Shadow of a Life (13 page)

Sophia smiled.

“
Sophia, do you think you
would ever consider . . . down the road . . . maybe . . . perhaps .
. . marrying me?”

Sophia’s heart stopped. When it
finally started beating again she managed to whisper, “Yes. I can’t
imagine anything that would make me happier.”

“
I am saving every penny
that I’m getting from your father, but I’m afraid it will still be
a long time before I have enough to get us a place of our own. Are
you willing to wait for me, even if it is something we do far in
the future?”

“
I can wait as long as it
takes.”
But I don’t want to wait another
day.

Nick reached down and took her hand,
entwining his fingers with hers. He slowly lowered his head as if
to kiss her again, and she felt herself leaning toward him on
trembling legs, her heart beating faster with every inch of space
that disappeared between them.

“
What is going on in here?”
Jeremiah boomed as he entered the barn behind the young
couple.

Nick quickly dropped Sophia’s hand and
continued running a comb through Mabel’s shiny black mane.
Jeremiah’s face quickly registered surprise, realization, and then
anger.

“
Father, I—” Sophia tried to
talk, but she was cut off when Jeremiah grabbed her and shoved her
angrily towards the barn door.

“
I should have known this
would happen. Get in the house, Sophia.” He turned to Nick with
raging eyes. “Don’t
ever
let me catch you near my daughter again. Do you
hear me, boy?”

“
Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.
It will never happen again.”

“
You’re not good enough for
her, boy, so keep your filthy hands off her.”

Sophia didn’t hear anything else as
she ran for the house where she threw herself across her bed and
sobbed.

Elsa came into the room and sat on the
bed next to her, resting a hand on her back. “What
happened?”

Sophia was too upset to respond, but
she found she didn’t need to. Jeremiah burst through the door at
that moment, yelling about his tramp of a daughter who flirted with
the hired help.

“
Father. He’s a good man. He
treats me right and he’s a hard worker. What more could you want
from a son-in-law?” Sophia cried.

“
Son-in-law? Are you out of
your mind? The most important thing you should consider when
choosing a husband is how much money he has and whether or not he
will be able to support you. That boy out there in the barn is
never going to be able to support himself—or anyone else for that
matter.”

She clutched at her stomach,
willing away the need to vomit. It made her sick to think of the
future her father wanted for her. He wanted
her
to marry into money so
that
he
could try
to get his hands on it.

For the next few days, Sophia did
nothing but mope around the house. She barely ate and her usually
creamy skin took on a ghostly pallor. Jeremiah and Elsa ignored her
and she barely spoke a word. She desperately wanted to talk to Nick
alone, but her father assured that their paths never crossed.
Either she was outside doing a chore or he was, but never at the
same time. Jeremiah made sure Nick was kept busy riding his horse,
going for walks, or running errands in town until long after Sophia
had gone to bed each night and then he would be allowed into the
house for a cold dinner. Sophia never got a chance to talk to him
about what happened in the barn. He never got to see her in the new
burgundy dress with the delicate lace trim.

The day for Nick and Jeremiah to
return to the ship came faster than Sophia could have possibly
imagined. The last couple of days had been tense around the house.
No one spoke, except Jeremiah and Elsa, who always did so in
secretive whispers. The morning of their departure Sophia woke and
dressed early, hoping that Nick would somehow find a way to talk to
her. Perhaps he would meet her at the well again. She hurried out
the door with her buckets that morning, looking around for the one
person who could make her heart beat happily, but she never heard
from him or saw him. When she got back to her house, her father
bade her farewell, mentioning that Nick had gone ahead the night
before. And that was it, she was alone again.

CHAPTER 10

Spring and Summer of 1888

S
pring had once again found Virginia, but no matter how many
wildflowers blossomed and released their scents into the air,
Sophia could not bring herself to be happy. Her father would never
give his blessing for her to marry Nick. All she could think about
was running away, but she could never support herself on the
miniscule amount of money she had saved from sewing for people in
town. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that
their only option was to con the con man. Somehow she would have to
convince Nick to run away with her when he once again returned to
port.

Elsa was more nervous and jittery
during the men’s second absence. She paced the house often and
would sometimes stand at the window, staring at the bumpy road
running past their home, as if she were waiting for someone to
come. She was so distracted that she didn’t even care when Sophia
slacked on her chores.

One evening while Sophia was cutting
potatoes for dinner there was a rough knock at the door. The sun
was low and shadows danced across the room, making ordinary objects
appear different somehow. Sophia’s eyes widened in surprise as she
spied Elsa cowering in a shadowy corner with one hand clutching her
apron hem and the other covering her mouth, her face betraying the
concern she felt. Sophia eyed her mother suspiciously before
opening the door.

“
Good evening, ma’am,” the
gentlemen at the door said.

“
Good evening to you, too,
sir.”

“
I have a telegram for Mrs.
Jeremiah Goodwin.”

Sophia raised her eyebrows and glanced
in her mother’s direction as she heard the tiniest of whimpers
escape the shadowy corner.

“
Thank you for bringing it
all the way out here, sir. May I interest you in a drink or a bite
to eat before you take your leave?”

“
Thank you for your
kindness, ma’am, but I need to be on my way. Good day.” The
gentleman tipped his hat toward Sophia and walked away.

“
Give it to me,” Elsa
whispered, stepping from her corner.

Sophia obliged and handed over the
small envelope.

Elsa held it for a moment before
finally tearing into it with trembling hands.

