The Opal-Eyed Fan Part 5

Persis longed to ask how Ralph Grillon fitted into Lydia's dismal picture of life on Lost Lady, but she wanted no confidences.

"You're lucky." Lydia was watching her again with a slightly calculating look. "You have a good reason to go on to Key West, even to the Bahamas. Just don't let Crewe try to run things for you, too."

"There is no reason why he should take any responsibility for my affairs," Persis tried to make that sound emphatic.

Lydia laughed. "Crewe doesn't give reasons-he just goes ahead and does what he thinks is proper and suddenly you find yourself under his thumb. So watch out!" She lifted her hand to half-cover a yawn. "I'm sleepy. One gets used to this after a while, you know, and you can really sleep."

Persis took that for a hint. She did not in the least desire to climb the stairs to her own shuttered room. But Lydia had already blown out one candle and taken up the second. Very reluctantly Persis arose in turn, shielding the very small flame of the last candle with her cupped hand, and followed Lydia up the stairs. She wished now that she had suggested Molly would share her quarters but her pride kept her from carrying out that wish.

Once in her chamber she undressed only to the extent of shedding her dress and slippers, putting on her wrapper and lying on the wide bed ready for any alarm. However, perhaps Lydia was right, one did become accustomed to the continual sound of the storm. For, in spite of the fear she fought so hard to conceal, Persis did fall into a very disturbing sleep.

Disturbed by dreams- Once more she stood pressed against the wall of the upper hall listening to that whisper which might have come from invisible silken skirts brushing against the floor, seeing those slowly weaving glints of light. But this time as the presence pa.s.sed her she was drawn after it in spite of every force of will she used to try and break free.

Then the walls of the corridor were gone, the house was gone. She was in the open, though around her, at a distance, was a barrier of stone. There was no sign of the storm. It was night and somehow very still, no insect call, not a stir of breeze, only the swish-swish which marked the unseen pa.s.sing of the presence.

They came to the far side of the barrier. The glints now flickered with greater speed, but always in a constrained area. Then slowly, very slowly, those sank toward the earth, seemed to plunge into the dark surface she could not clearly see. And, at their disappearance, Persis was free.

She awoke. The room steamed with humidity and heat. Her clothing was plastered to her body and her head ached. But for a moment the dream lingered with her so that it seemed she would be not on this wide bed, in a room, but outside in the dark of a night where there was no moon, no star she could remember.

Persis sat up. There had been, she tried to tell herself sensibly, nothing really frightening about the dream. She had not herself been menaced in any way. Why did she then feel so weak, so shaken, as if she had to outrun pursuers bent on taking her life? She rubbed her hands across her sweat-dampened face. Only then she realized that there was no sound of wind or rain. And around the edges of the shutters where she could see was light.

Pulling herself off the bed she went to the near window, listened intently for any sound of the storm. It was as quiet as it had been in her first awakening here. Thankfully she jerked out the tags of rags that maids had tamped in to cover all possible cracks and looked out into a morning which was cloudy, yes, but still.

The vegetation had a ragged look. She saw several fallen palms, and the water in the ca.n.a.l lapped very high against the mound.

The Arrow appeared as if it had been hammed against the wharf, one side stove in. But there was no sign of the Nonpareil at anchorage.

Persis washed in water from the pitcher on the dressing stand, dressed in fresh underlinen and one of her own gowns which Molly had done her best to rehabilitate. It was a pink muslin patterned with small shiny dots, though it looked rather limp and ill used in spite of Molly's effort to refurbish it.

Now she was aware of being very hungry. Would the fires be lit again? She would like above all a cup of hot tea; her mouth actually felt dry when she thought of it. Tea and biscuits, and perhaps some of the fruit which seemed a usual part of any breakfast here.

There was no use in trying to make her hair curl properly. The damp of the sea wind denied her that small vanity. So she combed and braided it up into a knot which was the best she could do. And then she went out into the hall. For a second the memory of her dream gripped her again-but it was only a dream Persis told herself firmly. She was not going to be continually set aflutter by her imagination.

