"Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely..."
Roy T. Bennett
Chapter Eleven
A Brave New World
Martha smiled contentedly as she bustled along Gull Cottage's front path, her eagle eye assessing all the refreshments, servants and guests. She'd left nothing to chance and felt deeply proud of her efforts to make the wedding reception a glorious success.
Seeing another carriage drawing up at the open front gate she hurried forward to greet the latecomers to the event. "Good evening," she enthused, using her ostrich feather fan to indicate the arriving couple were to go before her.
"Welcome to Gull Cottage." She conducted the pair to a vacant table on the edge of the dance floor. "Please help yourselves to refreshments. Yes, it is a rather splendid event, isn't it?"
She nodded quickly as she turned to walk back around the press of swirling dancers on the wooden floor to check on the refreshment tables. She stopped, as something different caught her approving eye.
The two people who should be dancing were not. They were standing in the middle of the dance floor, totally absorbed in each other.
"Well, isn't seeing them together like this just the icing on the cake?" she asked of no one in particular when she saw Daniel and Carolyn draw closer in each other's arms as they kissed, utterly oblivious to the people moving around them.
Among the wedding guests, there were a few disapproving looks at their forwardness, mainly from the older folk who felt such outwardly public displays of affection should be kept private. But most of the attendees appeared happy to simply be enjoying a very fine evening of good food, wine and conversation.
"Oh, pish tosh…" Martha waved a dismissing hand at an older, stout matron who frowned her way and seemed about to comment. "It's their wedding and they're in love. What could be sweeter?"
"Did I hear you speaking of cake?" Claymore appeared beside her with Mrs Coburn clinging determinedly to his arm. "I would say it's about time we got around to cutting this or we will be here all night."
He waved his free hand impatiently toward the two waiters placing the magnificent, three-tiered confection that he'd just commanded be carried from the kitchen in its pride of place on the central table.
Claymore smirked as he turned to watch his cousin so deeply involved with his new bride that he was oblivious to all social conventions. "Though I doubt they have such mundane things as food on their minds right now."
"Ohhh, you can be so outrageous…" Mrs Coburn fluttered her fan alluringly, cuddling closer to his arm with a simpering look up at him.
She leaned even closer. "Sometimes I wish you would kiss me like that.." She sighed dreamily. "It would make me so very happy."
"I… in public!" Claymore tugged worriedly at his fancy, yellow bow tie. "Why it's not at all seemly," he huffed, his eyebrows rising as a flush of embarrassed colour mantling his pale cheeks. "You know very well I am a stickler for maintaining social boundaries."
"Don't I know it…" Mrs Coburn sighed dramatically, her eyes once again straying longingly to Daniel's broad shoulders and handsome face. "If only you were a little more like your cousin."
"Is there to be cake for us, Martha?" Candy asked, appearing out of the crowd of dancers. "I've been dancing and now I'm getting rather hungry."
"I like cake a lot," Jonathan added as he followed his sister, studying the tiered dessert with wide eyes.
"Well, I tell you, I do not think that that exhibition is at all seemly," Emily Williams commented tersely as she walked up to the group, frowning back at her daughter and new son-in-law's intimate closeness. "Anyone may look and judge them as being very forward."
"They're young and very much in love," her husband stated quickly, following her. He drew her arm through his and patted her hand comfortingly. "I do not see the harm in it. It is their wedding, after all."
He smiled at her. "My dear, do you not remember we were that way once?"
"Yes, well, I suppose it's a sailor's thing." His wife frowned at him repressively. "And we were never that conspicuous. Certainly not in public."
"Yes…" Bradford shook his head sadly. "We were not."
He sighed. "More's the pity," he added beneath his breath. "Not even in private."
"Claymore is right. I do think it's time to cut the cake otherwise this evening will never come to an end," Martha hurried to say. "The guests all look ready to stay the course. Candy, why don't you go and tell your parents we need them now?"
"Yes, Martha…" The girl hurried away importantly.
