Ali's Journey Home Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

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  Chapter 1

  The water was icy cold, and black as night as Ali hung on for her life. Her hands tightly clasped around the waist of the Captain. He fought against the dark raging waves. He had no idea that Ali was clinging to him fearfully praying that he was strong enough to save them both from a watery death. In Ali’s fear she called out Jeremiah’s name, but the captain did not hear her cries. He just kept swimming knowing that if he didn’t make it to the shore this would be the end, and he would not have his life end like this. He had Lizzie and Matthew waiting for him, depending on him to return, and the one thing that he could not do was let them down.

  “I am so sorry Jeremiah” she whispered. “I know that everything that happened was not your fault. These past weeks have caused me to take a good look at myself, and I know only one thing. I will do everything I can to get back to you. I love you.”

  She closed her eyes to the raging waters trying to imagine sitting by the fire with Jeremiah next to her. Her anger was gone and only the need to feel him next to her remained.

  “I am not sure what I have to do to return. I can only imagine that I am here because there is something I have to accomplish first.” She cried out to the sky above, hoping that her voice could be heard above the storm. “I hope you can hear me Jeremiah I love you.”

  She opened her eyes, her arms still tightly wrapped around the captain. There it was she blinked her eyes. It was as if the island appeared suddenly out of nowhere.

  “Look Captain, there’s something ahead in the dark. Don’t you see it? ” she said to him even though she knew that he could not hear her voice.

  “I think I see something ahead.” He said to himself as he coaxed himself to keep swimming. His arms were tired, but he would make it to that island. He had too much at stake.

  He would get back at Moreland for all his lies. He would head home to Lizzie and Matthew, and he would never leave them again.

  An icy death was not in his plan, and falling off his ship in a storm was definitely not how he pictured his life ending. He always knew that there was a chance he would go down with his ship and crew, but not this way. His imagination always had him fighting to the death before ending up in the sea. Anger raged inside of him as he kept swimming. “I will not give up Lizzie. I will see you and Matthew again.”

  He would do everything to survive, and he could only hope that his ship would also make it to shore. With Moreland at the helm he knew their likelihood of surviving was much greater. He and his crew would make it he kept telling himself. He would meet up with them, and then have it out once and for all with John J.

  All these years how could he have kept this dark secret from him?

  He had to be lying to him. John J Moreland could not be his real father, but why would he lie about something like that?

  Why would Moreland let such a man as Jonathan Ravenswood raise him and never interfere? It was just not John J’s style. There had to be another reason but what was it?

  He thought about all the times John J had watched while his father beat and berated him and did nothing but stand by and watch. If he were truly his son how could he have stood and not interfered? This was not the John J. Moreland that he had grown to know. The John J. he knew would have killed the likes of Jonathan Ravenswood for less than that. The question that haunted him most was if what John J, said was true than why did his own mother go along with this deception? John J had to be lying, but what did he have to gain from all of this?

  “Look Captain, the beach is just ahead. We can make it. Please keep swimming.” Ali whispered in his ear shivering from the cold icy waters.

  One thing she was sure of was that if they didn’t make it to shore soon they would both die from hypothermia. She did not want her life to end out here in the cold ocean waters with no one ever knowing what happened to her.

  “Can you see it Captain? It’s just ahead. Keep swimming, please keep swimming.” She urged him on wondering if he was seeing the same thing she saw.

  “Thank God,” he whispered. “Salvation is ahead, and once I reach land I will get my bearings, and everything will be all right.” he whispered to himself.

  “A little farther Masterson” he spoke out loud trying to convince himself that he could make it to the shoreline.

  “You got this Captain” Ali prayed with her eyes closed. She knew the captain would do everything he could to rescue them both from the icy seas.

  He finally reached an area where his feet touched the ground.

  He struggled with the waves now pushing him around like a rag-doll, but he continued to fight until he fell exhausted on the beach. He lay there breathing deeply allowing his body to swallow up the heat that the sand was generating.

  Ali took a deep breath as she finally let go of the captain.

  “You did it Captain, you saved us. Our future is safe all because of you. I love you Captain Masterson Ravenswood. You are the best.”

  He lay there cursing the storm above, and thinking only of the sweet revenge he would get once he got his hands on John J.

  “I will find you John J, and you will have to answer for all of this.” He yelled out to the sky above. He lay on the sand for a while before he finally sat up. His arms were aching and his neck was stiff. The hard rain had diminished, and was now floating down like a soft mist across the beach.

  The winds had died down, and the worst of the storm was over, but the storm building up inside of him was just beginning.

  “Well Masterson” he said talking to himself. “I guess I better make some shelter since I don’t know how long I will be here before a ship comes looking if one ever does.”

