Chapter Sixteen
Haven Point, Maine
ANNA
The morning after her confrontation with Mr. Lockwood, Anna went for a walk into the woods at the center of the point.
It was quiet, almost eerily so, and the air felt heavy.
As she followed the rough trails that had been blazed by those who’d used the woods as a shortcut over the years, she tried to empty her mind, yet she kept coming back to the words she’d overheard on the Searses’ yacht.
She does pester him so, does she not? I suppose it’s not surprising that he simply gives in from time to time.
If she had more experience, Anna was sure she would have spotted the signs that must have been there, and been spared this disappointment and shame.
The thick tree canopy prevented her from seeing the leaden sky.
It was not until she emerged onto the road near the Grahams’ house that she looked up and saw the ominous storm clouds overhead.
She heard a rumble of thunder, and then a heavy raindrop hit her face.
She turned to head toward Fourwinds, but she had only made it a little way down the road when the sky opened up, and torrents of rain began to fall, punctuated by flashes of lightning and great claps of thunder.
Alarmed, she ran to Nora’s. She climbed the porch stairs, and the door opened even before she reached it.
“I saw you through the window,” Nora said, ushering her inside. “Thank goodness you didn’t make for home. What a gully washer!”
She found a towel, helped Anna dry herself off, and sat her by the fire.
“What on earth were you doing out in this?”
“I went walking in the woods, like a perfect idiot.”
“Well, you’re safe now. You can wait it out here.”
Nora had made some scones, and Anna, who had eaten little at breakfast, found that she was hungry.
Nora’s house was cozy, and her sensible chatter was comforting.
And now that she was safe and dry, the storm made for an interesting show, with sheets of rain lashing at the windows, and the great booms of thunder overhead.
She had been there a half hour when they heard the sound of wheels and hoofbeats. Next thing they knew, the door was flung open, and Elizabeth stumbled in, soaking wet, her face red and streaked with tears.
“Please, please tell me Julia is here somewhere,” she said, her expression beseeching, as Nora and Anna hastened to her side.
“She’s not, Liz. Is she missing?” Anna asked.
“This was my last hope,” Elizabeth wailed. She scrambled around her skirt until she found her pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper. She handed it to Anna. “I found this note this morning. She’s run away.”
The brief note offered little clue of the child’s whereabouts.
I am going away becus I do not wish to go to New Port.
Sincerely yours, Julia
Anna’s heart sank. She wondered where her niece had gotten this idea. Had Elizabeth given in to Lillian?
“When did you last see her?” Nora asked.
“A little over two hours ago. She said she was going to Louisa’s.
When I saw the rain coming, I went to fetch her.
Eugenia said she and Louisa had risen early to help Mr. Lockwood pack, as he had to leave for Boston at the last minute, and then they saw him to the steamer.
They had neither seen nor heard from Julia. ”
Elizabeth explained that she had returned to Fourwinds after leaving Eugenia. Rosemary had the morning off and had taken the steamer to Portland, and Elizabeth thought Julia might have returned without her knowing. It was when she looked in Julia’s room that she found the note on her dresser.
“I stopped by Serena’s, but she hadn’t seen her either. I cannot imagine where she has gone.”
The news that Mr. Lockwood had left Haven Point had not escaped Anna’s ears, but given the far more pressing concern, she pushed it aside.
Once again, they heard the sound of hoofbeats. Elizabeth raced to the door, Nora and Anna in her wake. A carriage pulled up, bearing Serena and Ruthie. Seeing Elizabeth at the door, Serena shook her head, her expression apologetic. They got out and dashed to the door.
“We have not found her, Elizabeth,” Serena said, when they came in. “But Ruthie overheard us talking and thinks she might know where Julia has gone.”
Elizabeth knelt before the child.
“Oh, do tell us what you know, Ruthie,” she said gently.
Ruthie looked up at her mother, who nodded. “Julia once said that her grandma wanted her to go to Newport, but if you ever made her, she’d run away to Jumaru.” She blushed and added, “I didn’t think she would do it.”
“Well, of course not. Who would think of her doing such a silly thing?” Elizabeth gave Ruthie a reassuring smile, then stood. “I wish we could be sure that’s where she went.”
“I think it is,” Serena said, her tone apprehensive. “One of my servants told me that the rowboat we keep on the north side is missing.”
Clever girl, Anna thought ruefully. Someone would have noticed if she took a boat from the wharf, but several families, including the Lawrences, kept rowboats near the crossing to the mainland to make it easier to get back and forth.
Once Julia passed the northwest corner of the peninsula, no one would have reason to know a passing boat was even from Haven Point. It could have come from anywhere.
“We must sail over and see,” Elizabeth said. “Nora and Anna, will you come?”
They both nodded, though Anna felt more than a little alarmed about sailing in this weather. She comforted herself with the thought that Nora Graham surely knew how to navigate through a thunderstorm.
Elizabeth glanced out the door. “Serena, will you take us to the wharf, then distract Mr. Phillips? I’d prefer to avoid any questions, and he’d fuss about our going out in this.”