Claymore, with Mrs Coburn still clinging possessively to his arm, walked over to the gazebo to command the musicians into silence. The music drifted to a halt and the dancers stopped their activities. An expectant hush fell over the assembled crowd as the two newlyweds became the main focus of their attention.
Candy tugged firmly at Daniel's sleeve as her parents drew apart with obvious reluctance. "Mother… Captain… Martha says it's now time for you to cut the cake."
The girl cleared her throat. "And everyone's looking at you. Grandmother said it's not at all seemly. Whatever that means."
"Thank you, Candy…" Daniel grimaced as he gazed deep into his wife's loving eyes. "What was that you said before about wishing we were invisible?"
Carolyn smiled. "Then we could slip away from all this and go upstairs where we could be alone, together."
"I should have carried you away to sea when I had the chance." Daniel sighed brusquely. "I would have shown you how beautiful the world can be without such an interested and interfering audience."
"And miss all this?" Carolyn laughed softly as she looked around at the assembled guests watching them, knowing her husband was right. "We shall just have to make the best of it for another hour or two."
She sighed as she took her daughter's hand. "We're coming, Candy."
"Shall we, Mrs Gregg?" Daniel shrugged eloquently as he stood away from his wife to offer the crook of his elbow to her gloved hand. Carolyn placed her fingers neatly on the sleeve of his uniform jacket and they reassumed their society expressions as they went to cut the cake with her husband's dress sword.
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"It's after midnight. Do you think anyone would notice we have gone if we left our own celebration?" Standing in the deep shadows of the front porch, Carolyn looked all around her. "It is a lovely party, but…"
"You only have to say the word, my dear…" Behind her, Daniel rested his hands on her waist, drawing her back against him. "I do believe no one is watching us now. They are enjoying themselves too much. It is our wedding, after all. And as surely as the moon follows the sun, there must be a wedding night."
He bent his head to kiss the soft curve of her cheek, working his way up to the shell of her ear. "I cannot wait to be alone with you. I have dreamed of this in the lonely stretches of the night. And imagined it when I could not sleep for dreaming of you. The memory of your beauty sailed the lonely watery wastes with me and I was alone no more…"
He inhaled deeply, releasing his breath in a rush of need. "I am bound to you, for now, for all eternity, my love. I can chart no other course, but homeward to your arms. I must return to you as surely as the sea birds flying with my ship return every season to the distant land…"
"Very pretty…" Carolyn sighed at the intense intimacy of his words. "And I feel the same about you…"
She reached up to rest her open palm against his bearded cheek, nestling back into the comfort of his strong frame. "Perhaps we should wait another half an hour to be seemly. My mother would want to wish us farewell."
"Blast your mother…" Daniel's hands moved from her waist up the length of her arching spine, his fingers tangling in the fall of antique lace adoring her bodice and shoulders. "Blast all of them who would conspire to keep us apart for a moment longer…"
There came a slight tearing sound which Carolyn ignored though her lips curved in acknowledgement. "If it were only that simple."
"You know I do not care what any of our guests think of us, Mrs Gregg. I want to have you alone, to myself. We have waited far too long. If I am forced to kidnap you, I will. I can see Mr Jarvis is not yet too deeply gone in his cups. He would willingly assist in the deed. My ship lies at anchor in the harbour and awaits your command, my lady. We can sail on the morning tide."
"Oh, do not tempt me with such impulsive words…" Carolyn shivered at the yearning tone in his voice. She pushed backwards, sensing every inch of his masculine body pressed hard against her back and the effect her nearness was having on him.
"Perhaps it is time…" She looked quickly around the crowded front garden. "I'm sure no one will mind…"
She could see every guest was occupied with their own entertainment and did not appear to paying them any attention. Her mother's close watch on their movements had been briefly diverted with talking to the mayor of Schooner Bay while Candy and Jonathan were playing hide and seek among the dancers.
