Sophie's Heart: Sweet Historical Romances

by Tanya Anne Crosby

  When Kell was done, Jack tossed him the clipboard. “When we get into port, you can go after the items left unchecked, and I’ll face Salvatore.”

  Kell broke into a smile. “I almost forgot about the fair Maria!” His grin widened.

  Jack threw up a hand. “Don’t start, Kell!”

  “I’m not starting anything! You go face him,” he said, and began to chuckle, as though Jack’s choice of words had struck him as hilarious. “You and your women!”

  Sophie wasn’t like the others.

  Jack rolled his eyes and turned to leave Kell to his merriment.

  He wasn’t in the mood.

  Sophie was different.

  He loved her.

  He’d been young and stupid once, but it had never really mattered. Now, finally, he’d met the one woman he truly wanted, and she was out of his reach.

  “Where is he?” he heard the object of his distraction shout from the opposite end of the ship. “Where is Jack?”

  She had come up from the mess hall and was upset about something. It wasn’t difficult to read her mood, particularly when her voice was raised several octaves above usual.

  Good, he needed an outlet.

  “He’s workin’ with Kell, Miss Vanderwahl. Over there. But... I wouldn’t disturb him if I were you.”

  “You aren’t me!” she answered flippantly. Jack couldn’t suppress a smile at her very saucy response.

  “Miss Vanderwahl!” Randall seemed determined to protect her from Jack’s present mood. “I wouldn’t—”

  “Let her go,” Jack heard someone say low.

  Jack cast a glance over his shoulder at Kell, warning him without words to keep his mouth shut.

  Kell’s brows lifted, and he shrugged. “I didn’t say a single thing,” he protested, but he didn’t have to. His expression said enough. He was divided between his own sordid sense of amusement and a need to protect Sophie.

  She brought that out in a man: somehow made him want to take care of her, though she seemed perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

  “Stay out of it,” Jack warned him.

  “Jack!” she called out, coming nearer.

  She was ready to nail him for something. Jack could hear the attitude in the stomp of her feet as she marched across the deck.

  If anyone was going to protect her from his present mood, it was going to be Jack, but Sophie Vanderwahl didn’t need protection. No Vanderwahl he had ever met had backed down before anyone—not even before truth. Sophie was as stubborn as her father was, with a temper besides.

  And Jack was ready for her.

  Something like birds’ wings took off in his belly as he braced himself to see her.

  But he wasn’t ready: Nothing could have prepared him for the sight of her.

  Chapter 24

  He stood speechless.

  He didn’t know whether to laugh or throw himself overboard to put himself out of his misery.

  She came scrambling down the stairs, wearing the tightest pair of trousers he had ever seen in his life. He swallowed whatever sarcasm he’d had in store for her.

  With hands on her hips, she spun to face him, her cheeks blooming with rosy color, her amber eyes flashing with anger. She held out something in the palm of her hand. “I found this in the cook’s cabin!”

  Jack couldn’t take his eyes off her. There was something about this new look that really seemed to fit her, even if the clothes, in truth, did not. She was fiery and determined, and he half expected her to roll up one of her sleeves and threaten to hurt him. He liked it.

  He turned and shot Kell another glare.

  Kell shook himself out of his stupor and seemed to understand at once. He nodded, sputtering laughter. “I’m going!” he said, and he did so at once, but not without casting Sophie one last glance. He shook his head as he passed.

  Reduced to a nearly primitive state, Jack actually growled at Kell, and knew it was true in that instant that man hadn’t progressed as far as he liked to believe.

  In fact, it was only a thin thread of reason that kept him from tackling Sophie where she stood and kissing her passionately right on deck in front of his crew.

  What had possessed her to dress that way!

  He didn’t see what she had proffered until she thrust it before his face once more. Something bright red gleamed before his eyes, but his brain couldn’t quite wrap around the object just yet.

  “I found this in Shorty’s cabin!” she said again, her eyes narrowed at him.

