“Mommy, why doesn’t Captain Gregg like me?”

Carolyn Muir looked over at her daughter’s face in amazement and surprise. “Whatever makes you think that, Candy? The Captain is very fond of all of us – you know that…” She quickly put her visual attention back on the road, however – the lane that ran between Gull Cottage and the paved road into town was notorious lately for breaking axles, something she couldn’t afford at all right now. But she heard Candy’s sniff of derision and felt compelled to follow the train of thought. “OK… Tell me, then - has he said or done anything…”

“No…” The word was plaintive and insecure. “It’s just that he spends so much of his time with Jonathan – and he never asks me to do things…” The girl’s voice dropped to a whisper. “He doesn’t really even talk to me. I don’t think he likes me very much.”

“He doesn’t mean to shut you out, sweetie,” Carolyn soothed, her lips quirking as she tried to keep herself from smiling. “I think maybe he’s used to being around men all the time – and he sees the man that Jonathan will be and feels comfortable with him. I think maybe he’s never known a young lady like you.”

“But that’s not fair!” Candy exclaimed, her green eyes snapping. “We’re supposed to be a family. I wish…” She slumped in her seat, not exactly sure what it was she was wishing for. “I just wish I could be friends with him the way Jonathan is.”

Carolyn found herself wondering how this could have come to a head so quickly – and without any warning. Candy had only just recently become aware of the incorporeal member of their family after spending nearly a year making fun of her younger brother’s “imaginary friend.” It had been a completely accidental discovery on Candy’s part when she’d gone up to the attic to hide from her mother in a fit of rebellion only to come face to face with a ghost not at all pleased about the interruption in his sanctum or the deliberate disobedience.

Although the Captain had assured her that he’d toned down the bluster and thunder when he realized just how much he was frightening the girl, evidently the damage had already been done. Since then, Carolyn realized after thinking about it a little, Candy had seemed shy and almost withdrawn when the larger-than-life ghost of Gull Cottage’s original owner made an appearance when she was in the vicinity. “Have you ever tried to ask him…”

“Mom! I couldn’t!” Candy gasped and shook her head vigorously. “I mean…” She gave her mother a helpless look. “I know he’d never hurt me or anything, but… The way he talks so loud and makes the thunder…”

“Are you still frightened of him?” Carolyn asked gently.

Candy was quiet for a moment, pondering the consequences of letting her mother in on a secret she’d been carrying around inside her for weeks now. “A little, I suppose,” she finally admitted. “I think that maybe he never really wanted to let me know he was real – and he’s mad at me for knowing now…”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the case,” Carolyn countered quickly. “As a matter of fact, I think he’d be amazed that you’re still frightened of him…”

“You won’t tell him, will you?” Candy pleaded with her mother. “If he thinks I’m scared of him, he’ll NEVER want me around…”

“But you want him to pay attention to you, don’t you – do things with you?” Carolyn was confused. “Doesn’t that mean that either he’s going to have to know how you feel so he becomes less scary to you, or you’re going to have to get used to him being the way he is – a little loud and blustery – and stop letting it bother you?”

“I don’t know…” Candy could see that the problem was harder than she’d thought – and now all she wanted was to put an end to the discussion. “Forget I said anything.”

“I’ll talk to the Captain for you,” Carolyn promised and waited for the oncoming traffic to pass by before easing the old station wagon up onto the pavement.

“Mom…”

Now Carolyn could spare her daughter a look. “Sweetie, you were the one that said that we’re supposed to be a family. A family doesn’t just let problems like this grow.”

“Maybe it’s just that big men – like Daddy and Captain Gregg – don’t like little girls like me,” Candy tried to reason. She had plenty of experience with her real father pretty much ignoring her existence at best or thundering threateningly at her – she’d just hoped against hope that the resident ghost - if he WERE real – would have been made of different stuff. “I know Daddy didn’t…”

“That was a long time ago – and Captain Gregg isn’t like your father,” Carolyn asserted firmly. Somehow she simply couldn’t picture Daniel Gregg ignoring or neglecting his children – especially his first-born – the way Bobby Muir had ignored Candy. “I’ll talk to him, and things will change - you’ll see.”