The house was very quiet. Perhaps the rest of the household were still sleeping off the alarms of the storm. She hesitated for a moment at Lydia's door, half-inclined to knock; then felt no need. Rather she could find Molly, and the best place to hunt would be the kitchen.

As Persis went, the quiet of the house disturbed her more and more. She had an odd feeling that she was the only one now within its walls, deserted. An odd fancy and one she quickly quenched. Only, when she found the kitchen also empty, no fire set, nor any sign of Mam Rose and the others, she was again shaken.

The back door which they had bolted so firmly after the arrival of Askra now stood a little ajar. Instinctively, Persis headed for that. Mam Rose and the maids must have returned to their own cabins-that was it-and had overslept. It was not her place to awaken them, of course, but she could at least step outside and see what kind of a day it was.

A fresh sea wind pulled at her skirts and tugged vainly to loosen a lock or two from her tight top braids. Leaves and plants torn into fragments littered the ground. She could see no path through this mess, nor any sign of the cabins, though she continued toward the farther side of the mound, picking her way with care among the debris.

Then, there had been a slippage of the earth and sh.e.l.l of which the mound itself was made. Enough to uncover rough stones, set in a line which could only mean they had been placed there on purpose.

And two of those had been rammed askew by half a palm; its trunk now a splintered stump. Persis paused. Those stones-they should have stood higher-much higher! But how did she know that?

Wondering, she gathered up her skirts with both hands and edged past the wreckage of the palm to look at the remnants of what must be a very old wall. One of the long splinters torn from the palm had dug deeply into the surface of the mound at this point and there was something there-not stone- Persis stooped, jerked a good-sized bit of palm frond loose, and dug into the loosened earth. A box! Of some dull metal which was the same color now as the ground which had held it.

It was narrow, about eighteen inches long. She wriggled it out of its niche and picked it up, to discover it was surprisingly heavy. Lead? A lead box. Something concealed here long ago by the Spaniards, or by a pirate?

She tried to force it open and finally had to admit that though she could see no lock, it was firmly closed. Carrying it carefully, she went back to the kitchen, in her mind a memory picture of the rack of knives on the wall there.

"Aaaaa-"

Persis jumped and dropped the knife, the blade of which she had been trying to force under the edge of the lid.

That witchlike creature who had been blown out of the storm was standing there staring at her with that same compelling, measuring look. Persis had never remembered feeling such a fear of any person before but Askra was far different from anyone she had ever met.

Now the Indian woman stretched forth a hand which was clawlike as to fingers, even the nails, dull and dirty, taking on the semblance of the talons of some unwholesome bird such as the vultures Persis had seen once or twice in the past.

"You find-ghost-thing-" The words were voiced protestingly, almost as if forced one by one with great effort from under the overhang of that beak of a nose.

Persis nearly s.n.a.t.c.hed away her own hands to hide behind her back in denial. Then her stubbornness and independence strengthened her.

"I found this-out there under a stone." She pointed to the back door, tried to keep her voice as even and emphatic as always. There were no such things as witches-ghosts. She knew enough to be sure of that. And she was not going to let herself be stampeded into believing otherwise.

"Ghost thing-bad-"

Persis knew now what Molly had meant when she said that Askra's intent gaze did make one feel that the hag could summon powers beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. Only she was not going to give in to any such foolish idea!

The Indian woman stretched her hand out farther, extending her fingers as if to grasp the box. Now her eyes changed, were veiled as her wrinkled lids fell. She made, however, no move to pick up the box. It was just as if it radiated some form of heat which her hand could feel.

"Not of-" She no longer spoke English but rather a gabble of words totally unknown to the girl. "b.l.o.o.d.y-it has been-it will be again. You take it."

Now using her fingertips, Askra pushed the box toward Persis.

"It is for you-a gift."

"A gift?" Persis echoed.

"A gift of blood. To your hand only will it go. And in your hand it will bring life-and death. She wishes it so."

"She-?"

