Written in the Stars (18 page)

Chapter Twenty

Morgan willed Cordelia to live, and by the time he got her back to the surface a short
swim from the boats, her bleeding had stopped. A voice in his head had made him press
the crescent around her wound. Underwater, he felt as if another had controlled him
to save Cordelia. Now he replaced the chain and crescent around her neck. Despite
the blood loss, she was conscious, if weak. He still had his arm around her back to
support her in the water. As he headed them toward the boats, he didn’t want to let
her go.

Ever.

He’d been denying his feelings for her, but he couldn’t any more.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

Though her voice was weak, she said, “I’ll live.”

“You’d better stay with me, Cordy.”

“I don’t have the strength to go anywhere myself.”

“I don’t mean just now.”

He pulled her closer to his side, careful not to hurt her.

From the moment he’d met Cordelia, he couldn’t see life without her by his side. She
reminded him of someone he’d known once long ago, someone he couldn’t quite place…almost
as if he were trying to remember a different lifetime. He’d told himself that he was
only after the treasure, had convinced himself she was simply another child of privilege
to be dismissed, had tried to erase her from his mind and heart, had steeled himself
from giving in to what he’d thought as lunacy.

But no matter the argument, his heart had its say. Cordelia was intelligent and strong
and brave. And while he’d thought no one here gave a damn about him, she’d risked
her own life to save his.

Emmett the seafaring poet had been right on the money when he’d said love might be
the most valuable treasure of all.

By the time they reached the Evening Star, Madelyn was at the rail, peering down at
them in the water with a concerned expression. “What’s going on?”

“First,” Cordelia said, her voice weak but steady. “I’m fine, no reason to worry.”

Madelyn gasped. “Your trying to assure me makes me worry all the more!”

Morgan helped Cordelia up the ladder. The wound might have closed, but blood loss
could be serious. She might need a transfusion.

When her mother saw the tear in Cordelia’s swimsuit, she went pale. “Let me see.”
Madelyn pulled away the cut material and cried out at the crescent-shaped scar.

And though Morgan had been the one to seal the wound, he still felt somewhat disbelieving
at the magic that had saved her.

Madelyn grabbed her daughter to her and began to cry. “I could have lost you, too.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I’m fine. We’re fine.”

Madelyn looked around. “What about Innis?”

Cordelia opened her mouth as if to tell her mother about him, but in the end, she
simply shook her head.

“She’s in shock,” Morgan said, wrapping an arm around Cordelia to hold her close.

“I don’t understand.” Madelyn’s confusion was clear. “What happened?”

“Innis was trying to kill me, and Cordelia pushed him out of the way.”

“Oh, my, oh…” Putting a hand to her mouth as the blood drained from her face, Madelyn
looked as if she was in shock, as well.

“We’re going in to get Cordelia checked out by a doctor.” Picking her up in his arms,
Morgan resisted crushing her to him lest he press against the seemingly healed wound.

He carried her to a padded deck lounger where she could rest. Her mother brought a
light blanket and covered her. He looked over to the Sea Rover. Emmett was at the
rail, looking concerned.

“We’re going in!” Morgan shouted. “You stay out here. The divers don’t go down until
the after the authorities clear the site.” He turned to Foley’s divers, who were equally
interested in what was going on. “You, too. Stay put.”

“Where’s Foley?” one of them called back.

“Shark bait.”

A horrified expression crossed the man’s face.

As Morgan took over the Evening Star on engine power rather than sail and headed the
yacht in toward Crescent Key, he knew no one would go down to the wreck site before
what was left of Innis Foley was retrieved.

Madelyn had fetched orange juice for Cordelia to drink to help stabilize her. Cordelia
was catching her mother up on the details of what had happened to them, and Morgan
realized Madelyn already knew things he didn’t.

She said, “I told you if Elizabeth and Will were trying to find each other again,
Carlyle would try to stop them.”

Elizabeth…Will…Carlyle…

Familiar names, and according to his research, all connected with the mother lode
on the Celestine when it sank four hundred years ago.

