Lost at Sea

Spring had come to pass before Jasper had gotten up the nerve to ask her father for Eleanor’s hand in marriage.

It was well into summer when he finally stepped up to him and said those fateful words, the words that would change his life for the better. Her father had been delighted; her mother, less so. She had envisioned a land owner for her daughter, or maybe even a prince would come to visit and take a liking to her. But never a simple blacksmith. Nevertheless, Jasper won the battle and he and Eleanor were married soon after.

She was magnificent. They hadn’t been married for very long, but the time that they were together was quite possibly the best of his life. He called her Mrs. James every chance he got, and never did it seem like enough to convince him that she was his. And yet, she was.

They both wanted six children and to build a beautiful family as quickly as possible. Eleanor had been pregnant twice since their wedding night, but both times she lost the baby early on. It was devastating and changed their outlook. They’d be delighted to have one baby.

Jasper had had his suspicions that Eleanor was with child when she was lost to him.

He blinked. Where was he, again? Ah, yes. That damned cove, awaiting the return of not-Eleanor. He forced himself into a sitting position and wiggled his dry tongue against the roof of his mouth. There was an awful taste in his mouth and he relished the feeling of suffering in a morbid way he didn’t realize he was capable of.

He forced himself into a sitting position and slowly lifted his arms. They had grown tanner and earned more battle scars than when he’d been with Eleanor, but he could still imagine her there with him. He could almost feel her pale white fingers weaving into the spaces between his and holding fast.

But she’s not here anymore, he reminded himself. Eleanor was no longer his Eleanor.