you guys?” I glanced back and forth, both crossed arms andlooked away. “How old are you, again? Four? Jesus. Grow up. Getalong.” I moved back in my seat as the carriage made a slight turnand caught Lottie’s gaze. “You’ll have to learn to like oneanother. Benjamin’s part of the crew now.”
She balked atmy words. “What? Does Henry know this?”
I shrugged.“More or less. It’s my ship, anyway. I’m the captain and what I saygoes. Henry will be happy with whatever choices I make.”
Beside me,Benjamin sat up straight and gave Lottie a look of triumph.
She didn’trespond, and the carriage finally came to a stop. The door openedand in came a cool gust of light snow, chilling me to the bone. Iached to back in the warmth of my quarters where the little fireburned all night. Benjamin had to pry me from the bed that morning,insisting that my people would be worried. And she had been.
Furiouslyworried.
Benjaminexited first and then aided me down the couple of steps.Surprisingly, he held a hand out in offer for Lottie, but sherefused and jumped from the carriage in defiance. I’d find a way tomake them get along, eventually.
“This isPleeman’s home?” Lottie asked and gawked at the scene before us.“Are you sure we’re in the right place?”
We stood,staring in silence and taking in the sad view of what had obviouslyonce been a thriving home. An overgrown treeline encroached on thedilapidated property; a weathered and leaning house in thedistance, a rotten fence stuck up in places through the fallensnow.
An old barn,its roof caved in on one side, sat lonely in the meadow. My eyesfell on a wooden sign at the end of the driveway, barely hanging onby a single rusty nail. The words, beaten by time, read TheWhitby’s and a heavy pit dropped to the bottom of my emptystomach. I glance at Benjamin, who also spotted the sign, and weexchanged a sigh.
“No, we’re inthe right place,” I said.
We wadedthrough the few inches of freshly fallen snow, circling theabandoned property. Benjamin went off toward the house, peering inthe windows and Lottie took off to the barn. I went out back of thesmall farmhouse, noting the never-ending stretch of property andadmiring the wonderful life Pleeman must have had once upon atime.
But alsofeeling the crushing sadness of the deserted property, how hisfamily must have packed up and left once they realized he wasn’tcoming back. A tear escaped and ran down my cheek, turning cold andsticking to the skin there. I spun around and began trekking backtoward the house when my foot caught something hard in the snow.With the toe of my boot, I brushed aside some of the dense powderto reveal a small flat stone, raised from the ground, a few jaggedletters poking through. My heart caught in my throat as I anxiouslywiped away the rest of the white cover.
Aheadstone.
“Benjamin!Lottie!” I called out. “Over here!”
My two friendsrushed over in a huff and stopped by my side where I pointed down.It took a moment, but they realized what it was. Benjamin moanedsadly as Lottie gasped and covered her mouth.
“No,” hewhispered in the breeze as he knelt down in the snow to furtheruncover the markings.
The more heshoved aside, the more revealed. Four more stones, each marked witha name. Gertie, Sara, Tessie, Janny,and then Collette. Pleeman’s wife, I assumed. I criedsilently as Lottie wrapped one arm around my shoulder, holding mecomfortingly. They’d waited. They’d waited for their father andhusband to return and he never did. They’d spent their last yearson this earth wondering where he’d gone. Probably wondering if heabandoned them. And there he was, trapped aboard a cursed ship,forced to sell his soul until he found a way back to his belovedgirls.
Benjaminreached into his satchel and pulled out the clay jar that heldPleeman’s ashes, then set it on the ground next to the last grave.Collette’s. With his bare, monstrous hands, Benjamin began to hackaway at the nearly frozen earth, digging a small and shallow hole.Lottie and I stood by, watching as he popped the cork top of thejar and poured a sprinkle of ashes over each grave before layingthe jar down into the hole. He began to sift the loose soil overtop when I dropped to my knees at his side. Tears streaming down myface.
“He wasbrave,” I told the stones. “Your father, I promised him I’d tellyou how brave
