Chapter 23 #2
Norma Jean fiddled with the knob that adjusted the sextant’s lenses and wrinkled her nose. “It would be more romantic if you came up with a gesture on your own, but to give you an idea of what you should do, just think about what Rhenick Whittenbecker did for Drusilla.”
“Helped her rid the castle of supposed ghosts and ghouls?”
“I’m relatively sure Drusilla did that without much help from Rhenick.
I’m talking about when he had that iron scrollwork made for Drusilla and then had it fashioned on a new gate leading into the academy.
” She smiled. “Now every time Drusilla drives through those gates, she gets to see the Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies scrolled in a beautiful iron script above the gate, a reminder of her husband’s grand gesture. ”
Seth’s brows drew together. “An iron gate can be considered a grand gesture?”
“Well, when given to Drusilla Merriweather, certainly, but I don’t think that would impress Annaliese.
” Norma Jean’s lips curved. “She’d probably be impressed, though, with some rescued animal, or it would be a really grand gesture if you could run down a unicorn as she told me only this morning that she always longed to acquire one of those. ”
“I’m fairly sure unicorns won’t be easy to find.”
“True, so that’s probably not feasible, but she does appear to really appreciate bugs, although you did already make her some bug habitats, which, before you ask, don’t count as your grand gesture because I’m pretty sure you made them before the two of you even spoke the word courtship between you, so .
. . maybe you could find a book on really rare bugs and go from there. ”
Before Seth could do more than make a mental note to research where the best place was to find unusual bugs, Annaliese suddenly wobbled into view, the wobbling a direct result of the Gulf of Mexico being rather rough today.
“Good news,” she called out as she listed to the left, righted herself, then plowed forward, coming to a stop beside Seth, who’d risen to his feet the second after he’d caught sight of her.
She grabbed hold of his arm, something that left all thoughts of unusual bugs disappearing.
“I just spoke with the captain. He’s spotted an island up ahead. ”
“He’s spotted a lot of islands, but none of them seemed to be inhabitable, nor could we get close to them because of the reefs,” Norma Jean pointed out.
“True, but Charlie and Howard told us that we’d run across inaccessible islands on the way, and to specifically keep an eye out for an island that has a much smaller island beside it.” She smiled. “That is what the captain just spotted.”
“I’ve got to go see this for myself,” Norma Jean said as she set aside the sextant and dashed away, not wobbling in the least because she’d found her sea legs the moment she’d stepped foot on the ship, yet another impressive accomplishment she hadn’t even considered until he’d pointed it out to her.
“Care to join me as I tell your mother about the island?” Annaliese asked.
“Why do I get the distinct impression there’s a reason you want me to join you?”
She released a sigh. “Was it that obvious?”
“To me, yes, but shall I assume Mother’s broached courtship with you again?”
“We had a bit of an interesting conversation about an hour or so ago. I think she’s changed tactics because instead of trying to convince me that the two of us would make the perfect couple, she spent thirty minutes reciting passages that have anything to do with courtship from every etiquette book she’s ever read. ”
“And you believe she’s doing that . . . why?”
“Before I get to my suspicions, I must admit that her ability to conjure up pages from books she read eons ago is quite impressive. With that said, I think she’s decided I truly am woefully deficient when it comes to romance and obviously thinks that explaining the rules of courtship to me is a great way to lend me some assistance—although, the more she recited courtship rules, the more curious the conversation turned. ”
“Because . . . ?”
“A few of the passages she recalled from memory centered around the idea that a newly courting couple should maintain a respectful distance at all times, as well as reserve most communications through written correspondence so thoughts can be expressed in a thoughtful and controlled manner.”
“We’ve never maintained distance between us, and I know I’ve never penned you a correspondence.”
Annaliese smiled. “Louisa realized that as well, which is when she began rolling through passages in her mind before speaking them out loud. She remained mute until she found a passage that revolved around the small gifts that a couple are expected to exchange, after which a formal engagement is announced, and that can last for a few months or even longer before the marriage takes place.” Her lips began to curve.
“At that point, she muttered something about needing to talk to you about gifts as you’d been incredibly deficient with that, to which I thought, in order to spare you a lecture, it would be prudent to remind her of the gifts you’ve already given me. ”
“I’m not certain I’m following the gist of this conversation.”
“I wasn’t either because reminding her that you made me habitats for my bug collection, and that you’d given me a spider sac, seemed to leave her with the belief that we’ve simply been being coy with her and have actually decided to enter into a courtship without telling anyone.”
Seth blinked. “How in the world would she come to that conclusion?”
