“Depends on who’s telling it.” Her smile is sardonic. “If you ask Rupert, you emerged as a mermaid-turned-woman from the foamy depths, just as the legend of Zennor, a fragment of the sea’s beauty brought to land for his benefit alone.”
“And if you ask someone else?”
Her snort startles me. “All I recall seeing is some bedraggled mouse shivering and full of seaweed, dragged ashore in a fishing boat, who could barely recall her own name.”
“How did I come to be there?”
“The fisherman said he found you stranded on St. Michael’s Mount after a storm, half dead and starving. You told us your name was Merryn, and that you needed shelter.”
“Was I nervous?”
She pauses. “Terrified. Of something. Someone.”
I shudder.Of AJ. Because he tried to kill me.Years had passed, and AJ had charmed me a second time. Had probate already been completed, and the fortune already in my hands and accessible to him…“What of my family? Did you inquire after my relations?”
“Didn’t try. We’re a tight community, and we haven’t much use for the outside world. We all believe—Rupert included—that any who wash up on our shores needing protection ought to have it, without question. Especially when they’re so obviously afraid. So that’s what we gave you.”
I look at this woman who likely knows more of my life in Newlyn than I do. Did I confess my escape to her eventually?Were we friends? “What did I tell you of my life before? Of where I came from?”
“Nothing. Well, almost nothing. You couldn’t remember anything except that you were Merryn Dunn and that you needed desperately to stay hidden.”
“I’d lost my memory.”
“You’d had a terrible accident. Battered and bruised something terrible.”
Two accidents.Two.
Above all, take special precaution with her, Lady St. Laurent.Dr. Bartlett’s warning rings in my head.A good blow and you’ll lose what little ground you’ve gained…I bury my face in my hands. What I feared, so carefully guarded against, had actually already happened.
Some find favor in this life. I’d say I’m one of them, except that I’ve been struck down and lost every shred of sense in my head—twice. I brace my forehead with my fingertips.
“One day passed into the next and you became one of us. You posed for the artists, cleaned their brushes, and stretched their canvases. And you sang. You brought a lovely presence to our colony, and everyone adored you. Especially Rupert.”
“And me? I must have—”
“Clung to him like barnacle to rock. So terrified and pale, needing someone to look after you. Rupert was only too happy to do so.” She glanced at me. “You ought to stop running one day.”
“What do you mean?”
“You came running into Newlyn. Running into Rupert’s arms, hoping for protection. Running away…and now running away again.”
“I’m sure I married him for more than protection. Was it a happy marriage?”
Another snort. “What marriage? Only lasted about eight minutes.”
“What do you mean?” My head is swimming. I feel like I’m slipping from the last rock beneath me and there’s nowhere to stand. Rupert assured me I’d been happy here, yet it seems truth is elusive and love is conditional, ebbing and flowing with circumstances.
But that’s what love is, isn’t it? An emotional response to someone who brings value to one’s life. That’s why I loved AJ and Rupert—I’d been the source of their needs and they had each become my rock when I needed one.
“You had a lovely wedding arranged on the beach, but before it started, you came flying up the path, claiming you couldn’t marry Rupert. I was in the midst of a most inspired painting with all my oils freshly mixed, but you begged me to take you away.”
I can hear my voice asking Rupert,How long have we been married?
It seems forever,he said.I cannot remember life before you.
Brush strokes across canvas, an impressionist portraying his view of the world.
You gave up a great deal to come with me.Words I spoke to AJ once.