Martha came walking back toward the house through the crowd. The housekeeper caught Carolyn's pleading look and quickened her step.
"You should go now while everyone is occupied." Martha walked up the steps, looking back significantly over her left shoulder. "Morton Anderson is doing as I asked but he can only hold your mother's undivided attention for so long."
She opened her feather fan, holding it before her mouth. "Your father has already ordered their luggage to be moved down to the Inn and the children will sleep downstairs in the living room and the alcove. It is all set up. Henry's cot and nurse have been moved to my room. You will have the whole top floor to yourselves."
"Thank you, Martha." Carolyn took the housekeeper's hand and kissed her flushed cheek above her fan. "For all you have done for us."
"It was my pleasure. I have not enjoyed myself so much in a good long while. It is good to see the house come alive again." Martha squeezed her hand before releasing it. "You two go now before poor Morton runs out of breath and your mother thinks to look for you."
She indicated the open front door of the house with a lift of her chin. "The servants have all been dismissed. I'll be sure and look after Candy and Jonathan. Somehow I doubt they'll be doing much sleeping tonight. They've eaten far too much cake."
"Thank you, Martha," Daniel acknowledged.
"Love's young dream…" Martha shook her head on a long sigh as she studied Daniel with deep approval. "You know, if I were only twenty or so years younger…"
"Martha!" Carolyn laughed, pretending to be scandalised. "Mrs Coburn was bad enough. Now you, too."
The housekeeper shrugged. "Well, I'm a woman and I still have my good sight. And I always did like a man in uniform… And out of one…"
She grinned as she moved up onto the top step, turning her back to block the view of them from the crowd below. "Go on now. Before your mother can think of a new topic she must discuss with both of you." She fluttered her fan, smiling around at the crowded garden as if nothing was happening behind her.
Daniel needed no further encouragement. He took his bride's hand drawing Carolyn backwards to the threshold of the open front door.
Without a word he bent and gathered her up into his arms. Carolyn hid her face against her husband's shoulder as he carried her inside, kicking the door shut behind them with the heel of his boot.
The warm shadows of the house seemed to envelop and welcome them home. The darkness shifted and moved with the flickering light from the lanterns and candles burning outside. The only illumination inside the foyer was the triple candelabra clasped in the hand of the conquistador statue guarding the bottom of the stairs and the double holder on the wall beside them.
Soft strains of a waltz filtered in to them through the closed door. Everything around them seemed to possess an ethereal quality of an earlier time and place.
"I wish we would stay just like this…" Carolyn turned her head against Daniel's shoulder to look around.
"I'm afraid it has limited appeal." Daniel shook his head as he watched her. "I am sure the upper floor has far more intriguing delights to offer."
"Yes…" Carolyn could not control her flush of colour invading her cheeks. "You know, when I first came to Schooner Bay I was running away from something. I never dreamed I was, in fact running to something. Or someone..."
She shook her head slowly. "But then, I never expected to find you. Isn't life both strange and wonderful?"
"Yes, unbelievably so. I had given up any idea of ever finding the only woman for me," Daniel admitted, setting her gently on her feet while retaining his clasp on her waist. "I crossed the world many times, hunting for you, searching for you. But I never found any sign of you in all those exotic places. And yet you were here, waiting for me to walk into you one snowy evening…"
Carolyn took his hand and kissed the back of his fingers. "Perhaps something greater than all of us is guiding us even now. I really think love is truly the greatest power of all."
"Love is everything…" Daniel admitted softly, drawing her up fully against him. "Because it brought you to me. I know that now. All that the Bey back in Tunis tried to tell me was in my future and I laughed at him. I miss that old man."
He looked down at the picture his wife made in the candlelight. "Love is the reason I stayed after you moved into my house and proceeded to turn my world completely upside down with your stubbornness and your beauty. I had never met anyone like you."
He shook his head slowly. "An oh-so-stubborn woman who never hesitated to express her opinions."
