by Bess McBride
“Back to the Century Star again. I don’t know where the ship was exactly, out to sea somewhere. I showered, ate and put on as many clothes as I could.”
As I spoke, I reached toward my back, amazed to find the tips of my flip-flops still sticking out of the waistband.
“I did wonder at your newfound fluffiness,” he whispered with a chuckle. I rewarded his rudeness with another passionate kiss on his cheek.
“How is everyone? Where are they?”
“At the encampment by the pool. They are well but worried, Mrs. Darymple most of all. She is very fond of you.”
“I’m fond of everyone too, especially you, Doctor.”
He looked down at my athletic shoes.
“How are your feet?”
“Getting better.”
“What sort of shoes are those?”
“Athletic shoes, very lightweight. I hope they last, because like I said, I’m not leaving the island.”
I looked over at Francois speaking to Vana and the Polynesians. His gestures to the left indicated he was probably talking about Vana’s village.
“Is it your intention then to stay here on the island forever, Maggie?” As if fraught with some profound emotion, Daniel’s hushed voice broke.
I turned and looked at him. He had pulled away from me and watched me intently, his dark gaze burning in the firelight. I wanted to wrap my arms around his waist, to nestle back into his embrace, but his rigid stance suddenly frightened me.
“You’re scaring me, Daniel,” I whispered. “I don’t know what the right answer is. What do you want me to say?” I swallowed hard as he stared at me silently.
“Yes, I was going to stay here,” I said hurriedly. “I don’t know any other way to be with you. Are you planning to leave? Are you saying you won’t stay with me?”
Pain ripped at my heart, and I locked my hands behind my back, willing back burning tears. Something had gone terribly wrong in the past few moments. We weren’t as one. We did not want the same thing, need the same thing.
I could not leave the island, I knew that now. But if Daniel left me, what would be the point of staying? I stared at his beloved face, pleading with my eyes but struggling to remain silent as I waited for his answer. I wanted to beg him to stay, but I couldn’t.
Daniel breathed in and then exhaled.
“Yes, of course I will stay with you, my love. Forever, if you will have me. I hoped and prayed that you would want to stay here...on the island. Times will be hard. Life will not be easy, but I cannot risk losing you again. Someday you may not be able to return to me. And that I could not bear. I love you, Maggie. I cannot live without you.”
I let go of the breath I’d been holding and flung myself into Daniel’s arms.
“Forever,” I whispered. “Forever.”
“Forever,” he echoed against my ear.
Chapter Nineteen
One year later
I looked up from the baby’s sleeping face to see my husband approaching from the beach. Tanned, lean, wearing nothing but trousers cut just above the knee, he was the epitome of a handsome heroic castaway on a tropical island—which in a sense he was. Daniel, though, was a castaway of his own volition, as perhaps was I.
Our daughter mewled in her sleep, and I patted her bottom gently as I watched Daniel. He had been scavenging seaweed in the lagoon for me, a delicacy that we dried and used in soups, our own little version of sushi and snacks.
Dropping down onto the sand beside me under the shade of a palm tree, he set down one of my old T-shirts holding the seaweed and took the baby from me.
“How was your haul?” I asked.
“Good,” he said. “You shall have your ‘dried seaweed snacks’ in abundance. You as well, Mrs. Darymple.”
I turned to look at Mrs. Darymple, also tanned and looking much younger than her seventy years. She wore her hair caught in a gray ribbon, having long ago chosen to forgo many of the Victorian trappings of her former life.
I remembered the day she had returned from a relaxing swim in the pool only to rip her dress apart at the seams and hand it to me to help her fashion something more suitable to the climate. Hesitantly, I had draped the material about her and over her shoulder like a sarong, and she had delighted in the comfort and ease of the style.
“Yes indeed, I look forward to some dried seaweed,” Mrs. Darymple said with a relaxed smile.
I turned to look at Daniel, cradling the baby in his arms and rocking her gently.
“I’d like some salt to go with it though. When did Captain Sebastian say he was returning?”
“In a few weeks,” Daniel said.
“Good. It will be nice to see him. I think Francois misses him, but he would miss Vana more if he were to return to sea.”
“Yes, I agree with you there,” Daniel said.
It had been almost eleven months since Captain Sebastian had returned to the island to pick up Francois. By then Francois had fallen madly in love with Vana, and he had asked permission to leave Captain Sebastian’s service and stay on Leakiki.
Kaihau, as it turned out, no longer wanted Vana when he discovered that she had willingly left the island to live with a French sailor, a fact that did not displease Vana. According to Francois, she had never loved Kaihau and had no ambition to become the chief’s wife.
Instead, she had become Francois’s wife and was about halfway through the pregnancy of their first child.
Daniel and I had struggled to find a solution to his old-fashioned notion that we must marry. I had been more flexible about the arrangement, but he had refused more than just exchanges of passionate, albeit chaste, kisses until we married.
