Sea Change (36 page)

Charley reached up and put her hand on his face, on the injured side, and gently pulled him down to her level. She put her lips over his battered and empty socket, then rested her hand on the injury, her long fingers brushing back the hair that was still silken, even if it was now streaked with silver.

"You are more to me than your bits and pieces, David Fletcher. You are the beautiful pirate who snatched me off the
Lady Jane
, and you will always be my Handsome Davy, no matter what happens.

"Besides," she said, her lips curling up, "you thought that I'd find
you
ugly, after we both gazed upon
Señor
Martinez's arse?"

"That is a good point." He retied his eyepatch on, then pulled her closer to him and she felt her skin come alive for the first time in months, all her senses sharpened. "I also waited to come to you until I had another ship. Come sail away with me, Charley, for I am headed to China!"

This was too much information for Charley to process all at once, but one thing stood out. David Fletcher needed to marry to get the funds for his ships. If he had another vessel then...

"What about Miss Dixon?"

"You mean Mrs. Fletcher? She is back in Baltimore."

All the blood rushed from Charley's head, and then rushed back in, a red hot flame through her veins. The same clinical corner of her brain that wondered at her syncopic reaction to seeing him alive now wondered if one's head could explode from anger. She shoved herself away from him, her hands fisted in front of her.

"Captain Pirate indeed! You would leave Mrs. Fletcher in Baltimore and take your fancy piece with you sailing to China! I might have known! You haven't changed one bit, Black Davy Fletcher!"

"Don't scream at me, it makes my head hurt. More." He looked at her and had the gall to smile, the reprobate!

"Charley Alcott, there are many ways I would describe you, but 'fancy piece' isn't one of them. Although that is a very becoming frock." He grabbed her hands. "Oh no you don't! You don't want to bruise these hands that save lives, Doctor!"

He put a kiss on the knuckles of the fist he held tight.

"My fancy piece? I never think of you that way. I think of you as my annoying medico," he said, punctuating this with a kiss on her other hand. "My all too vocal conscience," ending this statement with a kiss on her forehead as he pulled her closer. "My very succulent bed partner..."

This kiss, on her lips, and his arms banding tighter around her nearly brought her to swooning, again, but that was probably his plan all along, especially when he broke away to whisper in her ear, "...and my dearest heart."

He put his lips on hers again, and she was sure her brains were leaking out because she was listening to this litany of lover's talk without punching him for his arrogance.

"Stop kissing me. I cannot think when you do that!"

"Good. Say yes, Charley, and sail with me to the ends of the earth."

Charley marshaled her defenses for one last try.

"Scoundrel!"

Which would have sounded better if her voice hadn't come out as a squeak. She tried again. "What will Mrs. Fletcher say about this when she hears of it? And don't think she won't!"

"Would you sail away with me if you thought she'd never find out?"

To her shame, Charley hesitated, but fortunately, David was still talking and didn't notice.

"You mean you would consider coming with me anyway, a scoundrel and a pirate? And why should my sister-in-law care about who I take with me to China?"

"Your sister-in-- Miss Dixon married Henry?"

"He snuck behind me, the rascal, and married Miss Dixon after he took the
Trinidad
up to New York. Turns out he's loved her all along, and it seems she feels the same way about him."

Charley blinked at this new development. "But what about your family's finances?"

"Between the sale of that cargo and Henry's marriage, all is--wait a minute, that's not what I want to talk about. Were you really willing to sail away with me in sin? A morally upright person like yourself? I'm shocked, Dr. Alcott! Shocked! But very happy at this evidence of your dissolution. You will fit right in with my salty crew! Ouch--don't kick a wounded man!"

"You let me think you were married! I am going to administer to you a black draught that will have you locked in the privy for a month!" she hissed through her teeth.

"That would certainly put a damper on our wedding trip, Charley!"

Could one's heart explode in joy? The clinical part of her brain still functioning was exploring this newest possibility.

"Wedding? You want to marry me?"

"Yes, my good doctor, I want to marry you just as quickly as I can secure a license and set out to sea. So, do you want to sail to China? As the other Mrs. Fletcher? And let me just add that the new ship is a hermaphrodite, making this an especially appropriate choice for us."

"A hermaphrodite?"

"Combining two types of rigging. Come with me and I will teach you all about it."

