“And to you, my lord.” After they had toasted and begun to eat, she gazed around the cabin. There was a large, comfortable-looking bunk attached to the bulkhead across from them. Above it, starlight streamed through a narrow transom. The realization that she and Adam were alone together in the same room with a bed made her blush. “Won’t you tell me about this ship? Have you become a sea captain as well as a lawyer since my departure from Tempest Hall?”
He arched a dark brow and lounged back in his chair. “Actually, the Golden Eagle was my grandfather’s ship, built in Essex, Connecticut. He and Gran Adrienne sailed her from England to Barbados in 1818, and I imagine that they shared adventures of their own in this very cabin...” He reached out to lace his fingers through hers. “As for the rest, let’s just say that I am a sea captain for this night. A night out of time.”
“Yes.” Staring at the fine lace spilling across the back of his hand, Cathy felt as if she had fallen into an eighteenth century novel. “Will you enlighten me further about the pirate treasure? Is it real? The same one on your grandmother’s map?”
“Yes, and I have come to believe that it’s quite real. When this night is over, I’ll answer all your questions, but for now I ask only that you give yourself over to the adventure... and trust me.”
He looked wickedly handsome in the lanternlight, every inch a pirate in his loose shirt. The old flintlock pistol and a sword in an engraved scabbard were stuck in the red sash knotted round his waist, and hard-muscled, booted legs stretched out to graze her own small feet. Cathy closed her eyes for a moment, nearly overcome by the power of her feelings for him and the magical night they were sharing.
Slowly nodding, she whispered, “Yes. I can do that.”
Raveneau sat up at that, leaning forward to touch the backs of his fingers to her soft cheek. “You won’t regret it, love. I mean to make all your dreams come true tonight.”
“Well then... I surrender.”
“Do you indeed?” Passion flared in his eyes. “We’ll see, my beauty.”
In the hours before dawn, when the air was hazy with moonlight, Adam sat across from Cathy in the longboat as he rowed them toward the reef that protected Cave Bay. The Golden Eagle was anchored to the east, strung with lanterns that bobbed with the ship. The glittering, choppy Atlantic Ocean was spread out around them, sometimes splashing into the boat. It would require all his skill to bring them safely through the currents and surf.
It would have been prudent to bring other crewmembers in the longboat, but Adam wanted to be alone with Cathy on the beach tonight. This was their adventure, and the magic depended on their solitude.
Pulling back on the oars, he watched her as she looked excitedly toward the shore. Her beautiful hair tumbled down her back, and she had added a head scarf fastened pirate-style to her costume. He adored the line of her profile: her big brown eyes, the delicate snub of her nose, the lips he dreamed of tasting, and her proud chin. It was maddening, the way he hungered for her night and day. He hadn’t felt anything like this since his youth, when he’d been ruled by lust. This aching need went much deeper, however, because it was intimately connected to his heart.
“What a wonderful adventure this is,” Cathy exclaimed suddenly.
“Yes...” As the sea spray showered them, he gave her a devilish grin. “Rowing in Eden, so to speak.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You! You looked at the poem I was reading when I was sleeping tonight!”
“How could I help it? It was open on your breast. I was mesmerized.”
“You are a wicked man, to take advantage of me in such a vulnerable state. Just like a real pirate!” Then, Cathy sat up straighter and pointed toward land. “I can see the cave! Adam, it’s the beach where I went swimming that day and you saved me from drowning!”
Laughing, he shook his head. “No, that wasn’t me. That was someone else, a brute who didn’t deserve you.”
Their eyes met for a long moment, her own suffused with answering laughter and something richer that gave him hope. Just then, a great wave lifted the boat and sent it plunging down with alarming speed. Water surged over the sides, but Cathy had the presence of mind to cling to her wooden bench seat. Adam used all his strength to maneuver the oars so that the boat would not capsize, and moments later they were riding high on a new wave toward the beach.
When the boat skidded forcefully onto the sand, Adam leaped out and pulled it to safety before the tide could yank them back into the surf. Next, he reached for Cathy, lifting her into his arms and bringing her out of the boat.
“I’m sorry. Were you frightened?” He held her fast against him.
