Nicholas turned. Alexandra’s lack of attirehad come under the inspection of Captain Sawyer and the crew thathad rowed him to shore. Alexandra blushed. He shoved her behindhim.
“This is Alexandra, another English subjectwho was kidnapped with me and has suffered terrible deprivations.If you could give us safe passage back to England…”
“I would be most happy to accommodate youand Miss Alexandra, but your father gave express orders that if youwere found to take you to Nassau, Bahamas where you will beescorted home by a flotilla of His Majesty’s ships. You will havebetter protection.”
* * *
Suddenly realizing that this was the end oftheir sojourn on the island, Alexandra dragged her feet to thecottage. She slammed down the trunk lids and secured them so notone of the crew would know the contents. Who knew the avarice ofmen?
She swept the cottage, made the bed, andwashed the dishes which Nicholas said was a waste of time. Shewanted the memories that warmed her up inside, yet those samememories now tore her apart. The oversized wool gown Captain Sawyerhad procured scratched at the neck and overheated her skin. Wouldshe ever get used to wearing clothes again?
After packing shells and other trivialmemorabilia collected on the island, she closed the shutters andthe door. She had come to the island with little and would leavewith little. The rest of the contents were to be left behind incase some other unfortunate soul was castaway.
She was halfway down the mountain when sheremembered Captain Sharp’s diary and locket. Running back, sheglanced around the cottage for a last look, touching the tablewhere they ate their meals, running her fingers along thebookshelves and chess set, and smoothing the quilt over their bed.For Alexandra, the tides of change reminded her that life was anunknown path marked with twists and turns.
PART TWO
ChapterEighteen
From the initial cannon blast that hadsnapped across the island, their lives had been a whirlwind. Theheady rush to light the signal fire, and then packing everything,including the treasure, to boarding Captain Sawyer’s schooner. Theysailed to Nassau, Bahamas, a Colonial extension of the King’srealm. From there, Nicholas had sent a hurried message to hisfather, rowed out to a departing packet. He had apologized toAlexandra later for not sending word to Samuel but she had beenresting at the Colonial Inn and he didn’t have time to get theaddress from her. Passage was booked on a larger merchant ship, theAchilles, and escorted by one His Majesty’s man o’ wars toEngland.
Nicholas held her to his side, his armtightened around her.
The wind was freshening now and theAchillesheeled under stretched sails and the bow thrustagainst the water with a hissing sound as they entered, and thenskimmed along the Thames River to London Harbor.
For Alexandra, whatever they’d promised, thevows they had spoken, belonged to the island. Nicholas had vowednothing would change his feelings for her, but if he persisted inhis belief, he would lose everything he held dear. She couldn’t lethim do that. Because no matter how he fought it, he would come tohate her in the end.
She yielded to Nicholas’s happiness,reuniting with his family, yet her shoulders sagged with the weightof it. She sighed, then wrinkled her nose as the smell of floatinggarbage welled-up from the river. Ahead, dingy, decrepitwarehouses, huddled on land of flat and slimy mud. A depository laycharred and blackened.
“I must confer with the captain,” he said,smiling down on her.
She swallowed hard and nodded. “I am goingbelow to freshen up a bit.”
His eyes misted as he kissed her foreheadand disappeared in the melee of sailors. Alone at the rail, shesteadied herself against the craft’s rolling motion, experiencing amoment of vertigo. Strange, all the months at sea and she neverbecame dizzy. The wooziness halted and she fixed her gaze on thethronged sunlit dock below where pandemonium and discord ruled.
Sea gulls screeched over bales of cotton andtobacco, hogsheads of rum, bags of grain, piles of timber, andcrates of tea. Men with barrels hefted on their shoulders pushedthrough the mob. Boys hawked meat pies. Dock hands shouted orders.Shrill laughter emanated from doxies hailing sailors to theirtrade. People waved and squealed greetings, while deckhands tiedropes to secure the vessel.
So far from the island where the wind’slullaby flowed through the palms.
Alexandra passed her gaze over the crowd.With certainty, Nicholas’s family would come to greet him. Just asshe thought it, a black coach with a golden crest pulled up and adark-haired man alighted—a facsimile of Nicholas in his senioryears. With his dark hair greying at the temples, the man stoodstraight and tall. Handsome. Regal and imposing. And as forbiddingand ducal asNicholas.
Another man, taller than Nicholas, andsimilar in appearance, swung from the coachhis brother, Anthony,who turned and held his hand out to help a gorgeous auburn-hairedwoman alight. Alexandra did not miss the beaming expression betweenthe two.
Suddenly an open carriage with harnessesjangling on four white horses clattered through the crowd, sendingyoung and old alike running and screaming, nearly crushed by thepounding hooves. Like the fairest of flowers, a woman of impeccablebeauty, reclined, impervious to any destruction she might havewrought, and relishing her staged tableau to impress any onlookers.Including Alexandra.
As if ordered to do so, the clouds openedand sky-piercing light haloed the woman. Her gown was white, herhair piled high and powdered, added to the woman’s radiance.Alexandra frowned. Was the woman deliberately wearing a dress tomatch the color of her horses and the white livery of hergrooms?
Alexandra’s heart leaped. No doubt, this wasLady Susannah Tomkins, Nicholas’s fiancée. Blood drained to hertoes. She couldn’t move. She simply stood there,immobile…paralyzed. A prism through which her sorrow splinteredinto a never-ending spectrum.
She ran a hand over the nubby cotton textureof her own gown, one of two, hastily made by dressmakers in Nassau.The month at sea and salt-spray had damaged her gowns. She grippedthe rail, suddenly acutely aware of her work-roughened hands andsun-bronzed skin; far from the delicate, porcelain complexion ofthe lady who possessed a beauty to inspire artists and poets. Therewas nothing to do about her wild appearance.
Her vision blurred. She pushed back tendrilsof her windblown hair and went below deck.
In her cabin, she flung herself on the bedwhere she’d made love with Nicholas on nights he’d stole in fromhis cabin, and drawing from him a memory to last her a lifetime.Her shoulders quaked as she put on her cape, and then placed aletter that she’d written earlier on the table for Nicholasexplaining her departure. She picked up her valise containing herother dress, shells from the island, and Captain Sharp’s diary.
She reached into the pocket of her dress,fingers brushing over the small amount of gold coins sewn andconcealed in the material. She’d taken no more than what sherequired for travel expenses home. She kissed the black pearl ringNicholas had given her on the island, and laid it on the table.Taking a step away, she stopped, closed her eyes for a moment,turned, snatched the ring, and then closed the door behind her.
Two gangplanks had been placed. Crowdsrushed the stern, and she saw Nicholas hugging his father andbrother. Alexandra pulled her hood over her head and departed atthe opposite end in the bow. No one noticed. On the street, sheshouldered through the melee, pausing at a tavern on the cornerjust in time to see the fair flower in white, Lady Susannah,throwing herself into Nicholas’s arms.
