The Siren's Call Read online

  Book four

  By

  Candace Osmond

  Copyright © 2018 Candace Osmond

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-988159-55-3

  First Edition

  Digital Version

  Cover Design by Majeau Designs

  The characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are completely fiction and are in no way meant to represent real people or places. Although the province of Newfoundland is an existing location, the use of it in the book is for fictional purposes and not meant to depict true historical accuracy.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Life isn’t really linear. Although it’s generally perceived that way. The stories we tell are woven like snakes around a divining rod. A center of time containing all that’s ever been told and heard. Remembered and forgotten. Lost and found. Our pasts, presents and futures are unwound, stretched flat, cut into pieces and held up with human arms.”

  ― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Waking Up at Rembrandt's

  What would you do if you were granted a single wish? What about three? It sounds easy enough, but it’s not. It’s like holding the greatest power in the whole world right in your pocket and being too scared to even think about it. I could wish for a hundred things. Save the people I love, bring back those I’ve lost. I could stop wars. Change the future. There were no limits to the things I could do now. I even wondered if I could wish for more enchanted pearls.

  But what kind of person would I become with an endless supply of demands like that? Would it corrupt my mind? Taint my soul? And then I worried that a wish like that wouldn’t even work. Maybe the magic of the sirens would curse me, too, for my selfishness. Just like they did for Captain Cook and his crew on The Black Soul.

  I couldn’t take that chance. Not when I had so much at stake.

  My feet firmly planted at the stern, I stood at my post, eyes locked on the horizon. A thin, black line that morphed and grew with the shape of civilization the closer we got. The rocky landscape slowly came into view as The Queen sailed closer to our destination and I watched as we hugged the Southern coast to Southampton. I spotted the black speck earlier that morning but said nothing. My rational brain finally caught up with the whirlwind of emotions I’d been chasing for months and I fought with the fear of facing it all now. This was it. This was the day I’d been waiting for. I’d finally put a stop to Maria and save my mother. But something persistently tickled in the back of my mind as my fingers rolled the pearls together in my pocket.

  Why hadn’t I made the wish yet?

  The Siren Isles were only six days away from the shores of England and my crew had spent every one of them urging me to do it. To make the wish that would lead us to Maria. But I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. I wasn’t sure where my hesitation came from. A little bit from every corner of my worrisome mind, I guess. I only had two wishes left and I constantly stressed over the possibility of wasting them.

  Finn made it inherently clear that he thought I should wish for Maria to die. Quick and easy. But How would I really know she was dead? And what kind of closure would that be for Henry? The woman murdered his parents in cold blood, after all.

  So, did I wish to find Maria myself, bring her to justice and finally rid the world of such evil? I’d save my mother in the process. But that wouldn’t lead me to actually finding my mom and making sure she was safe. So, what then? Use my final wish to track down the woman who abandoned me all those years ago?

  Did she even want to see me?

  Nothing had forced Mom to go back in time and leave Dad alone to raise me. But, still, she left. My thoughts were constantly plagued with images and scenarios of finding her. Constance Cobham. The time traveler who started it all. I’d run toward her, but she’d be awash with anger and turn me away. And all my wishes would be gone.

  “Dianna?” Henry spoke as he appeared by my side. I’d been so lost in my own mind that I hadn’t even seen him climb the stairs. His concerned gaze fell on me as he neared. “Are you alright?”

  My fingers released the enchanted pearls and they fell to the bottom of my pocket as I smiled. “Yes, just nervous. Eager.”

  He stepped closer and peered down as he reached out to tuck a straggly black curl behind my ear. “Don’t be. It’ll all be over soon.” Henry turned and pointed at the coming horizon. “We’ll reach land today.”

  I sighed. “I know. I’ve been staring at it all morning.”

  His hand dropped to my arm and he rubbed it comfortingly. “Still unsure about the wishes?”

  I shrugged. “I’m unsure about all of it, Henry.”

  “How can I help?” he asked, a sense of helplessness in his tone.

  I desperately searched his obsidian eyes. “Tell me what to do?” Henry sighed and pulled away. “Please, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know how…to make this right. I don’t want to make a mistake.”

  His long thumb brushed the skin of my cheek and he leaned to press his soft lips to mine, leaving a kiss that lingered even after he gently pulled away. “Dianna, it does not matter what you wish for. I know you want to find your mother but–”

  “Do I, though?”

  Henry seemed confused. “How can you not? Dianna, she’s your mother.”

  “Yeah, my mother who made the decision to leave me. To break my father’s heart and shatter his soul. She left her only child with a man who ate away at himself until he was nothing more than a shell of a human being, incapable of caring for me. I’ve thought about it over and over… what must have been going through her mind. How she could even bring herself to consider it. I look down at my growing belly and the baby I carry inside… I just,” I shook my head in defeat. “I can’t imagine a day going by without looking into my child’s eyes. God, I’ve yet to even see them and I can already understand how that feels. It would kill me to give that up.”