Candy turned away from her mother and stared out the window, convinced now that she should never have said anything to anyone.

~~~~~~~~~*

The moon hung over the water of the cove in front of Gull Cottage and shone down in a dim blue imitation of daylight. Carolyn had her shawl on over her nightgown, in spite of it being warm with the French doors closed against the child of the night air. As was her habit when she was thoughtful and unable to sleep, she leaned against the old ship’s wheel – her hands seeking the smooth wood of the protruding handles automatically – and let her eyes drift across the surface of the water with the dancing moonlight. The wood beneath her fingers always gave her a sense of security when her mind was plagued by worries – and the view from beyond the French doors had always been breathtaking. She leaned her forehead against her hands on the ship’s wheel and sighed deeply.

“Good evening, Madam,” sounded the rich and accented deep voice of the resident ghost of Gull Cottage as he slowly faded into view on the other side of the wheel. “You look troubled.”

“I am, a bit,” Carolyn admitted, raising her head and turning to look at the shade of Daniel Gregg. She’d called him “magnificent” when she’d first caught sight of his portrait over the fireplace downstairs, and had yet had cause to rescind her opinion. He was larger-than-life despite being incorporeal – his voice could fill the house from stem to stern, or whisper like a gentle breeze against her cheek. His nineteenth-century ideas about life and her place in it were so often at odds with her upbringing, and yet there was a protective and nurturing overtone to even his most outraged blusterings that she could hardly be offended for long.

Then there were those moments – growing more and more frequent as time passed – when something in his tone of voice spoke to her of a depth of emotion that was both unexpected and startling. Almost against her will, she was finding herself battling feelings she’d thought dead years ago and forcing herself to remember that he was only a specter – a shadow of the man he’d been. Because if he WERE real…

Daniel Gregg watched the play of moonlight across the face of the woman before him and found himself just as enchanted and fascinated with her as he’d ever been. Brave enough to have faced him down practically the moment she’d become aware of him, strong enough to have practically dictated the terms under which she would take up residence in his home with her children and stubbornly independent in a modern sort of way that he barely understood, Carolyn Muir attracted him as no other woman ever had. In the past year, he had come to accept her as the other half of his soul and sworn himself very privately to her side for eternity – or until she let him know that he was no longer wanted. Seeing her troubled in any way was distressing. “Perhaps if you told me about it,” he urged gently, “I might be able to help.”

“Actually…” Carolyn pushed herself away from the wheel and walked slowly toward the hearth and the overstuffed leather chairs there. She settled back and tucked her feet beneath her for warmth.

“Actually…?” the Captain followed her and took the chair opposite her.

“You’re the one with the problem,” she finished, her eyes firmly affixed on his face.

His eyebrows soared. “I am?” he queried with an amused and indulgent chuckle.

“It’s Candy.”

The Captain’s mouth opened soundlessly and then fell shut quickly. “Did someone… Is she…” He looked in the direction of the bedroom where the child in question lay sleeping and then back at Carolyn with some confusion. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Carolyn leaned her head against the cushioned wing of the chair. “She thinks that you don’t like her – that you’re angry with her – and nothing I could say could convince her otherwise.”

“I’m not angry,” the Captain exploded, and then protested softly, “and of course I like her! Why on Earth…”

“Think about what she sees,” Carolyn explained in an equally soft voice. “You spend a great deal of time with Jonathan and very rarely have very much to say to HER.”

“That’s ridiculous.” The Captain waved his hand, dismissing the point. “Just because I know more about boys than little girls…”

“I tried telling her that too,” she interrupted. “It didn’t make much difference to her.”

“Why has she not said something to me?” the Captain wondered, his hand rubbing his full beard thoughtfully as he reviewed the last few times he’d been anywhere near the little girl. Candy had been almost notable for not calling attention to herself lately, he discovered with little effort – almost as if she’d been trying NOT to be seen.

“Because she’s afraid of you,” Carolyn told him with sympathetic bluntness. From the fleeting flinch in the handsome ghost’s face, she surmised that he was both aware of the reasons for that fear and was troubled by it. Deciding to leave that discussion for another time, she continued, “I think she wants very badly to mean something to you, and at the same time is intimidated by your… ways and too scared to mention it to you. She’s convinced that you didn’t want her to know that you were real – and now you’re unhappy that she knows.”

The Captain was nonplussed. “That’s bilge!”

Carolyn shrugged. “Maybe it will help you understand her if you knew that her father had very little time for her when he was alive. He was unhappy when I became pregnant long before his schedule for such things. He resented her from the very start and barely talked to her at all while he was still alive – except maybe to get angry at her when she dared interrupt him. I think she may have come to expect that this is the way grown men treat…”

“Your husband did that to her?” Captain Gregg’s face had clouded over to something that approached real anger. “He ignored that precious little girl?”

On second thought, that piece of information explained so much of Candy’s reaction to him in the attic the day she’d found him and her actions since then. He hadn’t been in a good mood when she’d interrupted a very delicate adjustment to his mapping, and he’d crashed the thunder about her ears and scolded her harshly without thinking that this was her first real inkling that the stories her brother had been telling were true. He hadn’t stopped until her pallor had finally registered – and then, uncomfortable at the idea that he’d terrified a member of his crew, he’d simply ordered her from his refuge and turned back to his maps.

Now he could see that he’d probably given her much the same attitude as she’d gotten from her father. No wonder she had become virtually invisible in the house whenever he was interacting with the family. But the boy… “What about Jonathan? He doesn’t act…”

“He was too young to know his father – Bobby died when Jonathan was eighteen months old,” Carolyn told him patiently. “But Candy remembers trying so hard to please her father and never succeeding – and I think she’s never been able to bond with the men in her life – like her grandfathers – for that reason. She expects to be treated poorly and behaves coldly and remotely out of self defense…”

“That poor child!”

Carolyn felt herself smile on the inside. As she’d suspected, Daniel Gregg was nothing at all like her dead husband – he would never have been such a negligent father. And his description of Candy clearly showed that he was fond of the girl. “She desperately wants a father – or at least the kind of father figure you’ve become for Jonathan – but she doesn’t have the vaguest idea how to broach the subject with you. As a matter of fact, when I told her I’d speak to you on her behalf, she got very upset.”

For the first time in a very long time, Captain Gregg felt at a loss as to what to do. He didn’t want the little girl who so reminded him of her mother to feel as if she didn’t dare speak to him or didn’t want her around, but he had very little idea of how to remedy the situation. “What would you have me do, then, Madam?” he asked after a long and thoughtful pause. “I don’t want her continuing in the notion that I dislike or resent her. She needs to know that I’d be more than glad to spend time with her – and that not all grown men are so… distant… I’m not only not angry, but glad that she finally sees me. It’s just…” He threw his hands wide and gave Carolyn a look of helplessness.

“I don’t know what to tell you…” Carolyn began lamely. “I suppose you could try to speak to her alone; and when you do… maybe… not be quite so loud and intimidating…”

“But what do I say to her?’

“You’re a ship’s captain, familiar with dealing with problems between crewmembers,” she reminded him gently. “I’m confident you’ll think of something.”

The Captain leaned back in the chair slowly and stroked his beard thoughtfully for a long and silent moment. “I shall have to think about this a great deal – and see what I can do to remedy the problem.” He rose and walked toward the French doors, turning just behind the wheel before he began to fade away. “Thank you for telling me. I wouldn’t want this to go on much longer.”

