There was no answer. He wasted time searching along the shore before he saw her in the water. She was wading quickly away from the land.
Ranelle Burkett couldn’t swim. All those years with the ocean at her back door, yet she’d never learned to swim. The surf was high because of the approaching storm, and Jared dove into five-foot waves to reach her, but it was as if the hand of God just swept her away. The moonless night was too dark. He couldn’t see. Thetears blinding his eyes hindered him, too. But he stayed in the ocean all night, looking, hoping, praying.
Dawn brought the storm, but also enough light to see by. And Jared found his mother, half a mile down the beach, washed up on the cold, wet sand. She was dead.
It was many hours before they were found, Jared sitting in the sand staring out to sea, his mother’s head cradled in his lap. He couldn’t keep the truth a secret, that she had killed herself, for it was well-known that she couldn’t swim, that she never went into the water even to wade.
It was many years before Jared stopped blaming himself for not being able to save her. She would only have tried again, he finally realized. She had wanted to die. And Samuel Barrows had driven her to her death. By coming into her life when it was too late, he had pushed her into the sea. He was responsible for her misery and her death, and Jared would see to it that he paid.
Chapter 5
The townhouse on Beacon Street was brightly lit and filled with fresh-cut summer flowers from the Barrows’ garden. Maids in stiff black uniforms and white aprons circulated drinks among the early guests. This was to be a formal party, and guests would mingle in the large reception hall until dinner was announced.
Upstairs in Corinne’s bedroom, Florence worked on her elaborate coiffure while Corinne’s cousin Lauren paced nervously across the room behind them, her slippers with their tiny heels clattering noisily as she moved back and forth. This was Lauren’s second formal party, and she was anxious about the impression she would make.
“Are you sure this gown is suitable?” she asked for the third time.
“Yellow becomes you, Cousin. After all, you don’t want to wear anything darker at your age,” Corinne said as she watched Lauren through her mirror.
“But your gown is so daring, Cori, with only those thin sequined straps to hold it up. And rose silk is so beautiful. Mother wouldn’t let me have a gown like that. I’m sure I look old-fashioned.”
“Oh, stop fretting. I am a bit older than you, remember,” Corinne remarked impatiently. “But I suppose I forget what it was like to be sixteen. You really will be the prettiest girl at the party, so stop worrying.”
Lauren smiled. “Maybe if you don’t come I’ll be the prettiest.”
“Don’t be silly. And looks aren’t everything. You know most men won’t look at me twice because I’m too tall for them. Small, delicate women like you are all the rage.”
Lauren blushed and changed the subject. “I wonder why Uncle Samuel didn’t have this party on July Fourth, just a few days ago. And why didn’t he give us more warning?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t care, either,” Corinne smiled. “A party is a party.”
“I suppose so. But this one was planned awfully fast. Mother had a fit because her dress wasn’t finished in time and she had to wear an old one. What was the hurry, do you know?”
“There is some man Father wants his friends to meet. He decided to do it this way with a party, to please me. We haven’t been getting along too well lately.”
Florence gave a humph to that as she slid ruby pins into Corinne’s hair. Florence Merrill had been with Corinne since she was a child, and she knew what was going on. The maid fastened the last pin in place, then left the room. Corinne fussed through her large jewel case.
“Will Russell be coming?” Lauren asked.
“Of course.”
“Still no luck in getting your father’s permission to