Askra was already shuffling toward the outer door. She did not answer and in a moment was outside, the still unopened box left lying on the table. Persis was torn by two almost equal emotions. One demanded that she return the thing to where she had found it, scratch broken sh.e.l.ls and earth over it. But she found that she could not do that. It had suddenly become so important that she know- She had to know!

The Indian woman had been obviously trying to frighten her; that was it. Molly said that most of the islanders held Askra in such awe that they gave her what she wanted and kept carefully out of her way thereafter.

Slowly the girl picked up a knife, inserted its point into the edge age had sealed shut, and began to pry. This had been a pirate stronghold once. The thought of some treasure crossed her mind but she forgot her uneasiness as she worked to loosen the leaden band around its side which apparently locked it closed. Loosening the end of one strip, she peeled that loose in a single piece. And once that band was gone, it was easy to raise the lid.

There was a ma.s.s of age-rotted fiber there. That she drew out carefully. Then a single object, well wrapped in what could only be a strip of oiled silk (gone crackly with age and giving forth a disagreeable smell) appeared.

Persis plucked gingerly at that, not liking the feel of it against her fingers. It unrolled slowly and she found she had uncovered a closed fan. But- This was the one Lydia had shown her, with such a fantastic history! There was no mistaking the opal-eyed cats staring banefully up at her from the heavily carved end sticks. Except when she tried to open it, there was no spread. The thing was made to look like a fan, yes, but a second close observation showed no folds. It was a solid, heavy copy of the closed fan Lydia had displayed-even grooves along the top to suggest the edges of real folds.

And, she hated it!

Persis prided herself on her sensible approach to life. She certainly discounted Lydia's relished ghost story. This could not be Lydia's fan, of course, though it was so closely a duplicate, except that it must remain furled. Persis found that she shrank from touching it at all.

Instead, using the flaking, oiled silk to cover her fingers, she recovered it quickly, to fit it back into its coffin. Why did the word coffin seem to fit so well, asked one portion of her mind? But that was what it was- encoffined.

Hurriedly she piled the disintegrating fiber over it and slammed the lid back on the box. As best she could, she retwisted the lead strip, sealing it around the sides. Though, she was sure, not well enough to keep the sea damp from reaching the contents. But that did not matter. This was an instrument of evil!

Then she was astounded by her own thoughts. How could any object convey to her such a sense of heightened evil which this held? It was not natural in these enlightened days. She knew that witches and curses, and all the like, were only a part of such old romances silly schoolgirls traded and read in order to have the pleasure of shivering over impossible horrors.

Taking up the box once more she determinedly went out the rear door. This was going right back where she found it. And Askra's comments, or warnings, whichever those had been, were only the meandering of a half-crazed old woman who fed upon the awe and fear she aroused in the superst.i.tious.

Persis found the hole from which she had freed the box and worked that back into its former resting place, pushing in sh.e.l.ls and earth, tramping back and forth with stolid determination over the spot that it might stay safely hidden and buried.

It was not until she was back in the house again, washing her earth-stained hands that Persis felt comfortable. n.o.body was going to find that again. Still, she had to fight down a small stir of curiosity. A fan which was not a fan-what had been its purpose? She was sure that the design on the end sticks had been exactly the same-the staring, enigmatic cats with their opal eyes giving them almost the look of life. She had just hung up the towel when she heard a stir in the silent house for the first time. Mrs. Pryor came in, her usual calm expression gone. Even several strands of hair had loosened at the back of her neck in a way which made her look more abandoned even than if she had allowed the whole ma.s.s (which Persis was sure was neatly pinned over a roll of padding) to stream free.

"The Captain-" She hesitated just within the door, her fingers twisting together over the sample spread of her ap.r.o.n, her face less pink than usual. "Signals from the ship-the Captain has been injured!"

"Captain Leverett? Are they bringing him ash.o.r.e?"

"Yes, yes-we must be ready-"

Persis was already on her way. "Into his own room," she said firmly. "I will move my things. If you do not mind I can use Uncle Augustin's chamber."