"And I came here because I was running away from the whole idea of ever being with any man again," Carolyn whispered. "I never dreamed I was running away to find love here, with you, my sea captain who didn't want to hear anything of my female opinions…"
They shared a quiet laugh over how far they'd come, together. Carolyn went up on her toes to be closer still, her gaze on her husband's mouth.
"Then we are well matched in our desire for something more than what we possessed in our former lives…" Daniel said, as he took her lips in a long kiss that said far more than words ever could.
Finally, they moved apart, if only for the necessity of drawing ragged breaths. Daniel bent down again, gathering her slight figure up into his arms. "Shall we?" he questioned even as he carried her toward the stairs.
"I thought you would never ask…" Carolyn threw her arms around his neck as he took the stairs two at a time. Candles lit their way down the hallway.
Their bedroom door stood ajar. Candlelight flickered softly within the opening, beckoning them inside. Daniel elbowed it open before pushing the door shut behind them with his foot. He allowed Carolyn to slide to stand beside him.
The room had been decorated with vases and bowls filled with bunches of red roses and baby's breath. Their heady fragrance hung in the warm air, underscored by the faint hiss of the gas fire in the grate. Everything was perfect. With the windows closed and the curtains drawn tight, it was their own private world.
Carolyn looked around the room. "They have all been so marvellous. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect wedding."
"I can think of an even lovelier gesture…" Daniel replied, looking down at her.
"I can, too…" Carolyn raised her hands to her head, stripping off her veil before walking forward to drape it on the desk beside her first full-length manuscript she had just finished polishing.
She turned her back to her husband. "You will need to help me with this gown. The buttons are down the back and too small for me to reach all of them."
"With pleasure…" Daniel was beside her in an instant, his long fingers making short work of the row of tiny pearl fasteners.
Carolyn smiled as she turned around again. "Do you need help with yours?" she asked teasingly, toying with the gold fringe of one of his epaulettes.
"I think I can manage it well enough…" Daniel quickly unbuttoned and stripped off his uniform jacket, tossing it carelessly across the desk behind them, enveloping both the veil and the manuscript. The high black stock confining the collar of his shirt soon followed.
"Ah, that's better…" He sighed, running a hand around his neck where the shirt collar had been pressed close against his skin. "I'd forgotten how confining that uniform can be. I have no need of it at sea."
"We have even less need of it now…" Carolyn dropped her eyes, peering up at him through her lowered lashes. "Ah, do you need my help to remove your boots, Sir?"
"Madam, did I ever say you were incorrigible? Thank you, but no…" Daniel sank down onto the side of the bed, his gaze never leaving her as he pulled off his left boot. The right was removed and tossed aside with its fellow as he stood up in stockinged feet.
"Now it's your turn…" He took her by her shoulders, easing down the silk wedding gown to her elbows. "Tonight, my darling, I want to show you all that love can truly be…"
Carolyn allowed the dress to slide down the rest of her body to pool at her feet. She stepped forward out of it, bending to pick it up before draping it over her husband's jacket on the desk behind her. She kicked off her satin dancing slippers, not caring about their fate.
She turned back, taking in all of him with a slow, admiring smile. She'd never felt so small and vulnerable against her husband's superior height and size. Or so safe and cherished, as in this single, breathless moment.
"Thankfully, no blasted corset to wrestle with," Daniel commented approvingly, bringing her close again him once more, now dressed only in her soft silk chemise and long petticoat.
"I'm sure you would have coped," Carolyn replied. "No doubt you have experience in removing such troublesome garments. But I refused to wear it, knowing your aversion to such things."
She laughed as she shook her head. "My mother was shocked when I told her the reason, but I well know that neither of us are innocents. We have both loved before."
"I'll admit to having some knowledge of their blasted workings…" Daniel replied with a taut grimace. "But I have been known to draw my dagger and cut through a few offending laces to expedite matters in the heat of the moment."
He sank back onto the side of the bed, knowing his height was now a disadvantage. He wanted her closer to him, much closer.
