Page 151 of In the Pursuit of Haven
I took a deep breath, noticing another letter folded into a tiny square. I’d almost missed the note; it took up so little space. I picked it up, peeling open the weathered paper, noticing the deep creases of a message that hadn’t been read for a very long time:
“Haven! Leon is back. It’s such a surprise. We’re sailing into port to get supplies. We’ve discovered so much, and I can’t wait to tell you everything… though I confess I’m even more excited to get you into my arms again. I miss you so much!”
Matthew’s letter had never reached Haven. Luther had cruelly kept it from her.
Reading through the letter, I saw Matthew had discovered information about the treasure that Luther had leaked to Hunter and then to Jessie:
“I know what the nine means in Crabb’s locket now! They were the nine Shepherds who were meant to protect the clues to the treasure! Crabb said he’d find them—Shepherds of the Relics, he called them. Their identities are all found on a map that Crabb left behind… with Ann Dolliver! She never stopped loving him after he died; the strength of their love now reminds me of ours, Haven—the pirate was struck by everything about her when they first met—just like I was with you! He bargained for her life when he could’ve saved himself instead, but why should he after she was in it? His life meant nothing without her. We all know Ann was never the same after he died; everyone remarked on it, though none of them knew the reasons. Doesn’t that prove how much she loved him? Ann never revealed any of the secrets Crabb entrusted with her. I believe the map is buried with her. How can it not? Their love was everything!”
My breath caught at the simple faith Matthew had in this romance. No, no, he wouldneverbetray Haven with a sham marriage! If anything, his words were a declaration of how he felt for her. In a perfect world, she would’ve seen this lost letter and never believed a word of Drake’s cruel taunts.
How disgusting of Luther to take away this man’s last words from my aunt! Things should’ve been different for Matthew and Haven. I glanced back at the letter:
“Believe me, Haven, if we ever find where Ann Dolliver was buried, we’ll find that map. The old pub owner at Sand’s End was only repeating local tales of Phips’s retrieving that legendary sunken treasure off their coast. He mentioned Crabb was a diver—the best out there—and the two struck up a lasting friendship. Phip’s captain’s quarters were stuffed with rare oddities he’d picked up in shipwrecks around the world and Crabb was more than happy to add to that collection.”
I was riveted by every detail, despite my worry about what was happening with Jessie in Luther’s hands. Somehow, it felt important to read through Matthew’s findings to know what his nephew might be facing on Misery Island.
“Another man was aboard their vessel—the locals called him the Lightmaker. He was a genius; a scientist and inventor from England, who’d been sent on their voyage by royal decree so he could develop his theory on tides. The man studied light, gravity, was rumored to help author calculus, and only later did it come out that he was a Whig—an anti-monarchist, like the Puritans were, Haven, which might’ve been how they struck up such a friendship. Some locals here theorize this genius was Isaac Newton himself. And so when Phips was the first to discover La Concepcion, this Lightmaker, as they dubbed him, used materials from the shipwreck and the oddities found in Phips’s cabin to craft these nine Relics and put them together in a mishmash, only for them to be taken apart and used separately by these nine Shepherds.”
It was all I’d suspected of our discoveries, but it was as if the Lightmaker had come in person to shed light on what we had in our possession. Had Luther accidentally left this tiny note scrunched up inside? The slipup was so careless, and yet it might’ve been tossed thoughtlessly into this same envelope five decades earlier, only to be forgotten.
Luther might be an evil professor, but he was also an absentminded one.
“All nine of these Relics are needed to get to the treasure—one does not work without the other, and all of these objects, we are told, are kept safe by these nine Shepherds who were to be as different as night from day, though they had one thing binding them, and that was their love of freedom from tyrants, and so if that liberty was ever threatened, they were to work together to get this treasure to fight off all outside threats.
“When we discover the location of this treasure, then these nine must enter with their Relics—they must work together and they must leave together. None must go in alone or try to take the treasure for themselves or they could put themselves and the others with them at great risk.”
Join or die—the meaning was becoming terribly clear, but would Luther or Hunter or any of their crew have the kind of presence of mind to work as a team? Jessie was a victim to their greed. Matthew’s words became a warning that called to me past the veils of death:
“Now more than ever, Haven, I know I should’ve kept you with me all along. That is what this hunt has shown me—this treasure was never meant to be found alone. I’ll never leave you behind again. You see, Crabb had it wrong in the end. He never should’ve guarded that treasure with his life; he should’ve gone after the real thing—not money or fame—she was the treasure! You go after the ones you love, for better or for worse, and in this case, for better, much, much better!
“Oh Haven, I love you! And I’m coming for you, my girl!”
My mind immediately went to Jessie and how he’d locked me in here, so he could face Luther by himself. Tears pricked at my eyes. I would do anything to be with my husband right now, and yet, the significance of his sacrifice wasn’t lost on me either.
That kind of love just couldn’t be thrown away.
He wasn’t so different from his uncle Matthew, after all, and I wasn’t so different from my aunt either.
My emotions were all over the place as I lowered the letter, so much so that I almost missed Matthew’s scribbled words on the back. I let out a breath when I read the first line:
“Haven… Leon knows! He knows where the treasure is! Baby, he’s been playing us this whole time. I overheard him talking to someone on the phone at the hotel. Leon’s family caused the fire on Misery Island back in the ’20s when they tried to go after the treasure. The caretaker discovered the entrance in the pond when they built the pump house; the man died! The rest barely escaped with their lives, but many of them were injured badly, and there were words scorched into the door that weren’t there when they came in. It said: ‘Where are the nine?’”
The words only appeared to them after the explosion. The riddle we’d found on the back of Crabb’s map came into sharp relief in my mind:“Fix eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen ere the fires consume ye.”
Was this why Crabb was so obsessed with “fire”? Anyone who made a wrong move getting to that treasure got burnt to a crisp! No, no, no. Jessie was on his way over there.
“That’s why he’s trying to get all nine Relics, and he’s using me to get it! Haven, they’re the keys! If he wanted to be fair with me, he would’ve told me. I’m talking to him tonight.”
Luther was the last one to see Matthew alive. By now, I was sure that he’d murdered him! Feeling like the air had been stolen from my lungs, I crumpled the letter in my hands. Luther wasn’t going to ruin another perfect love story! I’d find a way to get to my husband if it was the last thing I did.
And I don’t have my cellphone.
Straightening, I peered over the top of the lighthouse at the world far below me. The ocean was a murky gray moat trapping me here. I noticed boats in the water, most of them too far to receive my signal that I was in danger. Usually a lighthouse rescued those on the water, not asked for those on the water to rescue them!
What could I do to get attention? It was in the middle of the day, and throwing on these brights wouldn’t do a thing. My gaze traveled to the big speakers situated in the brick fog signal building below. The fog horn… where was the switch? I’d only noticed Haven ducking inside the lighthouse a few times before it went off.
I ran back inside the tower, searching past the fuse boxes until I found a red switch. I had no idea if it was the right one. Wincing, I flipped it on. The fog horn went off in response.