  Along with the clothes she was wearing, he presumed.

  Jack tried to clear the fog from his brain. “What is it?” he asked stupidly.

  “It’s a ring, of course!”

  Of course.

  Jack stared at it, blinking.

  Sun shone into the monster jewel. It sparkled fiercely before his eyes, nearly blinding him. His gaze returned to her shirt. She waved the ring at him again, recapturing his attention, and he had to pry his eyes free from the object of his desire. He reached out to take it from her, shaking himself out of his stupor. He shook his head and cleared his throat. “What would Shorty be doing with that?”

  She jerked it away before he could seize it. “That’s what I’d like to know!” she exploded once more, holding it up as proof of something, though Jack hadn’t the slightest notion what.

  His brain still wasn’t working.

  “No need to shout,” he told her. “I’m not deaf.” Or blind, either ... but he was going to be if she didn’t stop flashing that deuced jewel at him!

  “I’m not shouting!” she shouted. “But if I were, I’d have every right to!” she informed him boldly. “This ring belongs to Harlan!”

  That definitely caught his attention.

  He blinked at her, then at the ring, trying to understand what she was trying to tell him. “Harlan?”

  “Yes! Harlan!”

  Jack tried to comprehend what it was she was telling him. “Are you sure?” She’d found Harlan’s ring in Shorty’s cabin? He reached out, wanting a better look now.

  She jerked it away. “Of course I’m sure!” she countered, waving the monstrosity at him. “This is Harlan’s ring! I bought it for him!”

  His brows collided as he stared at the enormous ruby eye. He hadn’t seen a ruby that big in his entire life.

  “You bought that for Harlan?”

  Her eyes sparkled nearly as brightly as the jewel. “Yes. As a going-away present!” Her face turned brighter pink, but her gaze shifted away momentarily, and then back—as though she were embarrassed by the evidence of her affection for Harlan.

  She ought to be. The money she had spent on that single piece of jewelry might have fed the entire Yucatan peninsula!

  “And you found it in Shorty’s cabin?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed, waving it again. “Perhaps you’d like to tell me how it got there!”

  How was Jack supposed to know that?

  He shook his head and tried to reach for the ring once more. This time she let him have it. Watching her expression, he tested its weight in his hand. It was solid silver, heavy. He turned the ring to check for an inscription and found it had been polished clean.

  He eyed her speculatively. “And you’re absolutely sure this is Harlan’s ring?”

  She cocked her head in challenge. “Just how many rings like that do you think exist?”

  She had a point. It was ugly... and assuming the ruby was real, it wasn’t very likely there was another just like it.

  She’d found the ring in Shorty’s cabin. That fact reared up at him like a rattler’s warning. The telegrams had been hidden in the stove. It didn’t take a genius to deduce the obvious: Shorty was somehow in cahoots with Penn, and by some stroke of luck, they’d managed to leave the idiot behind. In doing so, they’d been spared whatever Penn had planned.

  And Sophie was just plain trouble without the least bit of malice.

  He blinked at her, feeling lighter than he had in weeks.


  She was waiting for some sort of explanation from him and Jack suddenly wanted to kiss her. He smiled at her, his mood vastly improved. He handed the ring back to her.

  “I don’t see what’s so blessed funny!’’ she railed at him, her delicate fingers seizing the ring from his hand.

  Jack’s grin widened.

  He didn’t care if he had an audience—didn’t care who was watching. He didn’t care if they thought him loony... or smitten... he was guilty on all accounts.

  He reached out, grasping her about the waist, and drew her into his arms. Her hands flew up at once to clutch his shoulders and she gasped in surprise but didn’t protest.

  She gave him a pouty face. “What do you think you are doing?”

  “Kissing you,” Jack replied with determination, and didn’t give her an instant to protest. All restraint eroded with the first touch of their lips.

  Her protest came out sounding garbled.

