Page 53 of Devil of the High Seas
“And you,” he said as he turned at last toward Josephine, that smile of his so bright that it nearly blinded her. She felt seen,loved, when he looked at her that way. In the last four weeks they’d sailed together, she and Gavin had grown close, not just physically, but emotionally. She hadn’t imagined that it was possible to feel so connected to another person. She’d lived her entire life with her family, but she felt that she knew Gavin’s heart and soul better than anyone else. She’d tried not to think about the future, about their lives diverging at some point. She only wanted to bask in the days she had left with him.
His once rare smiles were now becoming more frequent, and she’d grown addicted to how that made her feel. Like she could doanythingin life.
“You’ve chosen your bride well,” Jada said.
“I have, haven’t I?” Gavin swept an examining look over Josephine. “Let me show you my island, Josie.” He held out a hand, and she placed her palm in his. They left and started up a sandy path toward the jungle. She was grateful for the sandals Jada had given her.
She had asked Jada about the clothes she’d been given, wondering if Gavin had brought other women here. He hadn’t. The dresses had been sewn by Jada and the other women on the island in hopes that someday Gavin would bring a bride home. They’d made clothing in all sizes, and leather sandals as well. Everything had been patiently waiting for someone to open that wardrobe and put them on.
“Your house is so beautiful, Gavin. It’s so very different.”
“Yes. No stuffy drawing rooms, no gloomy portraits. It’s warm and welcoming, the way a home should be,” he agreed. “When I built it, I wanted it to feel like it wasmine.” He said this with such simple honesty that she was moved to tears.
To hide her impending tears, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I fell in love with you when I saw yourgloomyportrait,” she teased.
They halted on the beach path that led toward the jungle, and she wondered what she’d said to make him stop. And then she realized she had saidthewords.
“You love me, lass?” His face was so serious it seemed carved of stone.
“Yes,” she replied. “I do. And I have no regrets in my admission. It’s how I feel, and as long as I draw breath, I shall own my feelings. I’m proud of them, good or bad, because they are mine. You don’t have to say anything.”
“But I will.” He cupped her face in his hands and gazed deep into her eyes. “I love you, lass.” His voice was rough with emotion, but his lips curved slightly in a smile that threatened to break through the solemnity of the moment. “I want you to be my wife in truth.” He smiled fully then, and it felt as though the sun itself burned inside her.
He stroked the backs of his knuckles over her cheek. “I heard once... if you say you marry someone three times, it becomes true.”
She tried to ignore the flutter of excitement as he bent his head to kiss her.
“Imarryyou,” he said, then kissed her again. “Imarryyou.” He paused, nibbling at her earlobe before finally saying, “Imarryyou.”
She threw her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses before repeating the words back to him in such haste that he laughed with delight.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “Who knew you’d be so thrilled to have a second marriage proposal?”
“I’m thrilled because it is therightone, from the right man.”
The words held no weight in a court of law or with any church, but to Josephine they were real. Those words tied her soul to his forever.
“Let me show you our island.” He took her hand and led her into the jungle.
* * *
Gavin’s heartfluttered with excitement.Married. It might be in name only, but it felt as though he was truly tied to Josephine. They would marry legally as soon as he could arrange it, but for now he was overjoyed simplyfeelingmarried to her. The old Gavin, the one who had fled to the seas and stopped believing in love, would have scoffed at the prospect of being married, but the month he’d spent with Josephine on board thePixiehad changed him forever. He no longer wanted to be alone, no longer wanted to mourn his once broken heart. Now he was moving toward a bright and beautiful future.
The path they took divided into several smaller paths throughout the forest. He led her down the central one toward the heart of the island. He pointed out yellow elder bushes with their clusters of flowers that resembled yellow daffodils, wild sage with its orange flowers, and the light-purple jacarandas that bloomed everywhere. The songs of tropical birds echoed through the canopy, and parrots of all sizes and colors flew from branch to branch ahead of them as they walked.
“Are all these birds from this part of the world?” Josephine asked, taking in the multicolored flocks above them.
“Many aren’t native. They flew off ships passing by and found this island,” he explained.
“Their melodies are beautiful. I used to love the morning after a thunderstorm as a child. I would lie in bed and hear the birds chattering in excitement, and the sun always seemed to shine a little brighter after those storms.”
As they walked, Gavin asked a great many questions about her life, and she did the same. He shared with her tales of his childhood and stories of his battles at sea. She drank in each detail.
“To think, you’ve known my brother Dominic longer than I have,” she mused.
He paused on the path and stared at her. It was true. In a strange twist of fate, he’d known Dominic for a longer time than she had.
“You were a mere babe when he left, weren’t you?”
