Page 29 of The Duke's Treasure
“Are you ready?” he asked, leaning down so that his mouth was next to her ear, and she nodded.
“If you’re here with me,” she said, “then of course.”
Edward breatheda large sigh of relief as they rounded the harbour and the town of San Sebastian was but a shadow on the shoreline when he looked over his shoulder.
They had done it. They had escaped, with the treasure intact in the hold, and the most vibrant woman he had ever met at his side. It was hard to believe that it had all come to be.
And yet, here they were.
The smile began to curl on his lips as he considered all that he had just pulled off. Arthur had always said that luck – or perhaps a guardian angel – followed him around, keeping him safe. Edward liked to think that it was a combination of intelligent risk taking and wit.
But perhaps he could attribute some of it to a little luck as well.
“Come here,” he said, reaching out and stretching his arm around Mariana, pulling her close into his side as he placed a kiss on her head, overwhelmed with gratitude.
He laughed out loud as the emotion bubbled out of him, and she looked up at him with a confused yet happy giggle of her own.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m just happy.”
“Well, I am glad to hear it,” she said. “I’m a little stunned, if I am being honest. I woke up this morning thinking that it would be the last I would ever see you and that you would be gone from my life forever. Now here we are, sailing away together, my entire life and country behind me.”
That sobered Edward as he leaned back for a better look at her. “Do you regret it? There’s still time to turn around.”
She pressed her lips together but couldn’t hide her smile as she swatted him. “Absolutely not.”
He wrapped his arms around her and, uncaring who on the crew might see them, hauled her in toward him and kissed her soundly on the lips. He was considering taking her to the cabin they were calling home for the next couple of weeks when a sudden shout broke them apart.
“Captain! There’s a ship on the horizon!”
Edward’s head snapped up at the news, although he tried to stay calm for Mariana’s sake.
“It’s probably nothing,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Just another ship leaving the harbour.”
She stilled him with her stare.
“Edward, do you truly think me so gullible? There is no need to try to protect me. I know just as well as you do who is likely following us.”
The fact that she knew it all and still stood there without a flicker of fear on her face made his respect for her grow all the more.
“If anything threatens, you will go down below deck, do you hear me?”
She leaned in. “Edward, I promise you that I will make the best choice.”
He sighed, running his hand over his face.
“I only want to keep you safe.”
“I know. And I appreciate it. But I am still making my own decisions.”
“So be it,” he agreed. “But know that all I do is with the intention of protecting you.”
She leaned up on her toes and placed a quick kiss on his lips. “And I you.”
He chuckled to himself as he craned his head back to peer up at the man sitting in the mast with the spyglass to his eye.
“What do you see?” he called as the captain emerged and stood beside him.