When Captain Sebastian returned to collect Francois, Daniel had asked him if he knew of any missionaries or priests in the area. To our delight, Captain Sebastian said that he would marry us himself. I refused to board his ship to do so, and although he didn’t understand why, he consented to marry us out in the lagoon on one of the outrigger canoes, flower laden, in the most romantic sunset wedding I could have imagined.
Captain Sebastian, warmed up, had gone on to marry Francois and Vana the following day, and even Frederick, who had fallen madly in love with a village girl at first sight.
James and Samuel, who also lived in the village with Frederick and his wife, were “dating” two village girls, sisters. Thomas continued to live with us at the encampment near the pool, having cleaved to Mrs. Darymple on the departure of Mrs. Simpson.
“Perhaps Captain Sebastian will bring news of Mrs. Simpson, a letter,” Mrs. Darymple said, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen on us.
“I hope so. I know how worried you are,” I said.
“She was very unhappy here,” Mrs. Darymple said with a sigh, “but she tried very hard.”
“Indeed,” Daniel said.
I thought back to Mrs. Simpson, who had sailed away with Captain Sebastian after the weddings. She truly hadn’t taken well to the South Pacific, and she wanted to return to San Francisco. Mrs. Darymple, on the other hand, thrived and couldn’t bear to leave. So they had parted ways. I thought Mrs. Darymple much happier without her but never said so.
“Where is that boy?” Mrs. Darymple asked, reaching up to shade her eyes as she looked out to sea. At that moment a small outrigger canoe entered the lagoon from the west. Even from here I could see the sun-bleached strands of Thomas’s hair as he paddled the canoe. Joining him was a friend he had made some months before, a Polynesian youth of around the same age.
Thomas had left that morning to row through the lagoon around to the other side of the island to pick up a few things. Mrs. Darymple was very fond of Aikane’s breadfruit chips, and Aikane was always happy to oblige.
Contrary to Vana’s threats, Kaihau was disinclined to care about our presence on the island. He had moved on and was now happily married to another woman. Apparently marriage had improved his disposition.
A sound in the underbrush caught my ear, and I turned to see Pi
ggy emerge. He sauntered up to us, having lost all his earlier wariness, and he stopped at Daniel’s side to sniff the baby’s hair. I handed Daniel half a banana to give Piggy, and then we all turned to watch Thomas and his friend row toward shore.
Daniel had told me life would be hard, and it had been, but not as hard as sailing away on a ship and out of his life. I reached over to kiss Daniel’s bearded cheek with deep and profound contentment.
“Forever,” he whispered with a glance at me.
“Forever,” I said.
Books by Bess McBride
Time Travel Romance
The Highlander’s Stronghold
(Book One of the Searching for a Highlander series)
My Laird’s Castle
(Book One of the My Laird’s Castle series)
My Laird’s Love
(Book Two of the My Laird’s Castle series)
My Laird’s Heart
(Book Three of the My Laird’s Castle series)
Caving in to You
(Book One of the Love in the Old West series)
A Home in Your Heart
(Book Two of the Love in the Old West series)
Forever Beside You in Time
Moonlight Wishes in Time
(Book One of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
Under an English Moon
(Book Two of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
Following You Through Time
(Book Three of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
A Train Through Time
(Book One of the Train Through Time series)
Together Forever in Time
(Book Two of the Train Through Time series)
A Smile in Time
(Book Three of the Train Through Time series)
Finding You in Time
(Book Four of the Train Through Time series)
A Fall in Time
(Book Five of the Train Through Time series)
Train Through Time Series Boxed Set
(Books 1–3)
Across the Winds of Time
A Wedding Across the Winds of Time
Love of My Heart
Historical Romance
Anna and the Conductor
The Earl’s Beloved Match
Short cozy mystery stories by Minnie Crockwell
Will Travel for Trouble series
Trouble at Happy Trails (Book 1)
Trouble at Sunny Lake (Book 2)
Trouble at Glacier (Book 3)
Will Travel for Trouble Boxed Set (Books 1–3)
Trouble at Hungry Horse (Book 4)
Trouble at Snake and Clearwater (Book 5)
Trouble in Florence (Book 6)
Will Travel for Trouble Boxed Set (Books 4–6)
Trouble in Tombstone Town (Book 7)
Trouble in Cochise Stronghold (Book 8)
Trouble in Orange Beach (Book 9)
Trouble at Pelican Penthouse (Book 10)
About the Author
Bess McBride is the best-selling author of over fifteen time travel romances as well as contemporary, historical, romantic suspense and light paranormal romances. She loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her at [email protected] or visit her website at www.bessmcbride.com, as well as connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. She also writes short cozy mysteries as Minnie Crockwell, and you can find her website at [email protected].
