Captive of My Desires (32 page)

G
ABRIELLE MARRIED
D
REW
A
NDERSON
in a small chapel near her home in St. Kitts the very next day. She would have been willing to wait if he had wanted to track down his brothers, so they could be present for the happy occasion, but he wouldn’t hear of it. The moment he had received her father’s permission, which had been a painfully awkward experience for him, he’d asked where he could find the nearest priest. And besides, his sister and brother-in-law were there to represent his family.

She’d been so amused by how difficult it turned out to be, for him to speak with her father. He’d been in a tearing hurry to do so: then, when faced with asking the question, he’d stumbled over every word. And she knew exactly why. It was that word “marriage.” He really had thought he would go through life merrily avoiding such a binding tie. It was a bit of a shock for him to accept the fact that he
wanted
to get married. But she didn’t doubt he did. He just preferred to view the event as a way of keeping her forever, rather than of joining the matrimonial ranks.

She’d been able to wear her mother’s wedding gown for the ceremony. A full layer of pale pink lace over powder-blue satin, the combination gave the lovely gown a lavender hue, and to complete that illusion, the sheer veil that trailed behind her was lavender, which nicely complemented her midnight-black hair. The gown was one of the few things that had belonged to Carla that she’d brought with her on her first trip to the Caribbean. She hadn’t taken it back with her to England when she’d gone there to hunt for a husband, simply because deep down, she’d hoped she wouldn’t find one. How quickly love had turned that notion around.

Her father recognized the gown. She hadn’t thought he would. When he’d come to collect her to escort her down the aisle, he’d told her, “Your mother was a beautiful bride in that gown, but you, my dear, are a vision. Are you sure about this man? He’s barely left you alone long enough for me to ask how you feel about it.”

She’d chuckled at him. “Yes, very sure. I didn’t know it was possible to be this happy, Papa. And I’m the one who wouldn’t let him out of my sight. Men tend to get cold feet for the silliest reasons when it comes to matrimony.”

He grinned. “So do women, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. It’s obvious in the way he looks at you that he loves you very much. Now let’s get you married. Let me straighten your veil. And what’s that around your neck that you’re hiding?”

“Oh, I’m not hiding it, I just forgot to pull it out when I put the gown on,” she said, and lifted the locket out to rest in the center of the square-necked lace bodice of her gown. “It’s something Mama gave me a long time ago.”

“I’ll be damned,” Nathan said, staring at the miniature painting. “So that’s how they hid it, by making a piece of jewelry out of it.”

“What?” she asked, and then gasped as she guessed, “The missing piece of your map?”

He started to laugh. “Indeed.”

“But how does a picture of a village help? I’ve seen the rest of the map, it has no identifying marks other than the
X
where treasure is buried. Even the shape of the island it’s on is ambiguous.”

“Yes, but that is what was missing. One single landmark that can be located. I only need to find an island now with a fishing village like that on its southern coast and likely nothing else on it other than recently built—” He stopped and slapped his forehead. “And I know exactly where it is! I’ve been there. It doesn’t even have a name yet, but we stopped there for supplies a few years ago. The villagers bragged that the island belonged to them, that no one else wanted to settle there.”

She grinned at him. “That’s one treasure hunt I don’t want to miss. Why, I never would have been born if you hadn’t had the other parts of the map and gone to England to look for that missing piece.”

Her father had that look in his eyes that he always had when he was on the scent of treasure. Excitement, mixed with eagerness, mixed with joy. Nathan Brooks was never happier than when he’d figured out one of his maps.

“That’s true enough,” he agreed. “I had no other reason to return to my homeland. But your soon-to-be husband doesn’t strike me as a treasure hunter, and I’m sure he’ll be wanting to go off with you for a little time alone to celebrate the start of your new life together—unless I tell him that I’ll be giving this treasure to you as a wedding gift. Think he might want to come along then?”

She laughed. “Probably not. But when he sees how much I want to, he might agree. The man does like to please me. But are you sure you want to give this one away? You’ve searched so long for it.”

“Aye, but it was one of your ancestors who buried it and devised such an elaborate scheme to hide it that he didn’t even share the information with his own family. Your mother never knew about it, and she was the last of his line. It’s fitting that it go to you.”

Hearing it put that way, Drew agreed that they could go along, and he didn’t need much cajoling. He just insisted they sail on
The Triton,
rather than
The Crusty Jewel.
Ironically, the
Jewel,
which Latice had betrayed his captain and shipmates for and then been denied, never had been put to use. It had been sitting in the bay in front of Pierre’s stronghold, along with three other ships that Nathan had claimed as recompense for his incarceration.

