“What did she do?”
“She said she had three choices. One was poverty, the second was to marry a man and let him take care of her and run what was left of her father’s business. But she said that none of the men she might have wanted to marry could run a business and she couldn’t bear the idea of living with any of the businessmen.”
“And the third choice?”
“To run the business herself. She said she figured that she was quite good at buying dresses, and all she’d have to do was buy a few more and sell them.”
“And she did just that?”
“Exactly. She said it was difficult at first but she managed, and by the time I met her she owned six shops and was doing very well.”
“How did she influence you to join the army?”
“I fell in love with her. Not real love. I know that now. But I found her fascinating. I had never before realized that I didn’t have anyone to talk to. My father was bored by business and he was pleased to leave everything up to me. My mother wasn’t interested, and my brother Jamie, who is two years younger than me, was always off sailing. My other brothers were too young to understand.”
“And Ardis was with Davy.”
“Yes, so my mother’s friend was the first person I had to share what I did with. And she was insatiably curious. She wanted to know everything there was to know, wanted me to show her everything.”
“And did you? Did you show her everything?” Maddie whispered.
“Yes,” he said after a moment. “On the day before she was to leave, we sailed out to one of the islands. We hadn’t gone far when a sudden squall came up and we were caught in it. For a while I was afraid we weren’t going to make it.”
“But for someone born in the sea, it couldn’t have been too difficult.”
“I guess not. We got to the island and we were drenched. There was an old shack on the place that an old hermit had once lived in, but he’d died a few years back so it was empty.” He paused. “We spent the night there.”
“And did you make love to her?”
He didn’t answer for a while. “Yes. Actually, she made love to me. At seventeen, and with a life like I’d led, I hadn’t had much to do with girls,
and nothing to do with women.”
“Even with Toby’s help?”
“Especially with Toby’s help.”
“So, you spent the night with her. What happened then?”
“In the morning we sailed back to the mainland and all the way back I planned our married life together.”
“Marriage? But she was so much older than you.”
“I didn’t care. I imagined a life with the two of us, both of us running Warbrooke Shipping and talking and…spending time together.”
“But you didn’t marry her.”
“No. When we got home, I fell asleep and when I woke up that evening, she was gone. I can’t tell you how betrayed I felt. She left me no note, nothing. I took it all pretty hard. I sulked and moped and snapped at everyone.
“It was my mother who suspected what was wrong with me. I broke down and told her all my heartache and how I hated the woman for leaving me. My mother said that her friend had given me a gift and I was to take it as that. It took me a while, but I began to realize that she was right. My time with my mother’s friend had been something wonderful, and I was to take it as such.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
“Once, years later, in New York.”
“Did you make love to her again?”
“Actually, I spent three days going over her accounts while she went out with a man twice my age. Nothing can kill romance quite as successfully as thirty-five dirty ledgers full of incorrectly added numbers.”