Page 91
Morvoren stared, unsure of how to respond. “I enjoy her conversation.”
“Always?” He tipped a single brow up in disbelief. “Surely not.”
Very well, he’d caught her out. Morvoren did prefer silence every so often. But she wasn’t about to let him know that. “Growin’ up without a brother or sister—and eventually without parents—makes one appreciate conversation as much as silence.”
Trevik’s smile faded. “Do ye wish me to leave?”
She shrugged, watching the lilting water further beyond the shore. “Ye can do what ye wish.”
It was as indifferent a response as she could muster. But the truth of the matter was, she didn’t know what she wanted him to do.
His sigh sounded above the waves. “Miss ’Ollow, please. I…” He broke off, and when he spoke again, his voice was strained, like the strings of an instrument pulled too tightly. “Listen, I know things ’ave been tense ’tween us, but if ye’d let me explain…”
She shook her head. “There isn’t anythin’ to explain. I took your suggestion and will leave. There isn’t any reason to keep goin’ on about it. Ye have your wish.”
Bitterness hung on every word she spoke, and she cringed. She’d not meant to reveal so much of her feelings.
“Ye be wrong,” Trevik said, his voice growing as he came to stand right beside her. “I ne’er asked ye to leave. I—”
“Ye didn’t have to ask,” she interrupted. “Your hint was as good as beggin’.”
Another sigh, another moment of strained silence. “All right,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “All right. Ye be right. The truth is, I promised me crew ye wouldn’t stay for long, so I was hopin’ to prove to ’em that they could trust me words by gettin’ ye to say when ye’d leave. That be all.”
A weight raised just a fraction from Morvoren’s shoulders.
“What be more,” he continued, “I don’t want ye to leave.”
She scoffed, refusing to believe his words. They were too close to what she wanted to hear. “What a change of heart you’ve had. Did the Cardys’ finally give ye their blessin’ to have me stay?”
“No,” he said, as if offended at the very idea. “I just figured if ye leave, there’ll be no one to stand between me and Poppy’s chatterin’.”
She snapped her eyes toward his to deliver another scolding, but she stopped when a smile played on his lips.
Despite her best efforts, a crack of light broke through her shell, and she bit her lip to keep her own smile at bay.
The tension between them eased, and Trevik moved forward, taking a seat beside her and resting his jacket between them. She fought the urge to shuffle away, though a hearty foot’s length was already between them.
They sat in silence for a moment, both of them watching the sea’s waves before he spoke again. “I was bein’ truthful before. I really don’t want ye to leave.”
She glanced up at him, studying him for a moment but unable to find anything but the truth in their brown depths.
Instead of what she’d hoped to feel from hearing those words—peace and security—they only made the reality of her future even more dismal.
“Thank ye,” she said softly, her anger and pettiness from before dissolving into the cool, evening air, “but I can’t stay with ye and your family any longer.”
“’Cause o’ what I said?”
“Well, that certainly didn’t help,” she joked. “The truth of the matter be, though, that the longer I stay here, the more confused I become. As much as I like to pretend otherwise, I ain’t a part of your family.” She lowered her voice. “That be somethin’ I shouldn’t even want.”
“Because we be fishermen?”
She nodded. “’Tis not what I want with me life.” She said the words too forcefully, as if trying to convince herself she still believed them.
He shook his head in disbelief. “I’ll ne’er understand ye, Miss ’Ollow.”
“What?”
He waved a hand in a helpless gesture. “Ye’ve spent days ’ere in Tristwick with me family. Ye’ve worked in the cellars and ’ave eatin’ pilchards for countless meals. Ye’ve sung with us and gone to church with us. I know ye ’ave your misgivin’s based on what ’appened with your father, but…after all that ye’ve done ’ere, ’ow can ye not see the good we be doin’?” He picked up a spare stone beside him and tossed it into the water. “’Tain’t like we be as bad as seiners or anythin’.”