Sophia watched her mother’s odd
behavior curiously and saw as the expression on her face changed
from fear to relief.

“
All is well with the ship.
Your father and the crew are faring well and, more importantly,
making money.”

And that was the end of the
conversation.

*****

Elsa spent much more time with the
Mason family on their neighboring land during that summer. Elenora
Mason had a bout of bad health and Elsa would visit—taking food and
gifts—and pretend to be highly concerned about her well-being. She
usually forced Sophia to accompany her on those outings. Sophia was
always told to wear her burgundy dress and to dab a little rose
water on her neck and wrists before they left. Much to Sophia’s
disgust, Elsa made a point of asking about Michael and commented to
Mrs. Mason more than once about “what a nice man he
was.”

“
Hmph,” Michael would grunt,
looking Sophia up and down as if she were a piece of meat on his
overflowing dinner plate.

She tried not to, but encounters like
that were usually accompanied by a shudder and the taste of bile in
her mouth. The idea of being with a man more than twice her age
still made her sick.

The summer wore on and the days grew
hotter and longer. Sophia started spending more time down by the
water, letting the ocean waters cool her bare feet. Then, the air
once again turned crisp and the leaves began to change. News from
the sea was rare and far between. And then finally, after months of
delays as outlined in infrequent telegrams, Nick and her father
returned. By then it was mid-October and they again planned on
staying for only two weeks. They arrived late in the evening when
the sun had almost completed its descent from the sky.

“
You’re back,” Sophia
exclaimed joyfully.

Nick gave a polite nod without looking
directly at her. She cried inside. Something was wrong. Something
had changed. She could feel it.

Sophia and Elsa quickly made a small
meal for the new arrivals and everyone turned in for the night.
Just before she laid her head down, Sophia noticed a small piece of
paper folded on her pillow. “See you at the well. Sweet dreams,”
she silently read to herself. It was a long, sleepless
night.

The next morning, Sophia entered the
kitchen to find Elsa already there with her father.

“
It’s about time you got up.
The boy woke a long time ago and went riding. Your mother and I
have private matters to discuss. Go fetch the water,” Jeremiah
snapped at her.

She arrived at the well a short time
later and found herself continuously looking over her shoulder and
into the groves of trees, trying to spot those familiar blue eyes.
Just as she finished filling the last bucket, he emerged from the
trees leading Mabel.

“
You came,” she
exclaimed.

“
Did you doubt
me?”

“
A little. You didn’t even
look at me when you got back last night.”

“
I’m sorry. I was afraid
once I did I wouldn’t be able to stop staring. I didn’t want to
upset your father.”

“
Nick, I can’t stand being
apart. Please don’t get back on that ship. I don’t care how poor
we’ll be. Let’s run away together.” Her voice cracked as she
unabashedly pled with him.

Nick hurried to her side and took both
her hands in his. “Sophia, I don’t want to go either, but I’m
almost more afraid of what will happen if I don’t go.”

“
What do you
mean?”

He hesitated before
continuing. “Sophia, I don’t want to speak poorly of your father,
but there is something you need to know. When we were rebuilding
the
Mist Seeker
last summer, your father had us assemble a lot of hidden
storage compartments. I asked him about it once and he said that he
liked to have places to stow extra supplies. Most of these cubbies
are so hidden that you would never know they were there unless you
had helped build them yourself. The first time we left Virginia we
made a couple of what I believed to be honest runs, but after that
your father started dealing with some men that I didn’t trust. I
figured it was his boat and he could do what he wanted. When we
returned to the ship after our previous two-week stay here, Gus and
Paul were having a lot of whispered, secretive conversations with
your father. A few days into our trip I randomly opened one of the
hidden compartments, expecting it to be empty. Sophia, it was
filled with opium.”

Sophia gasped. “Are you
serious?”

He nodded.

“
I think that’s why your
father brought me here with him last time. I’m pretty sure that
while we were visiting you, Gus and Paul were loading all the
illegal cargo onto the
Mist
Seeker
and this was
everyone’s way of keeping me out of the loop. When we got to our
destination in Florida, Jeremiah had me spend a couple of days on
land with him . . . away from the ship. I’m sure that’s when the
opium was emptied because I checked when we were on board again and
it was gone. I had a lot of time to ask around and think about it,
and I’ve read a lot over the years. I think I figured out what your
father is doing. The railroad industry is on fire in Florida right
now. Many of the Chinese immigrants who helped build the
transcontinental railroad twenty years ago have started helping
there. They all want opium. Sophia, I think your father is acting
as a middle man, picking it up from someone and delivering it to
Florida. I’ve been trying to act normal, but I think your father
suspects that I know more than I’m letting on. He said he wants to
discuss a business proposition with me before we sail again. I
don’t want to be involved with this, but I’m afraid I know too much
already.” It all came out in a rush of words and
emotions.

“
Oh, Nick, I’m so sorry. My
father has always been a deceitful man. I don’t think he has an
honest bone in his body. The very first day you arrived here all
those months ago I wanted to tell you not to get involved with him,
but . . . you were so nice to me. I wanted you to stay.”

“
It’s not your fault,
Sophia. All the warning signs were there—I was just too young and
naïve to see them at first. Besides, once I met you I wanted to
stay, too.”

“
So what do we do
now?”

“
I don’t know. I’ve wondered
about letting him know that I know what he’s been up to, and that I
want a cut of the deal since I’m taking risks, too, but then I
think of you and I know that you would never agree with that
idea.”