Beloved Counterfeit (21 page)

Micah released her to duck beneath the water then in one fluid motion pop up from the waves like a fish. He caught her laughing and seemed to be taken aback.

“Why are you staring at me?” she managed. “Haven’t you ever seen a woman amused at a foolish man?”

He disappeared beneath the next wave, and when he emerged from the water, he’d come near enough to wrap both hands around her waist. “Ruby,” he said, “if you’ll promise to laugh like that at least once a day, I’ll promise to stay foolish the rest of our lives.”

She pretended to think about it as Micah inched closer. A wave pushed her forward into Micah, but strong hands kept her above the surface.

“Ruby,” he said as he righted her, “either we have to get out of the water, or I’m going to have to kiss you.”

Rather than respond, she stood on her toes and, with the next wave, aimed for his lips. Embarrassment at her boldness didn’t occur until after she ended the kiss.

“I don’t know why I did that,” she said softly.

“I suppose now would be the time,” Micah said, his lips now touching her cheek, “to remind you that you may have done that because tonight I’m to become your husband.”

Ruby sighed. “Perhaps,” was all she could manage as Micah laced his fingers with hers and led her out of the water. At the shoreline, he retrieved her shoes and stockings along with his own and folded the jacket he’d shed around them.

“Follow me, and I’ll get you back to the boardinghouse without walking through the middle of town,” he said as he stepped across the sand on bare feet then turned to head up a hill that led to the bluff above the ocean, his bundle thrown across his shoulder. From there he pointed west, and Ruby followed. “Up there is my home,” he said as he pointed to a modest structure a distance away.

She recognized the place. “It must have a lovely view,” she said.

“It does,” he cast over his shoulder as he cleared the path of a fallen limb. “I’m afraid there’s not much inside to recommend it, but I tend to forget once I stand on the edge and look out at the water. It’s almost like being aboard ship.”

“Sounds wonderful.”

“I suppose, though all I’ve managed to furnish it with is a bed and a few dishes. Until now, that’s all I needed.”

“About that.” Ruby braved a look up at Micah. “We’ve not discussed where we would live. I assumed the boardinghouse since I am obligated to Mrs. Campbell to run it until her return.”

He seemed to consider the statement. “I agree you’ve got an obligation, but no wife of mine’s going to be working like you do longer than I can help it. Mrs. Campbell will have to hire someone to replace you, though she’d likely do better hiring two for as much work as you do.”

Micah stepped ahead to push back a tangle of brush so Ruby could pass. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” Micah said. “I’ll write to the Campbells and let them know they will need to either return or find your replacement soon. Once the babies start coming, it wouldn’t be healthy for you to exhaust yourself the way you do.”

The babies? Ruby suppressed a sigh. Indeed, the wrecker was getting a bit ahead of himself, though she had to applaud his honesty in stating his expectations. At least she’d likely have no trouble discerning what he wanted.

“And until you’re free to leave your work, I’ll agree to move into the boardinghouse.” He looked at her. “What sort of arrangements do you have?”

“Arrangements?”

Micah nodded. “Sleeping arrangements.”

“Oh.” She paused. “There are two bedchambers and a sitting room on the third floor at our disposal.” Sensing her answer had been too sparse for him, Ruby continued. “Mrs. Campbell was kind enough to allow us to choose our furnishings from her husband’s warehouse. It’s rather amusing how fancy the items are that the girls chose.”

When her companion glanced at her, she clamped her mouth shut. Surely Micah Tate had little care for the small details of the O’Shea women’s world.

“Go on,” he urged, and she nodded.

“Well, the twins—they share a bed—they’re rather partial to fancy bed coverings and beds with tall posts and curtains around them, so that’s what they chose.” She paused to see if Micah still seemed interested. When she decided he did, she continued. “Tess, now she’s not like the other two. Her only request was that her bed be high enough to have a step stool. You should see her climbing into that tall bed like she’s the queen of England or something. Half the time she’s got somebody’s petticoat fastened around her so she’s got the train and everything.”

Micah laughed with her, and she relaxed. Perhaps her husband-to-be really did care for the mundane things of their lives.

