Page 40 of A Wanton Adventure
“I hope they let us out there.”
An amused expression flickered across his face. Diana placed her hands on her hips. “What is so funny?”
He grinned. “I’m not sure I would have ever predicted how adventurous you are. It will be windy.”
Diana’s gaze flicked to the lighthouse jutting out of the coastline. Perhaps, fear should be what she felt but instead, she was filled with excitement. She wanted to stand at the farthestpoint. Monsieur Bernard stepped out of the stone building, smiling and motioning them over. Both Diana and Devons joined him. Their guide clapped excitedly. “The guard said you may walk out to the lighthouse. You are lucky—if it were any windier, he wouldn’t allow it. I will wait here. I don’t like heights, and the wind will make me nervous.”
Devons held his arm out to her. She laughed and took it. The wind battered them as they walked out to the lighthouse and Devons yelled, “Are you sure you don’t want to turn back?”
“Are you scared?”
He grinned at her. “Not at all.”
They continued, charging through the swirling air and across the bridge leading out to the lighthouse. They stopped along the wall of the stone building, facing the fort. Diana grabbed her hair. It had fallen out and now swirled around her shoulders. Instinctively she reached to find pins to fix it.
Devons stopped her. “Leave it. It will only fall out again once we go around to the other side.”
They started to move to the side facing the ocean and the wind pounded against them, but Diana didn’t care. The sight of the waves crashing against the rocks just below the lighthouse was exhilarating. A waist-high wall prevented them from tumbling onto the jagged rocks.
Devons, Diana was discovering, was a cautious man. He stood with his back flush to the lighthouse stone, motioning her to him. She laughed as her hair swirled around her. She threw her hands up and let the air batter them, as she stood looking at the ocean. Then she turned, wanting to feel the cool mist of the ocean on her back.
Her travel companion, the notorious King of the Den, continued to lean against the lighthouse wall with his arms folded. He was missing all the fun.
She held her hand out to him and hollered, “Join me!”
Devons was being too serious.
She pretended to fall, and he charged forward grabbing her hand. She laughed.
He yelled, “Minx!”
She didn’t respond but held onto his hand and spun around. She forced their clasped fingers up in the air before throwing her other arm up, hoping Devons would do the same. He did. They stood like that at the farthest point on earth, letting nature batter them. Devons smiled at her, and she grinned back at him. Diana hadn’t felt this alive in years.
*
The following day,Sebastian smiled as he observed Diana in front of him on the rowboat. Her hat fell back, and she closed her eyes, tilting her face to the sky. He needed to stop studying her so much, even if he enjoyed it.
At the lighthouse, he’d been unable to look away. She’d teased him afterward about being scared, but the truth was he’d been transfixed by her and, for a moment, lost all awareness of anything but her delight in the wind and the crashing waves. They were friends. He could enjoy her happiness, he assured himself. This connection with Diana needn’t become an infatuation or more.
He turned away and perused the scenery. The weather was perfect to spend the day in the cove Monroe ordered his men to anchor offshore from. The boat stopped and one of the sailors jumped out. The sailor turned to Diana and Lady Clark. “My ladies, I will carry you the rest of the way.”
“How will we make it to shore?” Mr. Spoor asked, looking confused.
“One moment, sir. I will transport you as well,” the sailor explained.
Sebastian snorted and started taking off his boots. He looked at the sailor. “Do you really want to carry me?”
The sailor shrugged but Sebastian wasn’t doing it. He was a large man. He couldn’t imagine how he would look being carried around by a boy half his size. He removed his jacket and rolled his pants up past his knees. Pulling his watch from a pocket, he turned to hand it to Diana who stared back at him wide-eyed. Her cheeks were flushed and a flicker of something thrummed between them.
Interrupting the moment, Lady Clark said, “Goodness, Devons. Quite the show.”
He laughed, hoping to suppress whatever he’d just felt.
“Aunt!” Diana said.
Sebastian glanced at Diana. “It’s fine. Will you hold this for me?”
She nodded and he passed his most prized possession to her. Their fingers brushed as he did so, and just like that the flicker of something came back. He hopped out of the boat as if running from it.