But Drew had mentioned something about not being comfortable making love to his wife with her father in the next room. Gabrielle just grinned knowingly. It seemed to be universal, the reluctance that captains had to sail on ships other than their own, and she didn’t doubt her husband felt the same way.

Gabrielle didn’t mind missing the excitement aboard
The Crusty Jewel
as they followed in its wake. She already thought of
The Triton
as her home. And besides, they’d spent their wedding night aboard her, and Drew did no more than cast off the next morning before he returned to their cabin to keep her pleasantly occupied.

But it wasn’t a long trip. It was barely midmorning when they anchored beside the small island. And then came the tricky part of counting the steps and making sure they had the right spot to start digging at. Two hundred and fifty-eight steps due north of the grinning skull, the legend on the bottom of the map said, but they had to find a skull in the vicinity of the
X.
It turned out to be a skull and crossbones scratched into a flat stone on a rocky ledge. It took until midday just to find that! But the delay kept the excitement high. This was going to be the mother lode of all treasures, the one that had been the hardest to track down. And while it had already been given to the newlyweds, every man there was thrilled to be present for the discovery.

Spanish doubloons was the most common guess. Artifacts from the old world was another. The map was several hundred years old, after all, drawn up during the heyday of piracy on the high seas. And while the owner of this particular treasure hadn’t been a pirate himself, he’d been an English lord who had been sent to rid the seas of pirates. So it had always been assumed that the treasure he’d buried had been confiscated from one of the pirate ships he’d captured.

Drew stood behind Gabrielle with his arms around her waist. She leaned back against his chest as they watched the digging.

“You won’t be disappointed if they find nothing?” he asked her.

“Of course I will,” she replied in a light tone. “But this isn’t going to be one of the empty treasure chests. With the last piece of the map passed down through my family without them even being aware of what it was, this treasure has to be intact.”

He kissed the side of her neck. “I hope you’re right, sweetheart, for your sake.”

She heard the doubt in his voice but ignored it. She was too excited to entertain any negative thoughts.

And then one of her father’s crewmen lifted the chest up high with a shout of glee. It was a small chest, barely a foot square. And there was no lock on it that would have to be broken. The man quickly handed it to Nathan, who wasted no time in opening it.

With all of his crew gathered near and holding their breath in anticipation, their gasps of disappointment came simultaneously. Gabrielle’s shoulders slumped slightly. Empty. She really hadn’t believed this one could be empty.

It wasn’t. Drew walked her over to Nathan, who gave her a sheepish grin. “It looks like I’ve given you a bunch of mementos for your wedding gift,” he said as he handed her the chest.

Gabrielle glanced down to see a pile of old letters, a dried, pressed rose, a velvet ribbon, a lock of hair, and an assortment of other odds and ends. Even a baby’s tiny stocking! None of it had any value other than to the man who’d buried the chest. To him, these things had been priceless…

Nathan continued, “I’m thinking one of those extra ships I just came home with might be more fitting. Take your pick, my boy, and add it to your Skylark line.”

Drew nodded. “With pleasure, and thank you. But I already found my treasure.”

Gabrielle turned around slowly. With the look in Drew’s dark eyes, she couldn’t mistake his meaning, and tears of happiness formed in her own eyes.

“You mean that, don’t you?” she said softly.

“With all my heart, sweetheart…my wife.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. It took only moments before she was so involved in that kiss that she forgot they had an audience.

Her father cleared his throat and said, “I forgot to mention this deed that was on the bottom of the box. I’m not too good at reading Old English, but it looks like you now own this island.”

Gabrielle’s eyes widened, and then she squealed in delight, squeezing Drew tightly in her excitement. Drew burst out laughing at how quickly she got distracted by some real treasure.

When she finally calmed down she told him, “I love it! Look around you, it’s beautiful here. And did you notice that little waterfall on the way here?”

“Can’t say that I did, probably because my eyes were on you.”

She grinned and snuggled under his arm. “We might want to build a house here, a place for us to come home to between voyages.”

He looked down at her. “Between voyages? Do you mean that?”

“You thought I was joking when I said I liked the life at sea?”

“It had crossed my mind.”

She grinned. “Someone should have warned you not to marry a woman who loves the sea—and loves even more a captain who sails it.”