Only With Your Love Read Free

over the railing. “Oh God, Philippe! ” The shirt over her husband’sback was soaked with blood that seeped from a pike wound. His eyes were closed, his mouth frozen in a deathlike grimace. Sobbing, she searched for a pulse in his throat. There was no sign of life. As she tried to ease his body to the deck, the pirate seized her again.
    “This is your husband?” he asked contemptuously. “Fine ransom I’d get for a dead man.” With one efficient shove, he sent Philippe’s body hurtling down to the ocean, where it splashed and floated among the other corpses.
    Celia could not breathe. A wave of blackness seemed to rise up from the deck and smother her. Helplessly she collapsed in the pirate’s arms, letting the darkness cover everything.
     
    Locked in the belly of the ship with the booty taken from the Golden Star, Celia awakened slowly. Her hands and feet were tied. Groaning faintly, she sat up and squinted through the darkness. She could see nothing. Exploring cautiously with her feet, she gathered she had been set among a pile of crates, barrels, and casks. The rise and fall of the ship betrayed the fact that the pirates’ schooner was making considerable headway. Captain Legare had said something about an island. She wondered dully how long it would take before the ship came to anchor there.
    Her head snapped from right to left as she heard a tiny scrabbling sound. Her breath stopped. Drawing her knees up, she waited tensely, wondering if she might have imagined the noise. Suddenly there was an investigative nibble at her toe. She gave a shrill scream and kicked out with her feet. Mice? Rats? Oh God, how long was she going to be trapped down here with them? In the darkness there were moresounds, the pad of animal feet on the planking, a brief scuffle, a rodent squeaking.
    Celia burst into tears, realizing that there was something else besides rodents in the hold. Should she scream for help? No one would bother to come to her aid. Her thoughts were interrupted by a quiet, steady purr somewhere nearby. She jerked in surprise as a warm, furry body brushed against her arm. A cat. Its long whiskers tickled as it rubbed the side of its face against her arm. She moved slightly, and her foot encountered the dead body of the mouse. With a shudder of disgust, she kicked it away.
    One paw at a time, the cat crept into her lap. Celia did nothing to disturb it. She had always detested cats, thinking them sly, sneaking creatures, but this particular one she was willing to make friends with. “ Mon ami, you’ve done more to protect me than anyone else today,” she said in a watery voice, her head inclined toward the contented creature, who was kneading the fabric of her dress with its paws. The cat soon ventured off to investigate a noise, but later it returned to her lap.
    Leaning her head against the side of a barrel, Celia murmured ceaseless prayers until she sank into an exhausted silence. Images floated before her, remembrances of childhood and her family, but most of all of Philippe. She remembered the first time they met. Her father, Dr. Robert Verité, had invited him to dinner. “Philippe Vallerand,” her father announced, welcoming the young man into their small but cozy home. “An American, and one of my medical students…but well-mannered for all that.” Good-naturedly they cleared a place for him at their long table. Bemused,Philippe stared at the enormous family. “Eight children,” Verité said with a hearty chuckle. “Big, healthy brood. A man couldn’t ask for better. Here now, Claudette, change places with your sister so she can sit by our guest. You’re already promised to a young man. Let Celia have the chance to catch one!”
    It was all Celia could do to keep from running out of the room. Embarrassed and shy, she sat stiff-backed in the vacant chair next to the handsome stranger.
    The family began the meal in its usual noisy way. The Verités all possessed dominating personalities. It had