by Merry Farmer
The white-haired man nodded at her, then went on. “I had no idea it was the Kestrel that was in danger.”
Albert took a half step back, his face pinching into a frown. “It’s worse than that, Peter. Your nephew was responsible for the fire.”
“William?”
Domenica gasped as the pieces fell into place. Peter was Peter deVere, Lord Dunsford.
Lord Dunsford recovered before she could. He shook his head, turning to gesture toward the yacht’s small cabin. “You need to get out of those freezing, wet things before hypothermia sets in. I’m sure there’s something you could change into in my personal cabin. Then we can speak to William and get to the bottom of things.”
Domenica had started to follow the two men, even though she hadn’t been introduced to Lord Dunsford yet, but she stopped short. “Lord William is here?”
Lord Dunsford turned to her with a look of mild surprise. “He was the first person we rescued.”
Lady Patterson snorted. Albert muttered a curse under his breath, then inched closer to Domenica. “Peter, this is…this is Miss Domenica Ortega.”
Lord Dunsford’s brow went up. “Millie Llewellyn’s friend?”
Domenica was impressed that the man would know who she was. “My lord,” she answered him with a nod.
Albert shifted to Domenica’s side, putting an arm around her. “She’s more than just that.”
Understanding instantly dawned in Albert’s eyes. “Then we really do need to get the two of you warmed up so we can talk.”
As surreal as it had been to go from a ball to fighting off Lord William to racing through a burning ship and diving into the ice-cold ocean, it was even more bizarre for Domenica to be shown into a warm, cozy cabin on the yacht and given dry clothes to change into. They were men’s clothes and much too big for her, but she’d worn worse, and they stopped her from shivering to death. Stranger still was that when she returned to the deck, where a dozen or so passengers and crew from the Kestrel sat huddled together in shock, she was handed a steaming mug of tea.
“We should be putting in at Mousehole within the hour,” a crewman was telling the people from the Kestrel. “I’m sure we’ll be able to sort everything out from there.”
“If you are there, my dear, handsome, young man, I’m sure everything will be sorted out,” Lady Patterson said, causing the crewman to flinch as though he were in danger of being kidnapped.
Domenica would have laughed at her friend’s antics if she wasn’t so confused. Sort things out in a mouse hole?
“It’s the name of a town,” Albert said as he came up behind her. She could have cried in relief that he was there with her again. “Locals pronounce it ‘Mowzel’.”
“I don’t care if it’s pronounced ‘Hades’, as long as we’re safe,” Domenica said. She would have thrown herself into his arms if not for the hot tea in her hands.
Albert had his own tea and hugged her with one arm. He kissed her still-damp head, but whispered, “We’re not safe yet.”
He was right. Domenica turned back to the yacht’s central cabin to find none other than Lord William emerging from a hatch on the far side from the cabin where she’d changed clothes. She looked around for Polly, but Lord William was alone.
“Captain Tennant. Thank God that you’re safe,” Lord William said, dripping with overdone relief. He rushed toward them. “And Miss Ortega. Heaven be praised.”
Domenica clenched her jaw, and squeezed her mug of tea. She was surprised it didn’t shatter in her hands.
“Peter, I’m afraid you need to have your nephew arrested as soon as we reach port,” Albert said, his voice rough with fury.
“Hear, here,” Lady Patterson seconded, pushing herself out of the bench where she’d been settled and moving toward them.
Lord William blinked and pressed a hand to his chest, looking surprised and hurt. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lord Dunsford glanced at his nephew with narrowed eyes. That show of suspicion was the only thing that kept Domenica from throwing down her tea and going at the murderous young lord to wring his neck.
“Where is Polly?” she demanded instead. “Where is your murderess accomplice?”
“We saw you row away from the Kestrel,” Albert added when Lord William continued to look surprised. “Several people saw you.”
Lord William’s expression shifted. Instead of baffled, he looked sheepish. “I let that woman into my lifeboat before I knew who she was. I can’t believe you let her pull the wool over my eyes.” He glared at Lady Patterson.
