Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Are you certain this is what you want to do?” Godfrey asked.
Daniel scowled at the valet but said nothing.
“Just double checking…” Godfrey pulled his coat in tighter, shivering from the freezing cold as well as the water that sprayed across his face. “Last minute changes of mind are always welcome.”
“As I have told you a dozen times, my mind is made up.” Daniel scowled in warning once more. “You mention it again, and the cold will be the least of your concerns.”
“I never was much for travel by boat either,” Godfrey offered with a pitiful chuckle. “I tend to get seasick.”
“You have a few tough months ahead then.”
“Don’t I know it.”
Daniel could feel Godfrey watching him out of the corner of his eyes, the overly familiar valet clearly wishing to push the issue further.
But Daniel clenched his jaw and fixed his gaze ahead, determined to force silence because the last thing he needed right now was a reason to have his mind changed.
That I am looking for that reason should be enough to tell me this is the wrong thing. That I want him to keep pressing at me, as if to wear me down… why do I refuse to admit it?
But it was too late, and Daniel clung to that fact as if it was a raft in a storm.
It was he and Godfrey alone. They stood by the end of the pier, their eyes cast down its length at the ship which was just now being loaded and set for the coming trip.
Dozens of sailors crowded the area and hurried up its deck, each carrying heavy boxes and chests and wooden barrels and sacks of foodstuffs needed for the coming months at sea.
The morning was as dreary and morose as Daniel had expected; as if the day had woken with a determination to match his mood.
Clouds sat dark in the sky. Snow drifted lightly from their bosom.
Sharp winds whipped and cut at exposed skin.
And the ocean beneath Daniel’s feet thrashed and roared its anger, its spray a wet and cold warning of what was to come.
“Any minute now,” Daniel said, more to himself than Godfrey.
“Aye,” Godfrey agreed. “The captain said he’d come for us when it was time. Should be soon.”
“No going back.” He spoke distantly, his voice wavering in the wind. “No going back…”
This was the right move. The only move, as far as Daniel was concerned.
This world was not for him, this life not one to be sought after or held onto.
Everyone Daniel had ever known or loved was better off for him leaving, and only once he was as far from these shores as possible might he finally have a chance to…
to what? To find happiness? To live peacefully?
To forget what he was leaving behind? He wished he knew.
Thoughts of Alison ruined him.
That she had come to him last evening, that she had announced her love, was more than he could handle. It had broken him, very nearly forced him from this path because once she spoke those words, they lit inside of him a fire that had sat dormant now for years.
One which told him, as he had always known, that he loved her too.
It does not matter that I love her, and that is what she fails to understand. She will be better off without me… she will find someone worthy of her… this is the only way.
“There he is,” Godfrey sighed. “About time, all things considered.”
Daniel nodded with understanding when he saw the captain of their ship trudging down the dock. He waved at them to join him, the sea beneath his feet rocking the pier.
It’s time. No going back…
Daniel indicated to the captain that he saw him. Deep inside, there was that final effort brought from his conscience not to do this, begging him to stay and go to Alison. But Daniel, ever the stubborn one, fought it back and started his way down the pier.
“My lord!” a voice cried from behind him. “Wait! My lord! Stop! Please!”
Daniel spun about at the sounding of his name, and he scrunched his face and leaned back when he spied none other than Tommy sprinting down the docks and toward the pier.
“Tommy?”
“You have to help!” Tommy was red in the face, panting heavily, and he bent over to catch his breath when he reached where Daniel stood. “You have to! She… she… please!”
“Help?” Daniel asked. “What are you talking about?”
“They took her!” Tommy cried. “Those men – the same ones from before. They took her and she needs your help!”
It was then that Daniel understood. Perhaps not the exactness of it, but the general thrust of what Tommy was saying. He felt his blood turn cold. He felt that pit in his stomach widen further. He felt… he felt… he felt real fear, the type that made the world around him turn dark.
“Alison?” he said.
Tommy nodded eagerly. “Yes! They snatched her – I saw ‘em. Threw her in the back of a cart and took off –”
“Where?” he asked. “Where did they take her?”
“I don’t know,” Tommy said. “Soon as I saw ‘em I came running. Please! You have to help her. You just have to!”
