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“She is.”
She paused a moment and thought about how much she missed her grandmother Rose and made a pledge to write her in the next few days. “I wrote my parents about Cole and I breaking it off. They needed to know.”
“Maybe your father will surprise you and accept your decision to stay.”
She shook her head. “Only if someone has worked a spell and turned him into someone else, but we’ll see.”
Studying her face, Drake noted the sadness beneath the quip, and it made him want to fix this somehow. He didn’t like knowing she had things weighing on her that caused her worry. He brought the subject back to one she could embrace. “What other things would you like to do for your students?”
“When Cole and I were children, a teacher at his school had a glass box in his classroom called the Mysterious Objects and Other Curiosities Case.”
“And what was in it?”
“Seashells, rocks from faraway places, interesting, preserved things like lizards, insects, and birds’ eggs.”
“And you’d like to have one of these boxes.”
“Yes. Your brothers sail all over the world. If I ask nicely, do you think they might start bringing me back those kinds of objects?”
“That’s an interesting idea,cheri. I’m sure they’d be eager to help. In fact, Phillipe already has a collection of rocks from far-flung places. He’d probably lend you some.”
Her eagerness was plain. “That would be lovely. I’ll ask him.”
Drake decided he wouldn’t mind spending the rest of his life making her happy.
She said, “The children I’ll be teaching will be very much like me as a child, in that they’ve never ventured beyond a few miles of home. I’d never been outside of New York before traveling here.”
That surprised him. “Really?”
She nodded.
“Then traveling alone was very brave of you.”
“It was either be brave or stay at home and endure my father chiseling away at my dreams.” She went silent for a moment as if thinking that over. “You’ve probably seen the world, haven’t you?”
“A good portion of it, yes. The next time I go, would you like to join me?”
“Where to?”
“Cuba? Spain? Mama has relatives there. We could see the Moorish castles. Or go to France where the LeVeqs are from. Or visit Brazil where Little Reba’s people once lived. You pick a place and Rai’s ships will take us.”
“I’d like that.”
He would, too. Were she his, he’d lay the world at her feet. “What else would you like to do that you’ve never done?”
He watched her think for a moment then responded wistfully, “Stick my bare toes in the ocean. See mountains up close instead of from a tiny window on a train.”
Drake never knew listening to a woman’s dreams could open his heart this way. “Anything else?”
“When I was young my mother would let me take a blanket outside at night so I could lie in the grass and look up at the stars. But only for a short while, and only while my father was off doing whatever he did away from home with his friends. I’d lie there and look up, and wonder why the stars and moon were there, and what they meant.” She brought her eyes to him. “I’d like to do that but be able to lie there for as long as I want. You probably think that’s childish and foolish.”
“Never,cheri.” He pictured his land in his mind and searched for the perfect spot for her and her stargazing blanket.
“I want to thank you again for the train cars. I meant it when I said no one had ever given me a more precious gift.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I never knew a pirate could be so generous.”
