“Come on,” he said, “I need to get you home.”
“Will you go after them?”
He shook his head. “As much as I want to, they’ll be protected by the police. Even if I arrest them, the chief will let them go. If not, then the whole system will crumble, and chaos will break loose in Saint Paul. No one would let that happen. But I’ll send a warning to the smaller towns south of us to be on the lookout for them, and maybe someone else will stop them.”
I hated to cry, but as Lewis walked me out of the Wabasha Street Caves, I let the tears from a lifetime of abandonment, rejection, and uncertainty slip down my cheeks. I had finally met Anne Reed, but she couldn’t answer my questions.
Desperation made me feel sick. Could anyone answer them?
Tomorrow, as soon as I woke up in 1727, I had to tell Marcus that we needed to return to theOcean Curseand get to Salem before my twenty-first birthday.
And I knew of only one way Captain Zale would agree.
25
AUGUST 23, 1727
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
When I awoke at the Lining Inn the next morning, my heart was still heavy with the lack of answers from Annie. I didn’t want to face Marcus and tell him that we had to get back on theOcean Curse, but there was no other way. We could try to find passage on a merchant ship, but the likelihood that we could get there in time was slim. We needed the command of our own vessel to make haste.
For the first time in my life, I felt like my existence was a ticking clock, and when it struck midnight on my twenty-first birthday, everything might change forever. I needed to know—and the only chance I had was to find someone in Salem who could tell me.
I couldn’t waste another minute.
The sun had not yet risen over Charleston, but I got out of bed and took off the beautiful undergarments Marcus had purchased for me yesterday, and I began to dress in the clothes I’d been wearing as a cabin boy. I lifted the dirty binding, wishing I had a clean piece of cloth to wear instead, but it would have to do. There was no time to get more.
At least I’d had a bath, and my skin and hair were clean.
Soon, I was dressed as Carl Baldwin again. And as I stood in front of the mirror, I wanted to weep. The beautiful gown I’d worn the night before was lying on the back of a chair, and all the accoutrements were stacked in a pile on the table. I wanted to take them with me, but how would I explain their presence on the ship should someone find them?
I felt more nervous to appear before Marcus like this than I did last night to show him what I looked like in a gown. But I had no choice, not if I wanted answers.
I left my room and walked down the hall to his. With all the courage I could muster, I knocked on his door and stepped back to wait.
He must not have been sleeping, because he opened his door a few seconds later. He was wearing the blue breeches from last night, with a white cotton shirt, untucked and hanging loose about his torso. His hair was unbound, and he had no socks or shoes on.
“Caroline.” He frowned as he took in my appearance. “Why are you dressed like that?”
“May I come in?” I didn’t want to discuss this in the hall.
He moved aside as I entered and then closed the door. When he turned to me, I went into his arms, needing the reassurance of his embrace to tell him what I had come to say.
He hugged me back, holding me as close as he had the night before.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he pulled back and put his hand on my cheek. “Why are you dressed like this again? You don’t like the gown?”
“I love it.”
He smiled as he caressed my cheek with his thumb. “I hardly slept last night, thinking of you. I was just lying here, wondering when I could wake you.” His smile fell as he studied me. “What’s wrong, Caroline?”
“Can we sit?”
His concern grew as he nodded and moved some of his clothes off a chair. As I took a seat, he sat on the bed across from me.
“I saw Annie in 1927.”
He nodded for me to continue.