It wasn’t a question of whether he would or would not help. There was no maybe about it. No need to consider or think things through. If what Tommy said was true, Lady Alison was in danger and needed his help. And if that was the case…
“Show me the way.” He turned and strode from the pier.
“My lord!” Godfrey called after him. “The boat? They’re not going to wait for you if you leave. You know they won’t.”
Daniel looked back at his valet. “Is that a problem, Godfrey?”
To that, Godfrey smiled. “Not at all, my lord. Just double-checking.”
Daniel raced from the docks, Tommy leading the way. He did not care about his trip to the Americas. He did not care about what had happened between himself and Alison last night. He did not care about anything other than Alison’s safety. That, as far as he was concerned, was all that mattered.
It was easier than it should have been to find Alison. And for this, Daniel could not have been more grateful.
Tommy took Daniel to where he had seen the two men leading her away in the back of their cart, which, as luck had it, was also where they found Pickle.
“Pickle!” Tommy ran to the frightened dog, which was whining and looking lost as if hoping Alison would appear suddenly. It saw Tommy coming, and yelped and ran for him, jumping up his legs and licking his face.
“This is where you saw her?” Daniel asked. He stood by the road, taking immediate note of the deep tracks through the snow. Thank God a snowstorm had not come since she was taken, as that might have covered the tracks and made her all but impossible to find.
“Right here,” Tommy assured him. “Seen ‘em go that way.” He then pointed down the road the way that the tracks wound.
“What do you think?” Godfrey asked as he came in beside Daniel. “Who knows how far they go on for. Or where they lead.”
“We’re about to find out.” Daniel stormed toward his horse, his mind set on one thing and one thing only.
“Godfrey,” he instructed as he pulled himself onto his horse.
“Head into town and fetch the mayor. Tell him what you know and have him follow as quickly as possible – with help! Anyone he can find.”
“You’re going alone?” Godfrey asked. “Are you certain that’s a good idea?”
“Likely not,” Daniel conceded. “But every second counts, and I will not waste another if it means the difference between Alison’s life or not.” His stomach twisted as he considered that reality, the very real possibility that he might be too late…
No, I cannot think that way. I will not think that way! She is fine, and she will be fine. All I need to do is find her and this will all be over.
“What about me?” Tommy asked.
“Go with Godfrey,” he said. Then he hurriedly added, “I can’t risk anyone else getting hurt.” Tommy scrunched his face but nodded his understanding. It was at that point when Daniel’s eyes fell upon Pickle, and an idea came to mind. “On second thought, hand Pickle to me.”
Tommy frowned. “How come?”
Daniel chuckled, despite himself. “It might help to have an extra set of sharp teeth about.”
With Pickle sitting on his lap and Godfrey and Tommy heading into town, Daniel kicked his heels into the side of his mount and steered it to follow the deep tracks that wound gently through the snow.
As he followed them, he could not help but chastise himself for how he had behaved, and how blind he was to the truth.
Daniel wanted to not feel the way he did about Alison.
He would have preferred it if he did not care for her, if he wished to never see her again – how easy that would make things.
But where was it written that such things were meant to be easy?
The fact of the matter was this: Daniel cared deeply for Alison. In fact, as he pushed his horse along the snow drenched road, as he tamed the worry and fear that swelled inside of him, he knew that simply caring for her was not at all accurate, that it did not begin to touch on how he truly felt.
And it was as he rode, as he imagined Alison, as he thought of what he would do to see her to safety, that Daniel finally admitted to himself that which he had always known but had been too scared to concede: he loved Alison, and it really was that simple.
I only wish I had told her last evening… last week… the moment that I met her. And if something should happen to her and I do not get the chance… no, I cannot allow myself to think that way.
So it was that relief swelled inside of Daniel when he finally came to what he had to assume to be where she was being kept.
The track marks led to a small cabin which sat on the outskirts of Whitehaven. It was built against the tree line, the roof covered in snow, the shrubs from the forest growing up its timber and around its frame as if swallowing the cabin whole. Had he not been looking, Daniel might have missed it.
Outside the cabin sat a single cart and two horses. They shivered in the cold, suggesting further at exactly who these men were… or what they were.