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“I’ve craved you for weeks, love,” he murmured between gentle, but insistent kisses.
“We should go, Nathaniel.”
He frowned. “I thought you didn’t want to go anymore.”
“I don’t. But I do want to say goodbye to Richard. He is going to look for Spencer.”
He smiled. “Of course. Are you able to walk?”
“I think so.”
He lifted her and set her feet on the ground, holding her for a moment to make sure she was steady.
“Good. Then let us go and say goodbye to Richard. And then I’ll take you home and spoil you rotten.”
Calliope walked by Nathaniel’s side through the throng. She felt much better now, though her head was still spinning, and her legs felt weak. Even though part of her felt saddened to not be able to help Richard and not be an active part in the search for Spencer, deep down she felt right and she felt complete.
She felt like she had just shed the last of her old skin, that now unnecessary and unwanted barrier that had protected her heart. She was someone else now. The person, perhaps, who she was always meant to be. A woman who was both strong and vulnerable. Independent and yet relying on her partner.
One part of a whole. A whole that had three parts now.
HMS Ares, the thirty-six-gun Apollo-class frigate, was swaying gently at the end of the dock that protruded several feet into the River Thames.
In the midst of the Thames, she saw another navy frigate with the Union Jack flag flapping in the wind, its bold red, white, and blue colors stark against the backdrop of a clear sky. The sun’s rays caught the gleam of the polished cannons on the frigate, signaling its might and the empire’s far-reaching grasp. A tender, bearing the same emblem, cut through the waves, making its way towards the coast.
There were so many people on the dock, Calliope grasped Nathaniel’s hand to make sure they weren’t separated from each other. Somewhere among this crowd was Richard, no doubt, as well as Preston and their wives.
They walked through the crowd and closer to the ship. Her hand clenched around Nathaniel’s when she saw her grandmama’s straight back, Preston’s square shoulders, Penelope’s blond head, and Jane’s dark locks shining in the fierce sun. Now that they were even closer, the stench of the Thames, reeking of excrement and offal, was almost unbearable.
“Here they are.” She released a long, deep breath, wishing she didn’t have to inhale again. Her nausea was back, and she swallowed hard against it.
She reached her family and poked Richard’s broad shoulder gingerly.
He turned. So did Preston and Grandmama.
And their gazes fell on her.
“Ah, sister.” Richard beamed. “Came to say goodbye. Thank you. I didn’t think you’d make it.”
His eyes landed on Nathaniel, and he nodded, as if in some secret understanding between men.
“Yes, dear brother,” said Calliope. “And wishing you best of luck there. Get Spencer back home.”
Richard nodded, smiling warmly to Calliope and to Nathaniel.
“Any word of advice from you, Kelford?” he asked. “As a navy man.”
As Nathaniel talked, Calliope inhaled the sickening air, marveling at the new sensation that everything was right inside of her for the first time since she was a little girl. It would take some time for her to get used to, but she was looking forward to it.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the tender full of sailors and officers in navy uniforms finally dock at the jetty. Most of them were wounded, and several others were helping them get out to the boat.
One of the figures that had stood up and climbed out of the tender was taller and more broad-shouldered than any of his counterparts. Even from her side vision she felt there was something familiar about the man, and her head turned fully in his direction.
Twenty feet away, he walked towards them in a navy uniform, his dark hair tied at the back like Nathaniel’s, the sharp, chiseled features of his face straight and familiar…the ones she’d known her whole life.
Her stomach dropped, tears welling in her eyes with every step he took towards them.
The hubbub of the people around her died out, and all she could hear was a loud beating of her heart.
