Devil of the High Seas, page 24
“Of course I did,” Griffin replied. He ached for a glass of water, but there were things that needed to be said between them first.
“When we arrived on that island and saw your home burning and Josephine gone, I knew there was only one way I could help you. I would do anything for you, Gavin. We’re brothers.” He said this with such pride and joy that it felt like it had been before Charity had come into their lives. Before he had broken his brother’s heart by loving the same woman.
“When Beauchamp raised that pistol, I knew there was really only one choice I could make. Josephine is the very heart beating inside you. I couldn’t let you be robbed of love a second time.”
Gavin’s eyes grew bright and he blinked rapidly. “She’s my every dream.”
Griffin smiled. Despite the pain in his body, he felt gloriously alive.
“You renounce your claim on her, then?” Gavin asked. “And you’ll tear up that bloody marriage contract?”
Griffin wished he had the strength to laugh. “I had already decided to break off the engagement, so long as Josephine didn’t wish to marry me. I spoke to Camden about it before we found your island. He agreed, on one condition.”
Gavin frowned at the word. “What condition?”
“Haven’t a clue. All he said was that he would need to talk to you about it.”
Gavin settled back against his chair, but Griffin could tell his brother was thinking deeply.
“Will you be here . . . for the wedding? Will you stand up with me?” Gavin asked, his voice soft and almost shy.
Griffin lifted his hand from the bed and Gavin clasped it in his own.
“There’s no place I’d rather be than at your side.”
Gavin opened his mouth, then closed it again and smiled instead. After a long moment, he stood and called for Vesper. She came back in and rushed to Griffin’s side. She gave no extra look toward Gavin as they passed each other. That was when Griffin knew with certainty that whatever had gone wrong before when the stars guided their fate seven years ago had now been repaired.
Vesper was his and his alone while Josephine had always been meant for his brother. Griffin sighed and closed his eyes. For a brief moment, he swore he saw a woman in a silvery gown standing in the doorway, smiling sadly at him before she vanished into a stray beam of sunlight. That couldn’t have been Charity . . . she was gone. He was simply imagining things. Vesper closed her hand around his, kissing the backs of his knuckles, and he smiled at her.
“We are free,” he said.
Her lips warmed him with a promise of a lifetime of joy. “Yes, we are.”
Up on deck, Gavin saw Josephine speaking to her father as the two faced the open sea. When she noticed him, she broke away from Lord Camden and rushed over, and he clasped her to him tightly. He couldn’t seem to hold her long enough or kiss her long enough. Losing her once had made him afraid to ever miss a single moment with her again. Of course, having Lord Camden watching over Josephine had kept Gavin on his best behavior. There was nothing like seeing Josephine’s father shoot a pirate in the back for hurting his child. One could only imagine what he’d do to Gavin. He hadn’t been allowed to sleep in the same cabin with her, and he’d missed the comfort of her lying beside him every night.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes,” he promised. “Griffin woke up. His fever finally broke. The doctor says otherwise, but I believe it was Vesper’s love that brought him back, just as you said it would. It’s a damned miracle.”
The surgeon believed that no organs had been pierced by the bullet. Nevertheless, the bullet had done much damage to his muscles. They had stitched up his wounds and prayed for the best. It would still take a long time for him to heal.
“Josie. He’s agreed to break the marriage contract.”
She glanced across the deck at her father. “I suspected that he might.”
Gavin cleared his throat. “Then you will marry me?”
She looked up at him, a sudden light in her eyes. “Well, you did go to all the trouble of fetching a vicar and rescuing me. I rather suppose I must.”
He knew she was teasing, but he still felt a flutter of nerves inside him.
He cupped her face in his hands. “My whole life I’ve been drifting at sea, chasing the horizon and letting the wind push me farther and farther away from shore. It wasn’t until I met you that I realized how lost I was and how much I wanted to come home.” His breath caught as he suddenly found it hard to speak. “You are my home.”
Love transformed her face with a look of awe, and he wondered what she saw in him at that moment. He was a pirate, a man scarred inside and out. She reached up and her fingers curled around his wrists.
“Marry me,” she whispered. “Marry me, marry me.” It was an echo of their vows on the Isle of Song.
“I will marry you today. I will marry you tomorrow. I will marry you every day for the rest of our lives.”
She stood up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. He closed his eyes, feeling the wind rise up around them just as it rippled through the canvas of the sails. But this time the breeze would not push him away. He was here, anchored by his love for her. Griffin had been right.
As Josephine kissed him, he felt the pure strength of her love like bright summer morning sunlight after a dark storm had ravaged the night. She’d found him in the midst of a storm, hadn’t she? That night long ago when he’d fallen into her arms and she had brought the dawn.
Their mouths broke apart, and he was breathing fast with excitement.
“A man like me doesn’t deserve to be this happy,” he confessed as he smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks and nuzzled her nose.
“Well, you do still have to speak to my father,” she replied with a little laugh, and he kissed her again.