“You don’t have to worry any longer, Mom. It’s over now.” Cordelia took her mother’s
hand, saying, “You look a little shaken. Maybe you should go lie down until we get
to the dock.”

“What about you?”

“I need the air. Don’t worry, Morgan won’t let anything happen to me.” She inclined
her head as if signaling her mother to leave them alone.

Madelyn nodded and left.

Cordelia looked as if she were trying to get to her feet.

“Stay right there!” Morgan ordered. Putting the boat on autopilot, he joined her.
“You need to be resting, too.” Though he would rather she did it here, where he could
keep an eye on her.

“Probably. But oddly enough, I’m feeling a little better, and I want to talk to you.”

“About?”

“How did you know to use the crescent to stop the bleeding?” she asked. “I read about
Elizabeth using it trying to save Will in her journal, but how did you know?”

He said, “Instinct,” because she wouldn’t believe the truth.

“Liar. How?”

Morgan sighed. Considering the circumstances, perhaps the truth wouldn’t sound so
outlandish. “A voice told me what to do.”

“A woman?”

He shook his head. “A man. He said the girdle was spun with magic and that the crescent
would save you.”

“Will,” she whispered.

His ancestor. Was it possible?

“I didn’t know what else to do, so I put my faith in what he told me.” He hesitated
a moment, then added, “It wasn’t the first time.”

“That you healed someone?”

“The voice, Cordy, the voice. How do you think I found you when you ran out of air?
And before that. It all started after I found this ring. I kept seeing things…hearing
things…but I convinced myself the expedition had simply kicked my imagination into
high gear.”

She took his hand and placed hers next to his so the rings lined up. She read, “Doubt
the stars are fire…yet never doubt my love.” She fell silent for a moment, then said,
“About my siding with Innis…I’m so sorry I suspected you, Morgan. I had time to think
everything over carefully and realized you weren’t to blame. I knew you were in danger.”
She licked her lips. “I’d dreamed it more than once.”

“Are you saying you’re psychic?”

“Something like that.”

Cordelia then told him about her precognitive dreams and the fact that she saw one
man cut the other’s air hose. She told him how she’d been determined to find and destroy
the dagger before that could happen.

“What made you decide that I wasn’t the killer?” he asked.

“I think it was the look in your eyes after I let Innis convince me you messed with
my gauge. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

“I was angry.”

“You were hurt. Among other things.”

Morgan would have liked to deny it, but he couldn’t. Not wanting to expose himself
further to her, he gruffly said, “Get some rest now, Cordy. You need time to recuperate.
We’ll be at the marina in twenty minutes.”

Cordelia gave him a long, lingering look that made his pulse race and made him wish
for things between them that were never going to happen. Not that he looked away.
He loved her with everything he was, and if she could only be honest, she would admit
she felt the same for him.

His return gaze challenged her to be brave in all things, including matters of the
heart.

…

Cordelia was feeling a little stronger by the time they pulled into the marina. Morgan
had radioed ahead for the authorities. An ambulance was waiting to take her and Mom
to the medical center. The rational part of her understood why Morgan stayed behind
to make out an incident report and to lead the investigators to the wreck site. But
the other part of her deep inside didn’t want to let him out of her sight.

He was her Will…

At the medical center, she was poked and prodded by a doctor who marveled at the incredible
way the cut had healed but told her she would live. He kept her overnight for observation,
in addition to giving her a transfusion. He also said she would have to take it easy
for several days. No diving for at least a week.

Which left the wreck site open to a pirate.

If Morgan really was one.

Cordelia didn’t want to think it, not after all they’d been through. But he’d made
no commitment to her. They’d formed no legal partnership, and Morgan didn’t know it
was their destiny to be together.

Cordelia waited for him to come to her. Waited while she went through tests. Waited
while she was put in a bed where she was given fluids and a pint of blood. Frustrated
at being kept to her bed for several hours even with Mom’s company, once the transfusion
was finished, she tried to get up.

“What are you doing?” her mother asked, moving quickly to prevent her feet from hitting
the floor. “Stay put. I’ll get whatever you need.”

“I need to see Morgan.”

