Sea Jade by Phyllis A. Whitney

Author:Phyllis A. Whitney
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504047289
Publisher: Open Road Media Romance
Published: 2017-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

TEN

“If you please,” Lien said, her manner humble, her eyes downcast, “is it your wish that I move from this house?”

“Why should you move?” I asked, taken by surprise at the unexpected question. “This is your home, just as it was before.”

She made a vague motion with her hands. “I am only a woman. My opinion is not worth anything. My wishes are of no account.”

I felt impatient with her. “I’m a woman too, and I don’t feel that your wishes are of no account. None of this has been my doing and I want to change nothing of the present arrangement in the two houses. As Captain Obadiah’s wife, your rights will surely not be overlooked. This is your home for as long as you want to live here.”

She slipped her crossed hands into opposite sleeves and bowed her head over them. “I am humbled to the earth before your goodness.”

I suspected that she was less humble than she seemed, and that a disconcerting mockery underlay her words. While I hesitated, at a loss for anything else to say, she bowed to me politely and went out of the room.

When she had gone, I stood in the empty parlor trying to understand what had happened to me, trying to fathom the turnings of Captain Obadiah’s mind. But the sense of unreality that I had so often felt in this house was upon me again. At every move some strange fate had forced my hand and brought undeserved distrust and hatred upon me.

There was only one person to whom I could turn in the face of these new events. Ian had said to come and tell him what happened. I would do so without delay. But when I looked into the library he was no longer there and I decided to see if he had returned to work on the figurehead.

I went to the lighthouse at once and found my supposition correct. In his workroom Ian stood before the figurehead, and I saw that a change in it was being wrought. Under mallet and chisel the rough planes of the head had begun to take shape.

“You’ve decided to finish her?” I asked. “You’ve decided about her face?”

He laid down his tools at the sight of me. “Perhaps. You look as though the sky had fallen, Miranda. What has happened?”

“For me it has. Except for Lien’s dower rights and a few legacies, everything has been left to Miranda Heath. I don’t know what to make of it. I find it most dreadful to contemplate.”

Ian whistled softly in astonishment. He seemed no happier than I as he regarded me. When he spoke he put something of his distressed wonderment into words.

“An hour ago you were as poor as I—perhaps poorer,” he mused. “You were a trapped, unhappy girl. I had even begun to believe that what has happened was none of your doing. Now you are heiress to the Bascomb fortune—an important and wealthy woman in your own right. We no longer occupy the same plane, do we?”

“That’s foolish!” I cried.

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