"Of course," but Mrs. Pryor seemed hardly to hear her. She had unslung the ring of keys which she wore at her waist as her badge of office and was heading toward a tall cupboard on the left. "Hammond has gone for Dr. Veering-Hurt-never before-" But Persis judged that she was talking to herself now.

She herself sped down the hall and up the stairs. Once in the chamber she caught armloads of clothing Molly had labored to freshen and carried them across the hall, to dump them on the bed there. Her trunk- they would have to bring that later. She grabbed at brush, comb, mirror, and a bottle of toilet water which had miraculously ridden through the ordeal of the Arrow wrapped in three petticoats. Uncle Augustin's watch from the bedside table- Just as she looked around to be sure she had forgotten nothing, Sukie came in, her arms laded with fresh bed linen and, behind her, Lydia. It was a much subdued Lydia, lacking that light malice which so often marked her face to give her such a discontented expression.

"I can't believe it-Crewe-!" she burst out. "If it's bad -" She bit her lip. "Crewe isn't one to take chances- ever-and- Not Crewe!" She gave a short wail, but as she did so Mrs. Pryor stalked in, behind her a second maid carried a pile of torn linen suitable for bandages, and small pots with oiled paper tied over their tops for lids.

"Don't you take on, Miss Lydia!" she said sharply. "Dr. Veering is on his way."

"Crewe-" Lydia was shaking throughout her body, and Persis, seeing how she might help, put her arm around the girl's shoulder and drew her across the hall to that place of greater confusion where she had dumped all her possessions without thought.

"You have to have faith," Persis said. "And he's an excellent seaman, you know that." It was awkward for her to find words and she began embarra.s.sedly to fold up underlinen.

Lydia's hand went out to smooth the full skirt of a tumbled dress. She did not look up.

"Crewe's always just-just been there," she said with a catch in her voice. "I could depend on Crewe."

"And you will continue to do so," returned Persis briskly, with a confidence she was not sure of.

7.

But Crewe Leverett was not all right, nor was he a good patient. Where Uncle Augustin had withdrawn into a silent world of endurance without vocal complaint after his seizure, always polite, but remoter than ever to those who cared for his bodily needs (as if he himself had disowned that body at times), the Captain proved impatient and demanding. And his injuries were not light ones. He had a broken shoulder, two cracked ribs, and a slight case of concussion, gained during his efforts to save a Dutch brig piled up not far from where the Arrow had met its fate earlier.

Dr. Veering was able to keep him under the influence of opiates for the first hours after the shoulder was strapped and the ribs set. But even in his drugged sleep his voice would ring out suddenly in some sharp order. It was plain though he lay in his bed he was back in spirit on the brig. They had not been able to save the ship as they had the Arrow, though his men, under the mate, Lan Harvery, had managed to secure half the crew (those who had not been swept overboard at the first crash) and perhaps a third of the cargo, which was now piled below on the same wharf which had earlier held that taken from the Arrow.

Lydia provided no help in the sick room. Apparently the fact that Crewe was liable to the same dangers met by other wreckers came as a shock to his sister. And, Persis, remembering her own confusion and dismay when Uncle Augustin had suddenly changed from the dominate head of the household to an invalid, thought she knew how the other girl felt.

Save that he had not indulged Lydia's desire to travel it was plain that Crewe had done all he could to make his sister's life pleasant and without care. If she had learned any household duties in her Charleston school, such skills had long since vanished from her mind. So she proved awkwardly inept in the sick room. Somehow, without any discussion about the matter, it was Persis and Molly who backed Mrs. Pryor in the care of the Captain.

And, once he had regained consciousness, he was the most difficult of charges, demanding that, since Veering would not allow him out of bed, various of his crew and the islanders he employed be summoned to receive their orders. Until Dr. Veering rebelled and said that Crewe Leverett might command at sea, but the sick room was his quarterdeck and he would have no more of this going in and out.

That the Captain was running a fever Persis knew from her own observation whenever she came to bring Mrs. Pryor, who seldom left his side, some draft or herbal medication she had asked for. His face was so flushed that the red showed even beneath the brown weathering the sea had given his skin, and his eyes were far too bright. He seemed to wear a perpetual scowl of outrage, as if he could not yet believe that this had happened to him. And he only was quiet when under drugs, which worried Dr. Veering.

