“I know, but I have a plan in starting a shipping outfit with my men. We’re not all layabouts, you see, and John will keep us honest.”
“Somehow, I believe you.” Elizabeth couldn’t help her grin. “I haven’t met your family.”
“I know that too, but one of the reasons I brought the schooner was to take you to London after this should you accept me, but please, Lizzy, you must answer my question, or I shall go mad.” Emotion graveled his voice, and his gaze was quite strained.
Captain Bingham chuckled. “He rather does need to be put out of his misery, Miss Hayhurst. I’d say he’s groveled and explained enough.”
“Yes.” She smiled down at Brand as awareness of him tingled over her person. “I will marry you, for I’m scandalously in love with you.”
“Oh, thank God.” Brand uttered a loud whoop of victory. He shot to his feet, happiness illuminating his expression. “Truly?”
“Yes. What else is there to say?”
“Indeed.” Finally, he closed the distance between them, held her face between his large, rough palms and kissed her soundly to applause and cat calls from the gathered crew. When he pulled slightly away, he put his lips to the shell of her ear and whispered, “Thank you for saving me, Lizzy. I’d never have seen the light if not for you.”
The heat of embarrassment filled her cheeks, but she didn’t mind. Never had she been so happy. “Perhaps you weren’t the only one in need of saving, for you did the same for me, showed me there was more to life than the limited exposure I had.” It was she who lifted onto her toes and claimed his lips a second time. Oh, he felt so good, much like coming home, but to a place she’d never been before. He took the hint and treated her to long, drugging kisses that had the power to melt every bone in her body, but she adored being lost in him, loved the way she felt safe in his arms. At the end, she added, “So scandalous.”
“I can’t help it.” His eye darkened to charcoal with desire and love he could never hide again. “How often does a man go tip over tail for a woman?”
Captain Bingham cleared his throat. “Once in a lifetime if you’re lucky.”
“Just what I was thinking, Captain.” Brand tugged her close once more and claimed her lips again. When he finally let her up for air, her head spun, and her knees had the strength of cooked porridge. But his grin held a victorious air that awoke butterflies in her belly. “Are you ready for adventure, Lizzy?”
“Oh, yes.” She could hardly wait to begin their lives together.
“You’re certain you’re quite healthy?”
“I am.” Her lungs had felt strong for some time. It hadn’t pained her to breathe except when she’d spied him kissing that dratted barmaid. She trembled in his hold. “Why?”
“You’ll see in a second.” He winked but then looked at the captain. “Thank you for letting me ask my question.”
“It was my pleasure, Captain Storme. We aren’t treated to much joyful news as this.” His grin was as wide as Brand’s. “She’ll continue to lead you on a merry chase, you know.”
“Oh, I hope she does, but then, only the best women do.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say something witty, but a commotion on deck interrupted the scene. The circle of sailors parted as William came forth with a pistol, waving it madly and scattering sailors in his wake.
“My sister isn’t going anywhere with you, Captain Storme.” Abject hate glittered in his dark eyes. His gaze bored into hers. “How can you trust a man who repeatedly has intercourse with prostitutes at that tavern, Elizabeth? No matter that they flaunt their bodies, he hasn’t the integrity needed for a husband of yours.”
What is happening?She stumbled when Brand abruptly released her. Then his words took root in her brain. “Wait, how do you know that? I never told you of the conversation between the captain and myself and the barmaid.”
William shrugged. In his dark suit, even if he did wear his clergy collar, he no longer resembled the emissary of God. No, now, with animosity seething through him, he looked more like he belonged to the devil’s minions. “Rumors surround men like Captain Storme. If some of them weren’t true, there wouldn’t be the need for gossip, would there?”
“I trust Brand.” She laid a hand on his arm. His muscles went taut beneath her fingertips. “No matter what he’s done in the past, it’s forgiven. As God does for us, we should do for those we love.” She smiled at him, her husband-to-be, and her heart squeezed. “I know the kind of man he is, and I couldn’t be happier.”
“Ha!” Her brother shook his head and waved his pistol again. “People don’t change, Elizabeth. It’s merely desperation talking, for you’re an old maid without prospects. You don’t wish to go to India with me, so you’ll take any man who offered for you.”
“Enough!” Brand bristled. He shook off her touch. “That’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, eh Hayhurst?” A warning rumbled through his voice that quivered the hair on her nape.
Before she could speak, William flicked a glance at him, looking at Brand as if he were excrement on the bottom of his shoe. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“No?” Brand glanced at Elizabeth, who frowned with confusion. “Let me tell you something about your good, Christian brother. He’s been—if you’ll pardon my coarse language. It’s needed here to make the point.” When she nodded, he continued. “He’s been fucking that barmaid at least once a week, but in addition to paying her—and cheating her on those wages—he beats her when she doesn’t fall in line with his preaching. I’ve seen the bruises, and so have you. No doubt he’s done more than that to humiliate her, for she needs the coin more than she needs the reputation. He probably conspired with her to tell you that lie about me, for I’ll swear until Judgment Day that I never took her to my bed.”
“What?” Elizabeth gasped, for she had indeed spied the bruise forming on the barmaid’s cheek that night. She peered at her brother. “Is that true?” There had been so much to take in during the past two days that she couldn’t absorb anything else.
At least William had the grace to blush. “Sometimes a man must minister to the fallen at their own level.”
“Did you pay her to tell that lie?” Oh, she should have trusted Brand from the first, but she’d let emotion carry her away.