  Henry didn’t look convinced. “Not everyone gets a second chance like you’ve been granted. Some would give anything to see their mother again. Regardless of what may have happened in the past.”

  My heart plummeted to the depths of my stomach. Henry’s mother. He’d loved her so much and she was so brutally taken from him… by the very woman I was too scared to find. If I didn’t track down Maria for myself, I at least had to do it for Henry. “I’m sorry,” I told him and pressed my body to his, letting the golden scruff of his face rub against my forehead. “I didn’t even consider–”

  “You never need to apologize to me,” he assured quietly. “I will support any decision you choose to make. I’m just trying to help you see clearly.”

  His strong arms wrapped around my back and hugged me tightly. The comfort and safety Henry’s body provided was everything I could ever need in this world. We’d been through so much in so little time, our lives had become permanently welded together. Like two pieces of metal in the void of space, colliding and fusing together, whether they wanted to or not.

  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that our lives had always been connected. Through my mother. There was an invisible thread that linked us; from me to my mother and, unfortunately, through Maria. In a morbid sense, our tortured pasts are what brough
t us together and for that I would be eternally grateful.

  We stayed like that for a while, silent and wrapped in one another’s arms as our ship quietly sailed along the coast of England. I didn’t pry my head from Henry’s comforting chest until I heard the inevitable stomping of heavy leather boots making their way up the stairs.

  “Captain,” Finn greeted happily. His grin spread far and wide across his bearded face. “Be a matter of minutes before we begin to turn and head to port. I’d get ready if I was ye.”

  My heart fluttered at the thought of stepping onto land. Real land. Not just some cursed heap of sand in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. “Thank you, Finn,” I told him. “Ready the ship. Tell the others.”

  The eager Scot looked to Henry then and raised an eyebrow. “Have ye given thought to where we be restin’ our pretty li’l heads tonight?”

  Henry cleared his throat and stood taller. “I’m sure we can manage to find a local tavern with adequate lodgings.”

  “Aye,” Finn replied thoughtfully. “Er, our treasure. Best be takin’ it with us. Been too long since we stepped foot in Wallace’s port. I wouldn’t chance leavin’ it all aboard.”

  Henry nodded curtly. “Yes, you’re right. We shall have to pay a visit at some point, but not yet. You ready the crew. Dianna and I shall secure the loot.”

  Finn nodded and bound back down the stairs like a happy child. I turned to Henry. “Who’s Wallace?”

  “An old friend,” he replied, his face void of expression. “The dealer who runs the port. All pirates who dock there must report to Wallace and pay a duty.”

  “A duty? For what?”

  Henry sighed and shrugged, as if the matter were simple. But his shoulders carried a strange heaviness to them. “For many things. Protection from the authorities, from other pirates. Wallace also has ways of selling cargo that otherwise couldn’t be sold.” He tipped his head in my direction and cocked a prodding eyebrow.

  It took a second, but I realized what he meant. “Ah, stolen goods. Wallace can sell stolen goods for pirates?”

  Henry only nodded and stared out at the turning bow.

  I chewed at my bottom lip. “Is that… is Wallace bad news or something? You don’t seem too happy about having to see–”

  “It’s just been a while,” Henry told me. “Being back here, it’s…” he inhaled deeply and gripped the edge of the railing. “I was a different man the last time I stepped foot on English soil.”

  My hand slid over the hard muscles of his arm and I leaned in to place a kiss to his cheek. “That was a long time ago, Henry. People change. You just happened to change for the better.” He gave me a pained smile and I squeezed his arm tighter. “You did.”

  His body twisted toward me as he slipped a steady hand across my cheek, pulling my face to his in a desperate motion. “I know,” Henry said in a whisper before pressing his lips against mine. “I just need you to keep reminding me.”

  Our eyes locked and I could see the wet film over his reflecting the ocean’s sparkling waves back to me. Like blackened mirrors, hiding his pain. “I will. I always will.”

  ***

  I stared at the full-length mirror that stood in my quarters and admired the bulbous shape of my belly, running my gentle hand over its perfect curve. I took comfort in the fact that, as long as it was inside of me, I could protect it. My precious baby. Part of me couldn’t wait to hold them in my arms, but another part of my rational brain wished it would stay inside of me forever, where it could never be exposed to the harsh realities we faced every day. A pirate’s life is grand, but it can be over in the blink of an eye.

  Or the swipe of a sword.

  The abrupt sound of knocking at my door pulled me from my worrisome mind and I turned around to find Lottie poking her head inside.

  “Are you decent?” she asked.

  I laughed. “Yes, come in.”

  The door opened all the way and she stepped inside, tall and blonde, clad in her brown leather corset that fastened tight over a long cream-colored dress. She held up a hammer in one hand and a wide, thin board in another. “I’m here to help with your trunk. Henry sent me.”