"It is the head wound," Persis heard him tell Mrs. Pryor. "This continued excitability may have been caused by that. I have never known Crewe to be so unreasonable before. There may have been a slight fracture of the skull. But we must keep him quiet-that above all. Nothing to arouse him further."

They divided their time so there was always one at watch in the room. Molly reported twice he had aroused and demanded to know-with words she would not repeat-what a strange female was doing by his bedside. And before she could answer he slipped away from consciousness again.

It was the early morning of the second day that Persis took her place in the chair which faced the bed, dismissing Molly and Mrs. Pryor to get the rest they needed. A single candle burned as the day without was still only the faintest gray streak across the sky. And, though the netting veiled him somewhat, she found herself studying his face, hoping that she was right in her guess that he was sleeping more naturally and that the fever was going down.

He was wedged in with pillows so that he could not inadvertently roll onto his injured side. But now and then his head turned on the higher pillow behind him as if he could so shake off some fragment of an unpleasant dream, and that scowl seemed to have permanently creased his forehead.

There was a bristle of pale stubble across his chin, cheeks, and upper lip, but he slept with his mouth closed. And, in spite of his scowl, Persis began to realize that Crewe Leverett might be termed a fine figure of a man. The stiffness of their last interview had left him; he looked younger, less foreboding.

His head turned again and she saw his tongue tip travel over his lips. Quietly she arose and went to the bed table. As she had seen Mrs. Pryor do many times the last two days, she dipped the edge of a small linen towel into a basin of water and, parting the netting, she stooped to wipe his face with the damp cloth. Not once but several times. He sighed and half-opened his eyes.

There was a feeding cup with a spout, another of Mrs. Pryor's sick-room aids. Persis used that to give him a drink, and he swallowed thirstily. She dared to touch the skin on his forehead-it was damp and not, she thought, entirely from the toweling. Perhaps the fever was breaking! Then she discovered that his eyes were fully open and he was gazing up at her, the scowl gone, just puzzlement mirrored in them now.

"You are not-Lydia-" His voice was a harsh whisper.

"I am Persis Rooke," she returned and allowed her fingers to slide down to cover his mouth. "I was on the Arrow. Now rest, Captain Leverett, you have been hurt and have a fever."

But he did not close his eyes she noticed as she turned away from setting the feeder back on the table, and drew again the bed net. His eyes, dark as they had seemed earlier, were really blue, not the light, more shallow blue of Lydia's-rather like the blue of the deep ocean he had set himself to master.

A thought struck her. "Do you want Lydia?"

For the first time his lips shaped a shadow of a smile. And even as faint as that was, the change in his face startled Persis. She had seen him angry as he had been on board the Arrow, she had seen him handle what must have been a daunting duty when he officiated at the burial of Uncle Augustin, but she had never seen the least hint of lightness or youthfulness in his expression before.

"Lydia," his voice still was hardly above that whisper, "is not well versed in sick-room attendance."

"She probably has never had to face it before," Persis returned tactfully.

"And you have?"

"My uncle was ill for many weeks before we left New York," she answered composedly. "Molly, Shubal, and I were all he had to depend upon."

"Molly-" Once more he looked puzzled. "Oh, the one who pours a draft down you whether or no. She reminds-me-of-my old nurse-"

His eyelids were drooping, his voice slurred away into the even breathing of a sleeper. Just then Mrs. Pryor came in, carrying a tray piled with various bowls, napkins, and armed with such an air of purpose that Persis did not go back to her chair.

"I think his fever has broken," she reported.

Mrs. Pryor made her own examination. "Praise the Lord, and it has! Did he wake?"

"Only for a moment or two. I gave him a drink of water."

"Good enough. We shall get some broth into him today." The housekeeper bustled about, changing the things on the night table for those she had brought. with her. Persis offered to take the discarded bowls and cloths away.