Mishap Marriage (8 page)

A mildly tolerant smile touched Zack’s handsome visage, but the glint in the silver-grey eyes was hard as steel. ‘Come now, it was but a kiss. I didn’t attempt to touch her in any other way.’

Antony knew the captain to be a proud and noble man, a man who had earned the confidence and respect of businessmen in England and Virginia. It was dangerous to question the honour of such a man. He decided to do so and said quietly, ‘You know you will have to marry her. You style yourself a man of honour—do, then, the honourable thing.’

Zack stood before Antony with narrowed eyes, absorbing this and weighing his words carefully before he spoke. ‘With all due respect, much as I would like to protect her from the scandal, I will not make her my wife.’

‘And if I insist?’

Zack shrugged casually. ‘Insist all you like, the answer is no. I’m afraid it is impossible.’

‘Why? You are a single man and, if what I witnessed yesterday was anything to go by, you do not have an aversion to my sister.’

‘The answer is still no. But I am not without eyes in my head and I realise your sister would be a most charming companion. But when—
if
—I do marry, the lady will be of
my
choosing, not because her brother holds an axe over my head. I shall be ready to leave Santamaria shortly. I trust I will be free to do so? If you do not choose to make mourners of your friends, I suggest you promptly call off your guards,’ he warned in a mild reproof.

‘If you take Shona with you—as your wife. However, there is a drawback.’

‘Which is?’

‘The ceremony cannot be performed just now. Reverend Trimble, the island clergyman, is visiting a neighbouring island and is not expected back for another month.’

Zack was incredulous. ‘And you expect me to remain on Santamaria kicking my heels for this...this clergyman, to materialise?’

‘Of course there is a solution.’

‘There is?’ Zack eyed him warily.

‘I believe you have your own clergyman aboard the
Ocean Pearl.
I trust he is of the Protestant persuasion?’

Zack stared at him. Then, when understanding dawned, subdued amusement played on his face. ‘Reverend Cornelius Clay.’ Rubbing the side of his face, he laughed softly, a sharp, calculating gleam in his eyes. He could be just as shrewd and clever as McKenzie. This was one of those times which demanded all of his cunning.
Yes—why not?
he thought. Perhaps there was a solution to this dilemma after all. ‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘Reverend Clay is of that persuasion.’

* * *

‘Prepare for a wedding, Singleton, and pour us both some celebratory wine,’ Zack said heartily when Antony had departed and his first mate came to enquire how the meeting had gone. ‘I am to wed the delectable Shona McKenzie within the week.’

Singleton thought he could not be more surprised. The immediate aftermath of the previous day’s grim events and Zack’s determination not to be browbeaten into marriage, and now his request for a celebration, were both a little odd. ‘I thought you’d made up your mind on that,’ he remarked, doing as he was asked and pouring two glasses of wine.

‘I have—and I haven’t changed my mind,’ Zack said, quirking an amused brow at his first mate and picking up his wine and lifting the glass in a mock toast. ‘To our happiness,’ he said drily.

In the moment it took Zack to drain the glass, Singleton recovered his composure, carefully disguising his confusion with the turn of events and picking up his glass of wine. But instead of drinking it, he turned it absently in his fingers while he eyed his captain with unhidden amusement.

‘Are you wondering if I’m making a mistake?’ Zack asked finally.

‘You could say it’s crossed my mind.’

‘You’ll understand when I tell you that our very own Reverend Cornelius Clay—a more pious man one couldn’t hope to meet—is to perform the ceremony.’

For a moment Singleton stared at him as if convinced that he had taken leave of his senses. Then abruptly he slapped the flat of his hand upon the table and began to guffaw in rampant amusement. He left no doubt that he considered the captain’s pronouncement absurd. Finally he calmed and peered at him askance with merriment still lighting his ruddy face. ‘A more pious drunk, you mean—and a defrocked clergyman, or however they’re referred to when the church has kicked them out.’

‘Precisely! Convenient for me, eh?’

‘And McKenzie? He doesn’t know? He doesn’t mistrust your intentions and integrity?’

‘No. He made the suggestion.’

‘He’ll never forgive you for this.’

A low chuckle preceded Zack’s reply. ‘I don’t think I’ll miss his affection.’

