The Unknowing Heiress

Chapter 26

"Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone. We find it with another." Thomas Merton.

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Chapter Twenty – Six

One week into the voyage, Max was very much over the shock of his mother’s death. That was what it had been – a shock.

Max was aware of his mother’s adulterous escapades and he very much resented her for them, but he had always imagined her living her scandalous life in New York.

Whether or not Max and Rebecca liked it, Claudia was their mother. She was the woman who had given birth to them and for a time, no matter how short, she had raised them.

He was sad that she had died in such a dreadful way, but he could not mourn her. She had loved herself more than her children, and so, she did not deserve to have her children go into full mourning for her.

Even Maggie had stopped mourning Isaac. For several weeks she had worn a black armband but had now stopped.

It was difficult with parents like theirs.

Once they were out onto open sea, the ocean flattened and the voyage was not so nauseating. Poor Nora had spent the first week in bed with horrid sea sickness. She was grateful to have the privacy of a first class cabin when she was ill. Nora had fully expected to travel steerage with her sons and had nearly fainted when Nate had simply stated that she and her sons would be sleeping in with Maggie while he and Max would be sharing the other cabin that he had booked.

“She is a different Maggie,” Nate commented one night while they lay in their beds.

“She is,” agreed Max. Max could see how much she had improved. Even though she had experienced a great horror, one she had flatly refused to divulge to her family, she had improve greatly. Max had not realised just how sad she was. He had not realised just how much of herself she had been concealing.

“She is the little girl I met in Charlotte once again.” Max could hear that his uncle was smiling. “She cares not for what others think. She is finally happy within her own beautiful olive skin.”

Max was glad. He had long thought that Maggie was the most beautiful creature that he had ever laid eyes on. It was high time she saw it, too.

The rest of the journey was long and strenuous. Max ran out of paper one month into the voyage so made so by drawing Maggie on the corners of old newspapers and handkerchiefs. There was little to keep Nora’s restless sons occupied and the ocean seemed endless.

One evening in July, after their unappetising meal of boiled mutton and vegetables, Maggie and Max sat up on the top deck watching the stars above. There was nothing to match a night sky from the middle of the ocean. It was so clear and bright. It looked as though nothing separated the ocean and the horizon.

Max held her hand in his. He was so at ease with her. There was no need for words. They could just be in each other’s company silently without it being uncomfortable.

He was so mesmerised just by looking at her. The darkness only provided him with a silhouette to stare at but he still thought her incredibly beautiful.

“Will you marry me, Maggie?” he asked, all of a sudden.

Maggie’s head snapped around. Even with the darkness, he could see her eyes widen.

She gasped. “What?”

“You heard me,” he said confidently. Max already knew her answer, but he wanted to ask anyway.