“Me?” Lady Patterson gasped. “You were the one who insisted I hire the whining, untrained girl.”
“Explain that,” Domenica barked.
The glint in Lord William’s eyes was vicious and calculating, but he managed to keep his expression penitent. “I was misinformed about the woman’s character. A friend recommended her, but…but she was a murderess, Uncle,” he said, turning to Lord Dunsford. “Wanted for killing three of her lovers for their money. I…I didn’t know until we were out in the boat. She was consumed with regret and confessed to lighting the fires aboard the Kestrel before she hurled herself overboard and into the sea. I tried to stop her, to save her, but…but….” He broke down into tears that were as false as the story he’d told.
“You’re a liar,” Lady Patterson hurled at him.
“You’re a scheming, villainous liar,” Domenica added. She glanced between Lord Dunsford and Albert. “He…you know what he tried to do to me as the fires were being set.”
“Your nephew should be arrested,” Albert growled to Lord Dunsford.
Lord Dunsford rubbed a hand over his face, flushed with anger. He glared at Lord William, nothing but contempt in his eyes. “Did you behave offensively toward this woman?” he asked, his tone ominous.
“No, I didn’t. I….” Lord William snapped his mouth shut, his devious gaze turning to Domenica. “It was a misunderstanding. I thought she wanted it. You do know what she is, don’t you, Uncle?”
Lord Dunsford’s expression pinched into something even more contemptuous. It was clear he understood, but also that he thought his nephew was lower than a worm.
“So what was I to think, especially after the way she spent the entire voyage carrying on with the captain?” Lord William flung out his arm toward Albert. “Naturally, I assumed she was still a whore.”
“Watch your language,” Albert growled, his free hand clenched into a fist. “That’s the woman I love.”
Of all the times to declare his feeling publically. Domenica wasn’t sure if she wanted to throw her tea at him or at Lord William, or if she wanted to sink to the deck in a puddle of tears. Joyful tears. In the midst of the hottest anger she’d ever felt.
“You should know better than to treat women so disrespectfully,” Lord Dunsford said, glowering at Lord William. “Your father raised you better than that.”
“My father was a weak-willed, stingy, ridiculous—” Lord William stopped his sputtering insults as swiftly as they’d started. All pretense of innocence was gone, as if Lord Dunsford’s comment had pierced through to bitterness that was too raw to deny. He seemed to know he’d made a misstep as well. He rubbed a hand over his face, glared at Domenica, and said, “You can’t accuse me of lighting the fire that destroyed the Kestrel, because I was with that whore when it happened. I have an alibi. And as for the way I treated her, I’d like to see any magistrate tell me I was in the wrong for assuming a whore was up for the thing that whores do.”
Before either Albert or Lord Dunsford could question him further, Lord William turned sharply and marched back to the cabin.
“Come back here this instant,” Lord Dunsford called after him, but Lord William only raised his hand in a rude gesture.
“The impudent little swine,” Lady Patterson sniffed.
“Leave him,” Albert growled. “I have a suspicion that he covered his tracks too well for us to do a damn thing about it.”
&nb
sp; “He must have killed Polly,” Domenica said, the full horror of things hitting home. “He made sure she did all the dirty work, then killed her out in the middle of the ocean where no one could see.”
Lord Dunsford looked stricken by the comment. He rubbed both hands over his face, leaving them there for a moment. “I’ve mishandled that boy since his father’s death.” He shook his head. “This is all my fault.”
“That’s it.” Domenica stomped her foot, splashing her now cold tea over the edge of her mug. “What is the problem with you men? You take too many things on yourself. Men like Lord William? They are bad, through and through. You do no one any good by taking their sins on your shoulders and making them your own.”
Lord Dunsford stared at Domenica, eyes wide. A few of the passengers from the Kestrel who had overheard the scene gaped as well. Lady Patterson huffed as if she agreed. Albert burst into a slow smile that turned into a deep, rumbling laugh.
“Do you see why I fell in love with this one, Peter?” He slipped his free arm around Domenica’s waist. “She’s full of life and fire.”