‘Be careful,’ Singleton warned. ‘McKenzie’s a man of much influence.’

‘He’s a man of much arrogance and I couldn’t resist deflating him a bit.

‘For obvious reasons I shall not enlighten him about Reverend Clay’s fall from grace within the church—unless, of course, it comes up. After the ceremony when the security is dropped, we shall slip quietly away from Santamaria and head for Martinique.’

‘And Miss McKenzie?’

Zack’s face hardened. ‘My anger at being tricked by Shona McKenzie overpowers my desire for her—providing me with a motive to enter into a fake wedding. You will vow me mad, I know, but after what she contrived to do to me yesterday, it’s with a devil’s desire to have revenge upon the beautiful witch. She will have no objections to marrying me if she believes I’m to take her to England. After the sham ceremony I intend to tell her the truth before we leave—I’ll tie her up if necessary to prevent her raising the alarm. I am sure this can work.’

* * *

There was tension in the McKenzie household. Carmelita was avoiding Shona and Shona was avoiding everybody. The evening meal, a splendid meal, was consumed in silence. At one point Shona met the guarded face of her brother, encountering the usual cold expression, and, glancing at her sister-in-law, a silent challenge flared between them. Shona’s eyes, full on her, matched the icy disapproval of her tightly compressed lips. Afterwards Shona took her coffee out on to the terrace. It wasn’t long before Antony sought her out. It was plain to her he had something on his mind. Taking his time to light a cheroot, he stood looking out over the garden into the darkness beyond.

Shona, in whom patience had been a lesson painfully learned and not always completely, sipped her coffee and waited for Antony to speak. There was a hard knot, she didn’t really know what it was, in the centre of her chest, and try as she might she could not get rid of it. After her encounter with Captain Fitzgerald earlier, she was tense, her face strained.

‘What is it, Antony?’ she prompted. ‘Is something troubling you? Is it to do with Captain Fitzgerald?’

‘I spoke to him today,’ Antony told her.

‘And?’

‘You must know what we discussed. It has been decided that the two of you are to be wed. When he leaves the island, you will go with him as his wife.’

Shona’s cup rattled on the saucer and she almost spilled the hot liquid over her lap before she managed to reclaim her poise. She gulped and swallowed hard, unprepared for the hurt her brother’s pronouncement caused her. She was being banished from home and it was obvious that she mattered less to Antony than his wife. She meant nothing to the one person who should have loved and cherished her. She was unwanted and unloved. But then, wasn’t this what she had wanted all along—a long-awaited chance to leave the island?

‘This cannot be happening,’ she murmured. ‘You can’t turn against me like this, Antony.’ She held her hand out to him in a plea for understanding and forgiveness, but her brother’s face remained cold and aloof.

‘It’s no use complaining, Shona. It is decided. I know you are a woman who likes to feel she has a will of her own. Very well. I can understand that. I do not resent you falling for this fellow. He is a handsome enough man—and much as I hate saying so to my own sister, undoubtedly, considerably attractive physically. Such infatuations are common. They are expected—permitted even—as long as you do not become emotionally involved and you conduct yourself with absolute discretion. But you have done neither and in the process embarrassed everyone concerned. Which is why you have to marry him.’

Shona knew her brother well enough to know it was useless arguing with him. She wanted Captain Fitzgerald in the way a woman wants a certain man. She had watched unmoved, contemptuous even, the gyrations of other men, many willing to marry her to get their hands on some of her father’s money, listened to their flattery, which came from their falsely smiling mouths, and been ready to yawn in their faces. Now, out of the blue had come this force, this transformation which had caused her heart to perform a whole new beat, to be moved by one man and no other.

A man who did not want her, a man who was prepared to marry her for no other reason than to get off the island. It was not to be borne—she could not...

‘Of course you will want for nothing, you know that.’ Antony suddenly became aware that his sister was looking at him as though he was speaking in a foreign language, her eyes wide and staring and stunned. He looked at her anxiously, for all his plans were made and if she should refuse... ‘Shona, you
will
have him, won’t you?’ he demanded menacingly.