At the wharf, Serena headed to the harbormaster’s office. She felt certain that she could keep Mr. Phillips occupied with many confused and confusing questions about the mail. Anna agreed that she was the right woman for the job.
“Is this wise, Nora?” Anna asked under her breath, as they headed for the dock.
“We’ll be fine in the catboat. The sloop would be faster, but the catboat is easier to rig, and it’s broad-beamed, stable. We can tow the dory behind it so we’ll have a tender when we get there. It’ll be tricky once we get around to the other side of the island, but Elizabeth can handle it.”
So Elizabeth is to be the captain? Anna was not sure why, but she had assumed Nora was the better sailor.
The rain was still very heavy, and there was nobody in sight, so Anna, Elizabeth, and Nora climbed into the Grahams’ dory and rowed the short distance to the mooring. When they reached it, Elizabeth instructed Anna to get aboard, and then she and Nora followed.
Anna did not speak the language of sailboats.
Or of sailing. Or even of wind, really. According to family lore, when she was little, she once refused to sail with Elizabeth because she did not like the wind’s “pranks.” She was a frequent passenger, however, and while otherwise useless, she generally knew how to stay out of the way.
The first leg, straight to the southwest tip of the island, was fairly straightforward, with a steady breeze, requiring only a few orders from Elizabeth to Nora to ease the sheet.
The choppy water slapped against the side of the boat, and the rain and spray stung their faces, but they were soaked long before even getting into the boat.
Anna found the thunder unnerving, but the flashes of lightning she saw were mostly over the mainland.
When they passed the tip of the island, Elizabeth said, “Ready about.”
Anna ducked to avoid the swinging boom and scrambled rather ungracefully to the other side. The dory pulled hard to one side and made a sharp slapping sound against the waves.
“Sheet in! Sheet in hard!” Elizabeth said. A strong gust of wind heeled the boat, and the water seemed to rise up the deck toward them.
“Keep her full!”
They could see the cove now. The entrance looked threatening to Anna, the waves crashing on either side and the water churning menacingly. Elizabeth, however, was not looking in that direction. She was peering through the rain at something to their east.
Anna followed her gaze and spotted darkness on the water, and then a sudden rise, almost like a shelf on a canal, and with some alarm, she realized they were facing down a massive wave.
Everything seemed to happen at once. “Sea’s building!
Stand the sheet.” Nora handled the sail, Elizabeth pushed hard on the tiller, and the boat swung away from the cove.
The wave that Anna thought would capsize them was now beneath them.
Rather than being directly hit, the boat rolled with the sea.
Anna clung to the gunwale, feet braced on the deck, her stomach dropping uncomfortably.
She felt as if they had narrowly escaped complete disaster, but while Elizabeth and Nora were alert, neither seemed terrified, and she did her best to follow their lead.
“We’ll come back up once this sea passes,” Elizabeth said.
“Hardening up!” she said a moment later, and once again, they were turning back on course.
Without incident, they navigated into the cove, the entrance of which had looked so perilous to Anna.
Once the little beach was in sight, Nora pointed, and they saw the Lawrences’ rowboat, pulled up on the shore.
Julia was nowhere to be seen, however, and the storm was not done with them.
The thunder continued to rumble, and Anna saw a crack of lightning that was far too close for comfort.
Elizabeth and Nora got the boat unrigged and attached to the mooring.
Nora untied the dory and pulled it alongside the catboat, and they boarded it and rowed to shore.
Anna led them up to the clearing, and peered through the rain toward the lean-to, where she assumed Julia would have sought shelter, but she was not there.
Her eyes scanned the clearing, and then they walked the perimeter, looking for any trace or clue, but there was no sign of her.
They went to the other clearing, where a farmhouse had supposedly once stood, and she was not there either.
Anna was mystified. She had been sure they would find Julia in one of these familiar places where they had spent so many hours. Then she had a thought. The treasure.
The girls had never lifted the prohibition against Anna or Mr. Lockwood seeing the spot where they were digging, but they had also gone back and forth so often that they had trampled on the ferns and wild strawberry ground cover and created a path. It now led them to the edge of a small glade.
Anna took a few steps in, promptly lost her footing, and fell.
“Are you all right?” Elizabeth said. Anna looked at what had tripped her up and saw that she had stepped in a hole.
“Yes, I think so,” she said. She took hold of Elizabeth’s outstretched hand and let herself be pulled up. Her ankle was a bit sore, but she could walk. “Be careful. It’s like a minefield, just without the explosives. The girls have been digging for treasure here.”
Anna looked around, and through the rain, she saw a darker patch of ground on the far side. She pointed, and they picked their way across the clearing. The hole was almost four feet deep, and wide enough to fit Julia, who sat at the bottom, hugging her legs, her forehead on her knees.
Elizabeth knelt in the dirt by the side of the hole. “Hello, Julia,” she said, kindly.
When Julia looked up, Anna saw that her eyes were swollen, her face dirty and smeared.
“Mama!” she cried. She unfolded herself and quickly scrambled out of the hole, as if afraid her mother would disappear, and then threw herself into Elizabeth’s waiting arms. Elizabeth stroked the back of her head, and murmured to her that it was all right, she was quite safe, they would get her home.