Finding Home by Candee Fick

Author:Candee Fick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian regency romance, sweet and clean historical romance, inspirational romance, fiction set in Cumbria England
Publisher: Candee Fick
Published: 2021-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

~March 1814

Setting one weary foot in front of the other, Nicholas finally neared the end of his journey home. With the village of Ravenglass ahead on the muddy road, he could not help but reflect on the past few months.

After escaping slavery in Morocco, he had worked his way across the poor and war-torn regions of Spain in increasingly colder weather while evading recapture and laboring for enough coin to survive. At long last, he had come upon a British military detail and felt honor-bound to send word to his superiors that he was still alive.

For a few weeks, he feared he would be required to rejoin the Royal Navy or risk punishment as a defector. He shuddered at the memories of war and the nightmares that had eased only slightly in Morocco...only to be replaced with new horrors as a slave.

He lifted his face toward the sun and breathed in the fresh sea air.

Word finally arrived at the British outpost that he had been feared dead after the prison escape in France and that he had since been released from duty with the thanks of a grateful nation.

While glad at the veiled confirmation that at least some of the other escapees had survived, there had been no financial support or assistance offered to see him the rest of the way home. He had felt the slight, then resigned himself to the reality that all their efforts were likely focused on the push into France.

So, after leaving the outpost, he found a Spanish port where English ships sometimes stopped...then labored once again to earn the money for his passage since his letter to his father went unanswered.

God only knew what that might mean for his homecoming reception.

Nicholas passed a sign on the outskirts of Ravenglass and picked up his pace. It had been almost eleven years since he had set sail expecting only to be gone for a year at most.

He glanced around at the changes in the village with more homes and larger trees. However, of it all, he had changed more than they.

Had he finally made his father proud and honored the Pennington name?

He almost tripped over a loose cobblestone, then blamed his hole-ridden boots. Having escaped slavery with only the clothes on his back, he had since managed to accumulate a small bag of spare clothing. But only the necessities, leaving him in rough workman’s garb with long hair and a thick beard after not seeing a razor for months.

No matter, for a castle awaited.

He chuckled. If they even remained, his boyhood garments would never fit his current frame. But perhaps his father would overlook such things in the joy of their reunion.

Then again, he could not help but recall the decorum required in the dining room and already felt the stricture of society’s rules shackling the relative freedoms he had enjoyed over the past decade.

Seeing the sign for The Fox ahead, he decided to stop by the pub for a meal and information. He needed his strength and perhaps even a strategy before walking the final mile east to Muncaster.

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