The Gilded Stone Read online

  Book five

  By

  Candace Osmond

  Copyright © 2020 Candace Osmond

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-988159-69-0

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  How long could one live on the outside?

  I often wondered that, in times like these. Times where I found myself amongst the blaring noise of this new world while the inside of my head rang hollow. Empty. Lost.

  The Siren’s Call was filled with happy people as I leaned against one of the large entryways and watched our friends dance. The sound of overflowing mugs clanking the tables could be heard just under the surface of music and laughter. Fiddles and drums mixed with candlelight and ale.

  A stone fireplace warmed the cloud of happiness that wafted up from the crowd as they cheered. I forced a genuine smile as Gus dipped his new bride and her giddy gaze found mine from across the room. She looked beautiful today. Dianna would be proud of her. Of them both. Lottie prolonged the engagement for as long as she could. She said she wasn’t ready, but we all knew why. The same reason I look twice at every beautiful woman with curls as black as night.

  We all thought you’d come back.

  These last four years were almost as hard as a hundred aboard The Black Soul. But I know now…she’s never coming. I’ll admit, a part of me expected her to return. After she fled to the future to save her mother, I truly thought Dianna would come back to us. To me. I know her heart belongs to Henry, but mine belongs to her. Whether she wants it or not. And, try as I might, there’s nothing I can do to change that.

  “I’ve never seen anyone look so miserable at a party,” spoke a voice as someone approached from behind and sidled up to me. Roselyn. Her silky black hair draped down across her fancy golden corset. “Care to dance?”

  I sighed and downed the rest of the ale in my mug. “No.”

  She crossed her arms and stood in the silence that wrapped around me. After a few moments, she tried again.

  “Are you looking forward to the long journey tomorrow?”

  I guffawed and tipped my chin toward the crowd. “Stuck on The Queen with this lot for the next three months? Not really. But they’re my crew… she insisted on it. I go where they go. And Lottie says we can have a life there.”

  Roselyn didn’t dare comment on who she was, knowing very well it pained me to talk about it. She inhaled through her nose, long and hard, and peered through the dancing fools where the newlyweds twirled together.

  “Why don’t you wait until after the baby is here? Stay a while longer.”

  “Lottie doesn’t want to be sailing with a newborn,” I told her. “It’s best we go now, or we’ll be stuck here for another four years.”

  Truthfully, some part of me, deep down inside, longed to be some place she’s been. Just the thought of touching foot on the same land that Dianna might very well be pacing somewhere in another time. It made me feel closer to her. As ridiculous as the idea may be.

  The song ended and the band set their instruments down for a break. Lottie kissed Gus on the cheek and bounded across the room toward me. I heard Roselyn moan at my side, and I turned to find her rolling her eyes.

  “That’s my cue to leave,” she said and turned her back to an approaching Lottie. Her slender brown fingers caressed my shoulder as she leaned into my ear. “I’ll see you tonight, then? Before you leave?”

  Dianna would probably kill me for sleeping with Roselyn. But I’m a weak man with a weaker heart, and I long for human connection. Or maybe it helps distract me from thoughts of her, if only for a night. I wiped the ale from my beard and closed my eyes as I fought off a sigh.

  “Of course, as always.”

  I listened to her footsteps fade away behind my back as Lottie came to a stop in front of me. Her yellow hair left loose around her shoulders made her look like a little doll, with cheeks flushed from dancing. She smiled and huffed to catch her breath.

  “Want to dance?” she asked jokingly, knowing I’d say no.

  I grabbed an empty chair and hauled it over. “Sit,” I told her. “You’re exhausted.”

  “It’s my wedding day,” she replied. “Aren’t I supposed to be?”

  I grumbled a response.

  Lottie took a seat and wrangled her hair into some sort of heap atop her head. “What did Roselyn want?”

  “Just came to make sure I was having fun.”

  “What a shame she had to find you like this then,” Lottie joked and peered up at me with a cheeky grin.

  “I’m enjoying myself,” I defended. “It’s nice to see you guys finally go through with it.”

  She rubbed her modest bump and smiled. “Yeah, well, time was starting to run out. Wouldn’t want this one born a bastard now, would we?” When I didn’t respond, she added. “Will you miss her?”

  A rush of adrenaline rushed through my veins as a small flicker in my mind assumed she meant Dianna. I relaxed and leaned against the wall. “Roselyn? Sure. A little. I mean, she’s been good to us.”

  “Only because she feels guilty for what she did,” Lottie argued. “Roselyn Wallace is no friend of ours. Wretched creature for what she allowed happen right here in her own home.”

  “She threw you this wedding, didn’t she? Besides, before, she wasn’t left with much of a choice,” I defended. “Roselyn’s tried her best to make up for it. She’s just… on the outside. Like me.”

