Free Untamed by Jessica L. Jackson Page A

into the room with Jim, who was carrying a tea tray, and decided to join the kerfuffle. She barked and gamboled about the laughing couple.
    “This is most irregular,” the minister murmured again, retreating to the comparative safety of the bow window recess. His sharp featured balding head bobbed this way and that like a parakeet. “I really don’t know what the world is coming to.”
     
    Lord Ashburne, so furious that he could now only sputter, spun on his heel, dragged the offending Sir Henry to his feet, and shook him. That gentleman promptly threw up his breakfast down the front of the Earl, who then flung him away and stalked out of the room. A sharp crash punctured the commotion in the front room.
    “The statues!” Desarae cried, shoving herself out of Trystan’s arms and rushing outside. “Pan!”
    The leering marble guardian had been tipped off its pedestal and Pan’s decapitated head wobbled back and forth at their feet. Her grandfather could be seen stalking off toward the cove.
    “Do y’ think he’ll take the launch?” William asked, coming up to stand beside his captain, Jim at his heels.
    “Best see to it,” Trystan ordered. “Once you have him settled in his lodgings, come back here so we can discuss the ship’s repairs. I’ll see if Jim will take the minister and Sir Henry back to Canso.”
    “Aye,” William said, loping off after the Earl who had already reached the steps.
    Trystan turned to Jim and held out his hand. “I—”
    “I know who you are, Captain,” Jim said in his slow way. The sad expression on his face showed resignation. “You’re the man who is going to take Miss Desarae away from the isle. Away from me.” He accepted Desarae’s enthusiastic hug. “I expect it’s time.”
    “She hasn’t agreed to leave,” replied Trystan. The big man gave him a fatalistic grimace.
    “What is happening?” Reverend MacLeod asked, easing through the doorway much in the manner of a mouse checking to see if the cat had left.
    “I’m fixing to take you and the other one back to the mainland,” Jim said. “You go down to the dock and I’ll get the sick one.”
     
    Trystan and Desarae stood together at the top of the steps and watched the two boats row away.
    “Do you think he will leave me alone now?”
    “No.”
    “So I thought. There is more fight in the mean old buzzard.” Desarae leaned her head on his shoulder. “Poor Pan. I shall repair him.”
    “Hmm. So, luv,” Trystan murmured softly. She turned to look up at him. Her warm eyes danced but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. “I have thoroughly compromised you and it is quite possible that you are pregnant as well…”
    “I hope so,” she revealed, a deep throaty chuckle answering his concern that she might feel used.
    “I am an adventurer. But, I am not without funds. I have no family connections worth mentioning, at least not the kind that would matter to your grandfather and others of his ilk. Though, I do have a few influential friends. I’d like you to come with me to meet my family, to see the world, too, if you take to sailing. What do you say? Could you bear to leave your island?”
     
    “It’s not my island, you know,” Desarae confessed, her heart pounding so hard—surely he could hear it.
    “What is this?”
    “It is Jim’s island. I have so much of my own, or at least I do if my wicked grandfather has not spent it all, that Uncle thought that Jim should have this beautiful island for his very own.”
    “But I thought you said he was the major’s manservant?”
    “So you assumed he was my servant too? I know we have not known each other very long, Trystan, but you must realize that you cannot assume anything about me,” she mocked gently.
    “I don’t believe I know much about you at all,” he marveled, brushing a stray lock away from her forehead. “But, I’m eager to learn.” He cupped her face between his palms and brushed her lips with a tender kiss. “Because, I love