“It was just a thought. I don’t think I was serious. I was just lettingyouknow what was on my mind. Your acceptance was all I needed.”
“Stop worrying. He won’t be too angry when he hears about that scandal in London.”
Drew groaned. But then he noticed her grin just before she put her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. “You deserved that bit of teasing for making me wait so long to hear that confession,” she said against his lips.
“Then you’ll marry me?”
“I was ready to marry you in London!”
In that moment when he kissed her, they were oblivious to everything around them, including the cheer that went up from their friends who were watching them. Near the barracks, James found Nathan, who was wrapping a rope around Pierre. The pirate was barely conscious from the beating he’d weathered. He’d just finished being passed around among Nathan’s crew. Each one of them had laid a fist or foot to Pierre in repayment for his hospitality.
“I would have simply broken his neck,” James remarked.
“James Malory!” Nathan exclaimed as he looked up. “Gabby said you were part of this rescue. If I’d known you were going to get involved, I wouldn’t have spent all these weeks worrying!”
“I hope that rope means you’re going to string Lacross up?”
Nathan glanced back at Pierre and shook his head. “No, he deserves a worse fate than that. I’m going to turn him over to the English authorities in Anguilla, where he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.”
“In that case, if you don’t mind?” James said, then bent down to lift Pierre’s head off the ground long enough to crack his cheek open with his fist. Now he was unconscious.
Nathan chuckled. “Still the same old Malory, eh? Damn, it’s good to see you again! You not only saved my life and the lives of my men, but most important, you saved Gabby.”
“I believe I did that!” Drew said as he and Gabrielle joined them.
James raised a tawny brow, but then he said magnanimously, “I’ll allow that my brother-in-law did do his share of head bashing today. Nathan, this is one of my wife’s younger brothers, Drew Anderson.”
“It’s a pleasure, sir,” Drew said, warmly shaking Nathan’s hand.
“No, the pleasure is definitely mine,” Nathan replied. “But you, James! You’ve more than repaid your debt to me. I merely asked you to help Gabby find—”
James interrupted with a gesture toward Drew, who was fervently kissing Gabrielle again. “I think we can safely surmise that Ihavefulfilled all requests.”
Chapter 52
GABRIELLE MARRIEDDREWANDERSONin a small chapel near her home in St. Kitts the very next day. She would have been willing to wait if he had wanted to track down his brothers, so they could be present for the happy occasion, but he wouldn’t hear of it. The moment he had received her father’s permission, which had been a painfully awkward experience for him, he’d asked where he could find the nearest priest. And besides, his sister and brother-in-law were there to represent his family.
She’d been so amused by how difficult it turned out to be, for him to speak with her father. He’d been in a tearing hurry to do so: then, when faced with asking the question, he’d stumbled over every word. And she knew exactly why. It was that word “marriage.” He really had thought he would go through life merrily avoiding such a binding tie. It was a bit of a shock for him to accept the fact that hewantedto get married. But she didn’t doubt he did. He just preferred to view the event as a way of keeping her forever, rather than of joining the matrimonial ranks.
She’d been able to wear her mother’s wedding gown for the ceremony. A full layer of pale pink lace over powder-blue satin, the combination gave the lovely gown a lavender hue, and to complete that illusion, the sheer veil that trailed behind her was lavender, which nicely complemented her midnight-black hair. The gown was one of the few things that had belonged to Carla that she’d brought with her on her first trip to the Caribbean. She hadn’t taken it back with her to England when she’d gone there to hunt for a husband, simply because deep down, she’d hoped she wouldn’t find one. How quickly love had turned that notion around.
Her father recognized the gown. She hadn’t thought he would. When he’d come to collect her to escort her down the aisle, he’d told her, “Your mother was a beautiful bride in that gown, but you, my dear, are a vision. Are you sure about this man? He’s barely left you alone long enough for me to ask how you feel about it.”
She’d chuckled at him. “Yes, very sure. I didn’t know it was possible to be this happy, Papa. And I’m the one who wouldn’t let him out of my sight. Men tend to get cold feet for the silliest reasons when it comes to matrimony.”
He grinned. “So do women, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. It’s obvious in the way he looks at you that he loves you very much. Now let’s get you married. Let me straighten your veil. And what’s that around your neck that you’re hiding?”
“Oh, I’m not hiding it, I just forgot to pull it out when I put the gown on,” she said, and lifted the locket out to rest in the center of the square-necked lace bodice of her gown. “It’s something Mama gave me a long time ago.”
“I’ll be damned,” Nathan said, staring at the miniature painting. “So that’s how they hid it, by making a piece of jewelry out of it.”
“What?” she asked, and then gasped as she guessed, “The missing piece of your map?”
He started to laugh. “Indeed.”
“But how does a picture of a village help? I’ve seen the rest of the map, it has no identifying marks other than theXwhere treasure is buried. Even the shape of the island it’s on is ambiguous.”
“Yes, but that is what was missing. One single landmark that can be located. I only need to find an island now with a fishing village like that on its southern coast and likely nothing else on it other than recently built—” He stopped and slapped his forehead. “And I know exactly where it is! I’ve been there. It doesn’t even have a name yet, but we stopped there for supplies a few years ago. The villagers bragged that the island belonged to them, that no one else wanted to settle there.”
