Chapter 5

He had stayed far enough away from her so she could not sense him. At least he had meant to.

Truly, he didn’t know why he allowed himself to come back. As the sun dawned on the horizon, he found himself nearer to her home than he had intended.

When the rays of light hit her quarters, they found her in her bed, as he had stood to watched them move lightly over her hair. The light fell across her cheek and the sun’s touch showed him it was not the color of brown he had thought. It was, in fact, many shades of brown, and paler shades with golden hidden beneath. She looked too appealing to him at this time. Her thick lashes fanned out to hide her dark eyes. He smiled; a man could easily fall into those brown eyes and never return again.

Jareth chanced stepping closer; he hesitated when she moved, her hair fell away from her face. Her high cheekbones were now revealed. He leaned over, his eyes caressing over the faint freckles across the delicate bones. One feminine hand lay across the cover. He knew he should not even allow the thought to enter his mind, but he reached slowly and held his hand over hers. He would have liked nothing more than to hold her small hand within his own...

She moved again. “Jareth?”

A shiver went through him as he heard her sleep-filled voice murmur his name. He straightened quickly and left without looking back.

Randy closed the budget spreadsheet on the screen. She looked at the desktop for a moment and bit the inside of her cheek. “This could get fun,” she whispered to herself. Collecting up the bills, she stuffed them into the drawer. “You’ve got a month and a half at most before you go hungry and start eating paint.” She frowned. One of these days she was going to stop talking to herself. “Or probably not.” She shrugged.

Spinning the chair around, she looked at the clock. It was almost noon, and Jareth hadn’t come back. Maybe he had something to do. She shook her head. “Yeah, because his schedule is so full,” she said sarcastically. She turned back to the computer and opened the browser. She held her hands over the keyboard trying to think of what to type. Did she do a search for curses or gypsies? She was so out of her league in all of this.

Jareth watched from outside the window as she worked on her computer. It still boggled him that something as wondrous as computers had been created. But he shouldn’t have been surprised after the television—after all, he had been there to watch all that had been invented in the last two hundred years.

He watched her when her phone rang, again she chose not to answer it. It had done this at least five times before, and each time she had leaned closer to it and looked at it, but had not once picked it up to talk to the person calling her. He’d like to move closer and see what was consuming her attention for so long, but he did not dare alert her to his presence. He shook his head; he was acting like a besotted man, wanting to be with her but not having the courage to do so.

She was talking again, and it amused him that she spoke to herself as often as she did. He stepped slightly closer to the window glass to hear her words.

Randy turned and stared at the window. “How long are you going to lurk out there, Jareth?” She smirked as he realized she was talking to him and at the startled expression on his face.

Jareth entered her house and bowed his head. “I was wanting to see you, but not at the cost of disturbing you.”

Randy smiled. “The hair on the back of my neck has been tingling for the last hour. I knew you were there.”

He stepped farther into the room. “I apologize.”

She snorted. “Don’t! I told you that you could come here anytime you wanted. Trust me, if I don’t want to be disturbed, I’ll let you know.”

“I am well aware of how openly you express yourself, Miranda.”

“I guess you have seen me being completely myself over the years.” She rocked back and forth in her computer chair.

“Yes. It has been refreshing to see a female take a stand when she was not being treated appropriately.”

Tilting her head, she studied him. “I think that was a compliment, somehow.”

“It was intended to be.” He glanced at the screen behind her. “What am I interrupting?”

She rubbed her forehead. “I have been trying to find some information on gypsies and curses, but there are a lot of hits to go through and so far all I’ve found is folklore.”

“Hits?” He gave her a puzzled look.

Nodding, she spun back to the computer. “Yeah, when I type in something to search, the results that come up are called hits.”

He stepped over to stand behind her. “Do you believe you can find the answers to my problem on this machine?”

Randy laughed and tipped her head back to look up at him. “Honey, you can find any answer on the World Wide Web. Sometimes too many answers.”

He smiled at her upside-down face. “I will take your word for that.”

She bit her lip, still looking up at him. “Would you like to help?”

“I do not know how to work this Web thing, nor am I able to touch the computer to help.”

Leaning over, she pulled the other chair closer and patted it. “Grab a seat and I’ll walk you through it. We’ll figure out this lack of physical touch thing later.”

Jareth once more knew he should decline and leave, but he found himself moving his translucent form over the chair she had indicated.

Randy sat there and looked at him. “This might sound weird, but it’s like the more I see you, the more solid you seem.”

He studied the depth of her brown eyes. “It is my only wish to be solid once more.”

She smirked. “So you can eat again?”

Smiling, he knew the thoughts in his head reached his eyes when her cheeks flushed ever slightly. “Of course.”

“That’s what I’m working on, there has to be a solution. I rarely listened to my science teacher in school—I’m more of a dreamer than facts kind of gal—but he had a saying: ‘For every problem there is a solution; it’s just finding it that involves hard work.’ So we’re going to work and find the solution.”

