A Light For My Love (42 page)

He put his arm around her shoulders, and they
began walking back toward the
Aurora
. "I waited until you
were asleep."

*~*~*

China turned her face drowsily against her
husband's wide chest, wrapped in dreams and contentment. She felt
his hand stroke her bare hip. Dusk had fallen over this part of the
world, washing the room in grays and pinks. They lay in her bed,
having been too impatient when they got here to bother with making
up the big bed across the hall.

The hasty civil ceremony at the courthouse
had lacked the pomp of a big church wedding. But to China, nothing
could have been more romantic. Of course, Aunt Gert had sobbed like
a paid mourner at a funeral. Even Cap, who'd come along with Gert,
had sniffled loudly, swearing he was as proud as if China were his
own daughter. The sentiment had caught at China's heart, until she
saw him pull one of her embroidered linen napkins from his pocket
to blow his nose.

Remembering the scene, a little huff of
laughter escaped her, ruffling the hair on Jake's chest.

"What?" he murmured, lengthening the sweep of
his strokes to include her back.

"I was just thinking about this afternoon,
and Cap with my good linen napkin. I'd wondered why they kept
disappearing. And did you see the look on Quinn's face when you
told him to come ashore to be your best man? I thought he was going
to have apoplexy."

"Huh, I thought he was going to shoot me.
When you were picking out your ring from Herrmann's display case,
he asked me if you're pregnant."

She gasped and rose on one arm, clutching the
sheet to her breasts and pushing her hair back to look at him. "My
brother said that? How nice of him!"

Jake smiled at her from the pillows, his
white teeth showing in the low light. "Oh, it's okay, China. Don't
get your garters in a knot," he cajoled, running his forefinger
along the tops of her breasts where the sheet didn't reach. "I
guess you can't blame him. It all happened so fast—the wedding,
seeing him off afterward. This morning he thought I was going to
San Francisco with him. So did I."

"I'm glad you didn't go," she said, letting
her eyes wander over the beauty of him: his jade eyes and wheat
blond hair, the muscled chest and strong arms, the narrow hips and
long legs. The insolent fisherman's son who had kissed her that day
in the alcove; she'd cast the boy adrift to wander the world and
he’d come back to her a man. The engulfing love and tenderness she
felt for him were emotions she had never expected to realize.

"I'm glad you stopped me," he said Pulling
her back down to him on the mattress, he laid a line of kisses over
her neck and shoulder. He lifted away the sheet to expose her
breasts, bending his head to press a kiss between them, over her
heart. She wriggled luxuriously against the bedding, then she
caught sight of his tattoo.

"Jake, wait a minute," she said, putting her
hand on his hair.

"Uh-uh," he replied, continuing his
exploration of her flesh with soft, fluttery kisses.

She slid out from under his mouth. "Jake,
this will only take a second, and it's important. It can't
wait."

"What's the matter?" he asked, clearly
puzzled.

China slipped into her wrapper and tied the
sash, pulling her long hair out from the collar.

"You don't need to worry about that," he
said, pointing at her covering. "With Aunt Gert and Susan staying
at Harbor House, you can run through the halls naked if you want.
What are you doing, anyway?"

"Stay put, I'll be right back" She pulled
open the door and stepped out into the hall.

Of course he didn't stay put. She heard his
bare feet pad across the hardwood floor behind her and stop in the
doorway.

China approached the lamp at the window and
removed its glass shade. Finding a match in the box on the table,
she struck its red sulphur head and it flared to life.

"For all men gone to sea," she began,
touching the lighted match to the wick.

After she said the prayer, she returned to
the crook of her husband's arm, and they watched the lamp for a
moment, glowing in the dark of the new evening.

A beacon for the living and in memory of the
lost, so that all may find their way home.

Just as Jake Chastaine had.