~~~~~~~~*

Candy stared at the diagram on the page and then glared helplessly at the four strands of jute twine in front of her. Macramé was all the rage lately – and even Penelope Hassenhammer had managed to talk her mother into driving into Skeldale to buy her one of the knotted bags for a purse. It’s just knots, she reminded herself caustically, something even Jonathan can do now. Why, then – o why – couldn’t she get the hang of how to twist and tuck and tighten and follow what seemed to be such simple instructions?

She’d NEVER have a macramé purse at this rate… Blast!

Captain Gregg watched the young girl’s struggle with a concerned frown on his face. What she was trying to learn was something he knew better than many men still alive did – and he’d been successful at passing on his knowledge even to this modern age. Jonathan was quickly becoming quite adroit at the many different knots and the ways in which they could be made both decorative and useful. But he’d never considered that another member of his mortal crew would want or need his help in this area.

That settled it – this was the opening he’d been struggling for the past two days to find that would open a dialogue with the girl. But if he frightened her, as Carolyn told him he still did, how could he convince the child to suspend that fright long enough to teach her what she wanted to know – and maybe overcome the barrier to their being able to at least begin to be friends?

He decided that the only way to tackle the situation was straight on – and so moved to where, when he made himself visible, he could be seen right away. And with that, he began to fade into view, clearing his throat gently as he did. Still, the way Candace flinched and stared at him with wide, shocked eyes, told him that he’d startled her badly. “What are you doing?” he asked in as kind a voice as he could, pointing at the jute.

Candy glanced down at the twine and swallowed hard. “Nothing,” she replied right away, wondering if he’d caught her out in something else that he’d decided was against the rules.