Her energy and determined mind made him almost believe it could happen. “How can I be of assistance?”

Reaching over, she grabbed a notebook. “First, tell me about the curse, and how it happened. That would be the best place to start...if you can remember.”

He watched her for a moment. “It is not like I could forget.”

Smiling, she nodded her head once. “Good. Okay, let’s start with some background stuff.”

“Stuff?” He was tiring of having to inquire to the meanings of words.

She frowned. “That’s like bits and pieces.”

“Ah. Yes, let’s start with that stuff.” He was rewarded again with a smile for using a modern word.

“Where and when were you born?”

He was fascinated with the writing tool she held. He had never gotten used to people not having to use inkwells and blotters. “I was born in seventeen twenty-nine in Boston, Massachusetts; my parents were originally from England. They came over in the year seventeen hundred.” He could still see his mother if he thought long enough about her, with her raven hair and bright eyes. “In the years after my birth they moved to Providence.”

Pausing, she looked at him. “English ancestry certainly explains your sense of propriety.”

He laughed. “I can assure you, my propriety has well been compromised many times again.”

She cleared her throat. “Okay. So when did you break your mother’s heart and take off to Tortuga?”

He frowned. “I took a posting on a royal ship when I was nineteen, but returned often to my home each time we arrived in port.” He closed his eyes, recalling the day he had announced to his parents that he was forgoing his royal commission to sail with a less desirable crew. “I left with a different crew for Tortuga when I was twenty-four and just kept going.” He shrugged. “I did go back on occasion once I had my sloop, but my mother passed from the colic in seventeen fifty-five. As to my father, I do not know what became of him. Searching revealed not a trace the last time I laid port there in seventeen fifty-eight.”

"I haven't seen my dad since he left when I was seven."

He watched the emotion play through her eyes. “I remember.”

“That’s right, you were there.” She sighed and looked back down at the page. “Where did you sail?” She spun the chair, turning back to use the computer Trying to focus on the screen, the colors were blinding, and with so many words covering it, it took him a few minutes to find places he recognized. “It did not look like that when I sailed it.”

“I guess they’ve added a few things in the last two hundred years.”

“A ‘few’ would not begin to cover it.” He leaned closer to the image on the screen. “My charts were not as busy as this is.” He focused on the screen. “We stopped at regular ports in our travels, sometimes trying new ones, but our course stayed close to the same for eight years.”

Holding his finger over Mexico. “We sailed from this port and traveled a North-easterly route, along the coast of this United States.” He stopped for a moment to reflect how large it was now. “We usually stopped in Florida and the Carolinas”—he squinted at the map—“which it seems is now named North Carolina. We would continue on, stopping from time to time to trade or receive new commissions, until we arrived at Moose Island...” He frowned, looking at the map. “There is no Moose Island,” he stated blandly, feeling defeat.

She clicked a small object attached to the computer with a wire and hit the letter board with fingers moving faster than he could read. She grinned and pointed at the screen. “It was renamed Eastport, New Brunswick, in seventeen ninety-eight.”

“This new name makes more sense of it than the other.” She nodded when he looked at her. He waited for her to bring the map back. “From Eastport we would travel southeast across the Atlantic until we docked in Portugal.” He paused a moment. “The gypsy was from there.” She offered no remark, only nodding her head to let him know she had heard him. He continued on. “Most voyages took us along the coastlines that ran...on the coast of…”—he leaned closer to the map once more—“…Africa. I am not certain all of these places were here or not. These colors overwhelm me.”

She studied the screen for a moment. “I guess we like color now.” She glanced at the map. “At what point did you stop traveling along Africa?”

He searched for a point of recognition on the map for a moment. “I believe it was nearest to Angola before we set our bearing west across the Southern Atlantic.” He nodded to his assessment. “We made port again in Brazil, near to French Guiana.” He smirked at the colorful images of the surrounding Caribbean Sea. “The crew preferred the many ports through the Caribbean. Panama, Haiti, Tortuga, and Jamaica were among the most favored.” He nodded again. “More often than not, our stays were longer here than the time we took crossing the Atlantic. This eventually led us back to Mexico.”

She studied the screen and then blew out a breath. “That’s quite the trip.”

He nodded and leaned back away from the screen. “It was not once the same as a time before.”

“I guess it would never be dull.”

“No, never.”

She looked down at the notes she’d scribbled. “So did you pick up this gypsy in Portugal?”

He shook his head. “No. Bringing women onto the ship was never a good idea. One female among the crew could wreak havoc in ways a battle could never do.” Her cheeks flushed, as it dawned on her exactly what he suggested. “She found me when I was in a long layover here in Aaron. My crew was scattered on a long leave, a well-deserved rest and retreat. I was here attending some more private dealings.”