"I thought you said you didn't want women aboard ship?"

"I have come to think about many things in a new way. I suppose I, too, underwent 'a sea change'. And besides, it's only good common sense to take a surgeon with you on a long voyage. Remember? 'I sail, you doctor'? It was a good arrangement, wasn't it, Charley?"

He said this with hesitation in his voice. She stopped fussing and looked at him. Really looked at him. She had never seen Black Davy Fletcher like this, unsure of himself, waiting for an answer from her--her, Charley Alcott--as if she were the prize diamond of the season.

"You need a wife who will complement you, Captain Fletcher. An ornament to you."

"Do not tell me what I need. I know what I need!" He was angry now, and pushed her at arm's length, holding her by the arms so she could not escape him and so he could look into her eyes. "I do not want an ornament, Charley Alcott! I want someone who will snap at me and be sarcastic, even though sarcasm is the captain's prerogative, and tell me when I'm wrong and sew me up when I bleed. I want someone who will make me laugh, and smile, and feel like there's no place I'd rather be, because you're by my side."

"But what about your crew. Will they be prepared to let me physic them?"

"I am confident that I can find a crew so desperate for a qualified doctor that they would even take a woman's assistance."

"Oh, thank you, that makes me feel much more wanted!"

"I will make you an offer, sweetheart. If anyone complains, I will run him through."

"That only creates more work for me," she grumbled, but she was thinking furiously. "I give you fair warning, I will wear trousers aboard ship!"

"You can be stark naked for all I care. As a matter of fact, I wish you would be stark naked, at least when the crew isn't about. But say yes, Charley. Please say yes." He gripped her hands and looked down at them, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "Every day I was gone from you, I felt like my heart was at the bottom of the ocean with my ship. If you tell me you do not want to go to sea, then...I will find something else to do. But whatever I make of my life, I cannot do it without you, my dearest heart. I love you so much. You are the greatest treasure I ever stole."

Charley wondered if one's heart melting from love as hers was now would be a chronic condition. There was only one way to find out, and that was to do a study of it for the rest of her life. At the side of Black Davy Fletcher. She put her hand up to his damaged face, still more handsome to her than any man she had ever known.

"A ship needs a good doctor, David, and a great captain. And I have always wanted to see China."

He pulled her back into his arms and the light in the room that smelled of medicine and spices seemed to grow even brighter as she lost herself in his kiss.

"Miss Alcott!"

Charley turned to the doorway, where Mrs. Mansfield stood watching them a look of startled delight on her freckled face.

"What do I tell Dr. Wilson?"

"Tell him she was carried off by an American pirate!" David said cheerfully, lifting Charley into his arms and starting to stride to the door.

He didn't get very far.

Charley sternly told him to unhand her, and see to arranging their marriage.

"If I am going to be the doctor aboard the--what is the name of your ship?"

"The
Harpy.
"

She looked at him sharply but his face was bland as sick bay gruel.

"If I am going to be the doctor aboard the
Harpy
, then I will need time to organize my supplies and check out the ship's stores. And my godfather is entitled to see me properly wed, even if it's to a pirate such as yourself!"

And so it happened.

Dr. Alcott (as the Harps were already calling her, many of them being former hands on the
Fancy
) and Captain Fletcher were wed in a flower-laden church with the bride given away by her beaming godfather.

Charley wore a gown of carnation silk with a ruff framing her graceful neck, and stars shining in her eyes. Her groom was in midnight blue broadcloth and fawn trousers, and the smile on his face was for her alone. There were those in the church who wondered how such a strikingly handsome girl could marry such a scarred and damaged man, but they kept their opinions to themselves.

If you asked the blissful couple, they would say they were not ducks nor were they swans. They would compare themselves rather to the paired dolphins who frolicked joyfully in front of the
Harpy
as she sailed out to sea, bringing good luck and blessings to the happy voyagers on their journey to China.

Darlene Marshall is an award-winning author of historical romance featuring pirates, privateers, smugglers and the occasional possum. She loves working at a job where business attire is shorts and a shirt festooned with pink flamingos and palm trees. Marshall lives in North Central Florida, a convenient location for researching sites of great historical significance, which also happen to also be at the beach and serve mojitos. Her books have been published in English, German and Estonian.

You can learn more about Darlene by visiting her website: http://darlenemarshall.com

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