Yet the woman! After all, Starling was her
cousin. Had she not the right to choose for herself whether she should
see him? My training and instinct said no to this last question.
Women were made to be cared for, at whatever cost, but not to be taken
into confidence as to ways and means. Still I had entered into a bond
with this woman. I breathed hard. I had always been restive under any
bond, though by nature plodding enough when it was removed. I was
aware that I was but sullen company while I rolled this matter in my
mind.
The day was warm, and by afternoon soaring pinions of cloud pushed up
from the western horizon. I watched their white edges curl and
blacken, and when they began to be laced with red lightning I said to
the woman that we should have to land.
"Though I hoped to make the Sturgeon Cove," I added idly.
The breeze was rising, drawing sharp criss-cross furrows on the water,
and I noticed how it ruffled the woman's hair; her hair was like her
eyes, a warm red-brown.
"What is Sturgeon Cove?" she asked. "Is it a bay,--a larger one than
we have passed?"
I took a rough map from my wallet and handed it to her. "Much larger,
you see," I said. "It almost bisects the peninsula.
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