“Do you like the idea?” he asked as he stroked her hair and ran his hand over her neck.
“We won’t have a choice,” she said, evading giving an answer. “I’m sure we’re here for a purpose. I wonder why? Maybe Tabby and Garrett have a child who saves the world. Maybe Lavinia messed with destiny when she forced her daughter to marry Osborne, so now the house has sent us back to right the wrong.”
“That would mean we might leave as soon as it’s sure that they’ll conceive such a child. We say ‘I do’ and poof, we’re gone? Think that’s the plan?”
She heard disappointment in his voice, but also a bit of resignation. She looked up at him. “Maybe we’ll stay longer. Perhaps until the morning after the wedding night.”
That idea brought the smile back to his face and he kissed her.
What started out sweetly soon deepened, and when Graydon rolled on top of her, Toby pulled him closer. She opened her mouth under his as his hand moved over her bare shoulder to the top of her breast.
“Yes,” she murmured as Graydon’s lips moved down to her neck, then lower.
The two of them were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn’t hear the door open.
“Time for that later” came a voice that made Toby and Graydon reluctantly roll apart. The lawyer, Mr. Farley, was standing in the doorway, a piece of paper in his hand.
Garrett had a physical condition that made him reluctant to stand up. “Give me a minute,” he said as he sat up facing the wall.
“Better not take too long,” Mr. Farley said, “or Lavinia may change her mind. Osborne showed up and he’s threatening to sue. Says his reputation has been forever ruined by an ‘Almighty Kingsley.’ He’s offering money for Miss Tabitha.”
“I’ll deal with him. He better not—” Graydon began.
“How much?” Toby asked.
“You can’t be serious!” Graydon said as he came around the bed.
“I’d like to know how much I’m worth, that’s all,” she said.
“Where’s the paper?” Graydon asked and the lawyer handed it to him.
“Careful, the ink isn’t dry yet.”
Graydon scanned it, but the handwriting, so perfect, the s’s made into f’s, was quite difficult to read. The contract said he’d marry Miss Tabitha Lavinia Weber and support all the widowed women in the household, plus the children. A list of names followed. He would build Tabitha “a fine house” on Nantucket and never again go to sea.
Graydon didn’t hesitate as he asked for a pen and ink. He had a bit of trouble with the quill, but he signed it as Garrett Kingsley. He handed it to the lawyer, who witnessed it, then held out his arm toward the door.
“Are you ready?” Mr. Farley asked.
Toby went first, Graydon behind her, then the lawyer.
“Are you sure you want to take on Lavinia Weber as a mother-in-law?” Mr. Farley quietly asked Graydon. “The woman will make your life miserable. Wouldn’t you rather head out to a nice raging storm at sea?”
“I’d rather have Tabitha,” Graydon said firmly.
“Your brother Caleb is the only sensible one in your family. He would never lose his head over a woman.”
As Graydon started down the stairs, he gave a snort of derision. “Has my brother met Valentina yet?”
“Why, no … I don’t think he has. She arrived after he sailed.”
“Ah,” Graydon said. “In a month tell me again what my brother says about love.”
At the bottom of the stairs a dozen people were waiting to greet them, and he and Toby were separated. For all that the marriage was a hurried affair and in some ways forced, everyone knew it was a match of True Love, and they were glad of it. No one had wanted to see pretty little Tabitha married to Silas Osborne. The day had been joyous, with the marriage of Parthenia and John Kendricks, and now this new excitement. The island would be talking about it for years to come.
Graydon was surrounded by people he didn’t know and half pushed, half led down Main Street to the church.
All the wedding guests, even the original bride and groom, were there—and everyone was happily flushed from a lot of food and even more drink. Some of the men had their heads on the back of the benches and were snoring. If each man’s wife didn’t punch him awake, someone used a tall candle snuffer to reach out to do the job.