He reached to clasp her left hand, adorned with her engagement and wedding ring. "I have something for you…" He used the connection to draw her to stand closer, bringing her between his spread thighs where his body ached for her touch.
"Oh, what is it?" Carolyn studied his expression wonderingly, loving the sensation of being held close against his vital masculine heat.
She pushed closer still, feeling his heated strength against the sides of her thighs. That part of him that most assuredly made him a virile man eagerly welcomed her soft femininity.
Daniel's heightened breathing hissed between his set teeth but he didn't reply as he drew a small ring box from his trouser pocket and opened it. He held the box in the candlelight for her to see the contents. Nestled in the white silk was an exquisitely cut, flawless sapphire ring set in an intricate, filigree silver band.
"Oh, Daniel…" Carolyn reached out one forefinger to touch it gently. "It is so beautiful. How could you afford such a—?"
Her husband quickly placed one finger across her lips, stifling her question. "I did not purchase it. One hot summer night when I was deep in my cups, I carelessly challenged the old Bey to a final game of chess before I sailed with the following dawn."
He laughed softly as he shook his head. "The old man was so confident he would win he staked his latest, pretty young wife and this beautiful jewel on the outcome against my share of the cargo my ship was carrying to Rome."
"Rome…" Carolyn said, her gaze turning misty with longing as she ran her fingers slowly through her husband's dark curls. "The eternal city. How I would love to see it with you..."
"And you shall," Daniel assured her. "But not right now…"
He took her finger and slid the ring up and over her knuckle. "When the Bey knew he had lost the game, the old man made me vow that somehow, someday, I would gift the jewel to the one I was to love beyond all measure."
He laughed softly. "I told him once more I was sure she did not exist. I had looked everywhere. He told me I was a deluded fool to think that."
His smile widened as he lifted the ring to his lips and kissed it. "I gallantly returned his pretty young wife to his loving care and kept the ring. I will say he looked rather disappointed with the outcome of the trade."
He shook his head. "That was the very last time I saw him."
"It is so beautiful…" Carolyn held the ring to the candlelight. "Thank you. I will cherish it always."
"It is almost as beautiful as you…" With his hands warmly cupping the twin globes of her behind, Daniel drew her closer still, pressing her softness hard against his heated body. "Like Rome, sapphires are said to represent all that is eternal. If it had to be so, I would have waited forever for you, my love…"
"Now we have forever…" Carolyn sighed, playing her fingers back and forward across the curve of his mouth as she leaned into him fully. "I cannot imagine my life without you now…"
"But we have so much more we are to be with each other…" Daniel teased, as his hands began to explore her soft curves while his lips moved up the side of her neck to her ear before kissing her temple. "I think I have finally managed to melt the last of the ice you said was around your woman's heart."
"Yes… I rather think you have set it on fire instead," Carolyn agreed shakily. "I love you so much, Captain Daniel Gregg…"
"As I love you, Mrs Gregg. I would ask that you never feel afraid to be exactly who you are. Never with me…" Daniel continued earnestly as his hands rose to slide beneath the straps of her chemise, drawing them slowly down her upper arms. "I would move heaven and earth to keep you safe. I would gift you everything and anything your generous and warm woman's heart could ever desire…"
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Late morning sunlight filtered into the main bedroom of Gull Cottage, spilling through the gaps in the closed curtains to shine on the far wall and reflect in the dressing table mirror.
In the wide, rumpled comfort of the storm-tossed bed, the two sleeping occupants didn't stir. Not even when the reflections of the sunlight reached slowly up the bed for their closed eyelids. Time ticked slowly by as the sun rose further, lancing across the floor.
Finally, the soft sounds of movement and snatches of conversation from the floor below stirred Carolyn's motherly instincts and she opened her eyes to frown at the light in the room. She groaned, covering her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I think it's already morning…" she whispered raggedly against the comforting wall of her husband's chest, where she lay with his arm thrown around her in casual possession.
