Chapter five
Back on land!

Catherine was horrified when she heard the news of the Pirate attack at sea.

The sisters and Henry where becoming more and more worried about her as she didn’t come out to eat and her meals were left outside cold!

Finally after many days of nervous waiting she came down stairs.
She was red eyed from crying and look sickly and pale and hardly made it down the stairs before she feel forward and would have hit her head if Henry had not caught her in his arms she looked up at him with red eyes as he carried her to a chair and sat her down his two sisters where sitting there with worried faces and looked at Catherine as she sat down and choked back a sob and hardly could swallow the tea they gave her.

Finally Henry spoke he said "do you want to hear the news or will you not be able to take it"?

"I can take it", she croaked Henry took a deep breath as he touched something on his chest and read in a calmed voice "Dear madam we regret to inform you that your master and his wife and two daughters have been found to be dead.""There is hop though Mrs.Anne Dawson has not been found and could still be alive on some ship I hope this news gives you hope".
"Yours sincerely
"Captain Adryan"!

Henry looked up at Catherine who dried her eyes and said "that dose give me hope but what about Pirates if she is taken what will they do with her"? "I don’t know" said Henry "but if she has no one left they can’t used her for ransom it might be fruitless to hope"。"Henry"! said both of her sisters "don’t upset her more she just got over it". "No no its fine" said Catherine with a smile "I can believe she is alive that will keep me alive as well even though I may never see her again".

"Excuse me" said Henry suddenly "I have something important I must see to".
And he got up so fast it startled Catherine and swiftly left the room.
"I hope" said Catherin "my behavior did not make him upset really his massage did not bother me" . "No"! said Linda "I do not think it is that he sometimes gets these strange implosions I will go see what it is this time".
And she got up and followed Henry out the door Lydia smiled at Catherine and said "would you like something to eat you haven’t eaten in months" !
"Yes"! said Catherine with a weak smile "that would be nice".
"Wait hear then I will call the servant for something light".

Linda followed Henry's footsteps to where she knew he was going heard tearing and howling then quietness! She opened the door to the room and saw him lying on the floor cloths torn with a wide gash in his arm around his neck the silver medallion had flown off a few feet away from him. She went up to him cautiously picked up the medallion and went up to him his wounds were already healing. She put the medallion back on his neck and stepped back as he opened his eyes which were still faintly glowing! She stepped back and watched him cautiously. He stood up shakily and looked at her with a blank face for a few moments. Then reorganization came over his face and he smiled she smiled back and he winced "how is it healing"? She asked ."
Its fine". "You shouldn’t have read the letter to her it was just to much on your heart all the excitement she has given you". "I am surprised you could hold it that long". "It was longer than I expected"! He said smiling faintly "but once I left I had already started changing that is why I ran by the time I got to the iron room I had already half changed"!

"I am glad you did not change in front of her" said Linda with a smile "It would have frightened her off forever"! Henry nodded "So do you think Anne is still alive"? "If Edward found her I am sure she is". Heaven only knows how far he has gone to conceal the truth from her." "Knowing Edward he might go to any length to hide the truth from her he and I are the same in that way". "And you both are in love and have to hide the truth from the girl you love"."It is sad how is she going to react when she finds out"?"Like you did I hope" said Henry "that is why I plan on making her more acquainted with me so that when she dose find out it wont matter as much as if she hardly knew me". Linda smiled "good luck in that If you can speak to her for more then a few minutes without starting to mumble and gibber nonsense" .

"Hey its not my fault I get excited and it takes time for me to calm down"!
"Well you have to work on that before you speak to her or you will get no where I suggest you practice before speaking to her and go to the yoga master his lessons have helped you with calming yourself have they not" ?"They have your right I had better do all that stuff before I speak to her again" ."Good now I will go to her and see if sister have gotten her to eat something she is going to need her strength in the coming days"!

Days went by in Newcastle Catherine tried to put the past behind her and it seemed like the others were helping her to do so they made no comment of Anne nor of anything related to the subject. Instead she noticed Henry was paying attentions to her which were not unwelcome since she liked him but it was strange for he sometimes just sat by her for a full hour not saying a word and sometimes he would start blabbering about nothing until he got up and left red with embarrassment on those days she would not see him again all day and in the evening when he would come to dinner he would look washed out and pale. She had no explanation for this behavior except that he was in love that was the only explanation she could think of and it made her smile thinking in that way. And when she looked at his sisters they seemed to confirm it giving him little looks and hints it was unmistakable and she felt flattered thinking of him helped her get her mind off Anne and her brother who she was sure was also dead .But when she thought about Henry and that he could perhaps love her it made her feel better.

Henry in the meantime was totally ignorant of her thoughts and thought everyday that he was getting nowhere although his sisters told him it was getting somewhere he didn’t see it all e saw where polite smiles and giggles every time he spoke to her and laughter every time he left in a hurry but he would not give up so easy and continued trying he would make it he would.

Meanwhile Catherine was thinking "how can he be so blind it is truly amazing that men are so blind that they cannot even see the truth under their noise!"
"Well I will not be the one to tell him he shall have to see for himself the truth even if it takes all his life".

This went on for some time until he did see but there was another obstacle now how was he to tell he the truth without frightening her and when she found out the truth would she still love him?

This question haunted him for a long time and went on to haunt him until one day something happened which would show weather all his work had been in vain or not.