“It is where we were supposed to start our honeymoon,” Dorian tilted his head to the sky and peered under the brim of his hat. “It is in her hands now. Only if she comes to me can we start afresh…”
The ship began pulling away from the dock when a sound reached his ear. It was faint; “Dorian!”
His head snapped to the side. Where was it coming from? Turning, he dashed to the other side of the bow, and amid thesliver of light shining down through a hefty spacing of clouds, he saw a faint silhouette on the pier.
Evelina.
Her sky-blue dress fluttered in the wind, but there was nothing beside her; no case, no trunk.
She had come to say goodbye…
But then, she looked back sharply, and a footman hobbled onto the scene with two trunks in hand. Panic seized Dorian. He had to stop the ship. Frantic, he tried to remember where the captain’s cabin was but faltered. Of all the times when the clock was against him, this had to be the worst time.
He saw a shipman, “Where is the captain’s cabin?” he demanded, “I need to tell him to stop the ship. If only for a little while—”
“No need, son,” the older man trudged up to him from the deck. “The ship belongs to me, and the captain is at my beck and call. We were just in a docking maneuver—I must confess, I had informed him to wait well before you got the courage.”
Dorian blew a sigh of relief, embracing the elderly man in seconds. “Thank you!”
Immediately after, he rushed to the ramp as Ellie boarded, but the moment she was near enough, Dorian could not wait for herto get to him. He met her halfway and wrapped her into his arms fiercely, relief washing through him much as the growing storm would soak him.
“You came,” he breathed into her hair. “You came.”
“I did,” Evelina mumbled into his coat. “I knew I couldn’t live with so many unanswered questions, and some half-answered. I thought it was only fitting for you to tell your truth.”
“Ask me anything. Anything! I would lay my soul bare ten times over before I risk losing you again.”
She notched her head up. “The day I left for Eastbrook Manor, I spoke to an old lady on Somerton lands, and-and she said she knew you when you were a child, and so I asked about your hair because I had a niggling feeling, and-and… for heaven’s sake! Are you Ash?”
In response, he tugged his hat off and shook his hair free.
“Your hair…” she murmured in awe.
He knew what she was seeing, the pale bleached wheat his hair naturally was. “I took out the dye,” he finally spoke. “I didn’t lie to you, Evelina. The boy you knew as Ash did die a long time ago. He died when I had to become hardened, when I had to learn to survive on the streets, when I became something I knew you would not like or understand. But I’d never forgotten you.
“I never forgot your wild tales and rambles, I never forgot the baskets of food you’d carry to me to make sure I’d eaten, and I never forgot these—”
Inside his coat, he drew out a soft suede bag, and inside were the grass rings she had fashioned that evening so many years ago, right before her uncle had caught the pair of them. They were dried and brown with age, but were still intact.
Her eyes beaded with tears. “You… you kept them?”
“I had to,” he said. “They were the connection I had to you in those dark years, and they kept me going when I had all the reasons to give up. I had to take you away from your relatives and return what was rightfully yours.
“…Even though I now realize I went about it in the worst possible way. I am sorry, Evelina. I never meant to hurt you. All I wanted to do was protect you from those who wished to harm and use you, and return to you what was rightfully yours.”
Her eyes were brimming with tears at his confession. “Oh, Dorian, I love you. I never stopped loving you—” she swallowed. “And I couldn’t allow myself to let you go without letting you tell me why you did what you did.”
“Is our love conditioned on what I tell you?” he asked slowly.
She stared at him. “You love me?”
“When it comes to feelings, I am a plumbed fool,” Dorian said as the rumbling got louder. “I shove them inside and bury them as they give me more trouble than they are worth, but know this: I love you, Evelina. I loved you then, and I love you now,” he declared. “You’ve captivated me, and I can never let you go. Please give me the chance to make it right.”
“You promise?”
“You have my word.”
A slow smile crossed her face, “Then you’ll have all the chances you can get.” Her eyes shot up. “And we need to get to our cabin first before we’re drenched.”