The Captain reined in his eagerness to assist and simply moved so that he could look down at the diagram she was attempting to follow. “A square knot,” he read in as gentle a voice as he could manage. “That’s one of the most useful knots around. When done properly, it won’t slip or droop at all. Many fishing nets are tied with this knot, you know…”

“Mine keep twisting – and the book says they aren’t supposed to keep doing that,” she told him, disgusted at herself and ashamed to admit failure. She hazarded a look up at the tall ghost, expecting to see disgust mirrored back at her, only to find him smiling down at her. “What?”

“You’re doing a granny knot, not a square knot – which is an easy mistake to make,” he informed her and moved to sit down on her bed next to her. “The problem, you see, is that you have to remember which one you put on top, and keep that one on top all the time.”

Candy looked at the diagram and then back up at him. “I don’t get it. Top, bottom…”

“Here,” the Captain took charge of the little test bundle of four strands of twine and straightened it onto Candy’s lap after moving the book aside. “You need to keep the work flat, or you lose track of where you were,” he instructed patiently. “Now, make the first tie… No…” he shook a finger over her work before she could make her next mistake. “Lay the left one over the top of the center two, then bring the right one over the top of that, then behind and up through this hole here…” he pointed as he made the first tie for her – then undid the work again. “Try it again.”

Candy’s face folded into an expression of concentration that so reminded the Captain of his Carolyn’s face while she was immersed in her writing that it pulled at his heartstrings. Slowly her fingers fumbled with the twine until she’d done as he’d instructed. “How’s that?”

“Not bad,” he replied, wishing he dared pat her on the shoulder. “Now, the second half is exactly like the first, only you have to make sure that the same twine that was on top the first time is on top the second time too. So this time, you take the twine on the right and lay it over the top to the left…” He watched as she again scrunched her face up in concentration and then did exactly as he told her to. “Very good! Now, you see, your knot looks exactly like the one in the diagram.”

Candy blinked, looked down at the knot she’d just made and then grabbed at the book. The Captain was right – she’d done it right this time, and her knot looked exactly like the one in the book. Thrilled, she turned sparkling eyes on the Captain. “I thought it was going to be hard.”

The Captain smiled back at her. “Knots have their own logic – and just a few rules to making each one properly. But tell me, why are you so interested in learning to tie knots? Back in my day, that wouldn’t be something one would expect members of the fairer sex to be learning. Knitting and crocheting, perhaps, even tatting – but not this…”

In answer, Candy turned her booklet back so that the cover picture could show and then handed it to the ghost. “I want to make one of those,” she stated wistfully, her finger smoothing over the glossy picture. “Penelope Hassenhammer’s mother bought her one – but it was very expensive and doesn’t look half as good as this one does. I thought that if I got a book and enough string, I could make one…”

The Captain studied the picture, admiring the quality of the workmanship in the pictured sample and also noting the complexity of the design in the variations in the knotting. “This is going to take you some time to do,” he told her, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. “There are at least four different knots in that piece – including those granny knots you were making before. See those spirals? That’s what granny knots are supposed to do.” His forefinger pointed to a spot in the photo. “But if you do all of the knots properly – and tightly, see how there’s no slack anywhere? – you’ll have a fine purse to call your own that will make Miss Hassenhammer green with envy. What’s more, I’ve no doubt that you’d be able to do anything you put your mind to.”

Candy blinked in surprise suddenly. This was Captain Gregg – talking to HER and telling her that she’d done well and could succeed. He wasn’t thundering, wasn’t scowling and angry like he’d been the one previous time they’d talked alone. Had her mother been right – that she was wrong in thinking he didn’t like her? Maybe he’d at least let her ask the question… “Captain?”

At last! Maybe the incident in the wheelhouse could be put to rest at last, the Captain thought with gratitude. “Yes?”

It was so hard to look at him – the Captain was, had been, a big man, even bigger than she remembered her Daddy being. His voice was deeper and carried farther than her father’s had as well. She’d been so frightened of him when she’d found him in the old attic – found out that Jonathan hadn’t been lying to her after all – only to have him bellow at her that she was NOT to fight with her mother and most definitely not welcome up there in the attic. The best she could do was focus her gaze on her hands, now folded in her lap. “You aren’t mad at me anymore?”

“For what?”

That made her stare up at him in real surprise. “For going into your private place – for interrupting your work? You looked…”

“You startled me at a very delicate moment, and I may have… over-reacted,” the Captain admitted with chagrin, struggling against a real temptation to bluster. “You won’t hold that against me, I hope?”

Those emerald eyes opened even wider. “Then you don’t mind… that I know about you?”

“No, of course I don’t mind. In fact, I’m glad you know about me now.” He smiled even wider at her. “Did you really think I didn’t want you to know about me?”

