For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

Graydon had one of her hands done. The binding was very snug and wouldn’t allow her wrist to bend. “I like the other one better.”

At first Toby didn’t know what he meant. “You mean that I’ve never wanted to … you know?”

“Yes, that one.” He had both her hands wrapped and he inspected them, turning them over. Leaning forward, he whispered, “Do I have your permission to seduce you?” With that, he stepped back and nodded to Daire, who came forward with the boxing gloves and began to put them on Toby.

She looked around Daire to see Graydon slipping his hands into some big leather pads. “So what would you do?” she asked. “Rose petals on my bed? Riding black horses at midnight? Or maybe long, flowery love letters?”

When Toby’s gloves were on, Daire stepped away.

“Have they all been tried on you?” Graydon asked as he stood before her.

“That and much more. It started when I was sixteen and didn’t stop until I moved in with Lexie, with Jared nearby.”

“Hit this pad with your left hand,” he said. “Do it quickly and pull back fast. Good,” he said when she’d done it. “Now come across with your right.”

After her second hit, he took off the pads, went behind her to put his body close to hers, and ran his hand down the length of her arm. “When you hit with your right, turn your hand this way. Come back quickly. Don’t leave your arm extended so your body is unprotected.”

He put the pads back on and stood before her. “Back and forth. Ten times.”

It was an unusual exercise to Toby but already she was beginning to catch on.

“Is such vigorous pursuit of a young girl usual in America?” he asked when the round was done.

“No!” Toby said, then slammed her right glove hard into his hand pad.

She didn’t see the way Graydon looked at Daire. She had some strength in her body!

“My father is rich and my mother is cooperative,” Toby said as she stopped to take a breath. Boxing was an all-out sport that took every bit of a person’s mind and body.

Graydon went behind her and again put his arms around her. This time he showed her how to do a left hook. He stepped away. “Left jab, right cross, left hook. Got it?”

“I can try,” Toby said as she did the combination ten times.

“I don’t need your father’s money or your mother’s approval,” Graydon said when she’d finished and he began to untie her gloves.

“Good thing,” Toby answered. “If my mother knew about you, she’d be here screaming at me to run away. You’re not exactly available for marriage.”

With her hand in his, the teasing left Graydon’s eyes and he looked at her seriously. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of a modern mother who is so intent on getting her daughter into a suitable marriage.”

Toby started taking the wraps off her hands. “If I believe the dream I had last night, she has a reason to be so particular about who I marry. She lost a husband, three sons, and a son-in-law to the sea, and I—I mean Tabby—was fooling around in the garden with a man who said that the sea was in his blood. I bet Tabby married him, he died on his ship, and yet another sea widow was stuck in that old house. Whoever she married, I’m pretty sure that Tabby died in that room off the back of the big living room. Even today the place makes my skin crawl in fear!”

When she looked up, the three Lanconians were all staring at her in wide-eyed silence. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to go into a tirade. It’s all from a dream I had, that’s all. It was just that it was so very real, I felt like I was there. Why are you looking at me like that?”

Graydon smiled at her. “We are a superstitious country, that’s all. Shall we have something to eat? Why don’t we all go out to Seagrille? I find that all this talk of the sea has made me want some fish. Is that all right with you, Carpathia?”

Toby looked at him. “How do you know that’s my name?”

“You told me.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said, “but I told Garrett and he called me that last night.”

Graydon was frowning. “Is this the man in your dream who looks like me? Who you were kissing?”

“Yes,” she said. “Usually, a dream fades during the day, but this one keeps getting stronger in my mind. It’s like I’m supposed to do something about it or with it, but I don’t know what.”

“How about if we go out to lunch and you tell us all about your dream, every word of it? These two love a good ghost story, don’t you?”

Obediently, Lorcan and Daire nodded, but they said nothing.