  He gave her waist a little jerk, urging her to kiss him back, and she suddenly silenced, her hands moving to his neck, clinging for support.

  And then ... everything faded from his senses but the woman he held in his arms: the jeers from his men, the sun beating down on his head, the wind in his face.

  Sophie’s heart surged into her throat.

  He held her tightly and she was grateful for the support because she suddenly didn’t think she could stand on her own.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered against his mouth. “Jack...”

  “Shut up and kiss me!” he demanded, never breaking the contact of their lips. He increased his ardor. “Kiss me, Sophia,” he pleaded with her.

  “But... the ring,” she tried to protest, and was vaguely aware of the shouts and huzzahs that erupted from the crew.

  “What ring?” Jack murmured into her mouth.

  Sophie suddenly didn’t remember what she was even talking about. Her thoughts skittered away.

  “It’s about time!” she heard someone yell at them, and then she was aware only of Jack.

  Everything about them faded but the man in whose arms she was in.

  She didn’t care about any ring. It slipped from her grasp to the deck, though she never heard it fall.

  If he lived a thousand lifetimes, this instant would be imprinted on his brain... if he died tomorrow he would die fulfilled.

  This moment was what he had lived for.

  This instant he had discovered what he had searched for all his life—he knew that now, because for the first time, joined with the woman in his arms, he felt complete.

  He had searched a lifetime, and others as well through his studies of bygone eras and peoples... devoting his entire life to discovering the purpose of his existence and that of mankind itself... and all the while the answer had lain within Sophie Vanderwahl’s arms.

  He absolutely refused to lose her now.

  Chapter 25

  The weather was perfect the next morning when they sailed into port: The sky was blue, the water was bluer, and the sun shone crisply.

  Sophie’s mood was buoyant and filled with anticipation.

  She had no regrets over the decisions she had made and even fewer reservations over the task left before her. She had no idea how long it would be before she faced Harlan at last, but she no longer felt the least bit of fear or sorrow over it. Harlan was a burden she was eager to have lifted off her shoulders.

  If she was saddened by anything at all, it was the simple fact that her journey was nearly over, and at the journey’s end she would be forced to make new decisions... decisions that could take her far from Jack.

  She didn’t want to leave him, and the very thought of it wrenched at her heart.

  But maybe she wouldn’t have to.

  She eyed the papers she had placed on his desk. He had yet to see them; he’d been so preoccupied.

  Sophie wasn’t such a fool to believe that simply because of what they had shared she could have a life as his wife, but she did hope that perhaps he would allow her to stay on and assist him in his work. She didn’t want to go back to Boston, back to social engagements that bored her out of her wits, back to her mother’s home where she was expected to be perfect at all times, back to her restrictive dresses that sucked the breath and life and joy from her.

  The thought of having to answer the first question about Harlan made her physically ill. No matter what he had done to her, she would never tell anyone the truth—except, of course, her mother and father, and they would likely try to talk her out of her decision. She could hear her mother now as though she were standing before her this instant, her expression dour.

  Sophie, my dear, all men stray at some time or another. It bears no reflection on their ability to be a proper husband. Harlan is a favorable match. What will people say if you simply discard him to live your life as a spinster!

  Well, blast it, Sophie didn’t care what people would say!

  No one would understand, of course, but she didn’t need them to. She was beginning to like wearing men’s pants and shirts and was looking forward to getting dirt under her nails. The very idea left her as titillated as did Jack’s very presence—Sophie had never felt so breathless. It excited her beyond her wildest dreams. In her entire life she had never felt so alive and vigorous and full of energy and expectation. She couldn’t wait to begin their journey!

  Every day would be an adventure!

  She couldn’t wait to cook Jack and his crew breakfast!

  It was silly perhaps, but she wanted to prove she could do it. She refused to give in. Practice made perfect. She knew that much from her drawings.

