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We ate in awkward silence, which twisted my stomach into a knot. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
“Do you have any siblings?” David asked, trying to take away the strain of silence.
Some of the tension eased from my shoulders. “No. I’m an only child.”
“Stepsiblings?”
“What? Oh, no. Daddy was Myra’s first husband. And they were both in their forties, so they skipped the whole second family thing.” I lifted my wine glass to my lips. I needed liquid courage to go through with this. “Do you have siblings?”
“An older brother. He’s still in England with my parents.”
“Do you see them very often?”
“Usually once a year. Around Christmas.”
I pushed the rest of my food away and then wiped my hands on my napkin and stood.
His brow wrinkled. “Is what you have to tell me really as bad as you’re making it out to be?”
“Worse.” I took another gulp of wine and moved to the sofa.Here goes nothing. “Once I start this, I need you to listen, and then you can ask questions when I’m done. Okay? Because it’s going to sound insane.”
He got up and sat in the chair next to the sofa, his expression solemn. “Okay.”
I took a deep breath. “It all started over four hundred years ago, when the colony disappeared due to…supernatural reasons. The colonists faced hardships, partially because of the Indian tribes around them. The governor of Virginia left his daughter and son-in-law and their newborn daughter behind when he returned to England for supplies and help.”
“Anyone who studied the Croatan knows that, Ellie.” Irritation crept into his voice. “But what most people ignore is that they had good reason to be hostile, especially after Sir Ralph Lane’s heavy-handedness the year before.”
I couldn’t hide my tentative smile. For all his good looks and charm, he really was a history geek at heart. And the fact that he’d chosen his profession because of his outrage over the treatment of the Cherokee only warmed my heart to him more.
A sheepish grin spread across his face. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. The assertion that the English were helpless victims infuriates me.”
“That’s okay.” I shifted on the sofa, tucking my feet underneath me. “Deserved or not, Ananias was terrified for his family. Manteo came up with a plan that would not only help the colonists, but also his own people. As I’m sure you know, they believed they got their strength for battles from the gods. So, Manteo and Ananias performed a ceremony to lock the gods and spirits in Popogusso.”
His eyes widened. “Hell?”
I nodded. “Yes, but it went horribly wrong. Manteo’s gods were bound too.”
“They’re roughly the same deities, Ellie.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I know. I’m telling you what I’ve been told. And you’re interrupting.”
He sank back into his chair. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” I paused. “Their ceremony was successful, but the colony also disappeared because of the curse. Manteo knew the gods couldn’t be contained forever, and one day they would escape. Manteo and Ananias were each charged with the job of Curse Keeper. The curse could only be maintained if the two Keepers were kept away from each other. They were forced to stay close to the island but away from each other. Once the curse broke, the Curse Keepers had until the morning of the seventh day to reseal the gate to Popogusso. Their oldest child would take the position when he or she turned eighteen. Obviously, it’s been passed down for generations. Like I said, Collin is a descendant of Manteo, and I’m a descendant of Ananias Dare. We also have titles. Collin is Son of the land and I am Daughter of the sea.”
“Do you realize how impossible that is?”
“You mean the logistics of Ananias finding a new wife?”
He shook his head as he set his wine glass on the coffee table and began to pace. “You realize this is all completely preposterous?”
My heart sank. “Yes, why do you think I didn’t want to tell you?”
He stopped behind the sofa, looking down at me. “And you actually believe all of this?”
“Not at first. My father taught me about the curse before my mother’s death, but after she died, I forgot everything. Daddy tried to reteach me everything, but I wouldn’t listen.” A new thought occurred to me. This was supposed to be a secret. The Keepers were charged with keeping the information to themselves at the risk of great punishment. For years, I’d been convinced that I was responsible for my mother’s death because I had told Claire about the curse a few days earlier. Eventually, I’d come to regard it as a horrible coincidence, but now I had to wonder. What if Ihadbeen responsible for her death, as absurd as it seemed? I shoved down the avalanche of guilt that accompanied the thought and moved to another: Would there be repercussions for telling Drew and now David? Even though the curse had already been broken?
But I couldn’t ignore that this man had been placed in my path exactly when I needed him, and he had the resources to help me save humanity. Did I really have a choice?
