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“Oh, your crew. Yes, they need to know such a thing.”

He raised his shoulders in a helpless gesture. “I just…they be breathin’ down me neck, Mother. What else was I s’posed to do? They s’pect a relationship ’tween we and fear she’ll ne’er leave, so I needed ’em to believe that I wanted ’er gone as much as they.”

After Trevik had followed Miss Hollow, matters had worsened. The Roskelleys, the Ederns, and Enyon Penna now believed Trevik to be lying—that he’d prevent Miss Hollow from leaving. After all, why else would he have run after her? He didn’t regret attempting to fix things with the woman, but then, even that had been futile.

“And do ye?”

Mother’s question brought him back to his room, and he blinked. “Do I what?”

“Do ye want Morvoren gone?”

Leave it to Mother to ask an impossible question.

“I…I don’t know. I can’t think beyond me crew.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Trevik.”

He nearly jumped at her snapping words. He hadn’t heard her speak so harshly since he was sixteen and he’d been caught sneaking the tithes into his own pockets instead of the vicar’s.

“The only one ye need to worry ’bout is that fool Edern Cardy and ’is family,” she continued. “Anyone else’d follow ye to the ends o’ the earth without that man stirrin’ ’em up.”

“Don’t ye think I know that?” he asked, lifting his hands out to the side of him in a gesture of his hopelessness. “I’ve spoken with ’em, told ’em that she ain’t be nothin’ to worry about, pointed out what she be doin’ for Tristwick. Nothin’ ’elps. Only Gryffyn believes I now.”

Mother set her chin firmly. “Then it be time to do what your father taught ye. Put your foot down, Trevik. Be firm with your crew or lose ’em entirely. Be firm, or we’ll lose Morvoren.” She took a step forward, her brow low. “She’s set to ask Captain Kendricks to see if ’e ’as any connections for work up in Bodmin. She be determined to leave as soon as she can ’cause she fears she be tearin’ apart your crew and injurin’ our livelihood.”

Regret weighed down on his chest. So Miss Hollow was serious about leaving, then. And it was all because of the lie he continually told himself.

The truth was not that Miss Hollow was tearing apart his crew. Edern had had fears before of deceptive mermaids, devious Cornish piskies, and island-building giants long before Miss Hollow had been rescued. He no doubt would have them again.

But the man was merely a scapegoat, an easy way out, a person to blame for Trevik’s own fears of trusting anyone. Because the truth of the matter was that he was perfectly frightened. Frightened of not being able to continue the rigors of his work and providing for his family and all of Tristwick. Frightened of trusting an outsider after what happened with father and the seiner.

And most of all, he was frightened of losing his heart to a woman who clearly despised him and his way of life. Trevik had never met anyone he’d fallen for so hard, so quickly as he had with Miss Hollow. It had only been a few weeks, for heaven’s sake.

He didn’t know if what he felt for her was, in actuality, love. But he knew whatever his feelings were, they ran deeply, warmly, throughout his veins and across every inch of his heart. No woman had ever left such an indelible mark upon him—no woman’s siren song had ever captured his mind—until Miss Hollow.

And it was terrifying.

“Ye be a good man, Trev,” Mother said softly, pulling him from his conflicting thoughts. She reached forward, a hand to his cheek. “I know there be pressure from all around ye to do what others want ye to do. But it be time now to decide what ye want for yourself. Ye can’t straddle two longin’s forever.”

Then with a soft, motherly pat against his cheek, she gave a half-smile and left his room. A few moments later, the front door closed behind her, and Trevik was plunged into the silence of his home.

Mother was right. He could not live this way forever—welcoming Miss Hollow and her company one moment and pushing her out the door the next.

Whether he was terrified or not, it was time to make a decision. And it was time to make it right now.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Morvoren scoured the beach before her as she walked, spotting a shell sticking out of the cream-colored sand. She pulled it out, revealing a smooth, white shell in the shape of a fan.

“Found another, Poppy!” she called out, holding the shell up.

Poppy’s face brightened, and she ran back to Morvoren, her steps sinking in the sand.

“Oh, that be perfect!” she exclaimed, taking the shell and turning it from back to front. “Thank ye.”

She opened her reticule and gently lay the shell within, the bag sagging from the weight of all that they’d already discovered. She secured the top, and the shells softly clinked against each other.

“Ye keep lookin’,” Poppy said, already peering at the sand once again. “I think Mother found a few nearer the waves that’ll work.”