Silver Sea (36 page)

Adrienne followed him. "I am furious with you, you know. If you think you can misbehave and then expect me to pretend to forget about it, you have chosen the wrong woman."

"I didn't exactly choose you," he muttered. There were hats on shelves and on hooks, but the light was dim, and most of them were the wrong shape to provide protection against the sun. "However, if you are going to pout, I apologize for entering your room without your permission."

Spotting a tan, wide-brimmed hat in the middle of his bureau, Adrienne tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. "Is that what you're looking for?"

"I knew that you must have hidden it!" Nathan grabbed the hat and went through the open door to his own bedchamber.

She was right behind him. "That is ridiculous, and you know it. I wouldn't touch your filthy hat if I were in danger of heat stroke. Furthermore, your failure to wait to be admitted to my room is the least of it."

"See here, they are waiting for me downstairs."

"Then they can wait a few minutes longer." She crossed her arms in front of her slim waist and tapped a bare foot. The realization that her state of undress was bothering him gave her a delicious feeling of power.

"You are the most aggravating, demanding chit I've ever known." Nathan perched on the edge of his bed and opened another button on his muslin shirt. "Have your say, and be quick. It's too hot up here."

"I am angry about this morning! About the way you treated me in front of your father!"

"Too much has happened since then. I can't remember every word I spoke hours ago." He made a dismissive gesture with one lean hand. "However, if I was rude, I'm sorry."

Infuriated by his offhand tone, Adrienne was further outraged when he started to rise, heading toward the door. "No! Sit down!" Her eyes flashed as she grabbed Nathan's arms and pushed him back onto the bed. She was amazed that he allowed it. "I am not finished, sir!"

The line of his jaw hardened. "Indeed?"

"Do you have any idea how it feels to be dismissed, as you dismissed me this morning? I have agreed to be your wife, but that does not mean I will be kept off to one side, or sent from the room when it is time for adult conversation."

"Marriage should not mean the termination of personal privacy."

Her eyes stung. "This is all about the land, isn't it? You really don't care for me at all." Walking away, proud and vulnerable in her underclothes, Adrienne turned at the door to the dressing room and said, "All I am asking for is respect. If you mean to hide me, and be embarrassed that you are married, I would rather go home."

* * *

From her balcony, she watched the men ride away over the brow of a lush green hill. If it was too hot upstairs for Nathan to bear, why should she? It was still early in the afternoon. Orchid had banished her from the kitchen, and the rooms downstairs looked perfect for the evening meal. Perhaps, Adrienne reasoned, if she got away from Tempest Hall for an hour or two, her mood would improve.

Still, it seemed better not to announce her intentions too publicly. She put on some of Nathan's old clothes, making adjustments as needed, and added one of his wide-brimmed planter's hats over her pinned-up hair. Then Adrienne walked downstairs and out the door. No one seemed to notice her. At the stable, she had to divulge her identity to get a horse, but her confident manner carried her through.

The stable boy directed her to the road that would take her down to the ocean. "De horse, Ben, do know de way," he added.

Adrienne let Ben walk past the numerous outbuildings that ringed the sugar mill. There was a great deal of activity around the windmill itself, which was built of stone and crowned by a massive wooden spindle driven by four rotating arms. Nathan had told Adrienne that the windmills were introduced to Barbados by Dutch Jews who had conceived the idea of cultivating sugarcane on the island.

Now that the crop was in, the race was on to grind the sugar, and it was a long and arduous process. None of the mill gang noticed Adrienne and Ben as they passed by and disappeared into the trees.

The road leading downhill toward the sea was rutted, but Adrienne didn't mind their uncertain progress. The sensation of the warm soft breeze, the scents of salt air and lush vegetation, and the sounds of chattering birds mingling with the crashing Atlantic waves were a feast for her spirit. She needed her freedom every bit as much as Nathan did, and he would have to understand that.

When they came to a fork in the road, Adrienne spoke to Ben. "Do you know which way we should go to the ocean beach?"