"Yes…" Daniel sighed, moving slowly. "Who cares about what time it is… What are you doing?" he demanded when he felt his wife trying to move his arm from her body.
"Getting up…" Carolyn relaxed back against him briefly, kissing her way across his warm, salty skin. "I cannot stay. The children are up and I can't leave Martha to take care of everything. The garden will need setting to rights. And no doubt my mother will be back as soon as she feels it is seemly to return."
"Very well. If you must…" Daniel's chest rose and fell with a deep sigh of regret as his wife moved again, managing to evade his detaining hand and slip out of bed. "But we need to talk and soon."
He pushed himself up against the pillows to watch his wife get up to pull on her dressing gown before she hurried to the closet to retrieve her fresh clothing. "I think you'll find that Claymore has already organised the remains of the party to be cleared away. He may be a skinflint at times, but he is the soul of brisk efficiency if given a practical task to perform. He near drove me mad with all his planning and figuring for the ceremony."
He chuckled drily, assuming his cousin's canting tone. "A penny saved here and a dime saved there. You must never leave them to their own devices. They will all add up prettily in the end, Cousin. You'll see." He spread his hands wide in defeat.
"Well, I for one, will be most grateful if he has performed that service for us." Carolyn paused to stare at his reflection in the mirror before she gathered fresh underwear from a drawer. "One less thing for us to worry about."
She tossed her clothes onto the bed before she hurried to shake out her wedding gown and arrange it on its hanger beneath its linen cover. She added the veil and hung it up in the closet. "But I still need to go down. We can't stay in here all day."
She quickly gave up looking for her satin slippers, not knowing where they'd landed last night. Momentarily diverted, she leaned down to the vase of red roses on the dresser, inhaling their heady fragrance.
If only we were alone in the house…
"We can stay in this room for as long as we want…" Her husband held out a commanding hand, seeming to divine her wistful thoughts. "I'll lock and bolt the door if I have to. Come back to bed. I haven't nearly finished with you yet. We still have time."
"Oh, please, don't tempt me…" Carolyn groaned, shaking her head. "I truly cannot. There is so much still to do…"
She turned away to tidy and comb her hair in the mirror. Satisfied with the result she gathered her clothing from the bed and headed to the door, intending to use the bathroom down the hall before anyone came up to find them.
"I know…" Daniel shook his head as he watched her depart. "I'm being selfish. The children need you. But, then, so do I…"
"Tonight…" Carolyn paused in the open doorway to look back at him with regret and longing in her eyes. "Tonight, we will be together again. Be thankful my parents are leaving for Philadelphia today. Father has been away too long from his business. He will be fretting to be gone."
She waved a hand as she left quickly before he could think of anything else to say to detain her, shutting the door quietly behind her. Silence settled in the bedroom.
"I miss you already…" Daniel threw back the covers to sit on the side of the bed as he stared through the curtains at the soft glow of the sun, rising slowly toward its zenith in the sky.
The day ahead was going to be long indeed until he and Carolyn could finally be alone in this room again. His whole body tightened with longing and anticipation of the night ahead. They had only just begun. There was still so much to say and explore between them, so many secrets to uncover.
"Blast…" he complained with feeling, raising his eyes to the ceiling.
He resolved then and there that his new wife would be the first woman he carried aboard one of his ships. He had intended to take a short voyage down the coast to Boston to load his next cargo before he set sail for London. Such a journey would make the perfect honeymoon for them.
He decided he would send a message to his first mate as soon as possible. Daniel doubted his wife would object to his plans for them to finally be alone without the ongoing demands of their family and well-meaning friends who seemed to think it was their duty to push their noses into the Gregg family business and meddle where they did not belong.
Certainly, he would breathe easier once his in-laws had left Schooner Bay and gone home. He liked Bradford well enough, but Emily Williams seemed to think she still needed to speak for her daughter and dictate her own ideas. A habit Daniel intended to break at the very first opportunity.
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