  Ali laid on the beach her hands grasping the warm sands running it through her fingers. She was wondering if Captain Moreland was going to pull her back to his ship this time, or if he was planning on leaving her here abandoned with the Captain. What about Lizzie?

  This news of the captain’s disappearance would be devastating for her. She would have no way of knowing he was still alive. If she finds out that the Captain fell overboard and wasn’t returning what would she do? She would leave of course, but where would she go, and would she ever find out he was still alive? They were going to have to get off this island. The Captain had to get back to Lizzie.

  “What do we need to do first?” Ali asked as she lay in the sand. After all she had never been lost on a deserted island before. She suddenly realized that she had no skills whatsoever to handle this kind of situation. She knew it was silly for her to even ask after all the Captain couldn’t see or hear her. This was a funny twist she thought. Here she was now the silent ghostly figure watching him while he was the real person living out his life, not even knowing she was there with him. She wondered if there was some way that she could reveal her presence to him. Lizzie was able to see her so why not him?

  “I should gather some firewood first I guess. Set up a fire on the beach and maybe with any luck a passing ship will come by and rescue me.” He was talking out loud as if he heard her question.

  It made her wonder if he had silen
tly done that to her at the mansion. If he had watched her, placed thoughts in her head? Had she nonchalantly answer questions he had asked?

  It was still funny though having him answering her questions without even hearing her. To be sure it wasn’t just a coincidence she tried it again.

  “How do you think we can start that fire Captain, we’re all wet and there is no way to make a fire?”

  “I wonder” he said “just maybe that old trick will work.” Rubbing sticks together to produce a fire had always seemed silly to him as a child, but he was cold, the rain had stopped, and a fire would be nice to warm things up.

  “Guess I best get started gathering some wood.” He said out loud craving the sound of another voice.

  “I’ll help you Captain, after all it is at least partially my fault that we are both here stranded.”

  He walked into the woods not hearing the sound of Ali’s voice.

  Ali gathered up some drift wood and set it on the beach in a pile.

  When the Captain returned his hands full of wood he saw the pile she had laid on the beach for him. He checked for the knife in his boot, and looked around carefully. He had the strangest feeling that there was someone else on the island with him.

  “You’re imaging things Masterson” he said trying to reassure him-self.

  “You just missed that pile of wood lying there” He said still watching and on alert feeling he was not alone. There could be an old pirate on this island and trouble could always happen quickly. He had to be prepared for anything. He gathered some old dried leaves and dead grass from a covered area that had been protected from the storm hoping it would catch fire quickly.

  After multiple attempts, and a few choice curse words he managed to get the grass to smolder, and shortly after a small fire began. Soon the wood they had collected was burning bright and both he and Ali were soaking in the warmth.

  “What do we do next Captain she asked?”

  “I guess I will have to get some food and find some fresh water soon otherwise starving, or dying of thirst will be the next thing that happens.”

  This was too much Ali thought everything she silently asks him gets answered. What a hoot. She wondered if she asked him more personal questions if he would answer them in the same manner. She would have to try it out later, but right now she was tired, and all she wanted to do was curl up close to the fire and sleep.

  Chapter 2

  When Ali awoke she half expected to find herself back with Moreland, but she was still on the beach. That’s so strange she thought for sure Captain Moreland would have swooped her up again, and transported her back to the ship where she started this journey. The place he kept bringing her to every time things got interesting and things were definitely interesting.

  Masterson was busy keeping the fire going day and night in hopes a passing ship might see them, well him anyway.

  “What in the world are you doing” she asked him as he waded out into the water with a big sharp stick in his hand.

  “Come on you stupid fish” he cried out almost in desperation

  “You must be going crazy. You cannot catch a fish with a stupid stick.” She yelled at him.

  “I have to get some food or starve to death and with no pole and hook spear fishing is the only answer.” He yelled out into the air as if he heard her voice and was answering it.

  This man was not the straitlaced Captain she had grown to know. In fact he looked silly as he floundered about in the water trying to catch a fish on a spear. He stabbed and stabbed but caught nothing. His pitiful tries to get food with a stick made her laugh.

  “You will starve at this rate Captain” she mumbled to him as she sat down on the warm sand watching him.

  “I am going to starve” he yelled out to the ocean air again as if it would somehow provide him with a slow fish that he could stab.

  “He does hear me.” She thought.

  The Captain looked around quickly as if he heard some strange sound behind him.

  “It’s just sounds playing with your mind in the wind Masti. You’re not going crazy.” He told himself.

  “Why don’t you try building a trap Masterson, a lobster trap with an empty coconut hooked too it like a bobber might just work you know.”

