Page 74 of Devil of the High Seas
Josephine gently grasped Griffin’s hand. “Griffin, Vesper is close. You must hold on for her.”
Griffin’s lashes fluttered and Vesper’s name escaped his lips again, but he did not fully wake.
“We cannot give up.” She rested her head against Gavin’s shoulder. It was so clear to her that life was a tapestry of a thousand strands woven together. Had this been their fate all along? To end up here, fighting to keep Griffin alive?
Gavin drew in a breath. “You’re right. He wouldn’t give up on me. I cannot give up on him.”
“How far are we from the Isle of Song?” she asked.
“With good winds? Two days.”
Two days. If they got him to Vesper, it might give him the strength to fight, to stay here with the woman he adored. Her father would argue that love had little to do with the healing of a physical wound, but Josephine believed deeply in the power of love. After everything she and Gavin had been through, she believed in love above everything else.
Gavin set his brother’s arm down gently, then cupped Josephine’s face. She knew she looked dreadful. Her face still hurt from the blows she had taken, her hair was a tangled mess, and she ached all over. She was no pirate’s pretty prize now.
His brown eyes warmed as he seemed to drink in the sight of her. “You are themostbeautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He lowered his head, and their lips met in a soft kiss that seemed to go on for hours.
“I must look absolutely frightful, and I feel even worse,” she said, but he had relit a glow within her that Beauchamp had nearly extinguished. Gavin’s words and that single kiss full of all the love that existed between them, a kiss that held a thousand beautiful unsaid words within it, had brought her back to life.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke,” he said. “I couldn’t bear to leave him. I...”
She pressed her fingers to his lips.
“This is where you should be. And it is whereIshould be as well. Right now, he needs both of us.”
They kept their vigil at Griffin’s bedside, and Josephine sent a prayer upon the sea breeze. She prayed for the sea to carry them swiftly and for the wind to fill their sails so they could reach the Isle of Song as quickly as possible.
Save him... save him.
* * *
Two dayslater
Vesper was keeping herself busy, helping another woman cook in one of the small island homes, when a cry sounded through the village. A sail had been sighted. Hope flaring within her, Vesper hung her apron up on a hook before following the villagers to the shoreline.
There was a mix of hope and fear among everyone. Hope that it was Gavin and the others returning, fear that it was Beauchamp coming to finish what he’d started. But it seemed the ship had been recognized as theSea Serpent, because the islanders soon started to wave and cheer.
She smiled as she saw a small boat lowered, rolling toward shore. Josephine was at the bow. Vesper rushed into the shallows, uncaring that her gown got wet. All that mattered was that Josephine was alive. Josephine hiked up her skirts and jumped down into the surf and threw her arms around Vesper in a tight embrace.
“My lady, you’re all right!”
“I am. I can’t believe you came all the way here for me,” Josephine said.
“I’d do anything for you, my lady. Anything.”
“And I’d do anything foryou, Vesper.” Josephine seemed to be on the verge of tears. Vesper could only imagine the ordeal she had been through to get here.
Vesper turned to the rest of the boat’s passengers, searching for the face she longed to see most aside from Josephine’s. Griffin was not among the passengers in the first landing party. She smiled a little. Knowing him, he would have let the others come to shore first .Lord Camden, Dominic, and a little boy leapt out, along with a tall, rather attractive dark-haired man with brown eyes who watched over the child with a fatherly protectiveness that Vesper didn’t miss. His uniform, while faded, was clearly a naval uniform. It was not, however, a new uniform. Working as a lady’s maid the last few years, she’d become adept at recognizing old clothes that someone was doing their best to keep well mended.
Jada, one of the women from the island, rushed over to the little boy, the one who had been kidnapped along with Josephine. Jada shouted his name, and the little boy threw himself against his mother, hugging her around the waist. The dark-haired man followed closely behind, keeping an eye on the boy. Sam pointed at the man and chattered excitedly about how this man who apparently was a vicar, had saved him.
“My name is Jada.” She held out her hand to the man, who gently took it and kissed her fingers with respect.
“Henry Sheridan,” he replied.
“I cannot thank you enough, Mr. Sheridan.”
“Please, it’s just Henry.” Sheridan’s face turned a little red as he stared at Jada’s beautiful face.