“What was her name? Maybe we could do an ancestry search of that name in the Portugal regions.”

He hesitated in answering. “I only knew her as Marie and I have wondered over the years if that had actually been her true name.”

“Okay, that won’t take us far.” She looked at the notes in front of her. “Did she just come at you and curse you, or was there more to it?”

Studying the floor, he considered the truth of the tale, wondering how to tell it to a lady such as Miranda. “I find myself perplexed on how to word this to you.”

Randy raised one eyebrow at him. “Why?”

He cleared his throat. “I was otherwise occupied with...Marie...when all of this came about. She was not truthful with her reasons for wanting to be with me...alone...until afterward when we quarrelled about the item she wanted returned.” She gave him a look he couldn’t read.

“Are you saying she seduced you and then cursed you when you didn’t give her what she wanted?”

“I was not hard to seduce, and that is something I have spent two hundred and forty-eight years regretting. If I had had my wits about me, maybe...”

Miranda shook her head furiously. “She probably would have done it regardless of your level of alertness, Jareth.”

After years of self-torment, he found her words comforting. “Perhaps you are correct in that.” She was looking at him with a hint of humor in her eyes. “What is this look?”

She smirked. “I’m just thinking it’s a good thing you had time to get dressed before she cursed you...you could have been wandering around all these years butt naked.”

He laughed at her words. “The idea had never occurred to me. You are very correct; it could have been much more trying being unclothed for this long.” Despite his longings for this refreshing woman and all the reasons he had convinced himself that he should not be here, he found himself quite pleased with being in her presence. “I was not certain how to explain to you the events leading to myself being cursed...”

She chuckled. “I kind of figured out you weren’t a virgin, Jareth.”

“No, I was a long time impure when the gypsy found me.” He waved a hand around, trying to sort out the words to speak. “It is just not a subject I find comfortable discussing with you.”

“I’m a long time impure, too, so don’t worry about it.” She chuckled again.

“Ah, yes, I am aware. I have found your taste in companionship lacking, to be honest, and made a point of leaving your presence at the time one of them was near to you.”

She sobered. “Well, it’s good to know you’re not a Peeping Tom.”

He was pleased to hear a phrase he knew. “I can assure you I am far from a Peeping Tom and have never laid my sights upon you in any form but clothed...aside from the linen covering you yesterday.”

Her cheeks flushed once again for him. “I’m sure you’ve seen more interesting sights in two hundred years than me in a towel. I mean, you’ve seen all the fashions of the ages come and go.”

“More interesting? Perhaps... More appealing? I would be disinclined to admit.” He smiled at her. “The changes in fashions from my time until now has been...an assault on my senses. When the first flesh was allowed to be bared in public with different forms of attire, I can honestly say I was aghast, yet pleasantly intrigued with such boldness.”

“I guess it would excite an old guy like you.”

“An old guy?” He sensed the playful tone to her words and was more inclined to be just as light-hearted as she. “If this...old guy...had a solid form, my dear, I would be more than pleased to show you that I am not as old as the years gone by would imply.”

Her spine tingled from the look in his eyes. She had never been the type to back down from a dare and he was definitely daring her to take this further. “Then let’s figure out this curse, so the old pirate can show this modern girl a thing or two.”

His eyes darkened and traveled slowly over her, causing her heart to speed up. “Is it the pirate that intrigues you, little one?” His voice had dropped to a deeper sensual tone.

Randy had known years ago that she was more than slightly weird, and the fact that she was heating up just talking to her pirate ghost, proved it once more. She ran her eyes slowly over his face, noting that without the harsh scar on his face he would have been almost too pretty to be a man, yet he was entirely too masculine at the same time. Slowly, making sure he would catch every movement of where her eyes roamed, she slid them down his body before taking a deep breath and moving back to his face. “It’s the pirate, the proper privateer, and the entire man that intrigues me.” Her voice was no more than a whisper.

As he continued to look into her eyes, her whole body was buzzing. If he didn’t say something soon, she was sure she’d go up in flames right here. “I believe...” he paused to clear his throat. “I believe we should focus our efforts on your devised plan before we say words that may bring about promises we cannot keep.” As he said the last words, his eyes stayed on her mouth, and she nervously licked her sudden dry lips.

Swallowing, she exhaled slowly. “Whew! You must have been lethal around the ladies when you had a solid body to back up those good looks.”

His smile was devilish and devastating at the same time. “I do not ever recall a grievance where women were concerned. Perhaps it was due to always treating them with care.”

Shaking off the way his low voice made her feel hypnotized. She cleared her throat. “I’m sure it was. You concentrate on the actual curse, I’m just going to grab a drink.” She stood up and found herself waiting to see if he noticed she’d left her tummy bare again, this time intentionally for him.

The way his gaze moved slowly down over her made her want to whimper. It stopped at her waist and she wanted to caress her own stomach from the look he was sending her.