  Masterson got out of the water and threw the stick on the ground stomping off into the woods. “I will have to trap these fish to keep myself from starving.”

  Ali laughed as he struggled to build himself a trap to place in the water. He picked at the fresh coconut as he worked on his contraption to catch fish. He would die if it weren’t for her guidance she thought. He saved her life though, and it was the least she could do. She would have never survived the swim from the ship.

  She stole a few pieces of coconut that he had place on a leaf, as she sat watching him work.

  Was there a lesson that she had to learn in order for Captain Moreland to take her back home? She thought. Why was she really here?

  Later that day Masterson went to check his trap. The coconut was under water that had to mean something.

  She watched as he shouted with glee and pulled out a nice size lobster.

  “It worked” he shouted and danced around “It actually worked.”

  He threw the lobster on the fire and the sound of it screaming was too much for Ali. She took a walk on the beach to let him have some peace and enjoy the lobster he had worked so hard to catch.

  She kept thinking about Captain Moreland and what he had said. She wondered why if Masterson was truly his son he would desert him the way he did?

  She thought about what it must have been like to watch another man take control of your son, beat him, treat him horrible, and not raise a hand to stop it all from happening. What kind of man is that?

  “It had to be a man who loved a woman so much that he could not bear to have her ridiculed, beaten, or considered to be a whore.” She said thinking out loud. “Think Ali” The time they lived in was very different. Angelina would have been branded, and maybe even stoned to death for carrying the child of a known pirate. She felt his presence as she turned to see Captain Moreland standing behind her.

  “You’re beginning to see my dear. You see I loved Angelina with all my heart. She was not just a woman on a long list of women that I had been with. When I met her she was beautiful, charming, and the most exciting woman I had ever met. So much so I was willing to give up everything I was and settle down with her for the rest of my life.”

  “What happened? Why didn’t you settled down and marry her?”

  “I did something stupid that is why.”

  “We all do stupid things captain” she said thinking of how she had treated Jeremiah.

  “I truly believed that she was in love with me, so I told her the truth. I told her who I really was. I took her to my hidden ship and showed her how life would be with me. We would travel the world together. My passion for her consumed me. She never stopped me though she should have. When later she told me she was carrying my child I panicked. I asked her to run away with me. Marry me Angelina I said knowing in my heart that was the right thing to do, yet afraid of the very essence of marriage. I knew inside that I would never find another woman like her. She was someone who held my heart in the palm of her hand. That is when she said the words that cut my soul in two. Her father would never consent to our marriage.

  You see I was a pirate, and at best a sailor with no money, and nothing to offer her. She knew that I already had another lover, and she was not willing to share me with the one thing she knew would always draw me away from her. She was beautiful, and a smart woman you see, but she wanted it all.”

  “Just what couldn’t you provide her with?”

  “While she wanted true love her desire for money and prestige was as great as my love for the open waters. All I could provide was true love and a life with me roaming the sea. She had her life all planned out. Our baby was a slight hitch in her plan, but you see she was going to marry Jonathan Ravenswood.
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br />   He had it all, everything she desired wealth, and nobility. She would be the lady of the manor. Everyone in Ravensport would respect her and her father once she married Jonathan.”

  “So she used Jonathan and really if you want the truth she used you too.”

  “Jonathan was not a smart man, or he would have seen what was really going on much sooner than he did. Then again maybe he just chose to ignore it since he had won the prize. He owned the town, and soon he would own Angelina. He of course was someone her father would have no qualms about her marrying.”

  Ali began to understand. Angelina was going to use her pregnancy as means to wed the wealthy Jonathan, but she knew that Angelina would have to sleep with him to accomplish that task.

  “You see Ali as soon as her father had learned of her little dilemma he set things in motion quickly. Before the week was out he had her married to Jonathan. Being both arrogant and stupid Jonathan believed her when she told him that she got pregnant on their wedding night.

  She got him so drunk that night he had no idea of what had transpired. In fact she had the servants carry him up to the bedroom. She undressed him, and then lay naked next to him until he awoke. Seeing her lying naked next to him she hoped he would assume that he had consummated his marriage. She looked so innocent, and shied away from him when he touched her. She feigned her embarrassment of course as any virgin would after a first encounter such as this, and headed into the water closet to dress.”

  Ali listened intently as Captain Moreland went on with the story.

  “He was excited and pleased when she told him about the child several weeks later. She then used the pregnancy to keep him from touching her. Telling him how fragile she was, and if he took advantage of her in this condition it could cause her to lose the child. He wasn’t even upset with the fact that his new bride avoided his touch.

  He had been with many women before her and he could find another one if he needed to release himself. He would have to be careful though now that he knew he could produce a child. It had been somewhat of a joke amongst the men in town.