Affairs of the Heart by Maxine Douglas Page A

air and to check out a good place to settle in for an hour or
so. Just me and the ship—that’s all I want.
    The doors slid open, and
I surged forward trying to get away from whatever bad vibes were
haunting me and jerked to a halt brought up short by a slight, but
noticeable, tug on my camera strap. What the hell? It was as if it
was caught on a hinge but looking back I see that that’s not so.
I’m completely alone and unfettered. Damn it all this is weird even
for me. On that thought I literally charged out of the elevator as
a shiver ran through me. Standing and trembling outside the Royal
Salon, looking around I glanced over my shoulder hoping to catch a
glimpse of whatever, or whoever, wanted my attention but came up
empty. Oh well.
    I’m well used to this
kind of thing happening on an investigation until I get settled
into the rhythm of the site, which was why I always went in a few
days earlier than the crew. I’m continuously jittery and on edge at
first—I keep telling myself it is the rush of the hunt. Maybe one
day I’ll actually believe it. Tonight was not the night though;
this feeling was totally different, this was feeling personal.
Hanna’s ghost?
    I’m here to get to the
bottom of my great-grandfather’s journal and the locket that had
been found among his World War II belongings packed away in the
attic. Granny had said that old chest held secrets of a war well
left dead and buried as far as she was concerned. She’d hated the
pain reflected in her father’s eyes each time he’d gone to the
attic and tore through the chest. She’d always found him slumped
against it with his war journal spread out in front of him, an
opened tarnished locket in his hand, and tears streaming down his
face mumbling something about the war and The Gray Ghost and
someone named, Hanna. Granny always presumed it was the young woman
in the locket, but no one knew for sure—not even
great-grandmother.
    Faint sounds
of voices and music jumble me out of these memories as I stepped
from the glitz of what was once the first class area onto the
deck. There must be a late
night party going on in the ship docked at the Carnival port, but
why would they be playing Big Band music unless it’s a themed
cruise. I listened a bit
closer but the musical notes dissipated, so I stepped out onto the
deck.
    The lights cast a yellow
glow onto the polished planks and lit my way as I rounded the
corner from port to starboard side. Pausing at the stern, I looked
out into the bay and tried to imagine what it may have been like
for my great-grandfather during those days of war…but
can’t.
    * * * *
    He’s come for
you at last, Hanna. Bill, my Bill. Here aboard the ship? Reluctantly, Hanna Amery keeps her
distance from him, fading into the background, yet wanting so badly
to touch the man she had given her heart to. Admittedly, he looked
a bit different now, his ebony skin now a light milk chocolate, his
once thin body more muscular but she could feel Bill’s spirit
inside him. She aches to reach out and let him know she was there
waiting for him like she’d promised. From the moment he’d walked
out onto the deck heading toward the Isolation Ward she’d felt his
presence. His spirit felt as strong today as it was seventy years
ago when they first met, and it called to her bringing her back to
the present.
    The man she loved, here
aboard ship in the spot where they’d declared their forbidden love.
She, from a white family and he an African American man. The spot
where they’d said their true love vows to God and their shipmates.
It shouldn’t be possible yet here he was. Didn’t the captain tell
him she’d died from influenza trying to heal the sick and wounded
on that final trip during the war?
    She’d thought for sure
he’d feel her near him as he stepped onto the deck but he walked
right by her and her heart broke. Still, she couldn’t help noting
that he was alone, no wife in tow at all and it gave her hope. Her
mind spun