Secrets of the Siren [Sirens and Sailors 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

“You really didn’t need to,” she said with a surprised smile.

“I’ll be the judge of that, dear lady,” he said with a pretend frown. “I want to look after that hip of yours even if you don’t.”

She curtsied cheekily and sat down. Despite her protestations, she was evidently glad to be in a comfortable chair instead of a hard rock or tree trunk, and there was no way she would be able to get down onto the grass with the youngsters. She thanked the doctor for his kindness and settled in the shade, as Melantho brought her a cold drink of lemon water.

“OK, everyone, time to get started.” Rechavia held his arms up in the air and they immediately stopped chatting and looked up at him. “I hope you’ve all had time to study the plans for the electric mains to join us to the Eastland power plant.”

There were nods and murmurs of affirmation from the crowd so he continued. “We’ve almost got enough money together for the first, and largest, down payment, but will have to secure more flower orders to continue payments. Dr. Jay has looked over the figures, and agreed that it can be done, but we will have to step up on productivity and find a few more buyers to sustain the instalments.”

“What about the cost of the actual electricity?” Ligia asked.

“Again, we will have to work that bit harder for that,” Dr. Jay explained with a frown. “Aitan’s been working on getting buyers for fish, but we can’t sell much to the mainland because they can easily fish the same waters and get their own.”

“They’ve also got bigger and better fishing boats than us,” Aitan added ruefully.

“As well as the cost we need to consider the disruption to the island,” Rechavia continued. “I’m afraid we might have to pay more to have the cables routed around some of the houses, and I know some of you don’t want electricity to be connected to your homes.”

Again there were mumblings and nods, mainly from the women.

“We also need to lay cables through some of the food fields,” Farris added. “This means that we might be short of some of the fruit and vegetables for a while.”

“We’ve got some saved in the store though, haven’t we?” Sapphire shouted up.

“We did until those damn pirates needed feeding,” Kalliope replied. “Those fuckers have damn near cleaned us out.”

Rechavia threw her a hard stare, and arched his eyebrow in a way which told her she would pay for her language later. She grinned.

“So we may have to go hungry?” Naida moaned.

“No one’s going to starve, but we may have to source food from elsewhere for a while. Maybe fish more or get some from the mainland,” Farris replied.

“But doesn’t that mean spending more money?” Pallas interjected. “It sounds to me like we’ll already be stretched to make the payments in the first place. Besides, if we have to sell our fish we will be short of food. If we eat our food we will be short of money.”

Dr. Jay stood up. “Pallas is right.” He looked a little sad.

The crowd started chattering and voices were raised. Rechavia looked over to Aitan and Farris. They both shook their heads. Taking a deep breath, Rechavia held his hand up once more.

“OK. Now that we’ve got all the facts and are quite sure where we stand, it’s your decision whether or not to go ahead. At this stage we haven’t spent a penny and can easily pull out without owing anything. Take a short while to discuss what you would like to do, and then I would ask that all those who wish to go ahead with getting electricity to the island stand to my left and those who do not want it to stand to my right.”

* * * *

Most of the congregation stood and started chatting. One or two had already made their decisions and went to stand in the appropriate area.

“What do you want to do, darlin’?” Aitan asked Ligia before they moved.

She had chosen to stand as sitting was a little uncomfortable today. “You’re going to be my husband, Aitan. Whatever you decide is fine by me.” She smiled up at him.

He chuckled. “Oh no, you don’t get out of it that easily. You have to make your own decision here. Remember what we said yesterday about keeping secrets? I want to know exactly how you feel about this.”

“But you’ve all gone to so much effort to sort it out.” She bit her lip as she watched Kalliope and Ademia go straight to Rechavia’s right-hand side.

“That’s the whole point, darlin’. We went on a fact-finding mission and came back with the facts. Now we have to decide what to do with them. Do you want electricity run to the island or not?”

She sighed at him, vexed. “I know you want it. You had all those plans for the bar and everything.”

“This is nothing to do with me, darlin’. I’ll make my own decision and do whatever I think’s right. You need to do the same. After all, when you thought my momma didn’t like you your first thought was to not marry me, even though that’s what you wanted in your heart. When you thought about it properly you decided you were going to marry me no matter what, and we’d just have to see if we could sort things out with my momma afterward. You’ve obviously got the strength of your own convictions, so let’s hear it.”

“But I don’t want to go against you.” Ligia frowned.

“You don’t know what I’ve decided yet.”

“You’ve wanted electricity from the start.” She looked a little puzzled.

“That was before I found out all the facts. I
am
allowed to change my mind, aren’t I?”

“Well, yes.
Have
you changed your mind?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out, darlin’. I wanna know what
you
want to do before I tell you what
I
want.”

“That’s not fair.”

“That’s the way it is.”

Everyone else seemed to be gathering in their chosen areas, and Ligia felt a little panicked that time was running out. She could feel the islanders looking at her expectantly. Kally, Ademia and the girls were all on Rechavia’s right-hand side. Their men hadn’t chosen sides yet. The girls were looking questioningly at Ligia. They obviously knew she wanted to join them. They also must have known that she didn’t want to go against her fiancé’s wishes.

Ligia closed her eyes. She tried to imagine the island with electricity running through it. It would be good to have lights and they would certainly be able to do more activities later into the night. Their days would be much longer. Then she pictured them all working into the night. That’s what it would take to keep up the payments. She thought of all the islanders working long hours to pay the electric company, and she frowned. Opening her eyes, she looked up at Aitan. He was watching her patiently.

“Do you want to know what I
really
want?” she asked.

