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 returnedbefore 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.
Twenty-Four
Too many emotions to count swept over Annaliese as she held her aunt tight.
It had been well over two years since she’d last seen Ottilie, and even then, it hadn’t been as if they’d spent a lot of time in each other’s company since Ottilie resided in Chicago and Annaliese had been in New York, preoccupied with school and her dismal debut.
Her preoccupations had prevented her from getting to know her aunt well. However, considering she’d come to the realization over the past six months that her aunt truly was an eccentric sort and seemed, if truth be told, rather peculiar, Annaliese had a feeling they probably shared a lot in common.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” Ottilie said, taking a step back and looking Annaliese over. “I must say you’ve gotten more beautiful than ever, but how in the world did you find me?”
“I ran across some plume hunters you threatened to shoot.”
“Charlie and Howard?”
“Indeed.”
Aunt Ottilie tucked brown hair that was threaded with a few strands of gray and looked as if she’d chopped it off with a machete behind her ear. “The captain is still convinced that ifI hadn’t pulled out a flintlock and threatened those two scoundrels, they wouldn’t have decided we were pirates and left us behind.” Her lips twitched. “Granted, that wasn’t the most intelligent move I’ve ever made. But it wasn’t as if I had another option other than holding them at flintlock point after I caught them stuffing birds into a cage.”
“Should I assume you’ve developed a love for flintlocks because of your fondness for treasure hunting and prefer those over that derringer you always used to keep handy?” Annaliese asked.
“Flintlocks, in my opinion, especially the rusty one I found here on the island, can’t compare to a sleek derringer.” Ottilie’s lips thinned. “They’re notorious for misfiring. But the captain’s crew confiscated my derringer after they staged a mutiny, believing I’d take a few shots at them while they were rowing back to the ship they stole from the captain.”
“Probably a wise choice on the crew’s part.”
“Quite, especially when the crew, after traveling with me for a few months, thought I was rather loony.”
“Charlie and Howard think you’re loony as well.”
“I could say the same about them, but...” Ottilie caught Annaliese’s eye. “Did you run across these plume hunters because you’ve taken your saving of captured birds to the next level, not just freeing endangered birds when you happen upon them by chance, like you did when you were younger—such as that time you saw birds in a lady’s parked carriage and set them free?”
“You knew about that?”
“Your father’s always been rather fond of telling me about what he considers your misdeeds because he seems to think I’m responsible for them.”
“How could you be responsible when you weren’t even in New York when I set those birds free?”
“I believe he thinks you inherited a peculiar trait from me,one that centers around an adventurous spirit and shows up in every Merriweather generation. Truth be told, after Drusilla was born and was an angel baby, my brother decided he’d dodged a bullet on the whole adventurous child business—until you were born.”
The mention of her father again left Annaliese frowning.
“What it is, dear?” Ottilie asked.
“I’m afraid there’s a lot we need to get caught up with, but first, to answer your original question, yes, I’m still rescuing captured birds. I haven’t, however, taken it to the next level and begun tracking plume hunters. I simply ran across Charlie and Howard quite by chance, although I did relieve them of forty-seven birds, all of which are currently flying around in one of the rooms on the ship we hired to get here after I convinced Charlie to tell me where you were.”
