The Bride and the Buccaneer by Darlene Marshall

Author:Darlene Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: humor, pirate, historical romance, treasure, award winning, pirate romance, privateer, romance 1800s, florida adventure, st augustine florida
Publisher: Darlene Marshall

CHAPTER 14

Sophia awoke before Jack, gingerly disengaged herself from his embrace, and hunted down Rosa, the maid. Coins and a note were passed over, and when she returned to the bedroom Jack was getting dressed.

“We will stroll around town again today, tour the fort—” Jack sighed. “Maybe something will come to us.”

“Do not be discouraged, Jack. We know Captain Garvey wanted us to start here. I believe in the treasure, and I believe we will find what we need.”

“You’re right. We can’t give up yet, when we’ve barely started looking.”

After breakfast, they went out before the day’s heat rose, Sophia shading her fair complexion with a pink parasol that complemented her light muslin day dress. Thank goodness she hadn’t packed too many woolen dresses for this journey! Only the lightest of fabrics and underpinnings were comfortable in Florida’s tropical climate, and she marveled at the Spanish nuns she saw who were draped in heavy robes, yet never broke out in a sweat.

A few coins got them into the Castillo de San Marcos, a pockmarked and mustachioed sergeant conducting a tour in such heavily accented English that at points she needed Jack to clarify what he was saying. Sergeant Colon described with relish how the coquina built fort had withstood all attacks, including those of the perfidious English heretics a century earlier. He pointed to the cannonballs imbedded in the walls, absorbed by the soft stone rather than shattering it.

Sophia murmured appropriate noises during the presentation, but kept her eyes open for something that might bear connection to “a shipwright’s dream,” though it would have been unlikely inside the fort. Nothing presented itself, and afterward they walked down to the harbor, since, as Sophia said with some logic, the clue likely had something to do with ships.

“It was a good idea to visit the fort,” she acknowledged, “because the clue says whatever we’re looking for ‘stands sentinel,’ and the fort is the highest point in the town: ‘A shipwright’s dream in the Ancient City stands guard over the people. High above, the key is found to lead you to the next step.’”

Jack stopped in the street and Sophia gripped his arm to keep from stumbling.

“Say it again.”

Sophia repeated the clue, watching Jack.

“A shipwright’s dream…I’m an idiot, Sophia!”

“Oh, well, I usually do not go that far, Cap—”

“Come with me,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her behind him, her parasol sailing behind her.

“Jack! Wait! I cannot keep up.”

He slowed his steps, but practically quivered with impatience as he hurried her along down Charlotte Street until they were at the Plaza. Sophia perked up when she saw their lemonade seller beneath the oak, and Jack pulled her over there and then abruptly released her hand, peering up into the tree’s branches.

“Do you want some lemon—”

He picked her up and twirled her about, dropping her parasol and making the lemonade seller smile a gap-toothed grin at their antics.

“A shipwright’s dream, Sophia! And here it’s been looming over us this entire time!”

She was afraid Jack had been out in the sun too long, and said so.

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