For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

It was dark out, but enough candles were lit to give the church a glow that was soft and beautiful.

Graydon was positioned at the front of the church and Rory came to stand beside him.

“I figure you’d rather have Caleb but no one can find him.”

“He’s probably locked away somewhere with a keg of rum,” Graydon said. Rory nodded in understanding.

Valentina came down the aisle carrying the same bouquet she’d held a few hours earlier for Parthenia’s wedding.

Behind her came Toby in her dress that a queen had worn. Graydon knew there had never been a more beautiful sight in his life. She was on the arm of an older man whom he didn’t recognize.

When they stopped at the front, Graydon stepped forward to take Toby’s hand.

The words spoken by the pastor were different, but when Graydon pledged his love, his care, and his worldly goods to Tabitha, he meant every word he spoke.

As for Toby, she seemed a bit hesitant at first, but then she smiled and repeated her vows to him.

Rory handed them rings to exchange. “Jeweler was already here,” he said to Graydon’s questioning eyes.

“Would that it were a lavender diamond,” Graydon whispered as he slipped the narrow gold ring on Toby’s finger. It fit perfectly.

She closed her hand around it. She liked it just as it was.

After the ceremony, everyone on the island seemed to be happy—except for Lavinia, who still thought Garrett would renege and go back to the sea. She kept muttering, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

As soon as they got back to Kingsley House, the second newly married couple was kept apart with everyone toasting them and whisking Toby into dances. Girls gathered around Graydon to tease him about the coming night.

At one point he escaped long enough to go to a long table to get a mug of homemade beer. Valentina stopped beside him.

“I’m so glad you saved Tabby,” she said. “She was willing to sacrifice herself but it would have been a miserable marriage.”

“Very bad,” Graydon said, looking at her. She was exactly like Victoria, only years younger. Between her face and her outrageous figure, a lot of which was exposed by the low-cut neckline of the dress, he could understand why Captain Caleb had mistaken her for a lady of the evening. And if his time calculations were correct, she was the only one who knew that he was locked in the attic with no clothes.

“You wouldn’t know what happened to my brother Caleb, would you?”

Valentina looked away. “I’m afraid I’ve never been introduced to him.”

Graydon could see that her neck was turning red and the color was spreading upward.

“I was just thinking that after our lengthy sea voyage it might be good for him to have some time alone, time to remember that he’s no longer the commander of men.”

Valentina looked at Graydon with widened eyes, as though trying to figure out what he knew.

He lowered his voice. “Whatever you do, don’t give in to him. Show him that you’re worth more than all the seven seas combined.”

Valentina just stood there s

taring, unable to speak.

Graydon put down his empty mug. “Excuse me while I go dance with my bride.” He caught Toby’s hand and pulled her away from a little man who looked old enough to be her grandfather.

The wedding guests were lining up on two sides as they prepared to go into some complicated dance that required everyone to know the steps. When the fast, energetic music of the dance started, Toby pulled away to go to the women’s side, but Graydon wouldn’t release her hand. “We have to—” she began.

But he pulled her into his arms in the traditional form of a waltz—a dance that wouldn’t come to the U.S. for several years—and began to glide her about the room. Everyone stopped and stared at the scandalous close-body movement. The musicians quit playing, then frantically tried to come up with a tune that fit what the dancers were doing. The other guests stepped back to give the young couple room.

Graydon and Toby were dancing as they had before the dinner party—which now seemed so very long ago. A lifetime, centuries.

Toby closed her eyes and gave herself over to the sensation of being held by Graydon and of dancing with him.