Chapter Twenty-Five
It was dark when I left for the docks in the morning.
I hadn’t bothered to wake Bri, though in truth, I’d half expected her to be up and dressed.
I didn’t have a lot of practice with goodbyes, so as far as I was concerned, the fewer, the better.
Argyle had taken to sleeping with Bri, so I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to him, either.
I was starting to think I’d need to find myself a new cat if I ever made it home.
There were several ships in the harbor already boarding passengers. Fortunately, day was breaking, and I could see the words painted on the wooden hulls of the ships.
“The Sea Mither,” I said to myself, staring up at the schooner. It looked seaworthy, as far as I could tell, which meant absolutely nothing. I only knew it was a schooner because Finlay had called it one when I’d told him which ship I booked passage on.
I watched other passengers board for a few minutes, wishing I were still at home in bed, that I’d never allowed myself to get into this position in the first place.
As if Mr. Wexley knew I might have second thoughts, Fromme materialized in the crowd, staring directly at me.
I started to head for the gangway when a hand landed on my shoulder.
“Good morning,” Finlay said when our eyes met. I had known he would come, but a part of me wondered if it would only make this harder.
“Good morning,” I said.
“I brought you something.” He handed me a wee pie wrapped in a hand-embroidered cloth.
“Did your mother make this?” I asked, running my fingertip over the stitched gray kitten that was clearly supposed to be Argyle.
He held a hand to his chest, affronted. “I spent hours working on that,” he said. “Can’t you tell?”
I looked closer and smiled. The yellow eyes were focused in two different directions, and now that I was studying it, I realized he only had three paws.
“I ran out of time,” Finlay said sheepishly.
“It’s perfect.” I set my trunk down, placing the pie on top of it.
“I have something for you, too.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the watch I’d purchased for Finlay.
I hadn’t known when to give it to him, figuring a time would come that felt right.
As usual, that time ended up being the last possible minute.
“A present for me?” he asked as I dropped it into his outstretched hand. “Oh, Willow, it’s beautiful.” He turned it over, running his fingers over the delicate engraving. When he looked up at me, his expression was inscrutable. “It’s too much,” he said. “Really.”
I scuffed my toe in the dirt. “Just don’t want you running late, that’s all,” I lied. The truth was, it wasn’t enough. Nothing would be. We stood in awkward silence for a minute before I couldn’t stand the tension anymore.
“You should go. There are papers to deliver.”
Without a word, he brushed my hair back from my face, letting his hands rest on my shoulders. “You don’t need to push me away, Willow. Not when you’re literally about to get on a ship.”
I ducked my head, feeling awkward and confused.
I’d thought about our kiss for most of last night, because it was far preferable than thinking about this mess I’d gotten myself into.
Had Finlay been kissing a lot of girls? I wondered.
All this time, had I been the blushing, inexperienced dunderhead while he was off wooing women?
“Unless,” he said, one of his fingers twisting in my hair, “you want me to come with you. Because I will. I can be ready in twenty minutes. You know I’ve always wanted to go to the Sapphire Isles. I wouldn’t be a bother—”
“No,” I said, raising my eyes to his. “Your mother needs you, and Bri can’t run the shoppe all on her own. I’ll be fine. I’ll go, I’ll look for the tree, and if I can’t find it—”
“You’ll come home,” he said softly. “Promise me you’ll come home, Willow. Whatever happens, we’ll find a way to help Bri, together.”
The way he was looking at me, I was certain he knew the truth. Or at least, he knew I was lying about the tree. Maybe he thought I was going to look for dragon bones. Maybe he thought I was running away entirely. Tell him, a voice in my head screamed. Tell him, you stupid, daft cow!
“Of course I’ll come home,” I said, glancing at him from under my lashes. “You promised me a lesson, if I recall correctly.”
He hesitated, as though seeing right through me.
Don’t give up on me, I wanted to tell him.
Not just yet. Dear, loyal boy that he was, he flashed a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“That I did. You be safe, now.” He stepped back.
“Try not to eat the entire pie in the first hour. You may get seasick and ruin my lovely tea towel.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said, picking up my suitcase and swallowing the lump forming in my throat. “Thank you for seeing me off. Goodbye for now, Finlay Barrow.”
“Goodbye for now, Willow Stokes. Haste ye back.”
