“Nay.” I shook my head and pulled back. “’Tis only just begun. What will happen tomorrow when you take the captain to the governor? You’ll be captured, Marcus. I’ll never see you again.”
He drew me back into his arms and held me for a long time. “This isn’t how I wanted things to happen. But ’tis the right thing to do, Caroline. Tomorrow, I’ll send Hawk along with you to Salem. I trust him with my life, and if I can’t be there with you, he is the one I will send in my stead.”
“I won’t go,” I said. “I’ll stay with you. No matter what happens.”
He shook his head. “Nay. You must go to your kin. Not only to find answers, but because they’ll care for you.”
“And what if they don’t? What if there’s no one left?”
“Then I’ll instruct Hawk to take you back to your grandfather.”
I grasped the lapels of his coat. “You speak as if you won’t be with me.”
He brought his hands up to my cheeks and kissed me. When he lifted his lips, he set his forehead against mine and said, “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I will make sure you are cared for. I’ve always known that my actions would have consequences. But I wouldn’t be any sort of a man if I didn’t face them. I hope you can understand.”
I did understand, even though I hated every word he said.
Actions had consequences, whether good or bad. I admired Marcus for wanting to do the right thing.
But why did the right thing have to hurt so much?
28
AUGUST 31, 1927
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
I didn’t want to go to sleep in Boston Harbor. I didn’t want to leave Marcus and know that tomorrow, when I woke up there, it would probably be the last time I would ever see him. But I couldn’t stay there forever. Even if I had stayed up the whole night, as soon as I fell asleep, I would wake up here, to live this day. So, I had fallen asleep in Marcus’s arms, though I knew he would be leaving to take his watch with Edward.
The day was hot and humid as I went through the motions. My birthday was only two days away, and then I would be twenty-one. Would I lose 1727? I just wanted this day to be over so I could be with Marcus.
But even then, what would be the point? If he was taken prisoner by Governor Dummer, I couldn’t be with him. He would insist that Hawk take me to Salem. It was the reason we’d gone to Massachusetts.
“Are you ready?” Irene asked as she entered the foyer, putting her wide-brimmed hat onto her head. “Lewis just arrived.”
I nodded, though my heart didn’t want to go to the state fair.The only benefit would be to take my mind off 1727 for a few hours, but the reality would rush back the moment I remembered.
Lewis bounded up the front steps and knocked on the door. Irene answered it as I lifted my hat off the coat-tree. Father and Mother were out for the afternoon, so the house was quiet except for the sound of Ingrid in the kitchen.
“Good afternoon,” Lewis said with a big smile. “Are you ladies ready for some fun?”
It was too hot to go to the fair. The thermometer read almost ninety degrees, and it wasn’t even the hottest part of the day. But we had agreed to this outing last week, and I couldn’t back out now. Irene would be heading to Iowa in two days.
“Our first stop will be the lemonade stand,” Lewis promised as he smiled at Irene. But when his glance fell on me, his smile disappeared. “What’s wrong, Carrie?”
I couldn’t tell him what was happening with Marcus while Irene was around, so I forced myself to smile and stepped out onto the porch. “Everything is fine.”
The heat was almost unbearable with the humidity so high. It felt like I was breathing in warm water.
“Is this about the newspaper?” Lewis asked. “Because people have already moved on to talk about other things. Your father’s tent meetings were so popular, they are still dominating the news. No one cares about what happened before.”
“I care,” I said a little too sharply.
He grew stiff at my response, but didn’t comment.
Irene watched the two of us closely. She’d weathered the scandal with our family and had been a bright spot on difficult days. Her companionship had come at the perfect time.
Irene got into the front seat with Lewis, and I got into the back. Irene was chatty as we drove toward the state fairgrounds on Snelling Avenue. She had never attended it before and was excited to take a ride on Ye Old Mill and visit the carousel. She also wanted to look at the butter sculptures and then see the baby incubators. Since babies were rarely born in hospitalsand hospitals saw no use in purchasing incubators, doctors and nurses traveled across the country with their machines to save lives for free. They paid for the machines with the ticket money and had saved thousands of babies. It was an exhibit I enjoyed seeing each year, especially because it was saving lives. Our last stop for the evening, before the fireworks, would be the performance of John Philip Sousa, the famous composer and conductor, who would premier the new march he had composed for the University of Minnesota.