  “Sophia!” she heard Jack call, and hurriedly finished packing the few items she intended to take. She’d discarded her dresses completely—no reason to take them at all. They were dirty and far too unwieldy besides. Instead, she’d borrowed a few more of Shorty’s trousers and shirts, stuffing as many as she could into the backpack Jack had let her borrow. She wore a pair of Shorty’s boots and socks as well, though the boots were at least three sizes too large for her feet. It couldn’t be helped. Jack had advised her they would be far more suitable to the remainder of the journey than were her slippers. So she’d stuffed the toes with socks, and could scarcely tell except by looking at them that they were much too big.

  “I’m coming, Jack!” she shouted back at him, and shoved a few selected toiletry items into the sack.

  He came to the door then, leaning against the frame as he watched her with that look in his eyes. He seemed to like to look at her since she’d begun wearing Shorty’s pants, and what was more, she liked the way that he looked at her.

  Her heart leapt a little at the sight of him. “Jack,” she said breathlessly.

  He always managed to do that... steal her breath away. The very sight of him left her dizzy. A single look of his made her heart dance against her ribs.

  “Whenever you’re ready, princess.”

  He wasn’t upset with her, Sophie knew that by the smile on his face, but she grimaced at his endearment. “Harlan calls me that!” she reminded once more, and hoped he would understand how it grated on her nerves. “Please don’t.”

  He pushed away from the doorframe, straightening.

  “Anyway, I’m ready!” Sophie assured him. “Except ...” She hesitated, glancing at the papers on his desk, wanting so badly for him to see them.

  She went back to the desk, lingering there, plucking Harlan’s picture from the desktop. She couldn’t very well forget the picture when she’d tucked Harlan’s letter into the back of it.

  Jack eyed it distastefully as she placed it, too, into her backpack, and gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. “By all means, you can’t forget that,” he said caustically, and then pivoted on his heels and left her to follow.

  “Jack, wait!”

  She wanted desperately for him to see her drawings.

  Disappointment surged through her as he disappeared from her sight. It took her an instant longer to realize what
it was that had rankled him, but when she did, she smiled a secret smile.

  He was jealous, and that fact pleased her.

  Quickly she seized the stack of drawings from his desk and placed them into her backpack, then hoisted the backpack over her shoulder.

  He would discover her journey’s purpose soon enough. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt him to wonder just a little. Somehow, telling him about her decision to leave Harlan didn’t seem quite as fulfilling as the thought of showing him.

  The market square was pungent with the aroma of fish and meats, sweetened only by the more elusive scent of fruits and vegetables.

  Jack remembered the way through the tangle of booths, though it had been nearly three years since his last visit. He’d brought Randall and Pete with him, just in case Jose wasn’t in a forgiving mood. He would have preferred not to bring Sophie, but she’d been babbling excitedly about the breakfast she intended to make them, and he suspected he’d have had to tie her down to keep her from accompanying him once she’d realized their destination.

  Anyway, Kell had gone after supplies, and the rest of his crew were busy setting up camp. And it wasn’t as though he didn’t trust them with Sophie, but he really didn’t trust Sophie with them.

  Besides, he had promised her that she could cook for them. She wanted to help and he couldn’t quite bring himself to deny her. Nor could he help but be amused at the look of wonder on her face as she followed him through the market. Instead of overripe fruits and day-old meat that made up the market’s wares, one would have thought she were surrounded by nuggets of gold and glinting diamonds.

  To her credit, she seemed eager to redeem herself to his men and unwilling to accept defeat. Unfortunately, his men were secretly praying Jack would banish her from more attempts. He’d never met a woman in his life who took such joy in her efforts and failed so miserably every time.

  Jack actually found it a charming quality.

  It wasn’t difficult to find Jose’s booth, and he recognized Maria at once. He was grateful Sophie’s attention had been momentarily distracted by a batch of particularly colorful peppers two booths away. She lingered to inspect them, lifting several and turning them in her hand as though they were precious gems.