“I didn’t know what to think,” Candy admitted softly, looking back down at her hands. “Why didn’t you let me see you before?”

“Because,” the Captain answered in as gentle a voice as he could, “you made it clear on that very first day that if ghosts were real, you’d be scared to death – and the last thing I wanted to do was to frighten you.”

The wide emerald gaze was back. “Really?”

He harrumphed at having his statements questioned so closely, but still managed to keep his blustering his dismay to a mere clearing of the throat. “Young lady, I’m not in the habit of saying things I don’t mean,” he announced proudly.

Candy withered and shrank back on herself. “Yes, sir,” she stated very softly, once more finding something fascinating about her own hands so that she didn’t have to look at the phantom sitting next to her. She just didn’t know how to take him – maybe it would be better if she tried to steer clear of him after all. He could be nice – but she really didn’t want to hear that booming voice and the crack of thunder aimed at her again. It hurt – she’d almost allowed herself to think that maybe she could make friends with the ghost in her house after all, but perhaps it was safer not to.

The Captain felt his heart sink – did it really take so little to undo all the progress he thought he’d made in the past few minutes? “Candy? Look at me.” It took a long time, and he had to practice the kind of patience he hadn’t needed since trying to teach Elroy Applegate to do a proper belaying knot, but finally very wounded green eyes turned in his direction again. He steeled himself - what he needed to say to her was not going to come easily. “I don’t mean to give you the wrong impression, lassie. I only know how to be myself; and I always say what I mean and I mean what I say. But I assure you that just because I may say the wrong thing now and then or raise my voice a little doesn’t mean that I’m angry or frustrated at you – or that I don’t want you around. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

The blonde head shook slowly, with wary green eyes not leaving his face.

It WAS harder to talk to girls than to boys! They could be so blasted thick at the worst possible moments! He took a deep breath and started over. “It means that I like you – that I like having you around, that knowing that you know I’m here and being able to talk to you at last pleases me. I like the idea that maybe I can help you with this project of yours – if you’ll allow me the honor of helping you.” He gestured at the instruction booklet that was still in her lap. “If there’s one thing I don’t like, however, it is knowing that a lady is upset because of me, that…” Blast! There was a tear running down Candy’s cheek. “Belay that! I could never stand seeing a woman… girl… cry.” He pulled a square of fine white linen from the pocket of his pea coat. “Here – take this. I’ve yet to meet a female with a handkerchief at the ready when the waterworks start…”

The girl accepted his offering, but then looked down and merely toyed with the handkerchief as if not knowing quite what to do with it, not wanting to mess it up like she would a Kleenex otherwise. Candy was now seriously confused. Captain Gregg could sound so stern, so… so much like her father, and yet he keep turning around and in the next moment doing something nice for her. Grandpa Ralph was sometimes the same way – and she didn’t know how to act around him either. But Grandpa Ralph always would get mad and stomp away when he didn’t get the response from her that he wanted when he wanted it – and here was the Captain trying to explain himself, getting upset and blustery because SHE was upset, but yet he wasn’t walking away in disgust and frustration. What was going on?

Suddenly the handkerchief wasn’t between her fingers anymore – it was stroking her cheek, wiping the tears gently away, and then held over her nose with only the slightest pressure. “Blow,” was the order given, and blow she did. The soft cloth cleaned away the moisture and then was pressed back into her hand.

“I’m not an ogre, Candy, much as you might think I am after our first meeting,” the Captain tried one last time. “My voice may be loud, and I sometimes may… sound… angry or frustrated or…” He lost track of what he could only guess he sounded like to her, and so gave up his description. “It distresses me to think that I frighten you, though.”

“Isn’t that what ghosts are supposed to do, though?” Candy asked shakily.

“I don’t know what other ghosts are supposed to do, lassie,” he told her kindly, wishing with all his heart that he dared pick her up and hold her on his lap and sooth her fears and doubts away with a warm hug. How long had it been since a parental role male – her father or a grandfather - had simply tried to comfort her, to let her lean and learn to trust that the support offered was constant, unwavering and unconditional? Considering the circumstances, however, it simply wouldn’t do to let on that he actually had the ability to do that for her – that was something for another time, when trust had finally been built up between them. “My fraternity is very secretive about its rules. All I know is that I’m here now to watch over this house and those who live in it – and that includes you. And from time to time, I’d like to think that I can be of service to each and every one of you.”

“That’s nice,” Candy allowed with a sniff, still not looking at him.