“I suppose that was a result of mentioning to Louisa, after she said she didn’t consider a spider sac very romantic, that I thought it was very romantic indeed and had actually wanted to kiss you after you gave me that.”
“You never told me you were thinking about kissing me after I gave you that spider sac.”
She smiled. “True, but that was because I was unaware you’d been thinking about kissing me and didn’t want to place you in an uncomfortable position.
But returning to your mother, now that she knows without a doubt that I’ve been considering kissing you, and she definitely thinks you’ve been considering kissing me, I think she might turn rather relentless with having us declare some type of formal arrangement. ”
Seth blew out a breath. “I’ll speak to her because, as I’ve already told Norma Jean, you and I are more than capable of deciding how we want to proceed with whatever type of relationship we want to explore in the future.
And, with that said, know that even if we do think about kissing each other, there’s no need for us to rush into anything. ”
A brilliant smile was Annaliese’s first response to that, something that left his mind going curiously blank, a circumstance he experienced often whenever she smiled.
Before his thoughts had a chance to return to fine working order, though, Norma Jean came barreling back into view, clutching a pair of binoculars in her hands.
“Come quick,” she called, gesturing them forward. “The captain and I just spotted smoke, which means there’s someone on that island.”
Annaliese grabbed hold of his hand and tugged him after Norma Jean, not stopping until they reached the other side of the ship, where Norma Jean promptly thrust her binoculars into Annaliese’s hands, who raised them to her eyes a second later.
“That’s definitely smoke, so unless there was a lightning strike recently, someone is on that island,” Annaliese said.
“It’s your aunt Ottilie, I just know it, even though this isn’t the island on that map I took out of your sister’s office,” Norma Jean said.
“Are you certain about that?”
“Of course.” Norma Jean took the binoculars from Annaliese and returned to perusing the island again.
“I read a book on sea navigation years ago so was able to figure out the longitude and latitudes of where that island on the map is. It’s over a hundred miles from here, but we’ll know soon enough why Miss Ottilie Merriweather landed here since we’ll be able to ask her. ”
Soon enough turned into over an hour as the captain was forced to drop anchor when they ran across reefs that were too dangerous to move the ship through.
“Charlie and Howard didn’t mention a thing about the reefs,” Norma Jean said.
“But they did mention they used a dinghy to get onto the island,” Annaliese pointed out before she began climbing down the rope ladder that led to the dinghy they were now being forced to use, Harriet chattering nonstop from the deck, probably because Annaliese had told her that she and Pippin had to stay behind.
Pippin, unlike Harriet, hadn’t seemed bothered in the least since she’d gone and curled up in a spot of sun and was already napping.
“You have to stay here and make certain Pippin doesn’t get into the bird room,” Louisa told Harriet before she followed Annaliese down the ladder.
Harriet stopped chattering, glanced at Pippin, then scrambled off in the direction of the room they were using to keep all the birds, where she’d undoubtedly park herself until Annaliese returned, making sure Pippin didn’t decide to help herself to a bird snack since ferrets had been known to snack on small birds every once and a while.
“It’s somewhat unnerving that Harriet seems to understand us so well,” Norma Jean said before she began climbing down the ladder as well.
Telling the captain that they’d fire off a pistol if they ran across any trouble, Seth followed Norma Jean into the dinghy, where four crew members were already waiting to row them to shore.
He took hold of Annaliese’s hand as the dinghy began moving over the water and gave it a squeeze, something she returned before she raised the binoculars and took to scanning the shoreline.
Ten minutes went by before she held out the binoculars to Seth. “There are two people on the beach.”
Seth raised the binoculars and skimmed over the shore, stopping when his gaze settled on two people, both of whom were jumping up and down and waving their arms madly about. “I can’t make out any features from this distance, but it does seem as if they’re excited to see us.”
“We need to row faster,” Annaliese said before she picked up an oar that was on the bottom of the dinghy. Seth did the same, and together, they began rowing in time with the four seamen, anticipation building with every pull of Seth’s oar.
Fifteen minutes later, they reached the shallows, and a heartbeat after that, Annaliese was over the boat and swimming through chest-high water toward where a woman and man were waiting for them, Seth following a second later.
After fighting their way through waves that were breaking close to shore, Seth took Annaliese’s arm and waded with her through the surf, then couldn’t help but smile when she took one look at the lady standing twenty feet away from them and began streaking across the sand.
“Aunt Ottilie!” she yelled, to which the lady responded with a laugh right before she surged into motion, enveloping Annaliese in a hug that left Seth’s eyes stinging, and not from the salty water he’d just been in.