  Lottie sat up straight and turned to face me. “Ben, you’re not on the outside. You’re one of us. Dianna left The Queen to us. We’re a crew. We’re a family.”

  I cringed at the sound of her name spoken out loud. They were always so careful not to say it around me. In the beginning, during those first few months after she left, I was torn apart inside. I acted out of anger on most days. She was ripped away before I got the chance to show her how much I appreciated this gift she gave me. Before we had a chance to… I don’t know. Just… a chance for anything.

  Lottie stood up and patted me on the back. “Look, I miss them, too. But it’s been years, Ben. You have to live this life you’ve been given. Everything will be better once we get to Newfoundland. A fresh start. I promise.”

  I nodded and managed a weak smile. She kissed my cheek and made her way back through the crowd as the music began playing again, filling the large area with noise. I swiped a full bottle of rum from one of the tables and bounded for the front door. Away from everyone, from all the blaring sounds that assaulted my ears. It made it hard to think straight.

  But as I strutted across the front lawn of The Siren’s Call, heading for town, something Lottie said stuck in my mind. She misses them. I took a swig of rum as my boots crunched the dry gravel of
the path that led away from the house. Well, I don’t miss them.

  No, there’s only one person I long for in this world and it’s you.

  Dianna.

  ***

  You’d think that after four years I’d be able to stop thinking about her. But I’d be lying if I said I could. Not a day has gone by where I don’t have the image of her face flash across my mind. It’s some kind of torture. And yet… most days I find myself searching. For a sign. For something…anything that reminds me of her.

  Dianna…

  I muttered your name in my mind as I rolled over and placed a gentle kiss on the naked back of the woman lying next to me. Meredith, a lady of the evening. Excellent company and a welcome distraction I often took comfort in. Aside from the nights I spent in Roselyn’s bed.

  Her fiery red hair blazed against the grey linens as she slept. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and searched for my trousers. The bed jostled from behind as she stirred from sleep and I suddenly felt her warm body pressed against my back. Her fingers raked through my hair, but I continued to shove a foot inside my trousers.

  “You pirates and your gorgeous wild hair,” Meredith spoke against the side of my face. “Why the hurry to leave?”

  “I got a date with a lady,” I replied.

  Her lips caressed my ear. “I’m a lady.”

  “Trust me,” I guffawed. “You’re nothing like this woman.”

  She huffed and then leaned against the headboard as I stood. “And why’s that? Do not assume I can’t be a lady just because I’m a whore, Benjamin.” Her arms crossed tightly over her naked chest as she shrugged. “What’s this woman got that I don’t, anyway?”

  With a grin, I leaned across the bed and placed a slow, gentle kiss along her jaw before giving her a wink. “Well, for starters, you’re human.”

  ***

  I could hear the gentle crashing of waves against wet stone as I made my way across the field just down from The Siren’s Call. Where I went every night. I don’t know what made me come back here, time and time again. But, if the crew were on land, that’s where I’d be. And sometimes even where I’d wake up.

  I set my half bottle of rum down on the ground before removing my boots and stopped for a quick moment to roll up the legs of my pants to the knee. It felt good to have the damp, cold grass on the skin of my feet. I stepped across to a low, flat rock and sat down. Dangling my feet over the side and dipped them in the crisp ocean water.

  With a sigh, I took a long swig of rum and gazed out over the surface; gentle waves lopping about. The silver light of the moon penetrating the obsidian waters. I couldn’t help but wonder…

  Were you looking at the sea at that very moment?

  Suddenly, a break in the water revealed something emerging. A face. One I’d come to know so well. She smiled; a toothy grin that formed as she shifted from her clear liquid state to a more solid form. The siren’s hair gleamed in the moonlight just as her skin did, with an eerie glow.

  “You are thinking about her again, aren’t you?” she asked me in a layered musical voice.

  I took comfort in the way the sound seemed to come from all around, from the very ocean itself, enveloping me in a conflicting embrace. The ocean was my home. I knew it better than any place on land. Especially now, in this foreign future. I’ve missed so much. And still…

  Confliction.

  I’d spent so many decades trapped aboard The Black Soul with my brother that the ocean became a prison. A dark layer stacked on top of a short life’s worth of good memories. Being near the water, it brings me solitude. And yet, I will never forget the darkness.

  I’m thinking of you again.

  I wonder what she’s doing. If she misses it at all; the adventure, The Queen, her friends. Me. Such a quick flame we created in one another’s lives. But no one has ever left such a mark on me before. Dianna saved my soul. She ended the curse and gave me a second chance at life. But now she’ll never see me live it and I’ll never be able to repay her for what she’s given me.

  “Yeah,” I finally replied, willing myself to remain in the present. I scooped up a handful of pebbles and began mindlessly tossing them in the water. “I can’t help it.”