“You’ll stay right here,” Mom insisted. “Do as the doctor ordered. You don’t even
know where Morgan is at the moment.”

“Can you find out?”

“I’ll call the marina. Surely someone there can tell me.”

Cordelia lay back in bed as Mom made that call.

“Hello, I’m trying to reach Morgan Murphy.” Mom paused. “Yes, I can wait.” Another
pause and then, “I see. Can you get a message to him when he returns? Please tell
him that Cordelia Ward must spend the night at the medical center.” She gave her cell
number, then said, “Thank you so much.” She met Cordelia’s gaze. “He’s still at the
site with the authorities. Don’t worry, he’ll call.”

Call? Surely he would come for her if only to make sure she was all right for himself.

Her mother sat by her side, keeping her company and telling stories about Cordelia’s
father that happened before she’d been born. Cordelia listened, her mother’s voice
soothing her. Morgan’s face the last thing she saw before falling asleep.

…

After leaving the dive site, Morgan headed for the marina where he boarded Foley’s
Treasure to face down the cook. Certain she’d put the gris-gris on him, he would find
out for himself if she’d had a part in this tragedy. But according to the crew, Brigitte
and her husband Leandre were nowhere to be found. They’d vanished within minutes of
docking.

He called the hospital as soon as he got the message from Cordelia’s mother, even
though it was late. He was disappointed when Madelyn Ward answered rather than Cordelia.

“I was tied up with the authorities until a little while ago. Cordy is all right,
isn’t she? Can I speak to her?”

“She’s fine. She’s sleeping now. I don’t want to wake her.”

Sleep was probably the best prescription for her after all she’d been through fighting
Innis, so Morgan didn’t argue.

“What did the doctor say about her wound?”

“That it’s spontaneous healing was quite unusual,” Madelyn said, voice ripe with questions
she didn’t ask. “He ordered a transfusion and fluids and such. He wanted to keep her
overnight as a precaution.”

“Good. I’m surprised she didn’t insist on leaving.”

“She did, actually.”

Morgan had to smile at that. He could imagine her giving the doctors and her mother
a hard time. “You’re sure she’s all right?”

“She was weak and needed rest, but yes, I think so. I’m staying in her room to make
certain she stays that way. What about you?”

“I wasn’t the one hurt, Madelyn.”

“Not physically, perhaps, but you’ve been through something unbelievable.”

He really had. He was still trying to come to terms with it all himself. “I’m good.
Call me tomorrow when the doctors sign off on Cordy, would you? Then I’ll meet you
at the marina.”

“All right.”

Having returned to the Evening Star, Morgan lay back in Cordelia’s bunk after moving
the book sitting on the mattress. Though he was exhausted, he was worrying about her
despite her mother’s reassurances. Part of him wanted to rush to the medical center
to see for himself, but she needed that sleep more than she needed him.

If only he could sleep…

Glancing over to the shelf where he’d put the book, he realized it looked like a very
old journal. He picked it up and held it for a moment, instinct urging him to open
it and check out the contents. The pages were fragile, as was the ink put to parchment.
And he noted the date of the first entry—1601.

A chill ran through him as he began to read:

Dunham Castle, 1601

ON THIS DAY I shall begin a journey inevitable from the moment I was born on Midsummer
Eve, Witches’ Night. My nursemaid proclaimed that I am marked as a child of magic.

Yet I am not a witch, for the face of my beloved and what awaits me at journey’s end
is shrouded from me by the veil of time. I know only that with him I shall scale peaks
higher than my spirit could ever strive to reach alone, and because of him, I shall
descend into valleys which will try my soul…

As he continued reading entry after entry, the past opened up to him in a way that
no sunken treasure could ever reveal. He lost himself in Elizabeth and Will’s story,
reading until the first streaks of dawn signaled a new day.

And when he finished the last page, he understood.

…

Cordelia awoke to daybreak to find her mother asleep in the chair next to her bed.

Morgan hadn’t come to see her. The knowledge choked her.

What was going on? Was he back working the site?

Unable to stay in the bed for another hour, Cordelia rose and took a quick shower
and dressed. Miraculously, she felt fine, as if nothing had ever happened to her.