At Gunner Bay, the first fat drops of rain struck him in the face. Although he couldn’t have told you why, he made a decision. Rather than put into St. George’s Harbor and head for the yard on the southern tip of Ordnance Island, where the Gin would undergo some much-needed work on her old gasoline engine, he would continue on around the eastern tip of St. George’s. His Norton was parked at the town docks, so he had no worries about getting home later, even after dark.
Half an hour on, he’d sailed through two short, blinding rain squalls, and another black mass of cloud was moving in from the southwest. He deliberated something inside himself for a moment and then reached into the lazerette and pulled out a cork-stoppered bottle of Gosling’s black rum. Keeping one hand on the tiller, the mainsheet wound tightly round his wrist, he plucked out the cork with his teeth and took a healthy swig. It was almost five o’clock, and anyway, what the hell?
As his old chum Harry Brock was wont to say, “Any poor bastard who doesn’t drink, when he wakes up, he knows that’s the best he’s going to feel all day.”
AFTER HIS RECOVERY, the first two months of which had been spent at a private hospital outside Stockholm, he’d headed back to Bermuda and Teakettle Cottage. He simply couldn’t face another cold, wet spring in London.
The sea and the sunshine had gradually worked their way back inside his bones, if not his heart. For a while, he actually thought he’d gotten everything back to plumb, level, and square. But an odd thing had happened. He couldn’t sleep. He’d wake up suddenly at all hours of the night, sit straight up in bed, drenched in sweat, panting, a flaming orange glow imprinted on his retinas. He’d try to go back to sleep, lie there for an hour or more, but it was useless.
He’d pad out to the bar, have a seat, and pour himself a stiff one. Sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes more. And then, somnolent at last, he’d go back to his bed, sometimes sleeping until dawn. But sometimes not. The odd thing was, he’d grown rather fond of his insomnia. Sitting alone at his carved monkey-wood bar, some scratchy old Cole Porter disc on the Victrola, drinking rum in the dark, all of the ghosts banished to the dark corners and recesses above the rafters.
A few mornings, Pelham would find him, head down on the bar, snoring loudly, an empty bottle standing guard over him. And once or twice lately, he was pained to admit, Pelham had found him sprawled on the floor.
He was sailing nor’west now, around the eastern tip of Bermuda, coming up on Tobacco Bay. And beyond that pretty little bay, he thought, taking another swig, easing the Gin’s mainsheet, was another pretty lagoon called Half Moon Bay. It was well hidden, tucked inside the mangroves that ringed the island called Powder Hill.
He tied the Gin up at the dock and walked ashore in the hard rain, bottle to hand.
Looking up at her house, he noticed that the pink bougainvillea on the upstairs verandah was badly in need of a good pruning. And the front door was hanging open, swinging back and forth in the strong wind, the rain gusting inside. The wooden shutters, faded and peeling, were banging in the breeze.
He entered the dark house and closed the door behind him. He climbed the familiar stairs like a sleepwalker, surprised to find himself standing inside her shadowy studio, listening to the rain beat a steady tattoo on the tin roof.
He let his eyes grow accustomed to the square, high-ceilinged room-the easels, paint pots, and stacked canvases, the fan-shaped wicker chaise that looked like an emperor’s throne. He felt lightheaded and collapsed into the nearest chair, a deeply upholstered one facing the fireplace. It was getting very dark in the studio now; the sun was low. He found a match and lit a small oil lantern on the table. It threw a flickering light on the walls.
After a moment, he looked up at the painting hanging over the mantel and heard a voice.
I’ve always reserved that spot for the man I love. That’s my father.
Anastasia had spoken to him. Yes. She’d been sitting over there on a blue stool, working at her easel, just before she’d dematerialized.
But it wasn’t her father in the gilded frame.
No, it was his portrait hanging there.
Stretched out naked, on the fan-shaped chaise, in the light of a golden afternoon.
He sat and stared at the portrait for a while. It was a good enough likeness, he supposed, this fellow in the wicker chaise, but it wasn’t at all him. No, the man in the portrait was someone else. He had light in his eyes, blood pumping in his veins, a pulse quickening beneath the skin.
The man up there was alive and in love.
He got up, thinking he’d take the painting down and shove it into the stone fireplace, smelling of old damp wood. Toss the lantern in on top of it.
Watch it burn.
Standing at the hearth, the lantern in his hand, he saw that there was already a burned painting in the fireplace. He saw a charred bit of heavy gilt frame, a whole corner of it. He knelt down and pulled it out, removed what was left of the painting, out onto the hearthstone.
The frame and canvas hadn’t burned completely. A charred bit of her father’s handsome face was still staring out at the world, his hand holding the reins of the fierce white stallion, looking every bit the great hero.
Ivan the Conqueror.
He blew out the lantern and returned to the Gin.
The rain had let up. He could sail back to St. George’s, pick up his motorcycle, and still be at Shadowlands in time for dinner.
“ALEX HAWKE, YOU’RE positively drenched,” Lady Diana Mars said, ushering him into the library, where his friend Ambrose sat before the fire. Congreve got to his feet and opened his arms, embracing Hawke.
“Darling, get him a sweater or something, would you, please?” he asked Diana. “He’ll catch his death in those wet clothes.”
“Certainly, darling,” she said, and hurried from the room to fetch something for him.
“Sit down, Alex, close to the fire. Drink?”
“I’ve already had enough, thank you,” Hawke said, taking the chair next to Congreve’s.
“You know, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Diana and I are both a little concerned about your drinking and-”
Hawke smiled. “Please, Ambrose, not now. I want this to be a happy night. I’ve even brought you something, you see. Something for you to give to Diana.”
“Really? What on earth?”
Hawke dug deep into his pocket and pulled out the treasure he’d found buried beneath the sea.
“What is it, Alex?”
“Have a look,” he said, placing it in Ambrose’s hand.
“It’s Mother’s ring!”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“How on earth did you ever find it?”
“It was easy enough. I knew where to look.”
“My God, Alex. I never thought I’d see it again. I cannot possibly thank you enough. You know, I’m going to give it to her tonight. I’ve waited too long as it is.”
“Yes, you have. Don’t wait a moment longer.”
“Are you quite all right?”
“Splendid.”
“Look at the firelight reflected in the stone. It is lovely, isn’t it, Alex?”
“It is.”
“A diamond is forever, as they say.”
“Yes. Forever. I think I should be going. I just wanted you to have the ring.” He got to his feet.
“Not staying for dinner? We’re counting on you.”
“Another time. I think tonight is for you and Diana, Ambrose. Three’s a crowd when a man is giving a woman a diamond ring. Represents eternity, you know. Serious business.”