This Perfect Kiss (31 page)

Authors: Melody Thomas

She stood just inside the circle of firelight, her hand clasped to the edges of her cloak, her hair a beacon of gold. He reached his arm out as she ran into his embrace. She held him so hard that he didn't know if it was her heart he felt beating so hard or his own. And just that fast the world seemed to right itself back on its axis.

“You will leave Scotland, Westmont,” he said. “My men will escort you to the
Anna.
I have a sudden want for fine rum in the West Indies, and you will be accompanying my crew. If you ever return, I will kill you.”

“You cannot do this!”

“Get him in irons, Bentwell. Now.” Camden stepped away. “I can. I am. 'Tis over.”

Bentwell and three of his men from the
Anna
dragged Westmont to his feet. But with a roar, his hair wet from sweat, Westmont shoved away from the hands holding him. He ran toward Camden, reaching for the sword Camden had tossed to the ground, aiming for the final lethal thrust. Camden's leg would not allow him to drop and pick up the sword and stand again. His hands tightened on Christel to shove her aside as a flash of growling, mangy fury leaped across the sand and brought Westmont to the ground, landing him flat on his back in the sand. He screamed as Dog tore at his hand and arm.

For a moment, Camden didn't think Christel was going to call off Dog. She did, bringing the hound to their side as Westmont swore and shouted obscenities. “Good boy,” he heard Christel say. “If he was a rabbit, you would have eaten him.”

Camden knelt in the sand and touched Dog's head. “I think we can find a nice warm place at Blackthorn,” he said.

“We can share the gold!” Westmont was shouting as Camden's crew dragged him away.

Camden leaned heavily into Christel as she settled her shoulder beneath his and helped him stand. “Do you want to share the king's gold with a murderer,
a leannen
?”

She looked up at Leighton as he came to stand next to the dog. “I want to take you both home. 'Tis time we all sit down as a family.”

Chapter 20

T
here was no breeze as Camden strode from the stable, only an inland stillness that reeked of seaweed that came with the scent of low tide. When he finished his morning's business on the ship's manifest, he found Christel in her room. Folding his arms, he leaned against the door. She'd been spending a lot of her time in her room during these last few weeks. And that worried him. She was not eating. That worried him more.

Christel sat at her desk, bent over a drawing.

It had been almost a month since Sir Jacob had vanished with the
Anna
, a week since Tia's tribunal and her sentenceâtransport to Australia. Six days since the magistrate had allowed him to wed Christel so that Tia could be part of this moment. He had asked Christel to marry him before the tribunal had begun. She belonged with him at Blackthorn Castle. They would wed again in a larger ceremony at St. Abigal's later in the month when life became less chaotic. He'd been back and forth from Prestwick with a number of loose ends that needed tying, including his relationship with Leighton. They had made their peace, as fragile as it was.

“Leighton was given permission to go with Tianna,” he said when Christel looked up to find him standing in the doorway. “As was Doctor White. We just received permission today. The English are building a new colony there.”

Christel sat straight. “Doctor White? But he and Leighton were not convicted of anything.”

“Nevertheless they will not allow Tianna to go alone, and the transports and colonies are in desperate need of doctors.” Camden sat on the edge of the desk, where she was working on her drawings, and smoothed the hair from her face. “ 'Twas not too many years ago, prisoners were transported to the American colonies. Look where that got the empire.”

Christel laid her cheek on his thigh. “But I only just began to know her, Camden.”

“ 'Tis for seven years. If I know Leighton, they will not remain long where they are sent.”

C
hristel visited Tianna one last time before Tia was loaded on the prison transport ship. They'd already said their good-byes. And as Christel and Grams and Camden watched the ship sail away that warm August day, she thought her heart would die. Christel brought Grams back to Blackthorn Castle, where she remained with the dowager and Anna for a week before she decided there were others who needed her: Reverend Nunn at St. Abigal's and the children at the orphanage.

One day in late September Christel finally sat down and wrote Daniel Claremont's sister Elizabeth and her husband, Lieutenant Ross. She told them about her new life and her husband and the child they had on the way and due next spring. She would love if they traveled to Blackthorn Castle.

Christel and Camden were married a second time in a formal ceremony at St. Abigal's that month. A poor man's ceremony, what some called it. Sir Jacob's prediction about Camden's financial fall had borne out, and they were now poor aristocracy but with big dreams. He still had the
Anna,
and humble beginnings did not mean he did not have plans. They faced each other and spoke the promise in their hearts, and as she met the conviction in Camden's gaze, she felt alive.

More than alive. She felt peace. She was not sure of anything except Camden's steadfast love and his promise that he would never forsake his family and a life they would begin together.

When Christel woke again, the next day, a silk dress made from spun gold and golden slippers lay on the chair. The note simply said, “
We never had our dance. C.”

She lifted the gown. Holding it against herself, she ran to the mirror. Gold was indeed the color of enchantment, as she'd once believed. The dress flowed around her as if she'd been seventeen again and a princess in her own fairy tale. The dress and shoes were the very same she had worn over ten years ago. The dress thankfully laced up the front, and, though loosened, the bodice was tight. Still, she had never felt more beautiful.

Christel saw him from the gilt-edged balcony overlooking the grand ballroom.

Camden stood at the bottom of the stairs, his elbow on the newel post. He no longer wore the dark royal blue uniform of a naval officer, but he was no less resplendent garbed in silver gray silk, white shirt and stock and dark breeches. It was just the two of them.

“Where did you find my dress and shoes?”

“Tia found the dress a few years ago in the attic at Rosecliffe. The shoes I have always had.”

He led her onto the dance floor, and her pulse leapt, then raced as his body encompassed hers. He slid his fingers into the warmth of her hair and tilted her face. Their eyes met and loved in a timeless embrace before he lowered his mouth to her lips. “I love you,” he whispered.

She loved him, too. Not the infatuation of a young girl's heart, but something deep and promising and enduring. Something she imagined her parents had once shared.

In her imagination music floated high above the spacious floor to resonate against the dome-shaped roof. “We could be the sun and the moon,” she said in amusement, and he pulled her nearer.

His step was not perfect, but for her it mattered little. “You are the closest to heaven I will ever get, love,” he said against her hair.

Heaven, where dreams were like the rolling waves of a summer sea, ever changing and infinite.

Where the magic they'd discovered one enchanted evening would endure to grow and nurture generations to come.

Where gold was the color of dreams that came not from the wealth in a man's pocket but from his heart.

She had found her treasure.

It was the end of the day, and the beginning of the rest of their lives. And with Christel wrapped in Camden's arms, the man once known as the Barracuda had finally brought her home.

About the Author

M
ELODY
T
HOMAS
is a wordsmith, a creator of dreams, and a
passionate believer in happy endings. A product of thirteen schools and
twenty-two moves stretching across the United States and Europe, she is a
self-proclaimed gypsy. Her fascination with historical romance began when, in
her teens, she visited the Tower of London and learned that Henry the Eighth had
beheaded two of his wives. This was great fodder for her teenage imagination and
the start of a love affair with history, intrigue, and irresistible heroes.

Melody now lives with her husband
near Chicago and invites you to visit her website at www.melodythomas.com.

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By Melody Thomas

This Perfect Kiss

Claimed By a Scottish Lord

Beauty and the Duke

Passion and Pleasure in London

Sin and Scandal in England

Wild and Wicked in Scotland

Angel In My Bed

A Match Made in Scandal

Must Have Been the Moonlight

In My Heart

This book is a work of fiction. The
characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and
are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright Â© 2011 by Laura Renken. All rights
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EPub Edition JULY 2011 ISBN:
9780062092380

FIRST EDITION

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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