  The siren swam closer to me. I loved it when she got close. When I could see the details of her magnificent existence a little better. Because it really was miraculous. Beautiful, even. Skin like the silvery underside of a trout. Hair made of kelp, dark and red.

  Her long fingers gripped the edge of the rock next to my leg as two massive black eyes beamed up at me. “Why is it so hard?”

  I shrugged and took another swig. “It’s been too long,” I said. “People have changed over a hundred years. I can’t… I can’t seem to connect. It feels as though I’m always looking in from the outside.”

  “But you did not feel this way with Dianna,” the siren stated, already knowing the answer. I just nodded in response. “What of your friends aboard The Queen?”

  I let out a puff of air and looked across the gleaming water. I thought about the crew; silent Gus. Lottie and her growing belly as she carries his child. It reminds me of Dianna. They lead the ship well enough and try their hardest to make me feel at home. And Finn… it’s hard not to like the Scot. I’ve enjoyed the adventures I’ve shared with them but, still, I catch their side glances and walk in on their whispers. They know I love her and they’re all careful not to speak her name too much in my presence. I’m not able to settle.

  “They’re not my friends. I have no friends.”

  She moved closer; the gentle water lapped against the rock by my legs. I could smell the sea radiating from her scaly skin. “I am your friend, Benjamin Cook.”

  “Is that so?” I laughed. “I suppose you are. We speak just about every night.” Another swig. “But, even after all these years, you’ve yet to tell me your name.”

  “I am a siren -”

  “No, no,” I cut her off and she gave me a puzzled look. “Your real name. You must have one, don’t you?”

  She stared at me thoughtfully for a few moments before blinking and then her mouth curved up at the sides. “I am a siren of the sea. Part Fae. It is unwise to reveal a given name in my world. It would give power over me to those whose mouths possess it.”

  “Don’t you trust me?” I asked her, only half-serious. I wouldn’t trust me either. A once cursed pirate who helped steal the heart right from her sister’s chest. I often wondered why the siren came to me each night. Why she spent so much time in my presence. Not that I wasn’t grateful. I felt more connected to this creature of the sea than any human on land.

  Still, she seemed to ponder the thought. The idea of trusting me.

  “What would you give me in return?” she asked.

  “What? Like a gift?”

  “More of an… exchange,” the siren replied almost deviously. “A secret for a secret. Tell me what your heart most desires and I’ll give you my name, Benjamin Cook.”

  I heaved a heavy sigh and lay back on the ground behind me, legs still dangling in the cold ocean water. I stared up at the pure white moon above and pretended to think about what my heart wanted, but I was a fool to even try. I already knew the answer before my mind could even dream up the words.

  You.

  “I dream that I could see Dianna, you know?” I confessed. “Just one more time. Tell her I miss her. To really get the chance to thank her for what she did for me. It all feels so unfinished. She was taken away too soon. Too fast. Before I got the chance.” I sat up then with a long guffaw. “Wishes. God damn wishes. Not everyone has a magical pearl bracelet, I suppose.”

  The siren dipped her hand back into the water and plucked a tiny object from it before outstretching her arm to reveal a black pearl pinched between her fingers.

  “You mean, such as this?” she quipped.

  It couldn’t possibly be real. This was an illusion, something she’d shown me many times before. For fun. The siren fascinated me with everything she
did, especially magic.

  “What would you wish for if you only had one?” Her lips curled with every word.

  I swiped the pearl from her grasp and chuckled as I rolled it around in my fingers. “I wish Dianna would come back. With or without Henry, it wouldn’t matter.”

  The siren’s eyes narrowed. “Done.”

  “Wait! Where are you going?” I asked the creature as she ducked down under the water. “Tell me your name!”

  She popped her head back up and smiled at me. “A secret for a secret. Very well. My name is Seneca Saye, Benjamin Cook.” Her expression cocked to the side. “I’ll return soon. I must pay a visit to someone who -” her smile twisted into a coy grin, “owes me a favor.”

  Chapter Two

  Three Months Later

  It’s hard to think about the future when your head is stuck in the past. A future for myself and Henry, for our two beautiful children. But I can’t. It takes all I have just to hold myself together each day. For them. For Arthur and Audrey.

  And for Henry.

  I dragged him through the sands of time to a world he knew nothing of. And he followed me blindly with his heart in tow, not caring about what awaited him on the other side. He’s adjusted well enough. But, still, I carry that guilt.

  After four long years, you’d think I could let it go. Not a single day has gone by that I haven’t thought of our friends we left behind. What became of them? Are they all alright? Henry and I spent months searching history books and records for any sign of our crew. But we found nothing. As if they never even existed.

  It’s difficult to find resolute within myself for the things that happened. During those first few years, I had the pregnancy and the birth of our children to distract me. But it didn’t take long for my thoughts and worries to wander to the past.