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Please don’t get burned. She wanted to say it, but he moved away from the flame as Elias sat down.
Little Soraya sat on Elias’s lap, and his arms went around her.Sweet.Next to them sat Lani, so young when she’d come to the orphanage that she didn’t remember her parents. Doyle wasn’t wrong to find them homes, but they needed so much in the meantime. And what about those who didn’t find families? Didn’t get the happy ending that others got?
She stepped back, a chill brushing through her, something in the wind, and she looked up, hoping a rain gust wasn’t moving in. The air hung thick with the scent of the sea, and the glow of the flames rippled on the water. The soca players had taken a break, leaving just the murmur of conversation.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Ethan asked, grinning.
“Tell uth!” This from Lando, one of the seven-year-olds. He had gotten his cleft lip corrected a year ago, during a Mercy Ships docking.
“This is the tale of Raging Rodrigo and the Dutch merchantman.” He looked at Tia and winked.
She should find Doyle, see how it was going. Her gaze went to the chapel, but it seemed that it had emptied, the children joining the rest of the listeners.
“It was a night much like this, dark as a crow’s feather, and windy enough to sweep the devil off his course.”
Giggles, and even she smiled.
“Raging Rodrigo was a fearsome pirate, notorious across the Caribbean for his cunning and greed. It was the golden age of piracy, and he aimed to carve his name alongside the likes of Blackbeard and Calico Jack. But that night, his eyes were bigger than his belly, you might say. He set his sights on a Dutch ship, heavy-laden and slow from its long voyage, just entering the harbor...”
“And filled with gold, right?” This from Jaden.
“Yes. Gold and spices, enough to make any man’s heart quicken. Rodrigo took it all, but his greed was his undoing. He loaded his ship with the Dutchman’s gold, hoping to escape, but as soon as he sailed out of the harbor, the gale hit. He tried to make off with the gold in the chaos of the storm. His ship, theTrident,didn’t stand a chance against those rocks.” He pointed northwest, toward the cliffs. “Dashed against the rocks, it went down, into the depths.” He lowered his voice. “To Davy Jones’s locker.”
Tia laughed and looked across the crowd that had formed. Declan Stone stood with the woman Doyle had greeted. He leaned over, said something to her. She smiled.
So maybe... Aw,what was her problem? She’d been so very blind for years, maybe now she’d overcorrected. It didn't matter—Doyle was her coworker. Er, codirector, rather...
Aw, whatever. Dating a codirectorcould only get complicated. She was over complicated,thank you.
“What happened to Rodrigo?” one of the donors, a blonde, asked Ethan.
“They say he washed overboard, swallowed by the sea. Never found his body, nor the gold. But”—he held up his hand—“someone did survive.”
A beat.
“Who?” Lionel, now, standing in the back. “Who lived?”
“The only soul who made it to shore was a young Dutch sailor, name of Henry van der Meer. The monks found him half dead on the beach come morning, clutching a piece of the wreck.”
“What about the gold?”
Tia looked up, tried to find the source of the question. Ethan did too. He looked around, then leaned back toward the children.
“Henry never spoke a word about the gold. Claimed he knew nothing. But folks around here? They say he found it and hid it away, fearing Rodrigo’s ghost and greedy eyes alike.”
“On the island?” Jaden whispered.
Tia rolled her eyes.Great. Just super.Now she’d have children sneaking out to find lost gold.
Ethan shrugged. “Many have looked. But this island’s got secrets as deep as the ocean.”
“I’d hide something in the crypt under the chapel. No one goes there,” Rohan said.
What crypt?She gave him a look, shook her head. They didn’t need treasure hunters, or even the kids trying to find a secret passageway under the monastery.
Rohan shrugged. “Just saying. I heard bootleggers used to hide whiskey in caskets.”
“That’s enough, Ro.”