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“All right, all right, I admit it. It was underhanded of me. But I had my reasons.”
“I’m beginning to discover your reasons.”
“You don’t understand.” He paused to sigh. “I didn’t tell you everything there is to know about Evelina.”
“Oh, I’ve already figured that much out. The girl is crazy. A complete lunatic.” He rolled his eyes in his head to show how crazy he thought she was. “She is more paranoid than a turkey invited to Thanksgiving dinner. Who in their right mind has a fear of the outdoors?”
“There’s a reason for that.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve concocted some far-fetched explanation.”
“It may be far-fetched but it’s the truth.”
This caused Ryan to pause. He was still angry as a hornet but he was curious to know why she was the way she was.
“Does it have anything to do with what happened twelve years ago?”
Clive arched his brows in surprise. “Did she tell you about that?”
“No,” he admitted. “She let something slip about being in the hospital.”
Clive nodded, his brows arching in astonishment. “I’m actually surprised she revealed that much.”
Ryan hesitated, wanting to ask but almost too frightened to hear the answer. “Is she sick?”
A revealing look entered Clive’s eyes and Ryan thought he felt as if a sledgehammer had struck him square in the gut. “Geez, is she dying?”
“No, no, no, she’s not dying.” Clive hurriedly relieved him by saying.
“Then what’s wrong with her?”
Clive went silent as if his mind had traveled back into the past before he
, at last, recounted an event that had changed his youngest daughter’s life forever. “Once the boat was completed, Evelina was eager to climb aboard and set sail. She came alive out on the water. Out there she was no longer a timid little creature.” He paused as if to reflect on his own words. “Whenever it possible, she would join me on the boat and we’d go off sailing. All my girls loved the water but she, in particular, had a passion for it. She was horribly inquisitive and wanted to learn all there was to sailing the Lady Evelina. She would make-believe she was the captain at the helm. Sailing us off to foreign lands.”
Ryan could relate as he too had amused himself as a child with the very same game.
“It brought us very close. I won’t admit it out loud of course but she became my favorite. We spent countless hours together and if allowed, I would have been happy to bring her along on any of my voyages. As it was, young girls weren’t permitted on working ships and so she stayed behind. I dreamed of the day when she got old enough that she and I would sail off on the Lady Evelina working side by side. But fate would have other plans.”
“What happened?”
“It was October and I was expected back home but foul weather delayed the Francesca. High winds and thunderstorms wracked the shoreline. She waited down at those docks forever, not realizing my ship would not sail into port that day. After several hours, she got wandering and strolled down the boardwalk to the far end on the north shore toward the rocky cliffs. There’s a stairwell built into the side of the crag where fishermen are able to access a pebble beach below the bluffs. As I said, it was foul weather that day. Strong winds caused high tides. The coastline was being battered with rain and waves but she carried on.”
At this point, Clive paused as if to gather his emotions. Ryan wanted to stop him from going further as it was clear the memories tormented the man. However, his need to know what happened to Evelina kept his mouth shut.
“The staircase became wet and slick. Far too dangerous to maneuver for a solid sure-footed adult let alone a nimble pubescent girl. She slipped and fell, hitting the rocks hard. She struck her head and gouged the side of her scalp.” He gestured in the general direction of his own head. “One of her feet slid between a crevice in the rocks and the stone stairwell and got lodged there, impaling her immobile until help arrived.”
Ryan felt a pang in his chest for the frightened child Evelina would have been.
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t until the following morning when an early morning fisherman found her unconscious body lying bloody on the staircase. She eventually was freed from the crevice and then rushed to the hospital. We were grateful that the good Lord chose not to call her home that day, but a part of her died down there on the rocks. In time, she did eventually heal; on the exterior anyhow. However, she never did inside. She refused to go anywhere after that until at last she even refused to leave the house. Fear gripped hold of her and never let go.”
“The stairwell.” Ryan murmured, thinking of the large flight of stairs in front of the library. “That was it. She has a fear of stairs, doesn’t she?”
Clive nodded. “Yes. We moved her bedroom downstairs so that she never had to use the stairs in the house again. We had no idea that it didn’t matter whether it was a whole flight or just one or two steps. They sent her into convulsive seizures.”
He sighed. “That explains why she behaved the way she did.”
“Yes, and I apologize I never told you any of this sooner.”