  “Oh, yeah, it’s over there,” I replied and walked with her over to my bed where my trunk sat opened next to a pile of neatly folded clothes. We peered inside and then looked to each other with a grin. I lined the base with my share of the treasure, ready to be hidden with the false bottom Lottie brought with her. The idea came to me earlier after Finn suggested we hide our treasure.

  “This is brilliant,” Lottie told me as she carefully lowered the board down into the trunk.

  I grabbed the nails from my friend’s hand and held them out for her as she hammered them in one by one. “I figured we could use one less thing to worry about on this trip. Can’t leave our treasure aboard the ship, and we can’t exactly leave it out in the open at a tavern or anything. We worked too hard to get it.”

  Lottie finished and looked to me with a proud smile. “Don’t stress too much, Dianna,” she insisted and touched her fingertips to my belly. “We have everything on our side.”

  “You mean we have the wishes on our side.”

  Lottie recoiled and looked away. “I didn’t mean it like that–”

  “Yes, you did,” I said. “I know what you’re all thinking and saying when I’m not around. Why haven’t I made the wish yet, right?”

  Lottie’s fingers fiddled with the hammer in her hands. “Well,” her apologetic blue eyes found mine and she shrugged, “why haven’t you?”

  I began packing my clothes into the trunk. “What if I make a mistake?”

  “A mistake? It’s a wish, Dianna, how could you possibly do it wrong? Just ask to find Maria.” She handed me the pile of clothes closest to her.

  “And what if Maria isn’t here? What if she’s nowhere near England? What then? Would a wish like that teleport me to some unknown place? Would it backfire on us?” I swallowed hard against my dry throat. “What if she’s already dead? Would that kill me, too?”

  Lottie’s brow furrowed in thought. “Are these truly the things you worry about?”

  I shrugged. “Among other stuff.”

  “Have you considered making sure that Maria never be able to locate your mother?”

  I guffawed. “You mean drive an already mentally unstable person further into insanity?”

  Lottie pursed her lips in thought. “Have you given another thought to what Finn suggested?”

  I looked at her incredulously. “You mean wish my sister dead? What kind of person would that make me, Lottie? No better than her.”

  “Alright,” my friend replied thoughtfully and sat on the edge of my bed. “Why don’t we think of a different request, then? One that would ensure the outcome we want. Instead of focusing on Maria, why not wish to find your mother?”

  I shook my head. “Already considered it.”

  “And what are your reasons against it?”

  “Finding my mother will surely save her, yeah. I could warn her, she could hide.” I took in a deep breath. “But Maria would still be free to wreak havoc everywhere she went.” Mindlessly, I continued to pack my trunk full of stuff, wandering around the room to pluck things from every surface.

  “What is the true reason you won’t make that wish?”

  I stopped in my tracks, arms full of books and clothing. “What do you mean?”

  Lottie tilted her head to the side and the corner of her mouth turned down in a disappointing frown. I let out the deep intake of air I’d been holding in and let the items I held in my arms slide into the trunk. My fingers gripped the edges of the box and my words crept from my mouth in a whisper.

  “What if… what if she doesn’t want to be found?”

  Lottie’s hand covered mine and we gripped the edge of the trunk together. “What mother wouldn’t want to find her child?”

  “One that decided to leave in the first place? She could have left town, left the province… but she left me be
hind in another era, Lottie. I mourned her death for more than half my life. What kind of mother would do that?”

  My friend leaned in close and looked up at my worrisome face. “I’m sure she had a good reason, Dianna. From what you tell me, you two were close. She loved you.”

  I stole my hand back and closed the trunk’s lid, the hard sound piercing the air of my room. “People change.”

  “Alright,” Lottie offered in defeat, “I get it.” She watched as I paced around, fastening my belt and slipping on my red jacket. “Shall I suggest a third choice?”

  “Knock yourself out,” I replied. She narrowed her eyes. “Sorry, I mean, go ahead. I’m listening.”

  She let out an irritated moan. “Remember what we talked about? You must watch what you say once we arrive. You cannot let on to the fact that you’re a time traveler, Dianna. They’ll surely hang you for even entertaining the possibility.”

  My eyes rolled impatiently. “I know, I know.”

  She stood and crossed her arms. “I don’t believe you do, not fully. Please, just… refrain from speaking as much as you can. Even I could sense there was something strange about you the moment I laid eyes on you. You reek of otherworldliness. I can’t imagine what some will think of you.”

  I knew she was only concerned for me, but her words still hurt. I didn’t belong in this era any more than she belonged in mine. What was I doing? “I’ll try my best. Now what was this other idea you had?”

  “Don’t rush the wish if you’re unsure. Wait until we dock, and we’ll spend the day sussing out the word on land, see if Maria or The Burning Ghost has been spotted close by. If she hasn’t, then we know your mother is most likely safe. Then you can decide and make your wish with confidence.”

  I found myself smiling, a real, true expression. “You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for, you know that?”

  Lottie smirked as she made her way to the door, turning back to throw me a wink before stepping outside. “I know.”