The Captain frowned – “nice” was NOT a word he appreciated as a description of himself – it rankled almost as much as having his word questioned – but he forced himself to let it go. The girl was just too fragile in her acceptance of him to be open to more direct molding influence yet. “I’m not nice, Candy – but I am hoping that perhaps now you and I can try to be friends.”

Finally the reddened green eyes were looking up at him again – in astonishment. “You still want to be friends? With me?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” the Captain asked with his voice filled with sadness.

“But…” Candy was struggling to understand – she so very much wanted to understand the Captain. “I’m a girl…”

He smiled down at her in what he hoped was his most charming smile. “And a very lovely girl you are at that,” he told her in a warm tone. “I see in you the whisper of the beautiful woman you will be someday.”

Candy found herself blushing – had the Captain just complimented her? She looked down again, hugging to her soul the warm feeling his words had brought forth in her.

The Captain saw the blush and pressed on making his case. “I swear to you I will never harm you or allow anyone else to harm you. As a member of my crew, you and your welfare are my responsibility – one I gladly accept. You may call upon me for help at anytime – and if it’s within my powers, I’ll be there for you.”

Candy looked up again, shy wistfulness in her gaze. “Will you teach me how to tie the knots so I can make this?” she asked in a hesitant voice, touching the instruction booklet with the hand with the handkerchief crushed in it.

The Captain’s smile was wide and pleased. “It would be my honor to teach you the knots you need – and help you make the purse you want.” Did he dare hope the crisis had finally been set aside. “So – do you think we can wipe away the last few weeks and start anew, you and me, with a fresh page?”

The blond girl’s answering smile was shy, but warm – with just a hint of trust whispering in the background. “I’d like that, Captain Gregg. I’d like that a lot!”

That smile was the Captain’s undoing. It was one thing to earn the trust and loyalty of a young man such as Jonathan – he’d done that many times during his lifetime. His time with Jonathan had become some of the high points of his existence now, and he was very fond of the boy. But for the first time, he could see earning the trust of a young girl such as Candy as the treasure it could be – and in the process fell head over heels in love with his Carolyn’s daughter. What he wouldn’t have given for this child to have been his – and not some imbecile’s who didn’t appreciate the gift he’d been given! What he wouldn’t have given for this entire family to be his in fact – to have Carolyn beside him as his wife with both Candy and Jonathan as his. What a rich man he would have been…

