Saving Marina
Seduced in SalemSea Captain Richard Tarr must claim his child after the death of his estranged wife. Arriving in Salem, he’s shocked to discover his daughter is in the care of Marina Lindqvist – a rumoured witch!This beautiful, gentle woman awakens unfamiliar feelings in Richard. And as the threat from the Salem witch hunters grows, he knows he must protect misunderstood Marina at all costs. Little does he know that with Marina helping him bond with his little girl, she might just be saving him right back…
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When it all ended abruptly—the colors, the enchantment, the kiss—her head was spinning.
Reaching for something to hold on to, her hands found Richard’s. The moment his fingers grasped hers the spinning stopped, but the light inside her didn’t fade.
“Marina?”
She shook her head, trying to remember where she was, who she was. As that all became clear, she asked, “Why did you do that? Why did you kiss me?”
“I don’t know,” he said, dropping her hands. “I shouldn’t have. Forgive me.”
Marina closed her eyes briefly, still trying to make sense of what had happened—not the kiss or his apology, but the change inside her. Everything about her was warm and bright.
“It’s you,” he said roughly. “You’ve put some sort of spell on me.”
There are many myths behind the Salem Witch Trials—including stories shared within my own family.
I’d heard for years that there were ‘witches’ on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family, but it wasn’t until my son was digging deep into an online ancestry programme that I actually researched any of those stories. It turns out that my eighth great-grandmother was accused and imprisoned for being a witch. However, she never stood trial because her son-in-law petitioned for her release and paid her bail. He also promised to return her to the courts for trial within a few months, but that didn’t happen because the trials ended almost as swiftly as they started. I say ‘swiftly’ only in reference to a period of time, because I can only imagine that for the people who lived through this horrific event their lives were changed for ever.
Upon researching and reading many different viewpoints of the cause and effects of the trials, I was so captivated I decided to write a story set in that era. I used bits and pieces from my research, but Saving Marina is purely a fictional story. A tale of a sea captain and a woman who has been led to believe she’s a witch. I hope you enjoy Richard and Marina’s story as much as I enjoyed creating their journey to happily-ever-after.
A lover of fairy tales and cowboy boots, LAURI ROBINSON can’t imagine a better profession than penning happily-ever-after stories about men (and women) who pull on a pair of boots before riding off into the sunset—or kick them off for other reasons. Lauri and her husband raised three sons in their rural Minnesota home, and are now getting their just rewards by spoiling their grandchildren.
Visit: laurirobinson.blogspot.com, facebook.com/lauri.robinson1, twitter.com/laurir.
To my Johnson aunts:
Mable, Violet, Pat, Linda and Faye.
Contents
Massachusetts, 1692
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
Exodus 22:18, King James Version
The beast of burden beneath Richard Tarr was aptly labeled. With a broad, short back and powerful hindquarters, the horse was more suited for labor than riding. No amount of prodding could urge the massive brown steed into a pace faster than the jarring trot that had threatened to rattle the teeth right out of his mouth. Appreciating the teeth that had never given him any trouble, Richard resigned himself to letting the animal trod along. Unused to such travel, Richard found the saddle awkward, and the hot summer sun had sweat trickling down his back. All of it, the horse, the heat, the very mission, spurred his frustration.
His own two feet would have been faster. Or a rowboat. That would have been his choice. Water travel was in his blood, even when his feet were on solid ground.
A boat hadn’t been an option, not unless he’d wanted to portage across several miles of swamp. Therefore, he was atop the dull brown beast, plodding along as if time made no difference.
He’d traveled this land route before, the road of less than twenty miles that led from the Boston Harbor to the village of Salem. It was a long and lonely trek, and he was accompanied only by a dark dread that sat in his gut like a sleeping giant awaiting an opportunity to wake. Stretching and yawning, the giant seemed to take great pleasure in rising from an eternal sleep to trouble Richard’s mind and soul. Sometimes it was for no more than a flickering second; other times it would fully wake and haunt him for hours, never remembering its presence did not need to be verified.
That sleeping giant had taken root years ago, and though Richard chose to believe it rested comfortably while he was at sea, his soul knew differently. It knew he’d made a choice based on carnal and selfish needs and that the outcome of it had left a heavy grudge inside him. Therefore, the inner part of him that housed the sleeping giant relentlessly assured Richard he’d never know complete peace again.
