Chapter 3 - THE NOBLEMAN WHO DID NOT DISAPPEAR
Martha reached the shore before Elias decided whether he wanted to hear her answer.
Rain had plastered her gray hair to her face.
Without the magic, the years had returned to her all at once—not as punishment, Elias realized, but as truth. The gowns had vanished. The gems were gone. The gold circlet no longer rested against her forehead.
She was sixty-four again.
The woman he had married.
The woman he had not understood for years.
The young nobleman followed several steps behind her.
He was still dressed beautifully.
His velvet coat remained.
His rings remained.
His boots were muddy now, but expensive.
So the mermaid had been right.
He had not come from magic.
Martha saw Elias kneeling beside the glowing water.
Her eyes burned.
“You did this.”
Elias stood.
“I took back what we never earned.”
“We?”
Her laugh was sharp.
“You mean what I finally had.”
The words struck him.
The mermaid floated silently behind him, saying nothing.
The nobleman approached more cautiously.
“Martha.”
She turned on him.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Elias looked at the stranger.
“Who are you?”
The man studied him with a surprising lack of contempt.
“Lord Adrian Vale.”
Elias almost laughed.
Of course.
A lord.
Martha straightened despite her wet clothes, as if the title itself restored some of what the sea had stripped away.
Adrian continued.
“My family holds land inland.”
“Did you know she was married?”
Silence.
Martha answered for him.
“He knew.”
Elias looked at Adrian.
The nobleman did not lie.
“Yes.”
That honesty did not make him decent.
It made him harder to dismiss.
Elias’s hand curled at his side.
Martha stepped forward.
“You think you’ve won?”
He looked at her.
“No.”
She almost seemed disappointed.
“You took everything from me.”
“No,” Elias said. “I took back what the sea gave through me.”
“You begged for it because I asked!”
“Yes.”
“You enjoyed it too.”
That stopped him.
The better house.
The warm bed.
The full pantry.
The first winter he did not wake with pain in his fingers from cold.
The first week he did not fear whether the nets would come up empty.
He had enjoyed those gifts.
He had told himself he was only doing it for Martha.
Not entirely true.
She saw the admission on his face.
“Exactly.”
The mermaid spoke at last.
“Truth is easier when both people stop trying to be innocent.”
Martha turned toward the water.
Her fury faltered when she saw the creature fully.
For all the wishes she had demanded, this was the first time Martha had stood before the mermaid herself.
She went pale.
“You’re real.”
The mermaid’s expression barely changed.
“You spent my gifts confidently for someone uncertain I existed.”
Martha swallowed.
Then greed returned faster than fear.
“Can you grant me wishes?”
Elias closed his eyes.
Of course.
Adrian stared at Martha.
The mermaid tilted her head.
“I can grant wishes.”
Martha’s face lit.
Elias stepped forward.
“No.”
The mermaid looked at him.
Then back at Martha.
“You cannot forbid her from asking.”
Martha smiled.
There.
A new door opening.
She looked at Elias as though he had become irrelevant.
“I want my mansion restored.”
The mermaid asked calmly:
“What will you give?”
Martha frowned.
“You gave him wishes for freeing you.”
“He showed mercy when he expected no reward.”
“I am his wife.”
“That is not payment.”
Martha’s face hardened.
“What do you want?”
The sea darkened.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Martha, perhaps we should leave.”
She ignored him.
“What do you want?” she repeated.
The mermaid’s golden hair moved although the wind had stopped.
“One true thing.”
Martha stared.
“What?”
“One truth you have never spoken aloud.”
“That’s all?”
The mermaid’s expression sharpened.
“Truth is rarely all.”
Martha hesitated.
Elias did not breathe.
The mermaid continued.
“Speak it, and I will hear your wish.”
Martha’s face changed.
She looked at Elias.
At Adrian.
At the ruined coast.
At her empty hands.
Then she said:
“I hated being poor.”
The sea did nothing.
The mermaid waited.
Martha’s mouth tightened.
“I hated smelling fish on my clothes.”
Still nothing.
“I hated counting bread.”
Nothing.
Martha’s voice rose.
“What do you want from me?”
The mermaid said:
“A truth you have never spoken.”
Martha’s eyes filled suddenly.
Not with greed.
With something older.
She looked at Elias.
“When I married you,” she said, “I thought kindness would be enough.”
Elias went still.
Martha continued before courage abandoned her.
“And then years passed.”
Her voice shook.
“Winters. Debt. Empty nets. Broken roofs. Watching women I grew up with move inland while I mended the same dress again and again.”
Elias’s throat tightened.
“I never blamed you for the storms.”
“No,” she said bitterly. “I blamed you for being satisfied with surviving them.”
There.
The sea flashed.
The mermaid’s eyes glowed.
Truth accepted.
Martha looked startled.
Elias felt as if something invisible had cut him.
“You thought I was satisfied?”
“You never asked for more.”
“I worked every day.”
“I know.”
“I nearly drowned twice.”
“I know.”
“Then what did you want me to do?”
“Want.”
The word broke between them.
“I wanted you to want something bigger than tomorrow’s dinner.”
Elias stared.
Martha wiped rain from her face.
“I wanted you to look at the world and hate how little it gave us.”
“I did.”
“You hid it too well.”
Silence.
The mermaid spoke.
“Your truth is accepted.”
Martha turned quickly.
“My wish.”
“Yes.”
She lifted her chin.
“I want wealth no one can take from me.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Elias whispered, “Martha.”
The mermaid’s eyes became unreadable.
“That is a dangerous wish.”
“I don’t care.”
“Of course you do.”
Martha’s hands clenched.
“Grant it.”
The mermaid raised one glowing hand.
The sea shuddered.
Then nothing happened.
Martha stared.
“Where is it?”
The mermaid looked toward Adrian.
Then at the coast.
Then back at Martha.
“Wealth no one can take must be something no one else can own.”
Martha frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Blue-gold light moved from the sea and touched Martha’s chest.
She gasped.
For a moment, her body glowed.
Then the light vanished.
No mansion.
No crown.
No chest of gold.
Martha looked furious.
“You cheated me.”
“No.”
“What did you give me?”
“The ability to know the value of what is truly yours.”
Martha stared in disbelief.
“That is not wealth.”
The mermaid smiled faintly.
“Then perhaps you asked badly.”
Adrian lowered his eyes, hiding what might have been a smile.
Martha rounded on Elias.
“This is your fault.”
He almost answered.
Then she looked at the bracelet on her wrist.
The one Adrian had given her.
She touched it.
Her expression changed.
A whisper escaped her.
“This isn’t mine.”
Adrian looked up sharply.
Martha stared at him.
“What?”
He stepped closer.
“It is yours.”
“No.”
The blue light beneath her skin flickered once.
Martha looked suddenly frightened.
She removed the bracelet.
The moment it left her wrist, the glow stopped.
She stared at it in her palm.
“Why does the magic say this isn’t mine?”
Adrian’s face drained.
May you like
The mermaid turned toward him.
And Elias realized Martha’s strange new gift had already uncovered something the young lord never intended her to know.
