“Why, you bloody—” Grabbing Avery’s lapel, he let fly with a powerful fist. The blow lifted Avery off his feet and sent him catapulting into a hibiscus bush. Neither the yelp of pain he gave upon landing nor the groan he emitted as he tried to sit up was very dignified.
Kyle stood over him, his expression savage. “I ought to keelhaul you,” he growled as he flexed his knuckles. “Get up, you scurvy bilge rat! I’m more your size.”
Selena, who disliked any form of violence, was visibly shaken now. Yet Avery’s double standards had incensed her. She stared down at him, holding one gloved hand to her smarting cheek, the other clenched in a gesture of defiance. “Play you false?” she jeered. “And just what do you call what you’ve been doing for the past year or more?”
“What does that mean?” Avery retorted, his tone guarded.
“It isn’t something I choose to bandy about in public! And it hardly matters now. I don’t intend to marry you. You won’t be getting the plantation you coveted.”
Avery stared at her. “But it was what your father wished.”
“My father would have been the first to understand,” Selena returned with icy civility. “If he had known you merely wanted the plantation, he never would have pressed me to accept your suit.”
“I don’t merely want the plantation. I want you, too, of course.”
“Oh, yes, you require a ‘chaste little puritan’ for your wife!” Selena raised her chin, determined not to give Avery the satisfaction of knowing how his betrayal had hurt her. “Well, even if I were to marry you, you wouldn’t be getting the virgin bride you wanted.”
She sensed Kyle’s sudden stiffening even before Avery’s eyes narrowed in a sharp glance.
“What,” Avery demanded in a tone that had suddenly turned ominous, “do you mean?”
Selena checked abruptly, realizing that in her distraught state she had said more than she ought. Avery had read into her words exactly what she had meant. “N-nothing,” she stammered, taking a step backward. “I only meant I wouldn’t marry you.”
Slowly, with effort, Avery climbed to his feet, his face darkening as he glanced from Selena to Kyle and back to Selena. “You little slut,” he breathed. “You gave him more than a kiss, didn’t you?”
Kyle took exception to the slur and raised a clenched fist, while Selena exclaimed, “No! Of course not!” with too much fervor.
They were all startled when Edith Markham spoke from the gallery. “Oh, Selena, how could you?” she exclaimed in shocked tones. “Bestowing your maidenhead on a common seaman!”
At the collective gasps that proceeded this statement, Selena’s gaze flew to the veranda. Edith was standing at the head of the steps, observing the altercation in the garden, an expression of dismay pasted on her face. Beside her stood Governor Ramsay, Beth Thorpe and half a dozen of the guests.
Shock drained the blood from Selena’s cheeks as she realized how complete her humiliation was. She heard Kyle curse under his breath, but she was too numb to do likewise, even if she had known the proper words.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Avery demanded, taking a menacing step toward Selena. He was taking a second step when a lethal voice interrupted him.
“You lay another finger on her,” Kyle warned, his tone low and deadly, “and I’ll carve you into so many pieces you won’t be fit for minnow bait.”
Halting where he stood, Avery cast a wary glance at the taller man. Then his gaze sliced back to Selena. “Is it true?”
White-faced, Selena stared back at him. Her disgrace was total. To have both her betrothed and her stepmother question her virtue before the elite ranks of Antiguan society was nearly as damning as if she had paraded naked down Market Street. Her own position irredeemable, she could only hope to spare Kyle any further embarrassment.
And to do so, she realized, thinking frantically, she would have to absolve him of blame. Merely protesting that she hadn’t lost her virtue to him would not be enough, for she wouldn’t be believed, not with Edith prepared to assert otherwise.
She was still considering her limited options when Avery once again demanded if it was true that she and Kyle were lovers. And before she could answer, Kyle’s patience snapped.
“Blast it, Warner, stop badgering her! Whether or not it’s true hardly matters.”
Turning then, his jaw set in a hard line, Kyle reached out to take Selena’s slender, gloved hand in his own large one. He glanced down at her pale, startled face only once before again fixing his scowl on Avery. “There’s a simple explanation for why you found us unchaperoned in the garden,” he said, raising his voice for the benefit of the watching crowd. “This morning Miss Markham did me the honor of agreeing to become my wife.”
Chapter Four
Unable to sleep for the second night in a row, Selena sat at her dressing table, slowly drawing a brush through her hair. The low-burning lamp beside her bathed her in a golden glow, highlighting the delicate lace trim of the wrapper she wore over her nightdress. She felt strangely calm now, despite the catastrophic events of the evening, despite the fact that she was now engaged to marry a stranger.
Captain Ramsey’s announcement had rendered her speechless. She hadn’t expected him to rescue her from a scandal that was greatly of her own making.
Selena’s hand stilled as she remembered the shocked expressions on the faces of the guests, which Kyle’s declaration had done little to mend. But then dear, kind Beth had stepped into the breach, scolding Avery for making a scene and spoiling her ball.
“Do calm yourself, Avery,” Beth had insisted. “I know you are greatly disappointed to lose Selena, but this is no way for a gentleman to act.” She turned to the governor with a bright smile. “Perhaps, sir, you would be kind enough to lead the company in a toast to congratulate Miss Markham and Captain Ramsey on their newfound happi