Untamed (8 page)

“No. No one has died.” Reverend MacLeod said.

The Earl seemed nonplussed for a moment but made a quick recover in spite of the forthright manner in which she looked enquiringly at him. She suspected this was not going precisely as planned. No awe at his presence in her home at long last marked her countenance, she made sure of that. Her manner did not shine with gratitude that he had finally come to rescue her from the wilds of Canada, either.

“My darling Desarae,” he began again and then flushed angrily as her eyebrow rose. “When you were born, your parents entered into a marriage arrangement with Sir Lordling’s parents. I have brought him with me so that you two can fulfil their bargain. Marrying before you return to take your place in society will safeguard you from fortune hunters and adventurers.”

“I have yet to agree to return to England with you, sir,” Desarae commented coolly.

Lord Ashburne’s lips pressed tightly together. When he had control of his temper, he continued. “Your estates march along together and this marriage will create a vast estate that will survive and thrive through many generations to come.”

Desarae looked from her grandfather’s lying, hateful, face to that of Sir Henry. The gentleman did not look ill-favored, however he had no interest in their discussion and was not looking at her but at Trystan, who stood near the spy glass with his arms folded and a closed expression on his handsome features. Once more her uncle’s remarkable journals filled in the gaps of her education.

“For there to be future generations, sir,” Desarae explained in dulcet tones, calm and reasonable. “There must first be children, do there not? I cannot convince myself that Sir Lordling even likes women in general and he has absolutely no interest in me in particular. I believe he prefers…” She paused infinitesimally. “…Captain Larabette.”

Through their surprised shouts and titters, Desarae added, leaning forward, “I must confess that I do not blame him. For I prefer Captain Larabette too.”

When Desarae had stood in the doorway, elegant, poised, and utterly beautiful, Trystan’s heart had paused and then had grown incredibly heavy, almost physically weighing him down. The wild and untamed Desarae might fit into his life and his family, but how would this sophisticated woman, displaying in every turn of her head the immeasurable superiority of her station and breeding, belong with them? And then, she uttered those straight-forward, unalterable words, words that he would never allow her to retract.
She preferred him. By all that was holy, she preferred him.

Trystan crossed the room in three steps and lifted her wickedly prim self from the chair. He swung her high into the air and whirled her around, laughing with pure delight. She grinned down and then laughed and laughed.

“Here! Here, I say!” Lord Ashburne cried harshly, jumping to his feet. “I will not be thrust aside this way. Put my granddaughter down. I do not countenance a match between a merchant sea captain with no connections and no fortune with my granddaughter!”

Athena trotted into the room with Jim, who was carrying a tea tray, and decided to join the kerfuffle. She barked and gamboled about the laughing couple.

“This is most irregular,” the minister murmured again, retreating to the comparative safety of the bow window recess. His sharp featured balding head bobbed this way and that like a parakeet. “I really don’t know what the world is coming to.”

Lord Ashburne, so furious that he could now only sputter, spun on his heel, dragged the offending Sir Henry to his feet, and shook him. That gentleman promptly threw up his breakfast down the front of the Earl, who then flung him away and stalked out of the room. A sharp crash punctured the commotion in the front room.

“The statues!” Desarae cried, shoving herself out of Trystan’s arms and rushing outside. “Pan!”

The leering marble guardian had been tipped off its pedestal and Pan’s decapitated head wobbled back and forth at their feet. Her grandfather could be seen stalking off toward the cove.

“Do y’ think he’ll take the launch?” William asked, coming up to stand beside his captain, Jim at his heels.

“Best see to it,” Trystan ordered. “Once you have him settled in his lodgings, come back here so we can discuss the ship’s repairs. I’ll see if Jim will take the minister and Sir Henry back to Canso.”

“Aye,” William said, loping off after the Earl who had already reached the steps.

Trystan turned to Jim and held out his hand. “I—”

“I know who you are, Captain,” Jim said in his slow way. The sad expression on his face showed resignation. “You’re the man who is going to take Miss Desarae away from the isle. Away from me.” He accepted Desarae’s enthusiastic hug. “I expect it’s time.”

“She hasn’t agreed to leave,” replied Trystan. The big man gave him a fatalistic grimace.

“What is happening?” Reverend MacLeod asked, easing through the doorway much in the manner of a mouse checking to see if the cat had left.

“I’m fixing to take you and the other one back to the mainland,” Jim said. “You go down to the dock and I’ll get the sick one.”

Trystan and Desarae stood together at the top of the steps and watched the two boats row away.

“Do you think he will leave me alone now?”

“No.”

“So I thought. There is more fight in the mean old buzzard.” Desarae leaned her head on his shoulder. “Poor Pan. I shall repair him.”

“Hmm. So, luv,” Trystan murmured softly. She turned to look up at him. Her warm eyes danced but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. “I have thoroughly compromised you and it is quite possible that you are pregnant as well…”

“I hope so,” she revealed, a deep throaty chuckle answering his concern that she might feel used.

“I
am
an adventurer. But, I am not without funds. I have no family connections worth mentioning, at least not the kind that would matter to your grandfather and others of his ilk. Though, I do have a few influential friends. I’d like you to come with me to meet my family, to see the world, too, if you take to sailing. What do you say? Could you bear to leave your island?”

“It’s not my island, you know,” Desarae confessed, her heart pounding so hard—surely he could hear it.

“What is this?”

“It is Jim’s island. I have so much of my own, or at least I do if my wicked grandfather has not spent it all, that Uncle thought that Jim should have this beautiful island for his very own.”

“But I thought you said he was the major’s manservant?”

“So you assumed he was my servant too? I know we have not known each other very long, Trystan, but you must realize that you cannot assume anything about me,” she mocked gently.

“I don’t believe I know much about you at all,” he marveled, brushing a stray lock away from her forehead. “But, I’m eager to learn.” He cupped her face between his palms and brushed her lips with a tender kiss. “Because, I love you, you know.”

“I do know,” she teased, leaning in for another kiss. He drew back and frowned ferociously at her. Desarae relented. “And I love you, my bold and delicious sea captain.”

That answer deserved a searing kiss that left them both breathless and panting for more.

“Then, it is settled? We’ll get that minister to marry us and when the
Lady May
is repaired, you will sail away to England with me? And, if your grandfather should give us any grief, we’ll face him together. Yes?”

“Oh, yes,” she promised. “`
Absence from those we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair’,
” she quoted from Cowper and then danced away, kicking off her fancy shoes as she went.

Trystan watched her pause and lift her silk skirts high so that she could roll down her white stockings. She tossed them at him and then twirled around and around in the long grass, gloriously alive and untamed. Trystan chased her and caught her near a grinning marble cupid secreted in the orchard.

“How long do we have until Jim returns?” he demanded and then pulled the pins out of her hair so that it hung free once more.

“It depends on the tide. Why do you ask?” she demanded, brushing herself boldly against him.

“I thought that since we will not need your hiding place, that we should fetch the food we took down there.”

“I do not believe that errand would take very long,” she protested, leering wickedly.

“Oh, I have had visions of what we could do in that room since you showed it to me.”

“Lead the way,” she said, taking his hand. “I am all amazement and wonder at your imaginative powers.”

The End

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five