“With you as my protector? How could I be?”
“You’re all wet—”
“This is Barbados! It’s warm, and my clothes will dry quickly.” Before he could protest again, she put a finger over his mouth. “This is an adventure, remember?”
His hand came up to hold hers there, and he kissed her palm for a long moment, closing his eyes to hold back the unfamiliar tide of emotions. At length, he shifted her hand to his jaw. “We should get on with the treasure hunt before I start kissing you and become impossibly distracted.”
“Kissing...?” she repeated, lips slightly parted.
“Yes, kissing. Have I told you that I love the way you look in pirate clothes?” He gave a husky laugh and held her away from him. The wet shirt clung to her uncorseted breasts, and her legs were artfully displayed in trousers. “You’re entirely too alluring.”
“And my mother thinks that only a Paris gown and Tiffany jewels will attract a man!”
“Your mother is wholly ignorant of the ways of men. And I won’t have her on this beach with us tonight, even in spirit!”
“Yes, my lord,” she replied meekly, then tapped his chest. “What’s that you have under your shirt?”
Raveneau drew out a leather pouch and led her to a large, flat rock a few yards away. “Wait here.” He put the pouch in her hands before going to fetch the shovel and lantern he’d stowed under the boat seats.
When he returned, he produced matches to light the lantern. Cathy watched as he unfurled some papers from the pouch and studied the markings on the old piece of parchment, explaining, “This is Gran’s map. Do you see this spot where the dotted lines begin? That’s just outside the cave, where you tripped the day we quarreled here on the beach.”
“What? Do you mean that object I tripped over was put there by Stede Bonnet?”
He nodded, still studying the map. “I do.”
“But that was nearly two centuries ago! How could it still be there in the sand? Wouldn’t it have shifted with time?”
“Bonnet had the foresight to use a long peg, wedged inside a crack in the cliff wall.” Smiling, Adam pointed to the numbers on the faded sheet of parchment. “He was crafty, that’s why no one else who had this map over the years was able to find the bloody treasure. None of these numbers is the right one. He left the code hidden in his Bridgetown house, which fortuitously became my law office.”
Looking around the sandy cove with its cave, cliffs, and the eerie skeleton of Victoria Villa looming in the distance above them, Cathy shivered again with excitement. “I am reminded of Treasure Island, my brother’s favorite book. Stephen used to make me hunt for the ‘treasure’ that he hid on the grounds of our estate in Long Island.”
“You must miss him very much.”
“He would have loved this night...” Her eyes misted before she came back to the present. “I must say that none of the pirates in Treasure Island were half as splendid as you, my lord.”
“Are you comparing me to Long John Silver?” Adam handed the leather pouch to Cathy and gathered up the shovel and lantern. He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t her blasted lord, he was her husband, but he kept his own counsel. After all, she hadn’t come home yet. “Follow me, my beauty. You will be my assistant.”
Happily, she clutched the pouch to her breasts and ran along through the sand at his side. It was low tide, and the cave yawned open ahead of them, its entrance shrouded in clumps of sea grapes. The notion that two centuries ago Stede Bonnet himself had been here before them and they were walking in his footsteps was thrilling beyond measure.
Reaching the entrance to the cave, Adam pointed to a place he had marked that morning with a shell wedged between the rocks. “This is where the peg is buried. I’m certain it’s our starting point for the search.”
“You have already been here to set the stage?” Her face fell. “Are we just going through the motions?”
“Absolutely not! I just stopped by this morning to get my bearings so that we wouldn’t be flailing around in the dark. I’m sure you have noticed that everything looks different by moonlight.” Raveneau hunkered down, muscles flexing in his thighs as he held the lantern closer to the stone cliff. Then, he began to dig gently with his hands. “I just covered it with a few inches of sand...”
“It’s very exciting!”
He continued to push the sand away, perplexed. The ruby-set knob should have appeared by now. Could the tide have shifted the sand so much in less than one day? When it became clear that the ruby wasn’t where he expected it to be, he began to explore all along the stony entrance to the cave until he located his quarry nearly a foot away. And this time, when he pulled on the egg-shaped knob, the peg easily slipped free from the sand.