I turned and made my way up the gangway, holding my chin high to keep the tears from leaking out. What a crier I’d become lately, I thought. With a shake of my head and a stiffening of my spine, I boarded the Sea Mither without looking back, though every fiber in my body was screaming out for it.
It was time for a treasure hunt.
Liar that I was, I promptly ate Finlay’s pie in my cramped cabin and spent the next several hours vomiting profusely while trying—and failing—to read through the materials from Wexley.
Perhaps if he had spent even a smidgen of his massive fortune on a room with a porthole, I wouldn’t have been so violently ill.
As it was, I had nothing but a bucket and a hammock in my dingy, dark cabin.
I fell asleep at some point and woke to a light tap on my door.
“Who is it?” I groaned. At least when I was unconscious, I hadn’t noticed how nauseated I was.
“Open the door,” a voice hissed.
“Not if you paid me,” I hissed back.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Willow. It’s me.”
I sat up and stumbled to the door, cracking it open just enough to see Bri’s eyes. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Let me in, would you? I’m in a cabin with three other passengers and they’re all taking turns using our singular bucket.”
“For Pete’s sake. Give me a minute.” I closed the door and stuffed the materials from Wexley into the satchel, then unlocked the door.
“What are you doing here, Bri?” Normally, I would have been outraged.
This was going to foul up my plans tremendously.
But it was taking all my energy not to vomit again as I collapsed back onto the hammock.
“I’m helping you!” She stared over the rim of my bucket and wrinkled her nose. “Not you, too.”
“Ungh,” I replied.
Somehow, she managed to sit down next to me on the hammock without flipping us both out. “Here,” she said, placing something cool and soft on my forehead.
“What’s that?”
“Your tea towel. I dipped it in some of your drinking water.”
A far-off part of my brain worried the towel would be damaged, but the cool cloth felt nicer than anything else. “You have to go back, Bri. As soon as we make land.”
“Why would I do that? This is my curse, Willow. I’m not going to let you endanger your own life while I stay behind.”
“But … the shoppe?”
“The shoppe will be fine. We can afford to take a few days off.”
“Argyle?”
“He’s with Fin. Don’t worry.”
I arched an eyebrow, though I kept my eyes closed. “He knew?”
I could hear the gentle smile in Bri’s voice. “He was the one who bought my ticket.”
Of course he was. What was wrong with that boy? I’d done nothing to earn his friendship, and certainly nothing to earn his loyalty. “I don’t understand,” I murmured, pressing the cloth to my eyelids.
“What’s to understand? Love doesn’t make sense, Willow.”
I pushed the towel up, exposing one eye. “Who said anything about love?”
She shook her head. “If you can’t see that boy is madly in love with you, you’re even more obtuse than I thought.”
Her words should have delighted me, but I was in no condition to believe them. I pushed onto my elbows, removing the towel and setting it aside. “Can I ask you a serious question?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever been in love?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s not something that really … I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I haven’t touched anyone in so long. I’ve never felt like that was in store for me.”
“Not yet,” I insisted, remembering my real birthday wish: that whatever happened, we’d find a way to break Bri’s curse. She deserved to find romantic love, if she wanted it. She deserved far better than anything her parents had offered her, and she damn well deserved better than me.
Her lips curled in a sad smile. “For now, having friends feels like enough. More than I ever thought I’d have.”
I reclined again, swallowing down another wave of nausea.
I’d been selfish to worry about sharing Finlay with Bri.
I might end up feeling like the odd one out now and again, but at least I wasn’t alone.
“For a while after Da died, I told myself that I didn’t need anyone else in my life.
There were times I wished for another person’s physical touch, but the thought of courting or getting married seemed like something for other people. Not me.”
She waited for me to go on. Perhaps it was the seasickness, or the dim light in the room, or the simple acknowledgment that I was grateful she was here with me, even though I’d insisted on doing this alone. I didn’t know why, but instead of clamming up like I always did, I continued.
“But then you came along, and even though it terrified me, I realized that I liked having someone else around.”
“What about Finlay?” she asked. “I’ve seen the way you look at him when you think no one else is watching. You care about him, Willow, and unless my eyes deceived me last night, you’re attracted to him.”
I buried my face in my hands. “Yes, I’m attracted to him. So what?”
“So, why can’t you have what other people have? Why do you think love isn’t for you?”