Chapter 36
I gasped as I realized what had happened. Looking into Mary’s beautiful face in the mirror—it was as if I were Mary, with the rose-colored perfume bottle still in my hand.
I knew everything. It all came to me in a wild surge of emotion that lay locked behind her brilliant green eyes.
The magistrate had given her a choice—she could become his wife, lovingly and faithfully, or she could watch as Rafe was horribly tortured in front of his children and the people of the community. Mark was right when he’d said hanging was the least of the things they could do to a pirate.
“She loved him,” I said out loud on a sob without really knowing what I was saying. “She begged for mercy and gave herself to him.”
“What did you say, dear?” Mrs. Stanley asked.
I realized where I was, looking at all the surprised faces around me.
Mary had been the reason the magistrate had decided to get rid of Rafe. William Astor had fallen in love with her. He wanted her and was willing to kill Rafe to have her.
This was a whole new spin on Rafe’s life. He was telling the truth about being a changed man. I felt that from Mary. He had been a good husband and father. She had loved him.
“Are you all right, Dae?” Mark asked. “You’re as white as the proverbial sheet.”
“Yes! Sit down, Mayor.” Andy pulled out my chair. “You do look a mite peaked.”
I did as they suggested, drank tea and nibbled on a muffin while they argued again about the date the Andalusia sank—all the while I still felt Mary’s pain at losing Rafe. They’d been happy together and had looked forward to raising their children together.
But she knew she had no choice. She’d stood, unemotional, with her sons beside her as she watched them hang Rafe for a crime he didn’t commit. The night before, she’d begged for mercy for her husband—allowing the magistrate to do terrible things to her in exchange for his leniency.
She never let on—never even blinked. Her life was over in that moment, but she wouldn’t give William Astor the satisfaction of knowing.
“We’re leaving now, Dae.” Mrs. Stanley had put on her jacket. “You’re welcome to stay, of course. But maybe you should go home and lie down for a while. Poor dear. It must be all the strain from the storm. It can’t be easy being the mayor of Duck at a time like this.”
“No offense, Dae,” Mark said, “but maybe Mad Dog is right about a man being better able to handle the job of mayor.”
That shook me up and made me get to my feet. “I’d like to keep this bottle,” I told Mrs. Stanley. “And as far as being a woman mayor, I think I can handle a storm as well as Councilman Wilson. Thanks for your help. I hope to hear about that magistrate soon.”
I walked out. My rudeness left them all a little stunned, I’m sure. It wasn’t easy to propel myself out the door. I still felt lost in the past—it was a difficult feeling to pull away from. I wanted to cry for Mary Masterson and her children. Knowing these people were related to me made me even sadder but also more determined to prove that for once in his life, Rafe was innocent.
“I can see you learned something valuable in there.” Rafe joined me as I walked away from the museum.
I didn’t answer until I’d walked behind the Blue Whale. I was worried the three historical society members would see me talking to myself and think I was crazy. “There was something,” I told him finally, not sure what I should share with him. Did he realize what Mary had gone through? How would it affect him?
I studied my ancestor’s face. It wasn’t exactly like looking at a living man’s features. He wasn’t solid looking—more opaque. No one could mistake him for anything but a ghost.
I wanted to see in him what Mary saw—I wished I was still seeing through her eyes. There was something more to him than his terrible past and the dastardly deeds that he ended up paying for at the end of a rope.
“You’re scaring me, girl, and that’s not easy. What are ye looking for? You act like you’ve never seen me before. Are you in your cups? I didn’t know they were serving spirits in there—I might’ve joined you.”
A concrete bench sat nearby, between two large bushes. I could see the gray of the Atlantic, stretching on beneath the dark sky that still threatened more rain. It was there that I told Rafe what I’d seen—what I knew about Mary. I didn’t know what to expect from him.
To my surprise, he knelt on the ground and began to weep, huge choking sobs that shook his already unstable frame from head to toe.
I put my hand on his shoulder as I would have any other person in such distress—but there was nothing there. And an instant later, what was left of the man Mary had loved disappeared.
“Dae?”
I heard my father call my name. I wiped my eyes, put the perfume bottle in the pocket of my poncho and tried to clear my mind. “Danny! How’s it going?”
“Good. Good. Your friend is a decent man. There’s not a lot of people who would take in a stranger this way.”
“I saw you working on the windows,” I said, grasping for a topic.
“Yeah. Kevin keeps me busy. But I talked to the owner of the Sailor’s Dream this morning. He hopes to be open again by the weekend. He says if my place isn’t ready yet, I can stay in the back room of the bar after that. Things are picking up.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“You know”—he sat beside me on the concrete bench—“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way—I’m not coming on to you, I swear—not that you aren’t a beautiful woman.”
“Thanks.”
“Anyway. There’s something about you—I felt it from the beginning. Something almost familiar. I guess it’s because I knew your mother. I don’t know. I guess I’m kind of crazy. But it’s more than the short time I’ve known you. It just feels like I’ve known you all my life. Weird, huh?”
I put my hand on his arm—too emotional from what I’d seen about Rafe not to tell him the truth. He should know. He deserved to know I was his daughter. It could change his life the way it had changed mine.
“Dae!” Tim Mabry said as he ran up to us. “There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
The moment had passed—sanity returned. I knew I couldn’t tell Danny the truth yet.
“What’s up?” I asked in what I hoped was a normal voice.
“They need you up at town hall. We’re gonna be on TV! The Weather Channel is here, following the path of the storm. Can you believe it?”
Chapter 37
I had to run home and change clothes. No one wants to see a sandy, rumpled mayor on TV! Tim’s announcement was like a cold slap of seawater in the face, jerking me away from the past and into the reality of the present.
I put on a little lipstick and made sure there was nothing stuck in my teeth, then I sailed out the door.
I saw the TV vans in the Duck Shoppes parking lot. I was sorry the bad weather had brought them to us, but I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. One of the vans was from the Weather Channel amd the other was from our local station in Virginia Beach.
Town hall was packed with residents, TV crews and members of the town council. Like me, they had changed their everyday clothes for suits and ties. Nothing but our Sunday best to show off Duck!
I was excited and happy to be there—until I saw Mad Dog talking to a reporter on air.
“And this is why we need new leadership in our town,” he said, waving his arms like a crazy octopus. His dark blue suit was too small for his large frame, its brass buttons threatening to pop off his jacket. “Two murders in Duck within days of each other, following a terrible act of nature. And what has Mayor O’Donnell done for us?”