He shook himself. Reveries such as that could wait for more a private time – maybe that very evening’s night watch. Right now, however, there was a task at hand and a little girl to give his undivided attention. “So then, lassie…” he began in his most practical tone of voice, finding he liked using the endearment he’d unconsciously assigned to the girl, “Let’s try this square knot again, shall we?”

~~~~~~~~~*

“Mom?”

“Yeah, sweetie?” Carolyn sat down on the edge of her daughter’s bed and pushed a stray lock of blonde hair from the girl’s face. It had been a surprisingly good evening – the kids had finished homework quickly without any complaint, the meal Martha had prepared was excellent as usual, and the finishing touches had been applied to her latest article for the Atlantic magazine well within the deadline.

“Do you like Captain Gregg?”

Carolyn chuckled and tucked the covers up under Candy’s chin. “Of course I do,” she reassured the girl, deliberately not letting herself consider how MUCH she liked the Captain. Such thinking only reminded her of the futility of the situation. “Why?”

“I like Captain Gregg,” Candy announced with a contented smile. “He knows all kinds of things – like how to do macramé…”

Carolyn smiled inside – so THAT was the Captain’s answer to the dilemma she’d dumped in his lap the other night. From the look on Candy’s face and her words, his answer had been a good one. “I take it you aren’t scared of him anymore?”

“He promised he’d never hurt me,” Candy told her with the innocent frankness of childhood, “and that he’d take care of me. Nobody’s ever done that for me before – not like THAT.”

“Captain Gregg takes good care of all of us, sweetie – and he has for a long time now, even when you didn’t know about him,” Carolyn agreed, much preferring this cautious vote of approval to the frustrated fear expressed beforehand. “But what brought all this on?”

“He came and talked to me this afternoon,” Candy explained with a touch of awe in her voice, “and he helped me.”

“I take it you also talked with him about some of the things you and I talked about in the car the other day?”

Candy nodded. “And he tried so hard to not be scary or make his voice big – and he was really nice...”

The smile Carolyn had on the inside now had her lips twitching. So the Captain had turned the charm on Candy, had he? “You do realize that he’s not going to change completely, sweetie – that he can still be as loud and blustery as always sometimes?”

“I know,” Candy nodded again slowly. “But he made me promise to tell him when he scares me again – so we can talk it out between us later on.”

Bravo, Captain Gregg, Carolyn cheered inside. “And you can do that now?”

“I like him,” Candy repeated with a happy smile as she nodded her answer. “He calls me “lassie” now sometimes – and I kinda like that too.”

“I’m glad, and I’ll bet the Captain is glad too.” Carolyn bent forward and deposited a good-night kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “Sleep well, now, sweetheart.”

“G’nite Mom.” Candy let her gaze sweep the room beyond her mother and added, “G’nite, Captain Gregg.” And with that, Candy turned slightly on her side and closed her eyes.

Carolyn closed the door to the bedroom very softly so as not to disturb the girl’s slumber and then made her way to the end of the hallway, where the spacious and comfortable master bedroom that doubled as her office was located. She sighed as she closed the door behind her, and then smiled as she saw the Captain with his back to the door, peering out at the nighttime sea through his telescope. “Congratulations, Captain, the mission was a success, I take it.”

“Good evening, Mrs. Muir,” he responded off-handedly as he at least superficially kept his attention on the view through the eyepiece. And yet her presence called for every iota of his attention. “Congratulations? Mission?” he asked, slowly straightening to look at her.

“Yes.” She walked toward him – toward the telescope and the ship’s wheel that were the real heart of Gull Cottage. “It appears that you handled Candy’s problem beautifully – you have her quite impressed and singing your praises.” The Captain’s pleased smile was almost as satisfying as had been her daughter’s confidence. “I knew you’d think of something.”

“Frankly, Madam,” the Captain confessed with a slight frown, “and with all due respect to you – but I wish I could give that idiot of a husband of yours a piece of my mind for the damage he did to Candy.” He forced himself to turn away from her, his one hand clenched behind his back in a stiff, captain’s posture. “To destroy her ability to trust in male role models in that way – that was criminal.”

“Yes, it was.” Carolyn had no defense for Bobby’s treatment of Candy – and Jonathan, really – it had been a major cause of arguments during the last year of their marriage before the accident. “I’m just glad she’ll have you, now, to undo some of that.”

“She’s a delightful child – a quick learner,” the Captain mused aloud, thinking back fondly on the hour or so he’d spent teaching Candy the proper way to make half hitches, granny knots, square knots and Josephine knots – and the promise he’d made to teach her the turk’s head in time and show her how to make it into a button to close the purse.. “Why, do you know that she was catching on faster even than Jonathan did?”

Carolyn smiled. “Sounds like the both of them have had a good teacher – and sometimes that makes all the difference.”

“I look forward to the day when she demonstrates to me the same amount of spunk that her mother has,” the Captain mused and then glanced over his shoulder at Carolyn. “She’s going to be a beauty one day, you know…”

“Stubborn and willful, I think, were the words you used to describe me at one time,” Carolyn teased him with a wicked smile. “Are you really prepared to be beset by two females with the same kind of stubbornness and willfulness?”

“Spunk, Madam, is a much more appropriate word,” he corrected her after harrumphing at the reminder of the exchange of insults that had precipitated her attempt to flee Gull Cottage that first night. He’d learned to appreciate her spirit since then, and found her a fascinating and strong-willed personality in her own right – someone who wouldn’t just back down from a fight because he was taller or bigger or louder than she. One day, he thought with an irrational pleasure, Candy will stand as strong as Carolyn – and he’d see to it that she’d learn it in safety and security. Spunky – yes that was the right word; he’d see Candy be as spunky as her mother if it were the last thing he ever did.

“You’re splitting hairs,” she chuckled at him, “and changing the subject.”

“Simply practicing what you’ve taught me about using the right word in the right circumstances, my dear lady,” the Captain purred at her, still choosing not to answer her question. Honesty in that circumstance would uncover more in his heart than he was willing to share as yet. “And now, I will wish you a good night. You need your rest.”

“Good night, Captain,” Carolyn smiled at him and turned to the closet, in which she still changed into her nightclothes out of modesty and the tiniest fear that he might be tempted to voyeurism if she didn’t – and an even tinier fear that he WOULDN’T be tempted.

