by Lily Baldwin
“Everything is going to be all right, Elizabeth.” He laid Rose on the bed, then locked eyes with his sister. “You stay put, too.”
Eyes wide, Elizabeth nodded as a whimper fled her lips.
Tristan shut the door and found his discarded sword, which he drove into the floor. Then he thundered back up the stairs.
When the storm cleared, Tristan scanned his decks. All his men were accounted for, plus four Scotsmen. Rose’s brothers stood in a line glaring at him. Unlike Ian, they all had black hair and fierce black eyes save one whose eyes were as blue as Rose’s.
“I know you all have a lot of questions. I will go down now and release your sister,” Tristan said, walking toward the stairs. Then he stopped and turned back. “We might be a few minutes. I have a feeling I’m about to weather another storm.”
Chapter Thirty
Rose leapt from the dinghy, sloshing through the surf. Water lapped at her tunic. Then she broke free from the reach of the sea. Her bare toes sank into the soft, white sand of Colonsay.
“Sweetlings,” she shouted, her heart pounding wild with delight.
She opened her arms wide, welcoming the oncoming surge of MacVie women. Amid joyful cries and peals of laughter, Bella, Catarina, Alex, Joanie, and Jack’s adopted lassies all piled into her arms and her heart until she fell back in the sand beneath the weight of their affection.
“We’ve missed you,” Bella cried, hugging her tightly.
“Where have you been?” Catarina asked.
Rose scanned their beaming faces. She smiled not knowing where to begin. Then she glanced toward the lapping waves and spied the spoils of her journey, and she knew exactly what to tell her lassies.
“I set sail to find my destiny,” she said. Then she pointed to Tristan who was walking toward them surrounded by her brothers. “And I found my husband.”
They erupted into girlish squeals. Questions and congratulations barreled from every direction. Laughing, Rose called out, “Lassies, I’m not done.” A hush settled over them. Then Rose pointed to the Messenger anchored off shore. “And I found my ship.”
They renewed their outpouring of excitement. Rose tried to keep up with their questions.
When Tristan and her brothers gathered around them, she untangled herself from their embraces, climbed to her feet, and threw her arms around Tristan’s neck. His lips claimed hers. She savored his kiss while her family continued to celebrate her return with laughter and cheer.
Later that evening, Rose stood alone once again staring out across the ocean at the moon, which hovered just above the horizon. It was full and burned bright like the passion pulsing though her veins. She was not the same woman who had once stood on that shore with an empty, restless heart.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “God is like the stars guiding a woman’s ship, but ‘tis the woman who makes her own destiny,” she whispered. Then she looked heavenward at the three stars forming Orion’s belt. “Yer mama has found her smile.”
“I didn’t know it had gone missing.”
Rose whirled around to find Tristan standing behind her. She reached out her hand to him. “It was missing for a long time,” she said, pulling him close.
He wrapped his arm around her waist. “I’m glad you found it, and I’m glad I found you. I was beginning to miss you.”
“What do ye mean?” she asked.
“When I returned to your hut after Jack showed me their fishing boats, you were gone. But Alec told me to look for you here, by the shore.”
She smiled. “I am often here.”
He scanned the smooth sand and jutting rocks. Then his gaze shifted to the star-studded sky. “I can see why.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “What do ye think of my family?”
“Now that your brothers no longer want to kill me, I’m really growing rather fond of them all.”
She laughed out loud. “Did ye see their faces when we started to regale them with our story.”
Tristan pulled her closer. “At first, I thought Jack was going to lunge for my throat when you told them about our feigned marriage. I’m glad he restrained himself.”
Rose chuckled. “Ye mistook Quinn’s arm around his shoulders for brotherly affection. Make no mistake, he was holding Jack back. But don’t worry, he was furious at me, too. But I think when we made it to the part where we were married in a church, by a priest with Ian present, that soothed his anger away.”
He laughed. “Before that he was likely planning how he was going to force us to wed and was relieved to know our hearts had already beaten him to it.”
Her laughter mingled with his. Then she sighed and rested her head against his chest as she gazed back out to sea.
“It is a beautiful night,” he said.
She nodded. “My ship looks particularly lovely bathed in moonlight.”
“Have you decided what you will do with the Messenger?” he asked.
“Eventually, I will give her to Ian. But for now, I am thinking of the places I wish to go.”
“May I make a request?”
She smiled. “Of course.”
“Will ye sail the Mediterranean with me?”
Rose smiled up at him. “Are ye asking me to be yer new quarter master?”
He shook his head. “No, of course not.”
Her smile faltered.
He pressed his forehead to hers. “I was going to ask if I could be your new quarter master, Captain MacVie.”
Laughter burst from her lips. She threw her arms around his neck. Her heart was so full it brought tears to her eyes. “Thank ye,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For giving me back my smile.”
He lowered his head. Their breath mingled. She stretched on her toes, pressing her lips to his. His scent enveloped her. His warm lips made her knees go weak. She savored his taste and the strength of his body. When their lips parted, he stroked the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “Of everything the sea has given me, I never dreamed it would bring me you, Rose—My siren. My wife. My captain.”
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