“Yes, darlin’, I do.”

She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you,” she whispered, before walking over to Rechavia’s right-hand side. Her heart was thudding and she felt herself go bright red.
What would Aitan think now?
He had appeared so much more masterful since his return from the mainland, and in a way she daren’t disobey him. However, she was sure they both wanted different things for the island. She frowned as she wondered what exactly he wanted her to do.

To her surprise, he looked over at her and nodded. With a wink he followed her over. She stared up at him. “What are you doing?”

“The same as you. Standing up for what I believe is right. The alterations would make too many changes to the island. I choose to live here because it’s your home and I love the way of life here. I don’t want to be working all hours and paying bills. I don’t mind fishing and farming to feed us all, but I’m darned if I’m gonna spend my time lining someone else’s pockets.” He leaned down and gave her a big kiss, which she felt warm her right through. When she opened her eyes again she was shocked to see Rechavia, Dr. Jay and Farris all standing next to her.

“Well, I think that settles the matter,” Rechavia declared with a big grin. “As the vast majority of the islanders would like to abandon the introduction of electricity to the island, it is decided that we will keep things the way they are.”

A great cheer filled the island and everyone was jumping up and down, hugging each other. There had only been a few sailors who had voted to install electricity, and they took the decision with good heart.

“I thought you wanted your bar?” Ligia’s eyes were big as she frowned at Aitan.

“Well maybe I’ll just have it while it’s light. Or we can use lanterns to light it, that’ll add atmosphere. If it’s worth having we’ll sort something out, right?” He shrugged.

She nodded happily and gave him another hug. “I love you, Aitan.”

“I love you too, darlin’. Hey, how ’bout we invite all these people to the wedding? May as well announce it while we’re all together, don’t you think? Unless you’d rather not…”

“Yes!” Her eyes were gleaming as she smiled up at him.

“Thanks, everyone. We’ll let the appropriate people know straight away that we’ve decided against the electricity,” Rechavia proclaimed as the crowd began to move.

“While you’re all here, I’d like to make an announcement,” Aitan shouted up, moving to the front of the congregation. “Ligia has agreed to be my wife, and we’d very much like y’all to join us at the weddin’.”

The crowd erupted again and Ligia received hugs and cuddles from all directions, while Aitan got patted on the back, the shoulder, and everywhere else by the feel of it!

“Are you having the wedding here on the island?” Pallas asked.

“Yep, we sure are. This is our home, after all.” Aitan’s face beamed as he looked over at his fiancée. She looked so beautiful, nodding happily to her friends, while the twilight glinted off her gorgeous red locks.

Pallas clapped her hands excitedly. There had never been a wedding on Refrainia before. “When will it be?”

“As soon as we can arrange it.” Aitan smiled lovingly at Ligia, who looked over at him. “It can’t be soon enough for me.”

“Aitan’s family have promised to come,” Ligia said with a dazzling smile as she went over to him.

“How lovely!” Pallas was beaming with excitement.

“Yep. In fact, I’m gonna contact them tonight and tell them to hurry on over.” Aitan put his arm around Ligia’s slim waist. “’Cos I can’t wait much longer.” He tilted Ligia’s luscious lips up to meet his and his tongue lapped at her bottom lip playfully before he plunged into her mouth and devoured her with his loving kiss. She felt his erection press into her as he finished and he whispered into her ear, “There’s something else I can’t wait much longer for, too.”

She giggled, and felt a sting on her ass, reminding her of last night. She wasn’t sure she could go through all that again so soon, but she trusted Aitan to treat her right.

“Well if you need any help you know where to find me,” Pallas said, slowly rising out of her seat. Melantho rushed over to help her up as the crowd slowly dispersed.

“Thanks, Pallas, we just might take you up on that,” Ligia said with a smile.

“Are you still thinking of getting Pallas and her sewing bee to help with your wedding dress, darlin’?” Aitan was leading Ligia back to their hut.

“Yes. Is that OK?”

“If that’s what you want. I just thought you might like to go shopping on Eastland and pick out somethin’ real fancy, that’s all.”

“Aitan, I thought you liked things a little simpler. I don’t need fancy dresses and such like. I just want a happy day with all our friends and your family. We can say a few words on the sand and then have a beach party. I’m sure Melantho and the girls would help with the food if we ask nicely.” Ligia looked up at him beseechingly and he couldn’t help but smile.

Aitan stopped and put his arms around her. “If you’re sure that’s what you want, then it’s fine by me, darlin’. I just want you to be happy, you know that.”

“I will be happy as long as I’ve got you.” She reached up and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

“I think we’d best get back to the hut,” he said with a chortle.

“We need to contact your family before we do anything else,” she reminded him with a grin.

“Maybe later.”

“Maybe sooner.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a mock salute and quickened his step up the track. “In that case we’d better hurry.”

Ligia giggled as she rushed along behind him.

The sun was already beginning to set when they reached the little huts, and Kally was stirring something over the fire. “I’ve cooked stew for all of us tonight,” she announced proudly.

“Oh, great.” Aitan did his best to hide his disappointment, and Ligia giggled.

“Perhaps you could call your family while you’re waiting for supper?” the redhead suggested kindly. She knew all he wanted to do was take her straight to bed, but there was no way he would offend Kalliope after she’d gone to so much trouble.

Aitan winked at her as he bit his tongue. He went into the hut Kalliope shared with Rechavia while Ligia helped her friend with the meal.

By the time the girls were serving up, Aitan had spoken to his folks and was heading back over to the fire with Rechavia.

“Good news,” Aitan said with a grin as he took his dish of food.