Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
“A map?” I cupped the gold casing and lifted the lid to reveal the navigational needle within. “I don’t see a chart.”
“It’s there if you know how to unlock it.”
I turned it over in my hands, rubbing the polished surface. “Is there a key?”
“You already have it. Start and end north. When you’re ready, you’ll know what to do.”
“I don’t know how to decipher riddles.” I handed it back to him. “You could just take me there now. Kidnap the countess. You love her. We could be a real family and live off your treasure.”
“A child’s fairytale. Life isn’t so simple.”
“It could be.”
“Not for us.” He threaded the chain of the compass around the sash on my gown, securing the instrument to my waist. “When Abigail was exiled from English society, it destroyed something inside her. We’re from different worlds, she and I. Imagine her living with a criminal, always on the run and in fear of capture. It would suck the life out of her.” He wet his lips. “If I could, I would give up the sea and stand beside her in society. But I’m neither a nobleman nor a law-abiding man. That path was never an option.”
“But she was with you once.”
“In secret.” He grunted. “When she was young and blinded by love.”
Blinded by love.
The sound of that made me feel warm all over, and I smiled against his shoulder. “If I ever marry, he will be a man of your fortitude and spirit. A man who loves me above all else. Only me. And we shall be blinded by our love for life and beyond the ends of the sea.”
“Accept nothing less, Bennett.” He lifted my chin with a knuckle. “Promise me.”
“I promise.”
His eyes glittered with approval, his voice a deep well of affection. “That’s my girl.”
A few paces away, the hounds lounged in the shade. Seagulls cawed overhead, and late afternoon sunlight sparkled on white-crested waves.
He would be leaving soon, and his impending absence built a burning ache behind my eyes. Anguish coursed through me, so internal, so deep, it embedded itself before rising to the surface.
After a lifetime of goodbyes, I’d learned how to cope. To smother the hurt. Crying never took the pain away.
“Tell me another story about her.” I lay my cheek on his chest, relishing his scent of leather and salt. “Like the day you met.”
“You’ve heard that one many times.”
“I wish to hear it many more.”
“Very well.” He settled into a sprawl with a tree at his back and his arms holding me tight. “I spotted her from the ship deck I was scrubbing. The sun was so bright that day, high in the sky and heavy with heat. But it wasn’t worthy in the light of her radiance. She stood on the dock, glowing in ivory silk, so fair and arresting I couldn’t feel my legs.”
I devoured every word as he told me how he approached the noble maiden, whisked her away from her chaperon, and fell hopelessly in love with the Lady Abigail Leighton.
A poor Irish seaman and a beautiful English countess. It was my favorite fairytale.
He always ended the story on their first kiss, but this time, his tone was different. Harder. More determined. “I couldn’t let her get away.”
“You couldn’t?” I leaned back and searched his flinty expression.
“She’s had fourteen years to move on, and she hasn’t.” He lifted me from his lap and stood.
A question wasn’t voiced, but it was there, flickering in his eyes.
“No, she’s not happy.” My heart skipped a beat. “It’s not me that she needs, Father. She needs you.”
“Aye.” He paced along the tree line in his deerskin shoes, each step growing faster and more resolute. “I want you to return to the estate.” His gaze turned to the sea, where the horizon darkened with the approach of dusk. “I’ll come for you tonight. For both of you.”
Exhilaration and confusion tangled through me. “I thought living with a criminal would suck the life out of her?”
“Is she living? Does she smile? I will put life back into her!” He bared his teeth. “By God and the devil, I will spend every last tarnal breath in my body making her happy.”
An overpowering sense of hope welled up in my chest. “I believe you.”
“I love you.” He pulled me against him and lowered his mouth to the top of my head. “I’ve committed a lifetime of crimes and paid dearly for them. Fourteen years without my girls. There is no greater punishment.”
“It ends tonight?”
He released me with a wolfish grin. “Yes, it—”
A deep, threatening growl erupted behind me.
I spun toward the hounds and found them standing, noses pointed toward the shore and hackles up. My father went still, his hand locked tightly around my arm.
The dogs exploded into snapping snarls and took off toward the southern end of the beach. They sprinted around the copse of trees and out of view as their barking rose in volume.