Storm by Jayne Fresina

Author:Jayne Fresina [Fresina, Jayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical Romance, Victorian
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

She sat with her spine very straight, hands in her lap, her wine glass only half empty. Her lips were pressed firmly together, but her eyes glittered with a passionate curiosity.

"You hadn't heard the rumors about Steadfast Putnam's ill-spent youth, before you came here?" he said.

"How would I? I'd never heard the name before."

"Not even on your travels through the countryside on your way here?" There was something she was hiding. He knew that. "Not even in a letter from your good friend the Reverend?"

She looked amused. "It may surprise you to hear this, Mr. Deverell, but the goings-on in this part of the world are not reported far and wide as you seem to suppose. An old farmer living on ten acres of Cornish moor is hardly likely to become newsworthy beyond the span of his own acquaintance."

"Aye, but he was more than an old farmer. In his younger days he worked with a gang of wreckers."

"Wreckers?"

"During storms they deliberately guided ships onto rocks along the coast, murdered any crew that survived the waves, then made off with whatever bounty they carried."

"How dreadful. Are you sure it's true? His wife seemed such a sweet lady."

"She probably never knew about his past." He gave a snort of derision. "Another reason not to marry. Never know what you're going to find out about the other person when it's too late. Or what dark secrets they might keep from you forever."

Her eyes dulled suddenly. "Perhaps she did know, but found forgiveness in her heart. Perhaps he was repentant and trying to make up for his past."

Storm chuckled. "Old Steadfast? Never. Timid little Mary married a murderer and never knew it. While she slept in their marriage bed, he could have crushed her skull with a rock one night, just like he did to those luckless folk down in the bay so many years ago."

She said softly, "But he didn't harm her, did he?"

"As long as she lived in ignorance he didn't need to."

Kate picked up her spoon again but let it drift aimlessly through the soup. "You don't believe a sinner can repent then? In your eyes they will always be guilty."

"There's a lot o' things I could forgive. Can't get a much bigger sinner than my own father and I forgave him long ago, but then he never deceived about what he was or what he'd done. As long as there's deception, how can there be repentance or forgiveness?"

A puzzled look had come over her face, so he explained further, "Nothing is ever beyond fixing, but the root of the trouble has to be found and mended first. Like that damp patch over there on the wall for instance. If you simply cover it over, it will always show through again eventually. A man has to find what's causing it and put that right. It might be a lot of work, inconvenient and costly, but its false economy to use a quick and temporary fix. It might deceive the eye, but not for long.

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