Once Upon a Midnight Sea (34 page)

John Locke stepped inside and crossed his arms over his chest, feet splayed as he blocked the door. But this time, as the cabin door closed, Adriana didn't hear the bolt slide back into place on the outside.

She sat on the crewman's chair and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. "I had you figured for a thug the very first time I saw you." She glared daggers at Locke.

"This is the man who shot me," her father said.

"No, I..." Locke shifted his gaze away and his rigid stance wilted. "I, uh, I was only following orders."

"You'll see a noose just the same. Mark my words." She maintained her confident composure while on the inside, fear tortured her.

Did Christian know she was in trouble? Or would he walk into a trap, only to face a watery grave with her? She had to warn him. But how?

Canon fire exploded across the quiet ocean. A brief whistle rented the air, and Windfall rocked sideways with a horrendous shudder. Tearing wood shrieked, followed by the excited shouts of the men on deck.

"What the...
bloody hell
!" John Locke rushed to the tiny portal and peered out. "They're firing on us, the damn fools–”

Adriana shot out of her hair and hefted it over her head. She clobbered John Locke with it, sending him sprawling.

"Come, Father. Hurry!"

Edmund wobbled as he pushed out of the chair.

"Put your arm over my shoulder. That's it." She hefted him through the door, pausing only to shove it closed and slide the bolt into place. Frantic deckhands ran hither-dither. None gave her a second glance. Thankfully Preston and Charles were nowhere to be seen.

Her father gasped as he stepped onto the hatch ladder. They'd been starving him, he was near dead from hunger. Adriana encircled him with her arms to catch him in case he fell.

He stopped as they emerged on deck and shielded his eyes from the sun. Adriana took his arm and steered him toward the railing. Men ran harried around deck, trying to untangle a broken yardarm crashing against the mainmast as Windfall rocked in the water like a wounded seal. Christian had hit the main royal and crippled the ship.

"Not so fast, darling." Charles started toward them.

Adriana drew her derringer from her waistcoat pocket. "Stay back. You are a thief and a murderer, and I will be justified in shooting you."

His malicious grin faded. "Well now, aren't you a neatly wrapped package of surprises?"

Lady Luck was coming fast. She swung around to reveal her starboard side, and Adriana saw the open gun port. The cannon exploded. The mortar sailed toward them, clipping the bowsprit. The three jigs collapsed, further damaging the ship.

Windfall was dead in the water.

Preston cowered beneath the bench amidships. His high-pitched scream sounded like that of a little girl's. "Why don't we shoot back at them?"

Charles held his murderous glare on Adriana for a painfully long moment before he finally turned to answer his brother. "Windfall hasn't got any cannons."

"Ahoy Windfall!" Christian leapt onto Lady Luck's railing, holding the rigging to maintain his balance. He looked like a debonair pirate, coming to his lady's rescue.

Preston peeked his head out. "Who the devil is that?" He emerged from beneath the bench amidships, sweaty and disheveled.

"That," Adriana declared, "is my future husband."

"I propose a trade," Christian shouted. "Adriana and Edmund for your conspirator in arms...and your lives."

Charles appeared genuinely distraught.

"You have one minute to decide," Christian added. "Or I shall sink you and leave everyone else to the mercy of the sea."

Adriana hauled her father to the causeway gap in Windfall's railing. She turned her attention to a scrawny deckhand trembling in his shoes. "You there. Drop that jolly boat."

"Not so fast." Charles started for her.

Adriana fired the derringer. Splintered wood sprayed from the deck only inches from his foot. She pulled her father along, helping him step into the boat. The deckhand did as he was told and turned the hoist.

"You cannot leave us like this," Preston squealed. Cowering under the bench on all fours, he looked–and sounded–like a pig. "We are dead in the water."

"Shut up, you fool." Charles demanded. His deadly glare remained aimed on her.

"It has been lovely visiting you, Charles. However, I must express my regrets. I will not be marrying your brother!"

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Christian grabbed Adriana out of the jolly boat and twirled her around the deck. At her mere touch, the life roared back in him more powerfully than before he'd taken ill.

"I was a fool," he said as he set her gently down. "To think, I almost let you get away."

"No, I was the fool," she told him. "To think my love for you wasn't worth fighting for."

He mustn't have heard her right. "You love me?"

Her cheeks flooded with crimson. When she glanced away, he lightly touched her chin and pulled her gaze back to his.

"Do you love me?" she asked timidly.

"Why do you think I came back for you? I couldn't let another man have you." He pulled her under his arm and turned to face her father as Henri and Mr. Ling helped him out of the jolly boat.

This was the monument he'd hated for so long? Edmund Montague was nothing but a frail shell of a man, pale and gray and aged beyond his years.

He pulled free of the others and met Christian's eyes. "Christian De la Croix, I presume? I am pleased 'o make your acquaintance." The left side of his face was crisscrossed with a hideous map of scars and his speech was impaired by the damage to his mouth.

"Make it, and bid it farewell, old man. I am going to marry your daughter." Not a request, but a statement. "Your letter made your position quite clear, but frankly I do not care. I love Adriana and no threats from you will ever change that."

Adriana gave a soft sob and slipped closer. He tightened his arm around her.

"Yes, yes. Glad to hear it." Edmund gave a dismissive wave of his hand as he shuffled carefully across the deck. "Gilbert. I have prayed for this momen' for so long."

Christian noticed a tear glistening in his father's eye as Edmund embraced him.

"Merciful God, what happened to you, Edmund?"

"It is not important. Nothing is important but that you are here, now. I believed you dead, or I would have come for you years ago. Can you ever forgive me?"

"I never blamed you, old friend."

"I blamed myself enough for us both." Edmund took a deep breath and a smile formed on his ruined face. "I shall see to it you live like a king for the res' of your life."

"Just being here with you," Gilbert glanced at Christian, "and my son, is enough."

The two men clasped hands.

"Here's to a wonderful future together." Edmund glanced over his shoulder. "Shall we begin by watching our children get married?"

"I am not certain," Gilbert said, his face beaming. "She hasn't agreed, yet."

His father's bright smile was the final douse of medicine Christian needed to wash away the last remaining trickle of twenty years of anger.

"Well, what do you say, Miss Montague?" He looked down at her face and swam in the watery coolness of her beautiful eyes. "I love you. Marry me."

As Adriana smiled up at him, her shimmering tears glittered like diamonds, reflecting the never-ending sea and sky.

"Mr. De la Croix, I would be honored to marry you."

*

About the author

Ava Bradley has worked as a sandwich maker (she makes the best darn Dagwood you've ever tasted) a pet groomer (she's ingested more animal hair than the average cat) and one of those people who holds up the stop sign before a road crew, but none of those jobs compare to writing the stories swirling around in her head. She lives in Northern California with her family and a small brigade of adopted pets. Though she writes suspense and steamy contemporary romance, her favorite books to write–and read–are those of fabled yester-year. She has a special affinity with characters she can identify with; the tomboyish heroines such as Anne of Green Gables and Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie. You can visit Ava and learn more about her upcoming works at her website, http://www.avabradley.com.