He set off, starting toward a nearby village that appeared to be comprised of free blacks. Before they'd gone very far, however, Ben searched out an overgrown path that branched off from their route. Adrienne had to hold onto her hat with one hand to keep from losing it as they struggled past shrubs and trees that crept over the lane. What would Nathan say if he could see her now? Did Ben really know where he was going? Her heart began to pound.

Just as they emerged into the open, on a cliff lined with windblown whitewood trees, Adrienne caught sight of a woman getting onto her horse's back. She wore a proper gown and bonnet, and carried a sunshade. A young Negro wearing fancy livery waited for her a few dozen yards away.

"Hello!" Adrienne called, elated. Was it possible that she might make a friend out here today?

The woman turned for an instant, then urged her horse forward. She looked both frightened and strikingly beautiful.

"Wait!" Adrienne cried. "Don't be afraid. I'm not a man, I'm a girl!"

The other woman slowed, then wheeled around and came closer. "You are very foolish if you are female and riding out alone. Even I am not that foolish. This island is more treacherous than it appears. The ocean kills cheerfully. Take the advice of someone wiser and go home to your husband." With that, she turned and started south toward her waiting companion.

"But—who are you?"

The only reply the woman made was to wave her hand in the air, glancing backward momentarily before she and her horse cantered into a grove of coconut palms and disappeared from sight.

Adrienne thought that she had glimpsed something in the stranger's beautiful eyes, but how could that be? The distance between them had been too great. Who could she have been? Adrienne was consumed with curiosity, and immediately the mystery took root in her mind. While Ben took her down the path to the beach, she imagined a variety of tragic pasts for the nameless woman.

The beach was a long ribbon of white, broken occasionally by big rocks overgrown with sea grapes, and the water was intensely turquoise, turning cobalt blue farther out. There was no sign of human life as far as Adrienne could see, and it was easy to pretend that she and Ben were on a deserted island. Mesmerized by the rhythmic pounding of the waves, she dismounted and walked barefoot through the warm sand. The water rushed toward her, lapping over her toes, and Adrienne felt a surge of joy.

The strange woman's warning about the ocean couldn't have pertained to a situation like this. As Adrienne waded out a little farther, she realized that the pull was too tantalizing to resist.

* * *

Nathan had sent his father and Minter back to Tempest Hall for a wash-up, rest, and tea. As usual, he had an urge to ride alone, to burn off some of the dark energy that plagued him. There were now four people on this little island who could get under his skin: his father, Adrienne, Xavier Crowe... and Eloise. Either Nathan would have to find a way to make peace with his demons, or he'd be forced to sail away in order to escape.

Riding along the hills that rose above the beach, Nathan caught sight of a horse and a young man on the sand below. The fellow looked very small and thin in his loose clothes. He was white, but Nathan didn't recognize him at first glance. Bringing his gray gelding, Compass, to a halt, he took out his brass telescope and had a look.

"Christ Almighty," he muttered in disbelief. It wasn't a skinny little man at all, but his own bride-to-be. She was doing a little dance on the beach, all the while shucking off men's trousers and a shirt as if this were the most natural behavior in the world. Poor, dutiful Ben looked on uncertainly.

Nathan was shocked to find that his sense of angry outrage was tempered by a frisson of euphoria. Adrienne had a quality that gave him joy when he opened himself to it—and that could be terrifying for a man who had decided to live without such heady passions. If he was going to be reckless, he'd do it on his own terms, at sea or on the back of a horse, or making love to a married woman.

Down on the beach, Adrienne was wearing only her lawn chemise and pantalettes, with their bits of satin ribbon and lace. The fabric was so thin in the sunlight that he could see the swell of her derriere. Nathan bit the inside of his lip. What was it about her body that drove him mad?

Now she'd started into the water. It was folly for her to put her toe into the Atlantic Ocean, and he'd told her so. And yet there she was, flirting with death. If she didn't go in beyond her knees, she'd be all right, but—

A wave came crashing in and Adrienne went to meet it, diving into the curl of froth. She emerged laughing, dark hair streaming down her back. The soaking underclothes now were completely transparent against her bare skin. Nathan was on fire with desire and fury and terror that she'd drown before he could reach her.