“Bloody hell, I do, don’t I? It would be far easier if we simply ran off to Sugar Cove and let the vicar marry us there.” He groaned. “Stay here.” He crossed the deck to where Lord Camden still stood. The man had one hand on the railing and was watching the water ripple with light.
“Lord Camden . . .” He honestly had no idea how to begin this conversation. “I apologize for taking your daughter the way that I did, but I won’t apologize for wanting to claim her.”
Camden smiled sadly. “You’re wrong, my boy. She claimed you. That’s the first lesson in marriage you have to learn. No man can own a woman. There are those who foolishly think they can treat women like butterflies trapped in a jar, but that jar in time will suffocate a wild, beautiful creature. Set a woman free and if she truly loves you, she will claim you as hers. Do you understand?”
“I believe I do,” Gavin said.
He finally faced Gavin. “I have two sons, both of them fine, good men. I see myself in them. But my little Josie was always something more. Daughters are like that. You try to shield them from the evils of the world, to protect them. The hardest thing in life is to let them go.”
He looked once more out onto the water. “She was so small and perfect when I first held her in my arms. I didn’t think it was possible to love something so new to this world in an instant, but I did. And I can’t let her go to just any man.” He tapped his fingers on the railing and then gripped the wood as he seemed to fight back a tide of emotions.
“She will marry you, regardless of what I say. But I want your word, Castleton. Give her the world, give her freedom, and give her yourself fully and completely. It’s the only thing I can demand of you, but it’s what matters most.”
“She’s the very beat within my heart,” Gavin said, his throat tight. “She has me and all that I can give her for as long as life gives me breath. I promise you, she will always be free.”
Camden slowly turned again and held out a hand. “Then we’d better find that bloody drunk vicar.”
Gavin laughed as they shook hands. “The sooner the better.”
CHAPTER 18
One month later
Birds sang all across the island as Josephine and Gavin made their wedding vows in front of her entire family, Brianna, Nicholas, Griffin, Vesper, Reverend Sheridan, and the islanders. She wore the pale-blue gown her mother had intended for her wedding to Griffin. The last time she’d worn this dress, she’d been another woman in another life. She was glad that it hadn’t been ruined when Gavin had taken her from Cornwall.
And much like herself, the dress had changed since then. Now, the ice-blue gown that was festooned with pearls, billowed around her in the sea breeze and made her feel like Venus walking out of the sea.
How far she’d come since that night Gavin had snuck into her bedchamber and whisked her away. That life, that path not taken, that had been the dream. This was her reality.
“All dreamers must wake up sooner or later . . . But what if we wake to something even better than this?”
She’d been so afraid to believe him when he’d said that, but Gavin had been right all along.
This certainly was better than anything she could have dreamed. Everyone she loved was here on this little island, and she was moving toward a future of her own choosing. Not her family’s, not society’s, but hers.
Before she started down the aisle, her father leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“I could part with you to no one else.” His words were choked with emotion, and his eyes brimmed with tears as she embraced him. Her father had always been a proud and stubborn man, but she’d never once doubted that he wanted her to be happy.
“I will always be your daughter, Papa. Always,” she whispered.
He held her just a little bit tighter. “I don’t know how your mother and I will get on without you.” Then he let her go and stepped back. He wiped his eyes, and her mother came forward to take his arm and kissed his cheek. Josephine now turned to Gavin. To the future.
Griffin stood by Gavin’s side, leaning on a cane for support. He flashed her a smile filled with brotherly affection. He and Vesper had married the day before, which had resulted in a number of the islanders requesting that the vicar marry them as well, even those who had been together for many years. By the end, Henry Sheridan was grousing that he had married half the island and had only been paid for one ceremony.
Josephine and Gavin had waited a full month to wed. They’d wanted Griffin to be well enough to stand for the ceremony. More important, Gavin had wanted to have a home to present to Josephine as an official wedding present.
In just thirty days, they had managed to start the rebuilding of the house that had been destroyed in the fire. With Dominic’s blessing, Adrian had taken charge of the Pixie, with Ronnie acting as his first mate. They’d brought timber from the bigger islands and hired an architect from Port Royal at her father’s insistence to have the building plans drawn up. The first floor of the home was rebuilt under a new design that featured a bedchamber for her and Gavin on the ground floor.
During those busy days of rebuilding, Josephine’s family had settled into some of the empty cottages in the village that had been built in case Gavin brought anyone new to the island. It had been a mercy that Beauchamp’s men had only burned Gavin’s home, and not the village.
Everyone had worked together to rebuild the life that had been on this island and put the past behind them. Josephine had worked tirelessly to help Jada and the other women cook for the laborers before she fell into bed each night in exhaustion. Her father had insisted she sleep in her bed alone, even though he was well aware she was no longer a virgin. She missed Gavin lying beside her, but she knew the wait would be worth it.
Now the time had come for them to officially begin their lives together in this tiny paradise.
They repeated their vows in front of Henry Sheridan, their heads bowed as they were joined in matrimony. At the end, Gavin stole a kiss as the sun set on the horizon beyond them and the world fell into a twilight hush. Josephine curled her arms around his neck and held on as that kiss seemed to carry her away. It felt like they were flying across the water together at the bow of a ship, chasing the dying light. Kissing Gavin would always be like that, like sailing toward an endless glow, sailing into eternity. His warm mouth moved over hers, and she parted her lips so he could deepen the kiss.
