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“Call me Serenity, please.”
Kristen nodded. “Serenity, I know we just met, but I can’t help noticing that something seems to be the matter. Would you like a sympathetic ear?”
How could she possibly broach this topic with Kristen?
“It’s about my sister and Morgan, isn’t it?”
Serenity chewed her lip, not really wanting to talk about this. Yet she needed to. “He loved your sister very much, didn’t he?”
Kristen gave her a comforting squeeze. “Do you want the truth?”
“Please.”
Kristen dismissed the servants and quietly shut the door before she turned back to face Serenity. “Teresa was in love with another man,” she confessed in a low tone. “He was a local farmer’s son, and she used to sneak out every night to meet with him.”
Serenity gasped. That was the last thing she’d expected Kristen to say.
Kristen’s eyes turned dark and sad, and tears misted in her eyes. “My parents didn’t know at the time, and I had promised her I wouldn’t tell. You’ve no idea how many times since her death I wished to God that I had told them. That I had stopped her from doing something so terribly foolish.”
Kristen looked away from her. “They saw each other for a few months and then Teresa learned…well, she was in the family way.”
Serenity frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Kristen bit her lip as if debating something. She finally continued, “I guess I should explain everything from the beginning. All this mess started with Morgan.”
“With Morgan?”
“Aye. When Morgan found his sister, he didn’t know where to take her. Penelope had caught a terrible disease and she would fly into fits of rage. Morgan brought her here because my mother was the only person he knew who had experience dealing with people like her. But it was too late. The disease was incurable and so my mother and Teresa did their best to make her comfortable.”
Kristen swallowed. “Teresa befriended her, loved her like a sister, and she helped Penelope live out her final days in quiet dignity. So later, when Morgan found out what had happened to Teresa, and the fact that the man who did it had run off to sea and abandoned her, Morgan insisted she marry him.”
She met Serenity’s gaze. “You can’t imagine how upset Teresa was. She knew Morgan didn’t love her and she didn’t love him, but she agreed for the baby’s sake.”
Her face sad, Kristen folded her hands in front of her. She went to stand in front of the open windows and looked out across the lawn. “Morgan, bless his heart, tried to settle down here with her. He used to sit out on the dock for hours at sunset watching the tide come in. You could read on his face how much he missed the sea. How much he wanted to return to it. But he stayed here, by Teresa’s side, until she begged him not to worry over her. She told him that she would be fine and that he should go back to sailing. He didn’t want to at first, but my father also encouraged him. When he left, he promised Teresa he would be back in time for the baby’s birth.”
It was all starting to make sense to Serenity. “He didn’t make it.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “She died shortly after giving birth.”
“And the baby?”
“Stillborn.”
“Oh, Kristen, I’m so sorry.” Serenity moved to her side and hugged her close.
Kristen patted her on the back. “It’s all right. I like to think that Teresa finally found peace. She was so unhappy those last few months. Every night she would cry herself to sleep and I could hear Morgan pacing the floor outside their room. He had no idea how to make Teresa feel better. Broken hearts are hard to heal.
“I just wish Morgan could find peace as well,” Kristen whispered. “He blamed himself for not being here with her when she died.”
Kristen pulled away and went to place towels around the bathtub. “But I’m glad to see him happy with you,” she said, looking up, her eyes sincere. “So tell me, when do the two of you plan to marry?”
Serenity was so startled that she couldn’t even speak for several seconds.
When she finally found her voice, it came out as a small croak. “I beg your pardon?”
Kristen smiled. “Don’t be so alarmed. I loved Teresa, but I love Morgan too, and all I want is for him to be happy. I’m glad he found you.”
“No, no, no,” Serenity said hastily, wondering what had made her jump to that conclusion. “We aren’t planning marriage. In fact, I plan to buy passage from this island back home while he continues on.”