He left Compass on the brow of the hill and went scrambling down the tangled path on his own. His breath burned in his throat. By the time he gained the overlook to the beach, he was covered in sweat. Adrienne had grown more daring by the moment. She was swimming out beyond the first wave even then, and Nathan guessed that a hint of fear was creeping into her heart.

"Adrienne!" he shouted. "Don't go any further!"

He could see her hair and the occasional flash of her round bottom, but she didn't give any sign that she'd heard him. The waves picked her up then, and when she tried to stay on the crest, she was pulled under. Nathan instinctively found the path downward and reached the sand in mere moments. Adrienne had disappeared from sight. A procession of waves had formed behind her, and their power was even more awesome than their beauty.

Yanking off his boots, he plunged into the water. He didn't have to swim very far before she came into view, wide-eyed with terror. Almost immediately she was flung against him by the ocean and he carried her out to safety. Adrienne was gasping and coughing up saltwater, and there was a scrape on her pretty nose. Shaking, she clung to Nathan.

"You little fool!" He sat down with her in the sand, cradling her against him. "You could've been killed!"

"No—I was all right—" As her senses returned, Adrienne realized that it would never do to admit to him how terrified she'd been in those last moments when the waves had pushed her down, down, squeezing the breath from her, pinning her against the ocean floor until he'd rescued her by some miracle. "The wave had to go back out, didn't it?" She gave him a winsome smile. "I'll own that it
was
very exciting!"

"You will, will you? Well,
I'll
own that I'm going to whip you within an inch of your life when I get you home," he said grimly. Meanwhile, her wet body was stirring up other feelings even more intense than his anger. "What the devil am I going to do with you?"

"I don't know," Adrienne said in a tiny voice. "At least we're not bored." She paused. "I did have a grand adventure today."

She drank in the feeling of his powerful body against hers, and the hard thump of his heartbeat.

"Well, thank God for that!" In spite of his sarcastic tone, he wanted to kiss her until she was senseless. "Get into those clothes and let's get home."

* * *

As it turned out, Adrienne and Nathan had plenty of time to recover from her adventure before the evening meal. The only challenge was pretending that nothing was amiss in front of the others.

Adrienne was tentative in her new role, especially with Lily, who didn't have Orchid's kind nature. When her new mistress came down the stairway and peeked into the serving room, Lily was waiting for her chance to speak her mind.

Adrienne beamed at the sight of platters of fragrant food already laid out on the long table. "It all looks wonderful, Lily! I can't thank you enough for coming to our rescue."

"We need a cook, or we need a housekeeper, but I am not two person, Mistress."

Adrienne blinked. "I realize that today was a difficult day, but how has your mother managed in the past?"

"Dat is different. Now Captain has a wife. Everyt'ing change now."

"Well... I suppose you have a point. I'll speak to my, ah, that is, Captain Raveneau."

Entering the dining room, Adrienne was elated by the sight of the table. Orchid had just stepped back to admire the large arrangement of red and white hibiscus that graced the center of the table. All the china, silver, and crystal were laid out, and the effect, by candlelight, was stunning.

"Those flowers are beautiful!" Adrienne exclaimed.

"Hibiscus," Orchid replied. "Dey live only one night."

At the dinner table, Adrienne noticed that Nathan was warming up to his father. She and Minter said little as the two men talked about the future of the sugarcane plantation.

"Change is in the wind," Nathan predicted as Retta served a second course of rock lobsters. He squeezed lemon over his and sampled a bite. "I can really see the results of the new Bourbon sugarcane we've been planting for the past few years. Captain Bligh introduced it to the West Indies twenty years ago, and it is simply the finest. Now, if I can just get my rat population under control...."

Zachary turned to Adrienne, anxious to include her in the conversation. "Planters brought the mongoose to Barbados, hoping they would prey on the rats. Unfortunately, the mongoose sleeps by day and roams by night, and the rat's habits are the reverse!"

Everyone laughed, and Adrienne began to relax, though she was still nervous about meeting Nathan's eyes. The combination of their quarrel upstairs with their tempestuous encounter on the beach had left them both unnerved and confused. Adrienne sensed that they were closer now... and perhaps that was the reason Nathan seemed to be holding her at arm's length again. She wondered again if she would ever understand him.