“Ahem.” The vicar cleared his throat. “Plenty of time for that later, when your father-in-law has had a bit more rum.”
Blushing, Josephine broke away from Gavin. It was the first time she saw Gavin appear even a little bit bashful. Her father glared at Gavin for daring to have such an open display in front of their guests.
Gavin clasped Josephine’s hands in his. “Sorry, vicar. Even a pirate gets carried away on his wedding day.”
His strong grip made her feel safe and sure and reminded her how completely in love with him. If someone had tried to explain this feeling to her in England, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine it. It was all-encompassing, to love someone with her whole heart. But rather than fear such an overwhelming thing, she felt only excitement and joy.
Yet it wasn’t simply love for her husband that gave her wings to fly. It was a newfound love for herself, faults and all, and not feeling like she had to apologize for being who she was. She’d had moments where she failed, moments where she’d doubted herself, and yet she’d also proven that she was brave, that she was strong. Loving herself gave her the strength and courage to love someone like Gavin. It made this moment all the sweeter.
She wished she could go back in time and find the girl she had once been and tell her not to lose hope, that all she’d ever dreamed of would someday be within her reach if she stayed strong.
Gavin pulled her into his arms, holding her as the people gathered on the beach clapped and cheered. She couldn’t imagine feeling happier than she did at this moment. More than one sailor whistled, and Gavin’s body shook with delighted laughter.
“Come along, wife.” Gavin led her back through the crowd. They first stopped by her mother, who held her in a long hug and then looked to Gavin.
“Welcome to our family,” she said. Gavin’s cheeks turned a ruddy shade.
Dominic and Roberta approached them next. Dominic held out a hand.
“I suppose it’s all right to have another pirate in the family,” Dominic said.
“We might have to amend that to ‘retired’ pirate,” Gavin said with a glance at Josephine. “I was thinking, if you need another captain for your trade fleet, I would happily take a position, provided Josephine can come with me.”
Dominic’s smile was wide. “I think we can find a ship for you.”
Roberta laughed as she embraced Josephine. The redhead who’d won over her older brother murmured in her ear, “It seems you finally have your very own pirate.”
Josephine chuckled. “I do, don’t I?”
Adrian and Gavin shook hands, he asked for a moment alone with his twin. He caught one of her hands in his, helping her down the sandy path to the shore until they were far enough away from the others to speak with some privacy. Adrian’s face was filled with both joy and sorrow. He cleared his throat.
“It’s going to be different, isn’t it? When you were going to marry Griffin, it all felt as if nothing would change. You would be close by. But this is different. You love Gavin, don’t you?”
She nodded. “Desperately.”
“I can feel it.” He touched his chest. “Here. Knowing how happy you are makes it easier to let you go.”
She wiped away a tear on her cheek. “I am, but I will miss you.” For so long, it’d been just the two of them against the world. But as with all things, time brought change, and this was one thing that they hadn’t been ready for.
“You know,” he said with a wry grin, “I kept my promise to you.”
“What promise?”
“The one I made before you left. I said you would marry Castleton, sail the seas, and have the life you always dreamed of. I never said it would be Griffin. After all, Gavin is in fact the Earl of Castleton since he isn’t dead and the title will revert back to him. I simply didn’t say which Castleton you’d marry.”
Josephine laughed at her brother’s cleverness.
But her laughter died as a new realization made her pause. She hadn’t once given a thought to the fact that she was married to the older of the Castleton brothers. Gavin had lived seven years without that part of his life and likely no longer thought of it either. Would they have to return to England to let him resume his life as the earl and handle the estate?
“What’s wrong?” her brother asked.
“I’d actually managed to forget that he is the earl and not Griffin.” She stared down at the white sand, her hopes fading so quickly.
Adrian lifted her chin. “Talk to him. I imagine he hasn’t thought about it either. Perhaps there is a solution. His brother and Vesper will be returning to England. If it was me, I’d have Griffin handle all the immediate affairs of the estate, leaving you and Gavin here. No one said you had to live in England. He will be the earl wherever he lives. It’s not uncommon for titled lords to let others help them with their land and property while they live elsewhere. I’m sure Gavin would much prefer that sort of arrangement.”
“You are quite brilliant.” She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him.
“I always was the smart one—ow!” He winced when she punched his shoulder. “Go back to your husband, feisty wench!”
They both burst into laughter.
When they walked back up the beach, Gavin was waiting for them. He held out his arms to Josephine, and she buried her face against his chest.
“Everything all right?” he asked in a soft voice.
“Of course. I was just speaking to my brother about…well the fact that you are now the Earl. Griffin assumed the title after your father passed and you were assumed dead. But now that can all change. I was afraid of what that means for us. Adrian suggested that you resume the title, but have Griffin remain at the house in Cornwall with Vesper and run the estate for you. That would you and I free to be here.”
