Scarlet Butterfly by Sandra Chastain Read Free Book Online

stabbed out at him in anger when he didn’t give more of himself, people who demanded more from him than they were willing to give. He’d put up with that for too long, until one day he’d realized that there was little of himself left, that those he’d given to hadn’t appreciated any of his caring, that his ability to care was gone.
    “No, no, there’s no one to call,” she explained hesitantly. “I know this doesn’t make much sense to you. I truly didn’t expect anything, except to see the schooner. When I saw the story about the
Scarlet Butterfly
in the magazine, I knew it had to be the boat I’d read about.”
    “You read about it? Where?”
    “In an old journal that was handed down in my mother’s family. The schooner disappeared in eighteen sixty. There couldn’t be two boats named
Scarlet Butterfly
, could there?”
    “I doubt it. Boats were named for people, for spirits, even dreams, but butterflies? Our captain must have been a little … different.”
    “Oh, he was. Jacob was a rough but caring man. He must have loved Carolina very much.”
    “Jacob?”
    “Captain Jacob Rogan, the man who sailed the
Butterfly
. A man much like you, I’d guess. Isn’t it odd? I’m Carolina, but your name is different.”
    “Whoa! What makes you think that the man who sailed this ship was named Jacob Rogan?”
    “I read it, in Carolina’s daughter’s journal. And even if I hadn’t, I think I’d have known that you belong here. His name was Rogan; your name is Rogan. The ship once belonged to him, and you found it. I had an ancestor named Carolina, and I found you. Don’t you feel the continuity? Like the circle is complete again.”
    As if in answer, the ship took a sudden dip, throwing Sean through the doorway onto the deck. Carolina followed, concern etched across her forehead. “Are you all right?”
    “Damned if I know. You may think I belong, but I’m not sure the ship agrees.”
    “Oh, but if it weren’t for you, the ship would still be underwater.”
    “Yeah, maybe that’s where it wants to be.”
    “No, this is right. I know it.”
    “ ‘Right’? Here I am, in the middle of a flood, with a woman who not only claims to know more about the ship I’ve spent the last two years restoring than I do, but who knows about my—my ancestors too.”
    “Oh, no, not really. Carolina’s daughter’s journal was only partially intact. I’m not even sure how she was related to me. Sometime in the last hundred years there was another flood, and most of the writing was too faded to read.”
    “What do you know?”
    “I just know Carolina ran away with Captain Rogan on the
Scarlet Butterfly
and disappeared. Her daughter didn’t write much about her childhood, just that her mother died, and she lived with the captain, who, when he went back to sea, left her with his brother in Charleston.”
    “Odd, my family came here from Charleston.”
    “Really? You know, in some weird kind of way, maybe Carolina and Rogan have come home. I like that idea, don’t you?”
    “Just so long as you’re not planning on carrying out that second part of Carolina’s history.”
    “You mean dying? No, that’s behind me now. I intend to live, really live from now on.”
    “Ahoy the ship!” a voice called out, breaking Rogan’s train of thought, forestalling any more questions.
    “Harry!” Rogan exclaimed, and turned back to Carolina to explain. “Harry is a fisherman who lives in the swamp.” Rogan climbed the stairs and moved toward the rear of the boat. “Harry, you all right?”
    Carolina followed, sighting a wizened old man wearing overalls and a railroad cap.
    “Yep. Just thought I’d better check on you. Pretty bad storm, weren’t it, boy?” He tilted his head as he caught sight of Carolina. “Sorry, didn’t know you had a lady now.”
    “I don’t!”
    Sean looked at Carolina again. “I mean she’s just come about the
Butterfly
.”
    “Are you thinking of selling her?”
    “No. I