“As I said, the space is quite generous. The sitting room looks out toward the west, so the light’s good until late in the day.” She paused to step over a low spot then continued. “I’m sure you’ll find your bedchamber comfortable.”

“Our bedchamber,” he corrected.

“Yes, well.” She bit her lip and watched a flock of orangequit rise above a stand of mango trees and take wing. “You see, Tess is just a baby, really.”

“Ruby.” The warning in his tone was unmistakable. “I understand there may be a period of difficulty until the sleeping arrangements are complete, but I would insist on two points. First, Tess is neither a baby nor incapable of sleeping in a room with her sisters and without her mother.”

He looked to Ruby as if he expected her to protest. In truth, she welcomed a night without awakening to a tiny foot in the small of her back or, worse, pressed against her cheek.

“Agreed,” she said, though how the good idea would become a reality was beyond her understanding.

“Second,” he said, “despite my appearance as such, I am not a patient man. I will not spend our wedding night separated from my bride. I’ve mentioned it before, but I will repeat that I think it’s in the best interest of both of us to send the girls off to stay with Mary and Hezekiah for the evening.”

She opened her mouth to protest then thought better of it. If Micah was to become her husband, the time for bowing to his reasonable requests was now. Much as she wished for another solution, this was a reasonable request.

“Agreed,” she said, though she knew the separation would be much harder on her than it would be on the girls.

“And lest you think me heartless or believe me to be compromising my promise of safety for the four of you,” he said, “I’ve made arrangements for two members of the militia to be at the Carters during our absence. A third will stay at the boardinghouse.”

Ruby let out a long breath. It was more than she could have asked for, yet Micah had thought of the plan before she had. “Thank you,” she managed to say as she turned to look back over her shoulder at the ocean.

“I’m to warn you that the Gayarre sisters along with Miss Dumont are more than excited about assisting you with whatever it is women do before they marry. At least that’s the message Mary Carter asked me to give you.” He gave her a hopeless look. “I won’t even guess what that means, but I do know it will be happening around two this afternoon. The wedding is at seven.”

She smiled. Having women friends was a new experience, one that made the loss of Opal all the more bittersweet.

Micah stopped and gestured to a tree trunk near the juncture where the footpath met the road to town. “We’ll continue on this same path, but as the captain of the militia, I’d rather not be caught barefoot by some citizen out for a stroll.”

Ruby looked down at the dress that had already begun to dry in the morning sunshine. Micah looked no worse for wear, though his trousers hung at the knees and bore wrinkles and spots of sand all the way to his toes. His linen shirt was ruined, though a good washing might make it serviceable again.

Her eyebrows rose. “I’m not sure our bare feet will be the first thing noticed.”

“I’ll not disagree. Sit there,” he said, and she complied, observing him as she did her best to braid her hair back into submission.

While she watched, the wrecker set his jacket on the ground and opened the knot he’d tied. He retrieved one of her stockings then slipped it over her foot. Gently he slid it above her ankle then paused to look up at her. Without words, he told her his restraint was not easy.

“Perhaps I should don the other on my own.”

“Perhaps,” he said, though his voice sounded strained.

She slipped the stocking over her foot then adjusted her wet skirts to cover her legs. “There,” she said when she’d sufficiently righted herself.

Micah lifted her shoe from the bundle and pointed to her foot. “Right foot,” he said then laughed when she complained. “All right. I suppose you’ll want to do this, too.”

She nodded and quickly stuffed her wet and sandy foot into her shoe, all the while trying to tame her suddenly shaking hands. Somehow she managed the feat then allowed Micah to help her stand.

His hand continued to grasp hers. “Ruby.” Micah spoke her name so softly that it almost disappeared on the wind. “There’s much you don’t know or understand about me, and I know that. By my choice, the same can be said for what I know about you.” His gaze shifted past her. “It’s enough for me. I’ve only one thing more I’d like you to know: This time, I won’t fail.”

Chapter 26

“This time.”