She wanted him. Yes, she admitted it to herself, recognising it at last. She wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything in her life before. She would repay him, she vowed. She would be a good wife to him, a good mother to his children. Perhaps, she thought wistfully, they would deal well together. They had much to learn about each other, yet many couples began life together with less in common than she and Captain Fitzgerald. In spite of everything that had happened between them, he was a man she could respect and admire. Even his rugged vitality she found attractive—and she had found it extremely pleasurable when he’d kissed her.

‘Yes, Antony, I’ll have him. I’ll be his wife.’
Wife.
The word had a pleasant ring to it—a wonderful ring. A glow warmed her. ‘I’m merely surprised he’s agreed.’

‘I remain somewhat puzzled by his sudden change of heart to comply with my demands.’

‘How soon?’

‘Before the week is out.’

‘You mean to forgo the reading of the banns?’

‘There will be enough witnesses to make the marriage valid.’

‘And who will perform the ceremony? Reverend Trimble is still away just now.’

‘There is a clergyman aboard the
Ocean Pearl.
He will do the honours—providing his credentials are in order.’

‘Have you some doubt about it?’

‘Let’s just say I will make quite sure that Fitzgerald isn’t trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I’ve ordered Deverell to make discreet enquiries concerning the Reverend Cornelius Clay.’

Deverell, trustworthy and dependable, but as sharp-faced and cunning as a ferret, was Antony’s right-hand man. With Deverell to guarantee that Shona abided by her brother’s demands, she had known no opportunity to be anything but compliant to his wishes. If deception was afoot, then Deverell would sniff it out.

* * *

The following day, when Antony went off about his business at the sugar mill and Carmelita was resting, Shona rode down to the harbour. Dismounting, she secured her horse to a hitching post close to the pier. Further along Captain Fitzgerald’s ship was tethered by her bow fast and stern lines. A figurehead of a woman with flowing dark tresses graced the head of the ship, and the name
Ocean Pearl
was carved into the stern. Other ships were in dock, but none compared to the
Ocean Pearl.
Like a proud queen she stood tall and serene amid her consorts. Shona walked past kegs and barrels towards the gangplank of the vessel. A man in a blue coat came to where the gangplank touched the ship. When he espied her, he smiled.

‘Can I help you, miss?’

‘Is Captain Fitzgerald on board?’

‘And what, may I ask, has drawn the fair Shona McKenzie from her roost?’ a voice behind her asked.

Shona whirled round at that familiar deep voice. Her heart set up a wild thumping as she realised it was Captain Fitzgerald, grinning from ear to ear, silver-grey eyes as clear as crystal. He radiated the same strong, masculine appeal. The problem was, now he had agreed to make her his wife, she found it difficult staying away from him. It was as if everything was out of control. She didn’t like being out of control, but where this man was concerned she couldn’t seem to help herself. She watched him as he doffed his hat to her, experiencing again the depth to which her mind and body was stirred whenever she was in his presence.

He bowed, smiling at her. The even white teeth flashed against his bronze skin and Shona could only mark the resemblance he bore to a swarthy pirate. Garbed in a loose white shirt that gaped open from neck to waist, the brown skin gleamed with the healthy sweat of one who enjoyed the freedom of his time at sea.

However, she found something resentful about the way his gaze slid boldly over her body, from the hat perched atop her shining curls to the swelling flesh exposed above her bodice and right down to the toes of her shoes. She was somewhat accustomed to the admiring glances of gentlemen, but there was nothing gentlemanly about Captain Fitzgerald’s insolent, lazy perusal of her body.

‘Are you quite finished?’ she asked tersely.

His unhurried gaze lifted to her eyes and a wry smile quirked his stern lips. He heard the antagonism in her voice. ‘Have I made another social blunder by approaching you?’ he enquired in a low, amused voice.

‘No. I—I wanted to see you.’

‘Then may I entice you aboard?’

Her gaze flicked over the faces of the men who had come to the rail to appease their curiosity. She was unable to hear what was being said as they murmured and chuckled together, but she sensed that she and Captain Fitzgerald were the topic of their animated conversation.

‘Are you sure I will be safe?’

An amused chuckle and a wicked twinkle in his eyes came with his reply. ‘Miss McKenzie, if we were cast upon a lonely shore with the members of my crew, I’m sure the torment of your beauty would soon overwhelm them and you would depend upon me to provide protection for you.’