Success! His pounding heart slowed a bit.
Once on board and seated, the old man smiled. “Your man. We will take him with us.”
Had he not noticed Icarus was already seated on his boat? And that his boat was well away from the dock?
The patriarch motioned for the rowers to begin. “We will keep him with us, and we will take his boat along as well.” He smiled slyly. “We shall all see you in five days, Gaspar. Be ready.”
Only then did Gaspar notice the small boat moving to join the larger one. A guard at the rear finished tying the knot that would ensure Gaspar and Isobelle would have no way off the island before the patriarch returned with the executioner.
If it weren’t for the fact that she was tied up, fearful, and bleeding, he might have postponed telling the woman he loved that her life was still very much in danger.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Isobelle escaped her other binding and walked carefully down the steps alone. Gaspar met her at the bottom of the stairs, his face as pale as the moon the night before. He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around her middle. With his ear pressed against her and her fingers running through his hair, he apologized once more for not thinking of a better way to have hidden her from the patriarch.
“There wasna time.” She lifted his chin and smiled into his eyes. “I understand. I do.”
Gaspar took a shaky breath, and pressed his forehead to her middle. “He took my boat, Isobelle. Our way off the island. I thought he would only take Icarus, but he took the boat as well.”
Dread tried to settle on her chest again, but she would not have it. “We will think of some other way off the island. If we swim out into the lagoon, to the busy channel, a boat will surely stop for us.” Then a sickening thought presented itself. “Or do ye not mean to leave with me?”
He stood and led her into the solar. He took a seat and pulled her onto his lap. “Listen, my love.” He wove his fingers through hers and held their hands to his chest. “I do not wish to keep anything from you. The patriarch is going to return in five days…with an executioner. But I vow to you, I will see us safely off the island long before then. Together.”
She smiled. The news of an executioner dimmed in importance when the man she loved planned to stay by her side.
“We’ve five days then,” she said cheerfully. “Dinna fash. I canna speak Italian, but I understood the disagreement. And I know the numbercinque, aye? It was either five days or five journeys.”
Some of the worry smoothed from his brow and he smiled with relief. “You stayed so still, I assumed you understood nothing.”
She pushed a bit of his hair from his face and tucked it behind his ear. She laughed when he shivered. “Weel, I’ve been taught, lately mind ye, that it is best to remain quiet when men of the church are about.”
He laughed. It was a rare, but glorious sound. “The rosary was a nice touch.”
“Oh, aye. I thought so meself, just as ye were coming through the door. Almost hung meself with them.”
He turned their hands and worried over her bloody wrist. “I am sorry for this,” he whispered, then kissed the bruised flesh. It was as exquisite a touch from his warm lips as any other had been. And far too brief.
“No need. If we’ve five days to find a way off the island, let us not waste them with more apologies, aye? And will ye be coming with me, not because ye fear the patriarch’s wrath, but because…” She bit her lip and looked down, unable to finish. Releasing her was one thing. Loving her was quite another. “Because…”
“Because I love you.” It was not a question. “I wish to leave with you, Isobella, and remain with you, if you’ll have me.” He shook his head. “I meant to say,Isobelle.”
“Auch, now. Did I say I mind?” She couldn’t help but smile wide with the sudden rightness settling in her chest. “Though Isobella sounds too pretty a name for someone with questionable hair.”
His brows lifted while he touched the odd locks on her head. “Your hair makes no matter to me. But I do love to see your eyes so easily. How long will it take to grow again? A year? Two?”
She frowned. “I dinna ken. My head feels a bit lighter. I may need a pillow now, like I’ve ne’er needed one before. But I doona mind the cool air blowin’ on me neck now and again. Though, in Scotland I would freeze.”
“With the whole of the world to choose from, where shall we go?”
She considered it a moment. She’d been so desperate to go home, to where she was dearly loved, she could think of nothing else. But that desperation was gone. Did she long for the sights and sounds and smells of the Highlands? She did. But now she had a longing of another sort. She’d been alone in the world—excepting a cousin who had been unable to stay with her much. Now she was alone no longer, if the look in her dragon’s eyes was to be believed.
“How far must we go to be beyond the patriarch’s reach? I hardly expect the man will be overly pleased when he finds us gone.”
Gaspar’s brow lowered like that of a pensive dragon and she could not resist the impulse to kiss him there.
He looked up and gave her a wink. “We would be safe in France. Word will spread throughout the Church States, but with Charles VI trying to steal Naples, the patriarch will not be reaching beyond Milan.”
He freed his fingers from hers, kissed her hands, and released them. Then he braced his arms behind him, allowing her to leave his lap if she wished. But she kept her seat.
