Page 100 of Dark Tides
“Sarah feels as I do—both the children do. That there’s more to Livia’s story than she’s told us. And I know—I know in my heart that Rob isn’t dead. I just know it. He’s not a young man to die in water, not when he could swim to shore, not when he could find his way home on hidden paths. Lord, Alys—think! He was raised on Foulmire, he’d never have drowned in shallow waters. If I’d been well enough I’d have gone myself. But Sarah leapt at the chance.”
“How could you send her? Send my daughter in secret? Overseas? Ma, how could you!” Alys looked out of the window as if she expected the sails of Sarah’s ship to appear, returning her home.
“My own daughter! And you made her keep it secret!”
“We only didn’t tell you because we knew you wouldn’t like it—”
“You were right!” Alys burst in.
“And because we don’t trust Livia,” Alinor said steadily. “She has you in her pocket.”
Alys flushed red. “Ma!”
“She treats you as no one has ever done. She speaks to you with contempt, as if you were her servant, and then she gives you money, as if she could buy your pride.”
“I’ve heard people speak worse to you,” Alys rejoined.
“Yes. Many. But they never said they loved me in the next breath. They ordered me and I resented it. I didn’t love them for it.”
“She’s Rob’s widow… what’s wrong with you? Why don’t you trust her? She’s paid her debt, she’s going to give us a home! She’s a true daughter to you. She’ll find us a new house where there’ll be roomfor us all, and a garden, and clean air! She’s the savior of this family! She came here, when she could have gone anywhere! She’s stayed here, though it’s so poor and mean and so beneath her! And she’s used our warehouse and our wharf to bring in her valuable dower and sold it to our benefit! She loves us! She loves me!”
Alinor said nothing but looked steadily at her daughter till Alys ran out of words and stood, furiously silent.
“Even if all this were true, I would still be a mother missing a son,” Alinor said steadily. “Even if it were all true, I still would know in my heart, in my bones, Alys, that my son is alive. Even if it were all true, I would not believe that Rob is dead. None of this smells like truth to me, I don’t feel it in my heart, I don’t feel it in my bones.”
“How should you know it?” Alys raged. “How should you feel it in your heart? In your bones? You were ducked for a witch—have you learned nothing? These are false gifts. You have no sight! These are nothing but the fancies of a sick woman. You were a fool once for love! Are you going to be a fool for spite?”
Alinor gave a little gasp, put her hand to her heart as if she would hold her breath in her body. For a moment she could say nothing. Then she raised herself from her chair and went to the door. One hand on the ring of the latch, she turned back and drew a shaky breath. “It’s not witchcraft and never was. It’s my ma’s gift. I had it from her and gave it to my children. Rob had it and it guided him in his healing; you had it, but you put it from you. Now Sarah has it from me. And I tell you this—if my son were no longer in this world, I’d know it. Just as if Livia were a true daughter to me, I’d know it. Just as if her son was my grandson: I’d know it.”
“These things are unknowable,” Alys insisted, frightened at her mother’s ashen certainty. “But money at the goldsmith’s is real.”
“It’s not at your goldsmith’s,” Alinor said with the accuracy of a poor woman.
“Ma, sit down. Forgive me, I spoke in anger… I was…”
Alys pressed Alinor into the chair, and she sat still until she had gained her breath. Alys hurried to the kitchen and came back with a tot of brandy in a little glass and watched her drink till a little color came back to her drawn face.
“I shouldn’t have spoken so,” Alys whispered.
The older woman gave a wry smile. “Don’t take it back just because I can’t breathe. I’m not going to be one of those tyrants who faint to make people obey them.”
Alys gave a shaky little laugh. “You’re no tyrant, and I shouldn’t have abused you. But you’ve done me very wrong, Ma.”
“I haven’t,” Alinor said steadily. “I’ve done something I know to be right. And don’t you go telling Livia where Sarah’s gone. Nor what she’s doing.”
“I’d be ashamed to tell her!” Alys retorted, her voice low. “What could I tell her? That the mother-in-law that she loves doesn’t believe her? That she’s sent her granddaughter miles away, on a long sea voyage, to spy on her? Without telling me?”
A little smile twisted Alinor’s mouth, but she was unrepentant. “Very well. We’ll both of us say nothing. You can say, if she asks, that Sarah’s staying in the country for a month. And in a month we’ll find another excuse.”
“You want me to lie to her,” Alys accused. “The only person who has loved me since my husband abandoned me?”
Alinor nodded. “Do you think she doesn’t lie to you?”
NOVEMBER 1670, HADLEY, NEW ENGLAND
One icy cold day in late November there was a gentle tap on Ned’s door and Red lifted his head and gave a short welcoming bark. Ned opened the door to Wussausmon who was dressed in his thickest winter jacket, and grinning under a hat of muskrat fur.
“Come!” he said. “I’m going to take you fishing!”
