Free Moonwitch by Nicole Jordan Page B

remained in her chair only an instant longer before slipping through the French doors at the rear of the drawing room and onto the spacious gallery that wound around the house. Bright moonlight was filtering between archways of whitewashed brick to accumulate on the floor in silver pools.
    Selena had thought the gallery deserted, so she was startled when she caught a flash of white out of the corner of her eye and heard the soft patter of feet. She turned in time to see a small, white-clad figure disappear down the wrought iron stairway that led to the garden. Having a good idea as to the identity of the apparition, she followed.
    She found Beth’s eldest child, five-year-old Colin, dressed in a nightshirt and crouched on the third step. With his crop of dark curls and rosy cheeks, he seemed the image of his mother, even down to the vivid facial expressions. Seeing the revealing look of guilt on Colin’s cherubic face, Selena found it hard to repress a smile. He quite obviously had been spying on the company, no doubt attracted by the music and gay laughter and dancers in elegant evening dress.
    He peered up at Selena as she stood at the head of the stairs. “You won’t tell?” he said anxiously.
    Selena shook her head. “Do you think I would be so shabby?” Colin looked visibly relieved. Selena could see the set of his small shoulders relax. “I suppose you were lonely,” she added as she descended a few steps. “It isn’t at all pleasant to be excluded from all the festivities. I’m lonely, too. Perhaps we should keep each other company.”
    When Colin promptly nodded, she sat down beside him, heedless of what the dust might do to her expensive gown. From that vantage, she could see much of the garden below. Beth had finally despaired of growing the kind of lawn that abounded in Britain, but her garden was laid out in the English style, with formal paths bordered by lime trees and swaths of native flowers. The delicate tropical fragrances filled the warm night. Selena was about to remark on the garden’s beauty when Colin piped up.
    “Did you see the cap’m?” he asked, the eagerness in his young voice unmistakable.
    “The captain? Do you mean Captain Ramsey?”
    “Yes, him. Papa said the cap’m was to come tonight. I hoped I should be able to see him. Papa says he has a great schooner and he sails over the sea and fights with pirates! That’s what I will do when I am big. I will be a cap’m. I mean to have a giant ship. This giant,” he explained, spreading his short arms out as wide as they would reach. “Papa said he would take me to the harbor and show me the cap’m’s schooner…”
    Selena wondered, as Colin’s artless chatter continued, why Captain Ramsey seemed to be the sole topic of conversation this evening. One would think none of the islanders had ever seen a ship’s master before—as if Antigua weren’t the site of the largest naval base in the Caribbean.
    Just then a footfall sounded behind her, interrupting her thoughts and causing Colin to break off in mid-sentence.
    “Good evening,” a familiar deep-timbred voice interjected into the silence.
    Feeling her heartbeat quicken alarmingly, Selena turned her head to glance up at Kyle’s powerful figure. She could understand how he might be viewed by a young boy as a heroic figure.
    “Forgive me,” he said slowly, “but I couldn’t help overhearing my name mentioned.”
    Selena was dismayed by the effect his sudden presence was having on her pulse rate, but she was resolved not to let it show. “Colin,” she murmured, trying to regain her composure, “I daresay the captain perceived your wish, for here he is, in the flesh. Captain Ramsey, may I present Master Colin Thorpe.”
    Colin’s eyes grew very wide as he gazed up at Kyle, his cherubic mouth forming an O. But when Kyle responded to the introduction with a polite greeting, Colin abruptly scrambled to his feet and stood stiffly at attention. “S-sir!” he