~~~~~~~~*

(Two months later)

From his post on the widow’s walk, the Captain could see the school bus lumbering cautiously down the narrow lane that followed the coast – and halt to then let Candy and Jonathan off at the end of the long drive leading to Gull Cottage. The children were talking animatedly to each other as they walked down the narrow gravel road– each one carrying what they considered a treasure. Jonathan had taken his ship in a bottle to school as a display of a hobby – something he’d interested the boy in and then spent many hours assisting and instructing the lad in assembling properly. The ship was a dandy piece of work for a boy his age – and the Captain was as proud of Jonathan as Jonathan was proud of his handiwork.

For her part, Candy had taken her new purse, finished only the night before with careful stitching in place of the silken inner sleeve, to show off at long last. Learning to sew had been a side benefit of his time with her – and she proved to have a surer hand at the finer work with the needle than Jonathan did yet. As he’d once predicted, the finished article was a fine replica of the purse in the picture – with a few creative enhancements.

As Candy had gotten used to the Captain’s being around her more, she had begun to regain the sparkle in his presence that had been lacking – until she finally fulfilled his wish in the most spectacular way. She and the Captain had discussed – argued really – over the length of the fringe to be left at the bottom of the purse, only to win the argument by presenting him with another photograph of another purse with a similar arrangement. More than pleased at her strength and her having finally trusted him enough to stand up to him a little, the Captain had then presented her with a handful of beads – little bits of age-yellowed mother-of-pearl that he’d acquired somewhere in the South Seas during one of his many long voyages. Candy had been enchanted – and used them in the fringe to make her purse truly unique.

As the children pushed open the front gate, the Captain faded from view aloft and materialized again on the third step of the staircase. “Hi Captain!” Jonathan exclaimed as he pushed through the front door. “Guess what? The teacher gave me an A on my hobby project!”

“I should think so!” the Captain nodded in satisfaction. “You did fine work on that – and I’ll bet it was something none of the others have ever thought of.”

“Danny Shoemaker wanted me to show him how,” Jonathan crowed as he carefully deposited his prized ship on the coffee table so his mother could put it back up on the mantle where it had been displayed for the last few days.

“And do you intend to show him what you’ve learned?” the seaman asked curiously.

“I’m thinking about it,” the boy answered, then ran in the direction of the kitchen, where Martha was waiting with after-school cookies and milk.

“Well, and what did Penelope Hassenhammer think of your purse?” the Captain asked when he was finally alone with Candy.

Candy’s face broke open into a wide and thrilled smile. “Oh, she was SO jealous, Captain. Her purse doesn’t have beads – or a fringe – or the turk’s head knot bead to hold it closed. She doesn’t believe me when I told her I made mine. She thinks Mom ordered mine from New York or somewhere.”

“I take it that was the reaction you wanted?” he grinned at her.

“Oh yeah!” she nodded and then looked up at him gratefully. “Thanks, Captain.”

The Captain could feel his heart melting again. Candy looked exactly like Carolyn had when she’d told him that his memoirs were on the Best Seller’s list. That had been the first day that he’d had to restrain himself from pulling her into his arms and hugging her. Once more he had to restrain himself – this time from pulling the little girl to him and hugging her in triumph. Not yet, he reminded himself sternly. They find comfort in the fact that you are nothing but an illusion. The day will come when they can be shown more – be patient.

“You’re very welcome, lassie,” he purred at her gently. “You should be proud of yourself – you did a beautiful job.”

Candy beamed at the Captain. Ever since the afternoon he’d started to help her, he’d gone out of his way to make her feel special. Now she couldn’t imagine her life without the Captain as a big part of it. “Thanks, Captain – I could never have done it without you.”

“Go on,” he jerked his nose in the direction of the kitchen door. “Martha has snack waiting for you.”

He held his breath when it looked like she might try to give him a hug – and then relaxed as Candy evidently thought better of it. She smiled at him again and trotted obediently through the kitchen door – and he soon could hear the sounds of the two children in happy discussion of their day with their portly and matronly housekeeper and cook.

Someday, he promised them all silently, someday I’ll show you all just how much you mean to me – and what all I really CAN do. In the meanwhile, however, he would return to his post and keep all harm from coming anywhere near his family. It was for this that he’d waited alone in the cottage for a hundred years – and he wouldn’t waste another moment dreaming when he had reality in short skirts, tennis shoes, tee shirts and, he shuddered as he remembered Carolyn’s wardrobe choice for the day, dungarees.

Whistling a jaunty sea shanty, he slowly faded from view and headed back to the widow’s walk. He tucked his hands behind his back and paced the high walk with a rolling, shipboard step.

Author's Note - I'd like to thank Mary (Tabitha12), one of the best GAMM fanfic writers around, for beta'ing this story for me.

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