“No.” Domenica held up a hand. “Don’t say fire.”
“Good point.” Albert kissed her head. “She’s full of fight. That’s exactly what I need in a wife.”
Domenica’s breath caught in her throat, and she snapped her gaze up to Albert’s. “A wife?” she said, her voice cracking.
“Yes.” Albert shifted to face her. He bent down to steal a kiss. As he did, Lord Dunsford slipped forward to take both of their mugs of tea before they were dropped. Domenica wasn’t sure if Albert noticed. He straightened, lifting his hands to cradle his face. “Marry me, Domenica Ortega. I don’t know where we’ll live, since the Kestrel was my home.”
“You’ve got three properties in London and a country estate in Devon,” Lord Dunsford muttered to the side.
Albert ignored him and continued smiling at Domenica. “It doesn’t matter where I lay my head at night, as long as it’s next to you.”
“And you don’t mind if all the world thinks you a fool for marrying a whore?” she asked.
“I don’t think he’s a fool,” Lord Dunsford muttered again.
“Neither do I,” Lady Patterson added.
“I’m not a fool,” Albert agreed. “Anyone who doesn’t see how beautiful and strong you are is a fool. I couldn’t care less if I’m shunned at every fancy society event on both sides of the ocean. I never cared much for that set anyhow.”
“Hear, here!” the crewman who had kept the lifeboat near to the Kestrel shouted to the side.
Domenica was suddenly reminded that they had a full audience. And from what she could see in the darkness, every one of them was smiling instead of shivering in fear. She shook her head. “This is not how I imagined a man proposing to me.”
“Then how about this.” Albert dropped to one knee and took her hand. “Domenica Ortega, would you do me the great honor of joining me in telling the rest of the world to go to hell by consenting to be my wife?”
She laughed out loud. “Now that’s the kind of proposal young women dream of.” She closed her free hand around their joined hands and grinned into Albert’s eyes with more joy than she’d ever felt, more joy than she’d known existed in the entire world. “Si, mi capitán. I will marry you.”
Albert let out a breath, blinking rapidly, and stood. It touched Domenica’s heart that such a strong, noble man wouldn’t be able to hold back his emotions when they overcame him. He pulled her into his arms, slanting his mouth over hers in a kiss that had those watching them either sighing sentimentally or gasping at the sensuality. Domenica was too happy to care a bit what anyone else thought. She’d come to this new world for a whole new life, and the one she’d found was better than anything she could have imagined.
EPILOGUE
Spring came earlier to Cornwall than anywhere else in England. While the streets of London and the hills of the Lake District were still shivering with April showers, the warm currents of the Atlantic brought balmier winds to the Cornish peninsula. Flowers bloomed a little brighter, strawberries ripened a little sooner, and the world seemed full of promise.
Domenica Tennant was overjoyed to be able to watch winter blow itself out and fade into spring from the sumptuous splendor of Starcross Castle. It was the most magnificent honeymoon she could have asked for—to be wrapped up, warm and safe, in a real castle with her wonderful new husband at her side and her old friend Millie just next door.
“Bonnie wrote to say that all the girls were so jealous of me being able to stand up as your matron-of-honor when they couldn’t be here at all,” Millie reported as the two of them enjoyed tea in one of Starcross Castle’s sunny drawing rooms.
“She wrote something similar to me,” Domenica laughed. It seemed as though she hadn’t been able to stop laughing or smiling since Albert asked her to marry him. “I wrote back to tell them there wouldn’t have been enough room on the yacht for everyone who wanted to attend.”
“I haven’t been on a boat since Captain Tennant brought me over, gosh, it couldn’t possibly be a year and a half ago, could it?” Millie asked.
“It must have been.” Domenica nodded at Millie’s large, round stomach. Another joy of staying at Starcross Castle was that she would be nearby when her old friend gave birth to her first child.
Millie blushed and giggled and rubbed a hand over her stomach. “I’m so nervous I hardly know what to do with myself,” she confided in a near whisper.
“You’ve nothing to worry about,” the maid who brought in their tea tray said as she set it on the table between the sofa where Millie sat and the chair Domenica occupied. “You’ve a whole team of friends to take care of you.”
