Page 74 of Pride of Honor
“No-.”
He took off his gloves and rubbed away a tear sliding down her cheek.
“As soon as my ship is provisioned with a full crew at the end of the month, we’ll return to our patrol off Africa. My solicitor has adjusted my will so that all of my estate will go to you if something happens to me.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you.” Sophie stood abruptly and held out her hand to him to stand with her. “I’m never going to let you go. You will always be here with me, no matter where you sail.” She pounded a fist against her chest. “And you’ll always come back to me.”
Arnaud lost the facility of language, so he did what men of the sea have always done with the women they love. A long time later he asked, “Shouldn’t we return to our guests?”
“Of course, but they’re all perfectly happy imbibing the contents of Sir Thomas’s wine cellar. I’m sure they won’t notice how long it takes us to get me out of this dress.” Sophie clasped his hand in hers and led him out of the park.
Once they were back in her small chamber and he had peeled away the fragile dress, down to her chemise, silk stockings, and gold slippers, she backed away from his arms. Mischief sparked in her eyes, dark and full of promise in the shadows of dusk. “Before you kiss me witless again, I have one question.” She rubbed at the gold band on her finger and twisted the circle so that the rubies gleamed in the candlelight. “Where did you find this beautiful ring?”
“I did not have to find the ring. It found me. That is the ring my grandfather, the pirate, gave my grandmother when they exchanged vows in the church on Martinique. And they loved each other for a very long time.”
Epilogue
1825, Bellingham House, Hampshire
Sophie restedon a heavily cushioned wicker chair on the terrace. A sweep of green lawn stretched down to the bluffs overlooking the sea on Arnaud’s mother’s country estate near Portsmouth. She wetted the lead of a pencil stub and lifted her eyes skyward for inspiration.
Her mother-in-law, Honore Bellingham, crushed her skirts beneath her on the grass where she knelt in front of her grandsons. Servants clattered in and out of the house, loading trunks onto a carriage in the front drive.
Honore lifted a protesting tom kitten out of a basket and placed him on the grass where two small boys eagerly reached for him. “Wait. He has a brother as well.” She reached to the bottom of the basket and produced another six-toed cat from the depths.
“Nana, why do they have so many toes?” Jean snatched back a hand after his quarry swatted him with sharp little claws.
“If you are very good, and don’t argue with Nurse when it is time for your naps, there is a tale I will tell you about the far away island you’re going to visit. The kittens’ many-greats-grandfather sailed there years ago with a sea captain who was a friend of your great-grandfather.”
“Whyn’t you go with us, Nana?” Paolo frowned, and a tear slid down his chubby cheek.
“Nana has to stay here and take care of the family business which will one day belong to you and your brother.”
“But we don’t want to leave you.” Jean sniffled and stretched his hands toward her.
Honore pulled him into her arms. “Don’t cry.” She buried her nose in his neck and kissed him soundly. “You’ll be back before you know it, and I promise to visit you in your dreams.”
“Promise?” Paolo snuffled and gave a great sigh. Arnaud joined them and sank onto the grass. The kittens scrambled to climb his legs, and both boys bounded to his side.
Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by two small cats attacking his arms and scratching his neck. “Away you swabs,” he intoned and stood, foisting the felines off onto his sons. “We’ll be at sea a long time, and these cats will have to earn their keep.”
“How, Papa?” Paolo hoisted his kitten onto his shoulder where a heavy woolen shirt padded him from the small creature’s claws.
Arnaud leaned down and twisted his face into a grimace. “They’ll eat the mousies who get into our grain.”
The boys squealed and ran toward Sophie. She gathered them in close. “Why are you scaring the boys? They will never go down for their naps now.” She leveled a cross stare at Arnaud.
“Someone has to toughen them up. Maybe they’ll soon have a sister to protect.” Squeals erupted again.
Sophie shook her head, shooed the boys back toward Arnaud, and returned to puzzling out the end of her latest poem.
Honore stood and joined her son. The boys rolled on the grass with the kittens. “A little girl? How can you be so sure?”
“I know these things. At night the little one rolls and kicks against me, and then she changes direction immediately.” He gazed at his wife who pretended to ignore him while she scribbled in her journal. “She already has the mind of a strong, determined woman.”
“You donotknow. Stop teasing your mother with her hope for a granddaughter.” Sophie stood and gave him a triumphant look, handing him the journal. “It’s finished.”
Arnaud rolled his eyes, but his mother gave him a frown. “Read the last two lines for me,” Honore demanded.
“For when all tis done, and the sea’s calmed the wind; the captain returns to his family again.”
After he finished reciting the lines, Arnaud returned the journal to Sophie and pulled her into his arms for a long kiss. A while later, he murmured into her ear, “I thank the ocean gods every day for bringing me safely back to you.”
-THE END-