Page 46 of Ever After

“I find myself drawn here a lot. I do not know why. Still, ’tis easier to talk this way. I had no idea you could spirit travel.”

“Don’t ask me to do it again. It has a mind of its own.”

His keen eyes examine my face. “You intrigue me, psychic.”

“Oh no. Please call me Blue. After all, you’ve invaded my honeymoon, spied on my intimate moments, and employed me with no mention of any renumeration.”

His lip twitches and then his face falls back into solemn lines as he turns and watches the men on the shore caper and call to each other.

“I thought at first they were smugglers,” I say.

He whirls on me, his face angry, and I sit back quickly.

“Nay. They are no smugglers. These are wreckers, man. An evil gathering.”

“Sorry,” I say faintly.

“I know the difference. For in my life, I was a smuggler.” He gives me a crooked smile.

“You were? I sort of thought you were in the navy.”

His eyes are suddenly arrested. “What made you leap to such a conclusion?”

I shrug. “I just know. I sense it. The same way I know when a man or woman is bad or good. It’s all in your aura. It follows you like smoke from a bonfire.”

He considers that and then nods. “Aye. Strange to say out loud. In life I was a navy man from a young age. It was my whole life until that career ended abruptly. After that, I turned to smuggling. I kept myself to myself and obeyed my own laws. I kowtowed to no man.”

“Except Xander?”

He huffs. “He was ever the exception to all my rules, and he had his own wildness that drew us to each other.” He watches the masked men. “And yet I still endeavoured to do good. I was no murderer or liar like these evil ones.” He looks at me. “I feel my time in this spot is drawing short. You should do some research into smuggling. It may help you to understand the area and the people.”

“Why are you here on this beach?” I ask. “What keeps drawing you back?”

His eyes gleam in the moonlight. “I do not know for sure. I never saw or heard of this wreck in my life, and I cannot see the men’s faces to ascertain if they were known to me.” He gestures at the wrecked ship. “I think I return here again and again because it somehow holds part of the key to my death.”

I look again at the horrible scene. How awful to keep returning to this. “So, that’s you sorted but what brought me?” I ask.

“I thought you travelled here by choice.”

“Erm, no. Did you get the note about my honeymoon? I have a gorgeous naked man in bed waiting for me.”

His mouth twitches but then his eyebrows draw together in a frown. “But if you did not come by your own will, that means—” A whistle sounds faintly on the wind and he looks behind him. “No, I need more time,” he says and then he’s gone.

I blink and look around. “Branok?” I call.

“Mr Billings, I presume?” a voice says from behind me.

I spin around and find a man standing on the beach looking calmly at me. He’s dressed in dark breeches and a long black jacket, waistcoat, and shirt. He’s unmasked but his tricorn hat shades most of his features. It doesn’t conceal his smile though. It’s too wide and seems to have too many teeth. I shiver.

“Yes, that’s me,” I finally say, realising he’s waiting for an answer.

“Ah, what a pleasure. I have heard a great deal of you from the lads.” His voice sounds faintly familiar. Where have I heard it before? It’s a nice voice—posh and with a faint trace of amusement, but I still want to recoil, to run far away from him.

“What lads?” I ask hoarsely. He gestures toward the men on the beach.

“Wreckers.” I can’t hide the disgust in my voice.

His smile reveals even more of those scary teeth. “Ah, you have been talking to the noble and rather tiresome Captain Richmond.”