“Thank you, Ginny. I truly don’t know what I would do without you,” Millie said, smiling up at the maid, who, Domenica had discovered was also the closest friend Millie had made in England.
“We will take care of her together.” Domenica winked at Ginny. She had liked the spritely young woman from the moment they’d met. And while technically, as a guest of Lord Dunsford and wife of a wealthy and powerful captain, Domenica should have been miles above Ginny, she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to be friends with a woman her friend thought so highly of. “Sit,” she ordered. “Have tea with us.”
“I’m really not supposed to,” Ginny said. But she darted a quick glance to the doorway to make sure Mrs. Wilson, the housekeeper, wasn’t spying on them, then sat on the sofa beside Millie. “Don’t tell.”
“Of course we won’t,” Millie giggled.
“I don’t understand this nonsense of pretending servants aren’t people,” Domenica said with a wave of her hand. “My abuelo had men who worked for him, and he invited them to dine with him every Sunday. And besides, I don’t think your Lord Dunsford would mind.”
“His new wife might mind,” Ginny said, her eyes glittering with gossip. “He left for Bedfordshire to fetch her at last this morning.”
“I know,” Domenica said. “Mi capitán rode with him to the train station in Truro.”
“I’m so glad Lord Dunsford is remarrying at last,” Millie said with a sigh, rubbing her stomach. “He always seemed so sad when I was working here. I’m just surprised he waited so long.”
“I’m not sure what the delay has been,” Ginny said, then leaned forward as if she were about to share a secret. “Do you think Miss Travers rejected his first proposal?”
“Why would any woman reject such a kindhearted man?” Domenica scoffed.
“She couldn’t have rejected him. From what Owen told me, Jamie Wright—that’s Lord Dunsford’s valet,” Millie explained for Domenica. “—said that Miss Travers jumped at the chance to marry an earl.”
Domenica wrinkled her nose. “I hope for his sake she isn’t the kind of woman who looks to marry the most important man in town just so she can feel important too. Remember the way Trina Kline threw herself at Franklin Haskell, just because he was Howard Haskell’s son?
”
Millie made a disgusted sound. “I’m glad Franklin married Corva instead. And that Trina eventually married that man from the railroad who came through town.”
Ginny laughed. “Someday I want to visit this town of Haskell that the two of you came from. It sounds exotic and full of adventure.”
Domenica and Millie exchanged a glance, then dissolved into laughter. “We’ve always thought that England was the exotic, adventurous place,” Millie said, then shook her head. “But no, I don’t think Miss Travers is like Trina Kline at all. In fact, Owen said that Mr. Wright said that Miss Travers’s father and Lord Dunsford came to an understanding about Miss Travers’s hand before ever asking Miss Travers herself, and that her father dragged his heels when it came to actually telling his daughter she was destined to be a bride.”
Domenica hummed. “That doesn’t sound like the beginning of a happy marriage to me.” She sent Millie and Ginny a significant look, then took one of the cups of tea Ginny had just poured.
“I’m not so sure,” Ginny said, stealing another look at the doorway before taking a cup of tea herself. “The rumors I heard say that Miss Travers is past thirty and that she’s been on the shelf so long she’s gotten dusty.”
“But as long as she’s still of childbearing age, I don’t suppose it matters,” Millie said, then sighed. “I feel so mean talking about the woman before we’ve even met her. She’s probably perfectly nice.”
“We’ll find out soon,” Ginny said. “Lord Dunsford is marrying her and bringing her back in a month.”
“It’s a shame we won’t be here to greet them.”
Domenica’s heart leapt in her chest, Millie smiled, and Ginny gasped so hard she choked on her tea as Albert appeared in the doorway.
Domenica put her teacup down and leapt to her feet, rushing to greet him with a hug. “Mi capitán, you’ve come back.”
“Always, my darling,” Albert said, then kissed her thoroughly. Domenica was beginning to love the way he kissed her as though they were alone, even when people were watching them. It made her tingle, inside and out.