Two words that taunted Micah all the way back to the boat, where he left his boots on the deck then jumped into the water fully dressed. Unlike his swim with Ruby, slipping under the lapping waters of the bay offered a few seconds of peace and quiet.

Holding his breath, Micah opened his eyes and waited for the familiar sting of the salt water to subside. A shaft of sunlight pierced the murky water and illuminated a pair of tussling lobsters on the ocean floor. Any other day, he’d have dived down and brought up dinner.

Tonight, however, he’d not need the feast, though he could certainly offer them to the Carters for the favors they’d be performing. Using a skill that had filled his hungry belly more times than he could count, Micah made short work of tossing both of the combatants onto the deck of his ship, where he’d tend to them once he finished his swim. Without much effort, he found two more and added them to the pair, who now seemed more intent on exploring than escaping.

Dropping back into the water, he kicked off the hull and propelled himself a decent measure away from the vessel. A sail off to the south caught his attention. Though he rarely judged these things from water level, it appeared the ship was sailing dangerously close to the reef.

Watching a moment longer, Micah decided the angle at which he viewed the sail seemed to be the reason. With the weather as fine as it was today, any decent sailor captaining a vessel in these waters would know the dangers and steer clear.

Micah gave the vessel one last look then turned to float on his back. Above him, the Lord had set the slightest wisp of cotton clouds against a sky so blue it hurt to look at it.

Blue as Ruby’s eyes.

Not since he mistook his friendship with Emilie for something more had he paid such close attention to a woman. Always he’d been too busy to concern himself with the confusing process of wooing a woman.

His thoughts tumbled back to Caroline. She had required little of him, and sadly, he’d obliged her by spending too many hours planting and plowing only to return with just enough energy to eat and fall into a sleep that seemed to last only minutes. Then he got up and did it all over again. Just as his pa had done, and likely his pa’s pa.

Even when Caroline begged him to stay, he chose his allegiance to Texas over allegiance to her. “I promise, Lord,” he whispered. “Not this time.”

Micah rolled onto his belly and ducked beneath the surface, then rose up to commence floating on his back once again. The move did nothing to change the direction of his thoughts, though it did cause his eyes to sting again.

Or were those tears?

He shook off the foolish notion and tugged at his water-soaked trousers. With the sun full overhead, his belly complained. Only then did he realize he’d eaten little of what Ruby had brought to him for breakfast.

She was a fine woman, that Ruby O’Shea. He smiled to think of the gift that was even now likely being delivered. That the book he’d ordered would arrive the day before his wedding was something only the Lord could have managed. Since the day he first laid eyes on her, he’d thought of the verse in Proverbs that he’d written inside the cover last night while lying on the porch.

“Her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. . . .”

Indeed, Ruby O’Shea was a woman in whom he could safely trust. And in a few hours, he’d promise before God to be a husband she, too, could safely trust.

But first he had to try to make himself presentable.

Closing the distance to the boat, Micah shed his gritty shirt. Then, while he treaded water, he did his best to wash away the sand that remained. This accomplished, he tossed the shirt onto the deck and went about the business of trying to clean his trousers without removing them.

“Ahoy, Tate. Where are you?” Josiah Carter called.

Micah lifted himself up over the side and landed on the deck. “Took a bath,” he said as he shook the water out of his hair then reached for his shirt to begin wringing it out. “And did my laundry, too.”

Josiah shook his head. “Things are about to change, sailor,” he said. “Starting with proper baths and cleaner clothes.”

A lobster scampered toward his bare foot, and Micah swatted at it with his shirt. “All well worth the home cooking and soft bed.” He swung his attention to his best friend. “What brings you here today?”

The wrecker grinned. “Your wedding.”

“Is that so?” Micah slung the wet shirt over his shoulder and gestured for Josiah to follow him into the cabin. While Josiah sat, Micah found the last of the jerky and offered a portion of it to his friend.

“There’ll be no more of this, either,” Micah said. “So I warrant I’ll not be disappointed in the things I have to give up. Ruby’s cooking is worth the sacrifice.”

“So it’s her cooking that’s got you marrying her so quickly.” Josiah stared intently. “I wondered.”