“A Kingsley who doesn’t go to sea?” There was contempt in Lavinia’s voice. “That is not possible.”
Graydon could see that he was making no progress with the woman so he decided to take a chance. If Osborne was bad in the future, there would probably be evidence of it in the present. “Do you think Silas Osborne is going to honor his bargain with you? Is he known for his honesty?” The faces of the crowd showed him that he’d been right, and for the first time he saw Lavinia hesitate.
“What would you do if you stayed on this island?” she asked, this time with less venom in her voice.
“I will run my family’s business. And if you give your blessing so that Tabby and I can marry this night”—there was a gasp from the audience—“I will fully repair your house and help support all the widows and orphans in your family.”
For a moment there was only silence from all of them. Toby and Graydon didn’t know if it was shock at what he was offering or the idea that a Nantucket male—a Kingsley no less!—could even think of giving up the sea.
A woman’s voice broke the silence. “Will you find us husbands?”
“Only if I can ship you to Lanconia,” Graydon said, making a joke.
“I’ll be packed in an hour,” the woman shot back and everyone laughed.
“Well?” Graydon said, looking at Lavinia. “Do we have a bargain?”
Toby moved to stand so close to Graydon that they were hardly separate beings.
“Mr. Farley!” Lavinia shouted over her shoulder, and a small man came forward, a pair of spectacles on his nose. “Get a pen and paper and start drawing up the contract.”
“I’ve had too much
to drink to do a lawyer’s work. I’d have to—” he began, but one look at the fury on the woman’s face and he gave in. He made his way through the crowd, muttering, “When Captain Caleb hears about this, I’ll be a dead man.”
“What do you think they’re doing?” Toby asked as she stood by the door and listened. She didn’t exactly have her ear against it, but close. But all she could hear was laughter and music from downstairs. After Graydon’s declaration that he’d sign a contract and marry Tabitha tonight, they had been half shoved back to Kingsley House and locked inside the room that would someday be Victoria’s bedroom. It was larger than it would be in the twenty-first century because no space had yet been taken from it to put in a bathroom. The big fireplace looked well used, but now, in summer, it was covered by a pretty screen. There were only two candles in the room, so it was quite shadowy.
When Graydon didn’t answer, Toby turned to him. He was stretched out on the bed, hands behind his head, and smiling up at the underside of the canopy. All the chairs had been taken downstairs for the wedding guests to use, so the bed was the only place to sit.
“I think they’re plotting our future,” he said.
She walked over to stand by him. “Why are you so calm about all this?”
“Because I like it.”
He said it with so much enthusiasm that Toby laughed.
Moving over on the bed, he patted the space beside him.
She hesitated, but then she used the little wooden steps to climb up and stretched out beside him. She too looked up. “You aren’t concerned that we’re doing the wrong thing?”
“Couldn’t be worse than what actually did happen.”
“But then, we don’t know all the facts, do we?” she said. “Maybe Tabitha did come to love someone else. Maybe she just doesn’t want to marry Garrett.”
“Think not?” he asked and there was amusement in his voice.
She rolled onto her side to face him and he put his hand in her hair. “What if we stay?” she whispered. “What if we never leave here?”
He put his hand on her cheek. “Would that be so bad?” he asked softly. Turning her head, she kissed the palm of his hand.
Smiling, he pulled her head down onto his shoulder and held her to him. “If we stayed here, I’d do my best to run the Kingsley family business, and I would send your sisters-in-law to Lanconia, where they’d be treasured as wives. I would buy and sell ships and—”
“What about us?” Toby asked.
“We’d have six children. At least that many. You could grow acres of flowers and fill the houses with them.”
It all sounded so wonderful that Toby was afraid to move, scared that everything would disappear in a second.