Love's Rescue (Keys of Promise Book #1)

Johnson Christine

Description

When her mother dies, Elizabeth Benjamin heads home to Key West, determined to transform herself into the perfect Southern belle her parents always wished her to be. But nothing goes according to plan. Her crippled brother resents her, the servants do not obey her, and Rourke O'Malley, the dashing man she vowed to forget, refuses to relinquish his hold on her heart. Worst of all, it becomes painfully obvious that her father is not the upright man he appears to be.As family secrets come to light, Elizabeth is faced with a difficult choice: to do her duty and abandon her dreams, or to leave her life of privilege behind to chase the man her father sees as little better than a pirate.From the first emotional page, author Christine Johnson throws readers into a world of impossible choices, hidden desires, and heart-melting romance in the steamy south. Readers will cheer for Elizabeth and Rourke as they battle the odds and the elements to secure their future.

Sujets

• Love
• Love (disambiguation)

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 26 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441246172
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2015 by Christine Elizabeth Johnson
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www . revellbooks .com
Ebook edition created 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4617-2
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
For my husband, my captain
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Acknowledgments
Sneak Peek of Book 2
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick:
but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12
Prologue
October 11, 1846
The gale nearly knocked Elizabeth Benjamin flat. In all of her sixteen years, she’d never experienced such terrible winds, and Key West enjoyed its share of storms. She held fast to her brother’s hand. At eleven, Charlie usually rebelled at her mothering. Not today.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be here.” His words could barely be heard above the howling wind.
Elizabeth was beginning to think the same, but time had nearly run out. Within days, she must sail for Charleston, where she was expected to secure a prominent match. That meant leaving her beloved Key West and the man who had captured her affections. Today might be her only opportunity to change the course her parents had set out for her.
She and Charlie had nearly reached the harbor, where Rourke O’Malley’s wrecking sloop was moored. Just thinking of him bolstered her courage. If he could endure such weather, so could she. Though the rain now pelted down, ruining the fine blue muslin gown she’d donned just for him, maybe he’d see her as courageous.
“Can we go home?” Charlie asked.
She yanked her brother toward the wharves. “We need to secure our skiff.”
The twelve-foot boat belonged to Charlie, but he only went sailing when she bribed him. She adored the freedom of the turquoise seas and seized every chance to improve her seafaring skills. That secret love cost her many an evening helping Charlie complete his studies.
When she’d told her maid this morning why they must leave the house in such weather, Anabelle had shaken her head and proclaimed that Mother would tan both their hides when she found out.
“We will be home before Mother returns,” Elizabeth had assured her. She could wriggle anything past the girl who giggled with her every night after the lamps were blown out. “She’ll never know we were gone.”
The striking, caramel-colored maid grinned. “You’re a fool for him.”
Elizabeth had pretended she didn’t know who Anabelle meant, which was silly, considering their every conversation centered on him. Rourke O’Malley wasn’t the richest wrecker in Key West, but he was by far the handsomest and most daring. He wore his sun-streaked dark hair pulled back at the nape in the fashion popular decades before. His bronzed skin and eyes the color of the emerald depths made her stomach flutter. His smile left her speechless. For the first time in her life she’d seen an advantage to being born female.
If only he would stop treating her like the barefoot child she’d once been. At the last dance, he’d chosen older girls for partners. With her, he talked of the voyage across the straits to his native Harbour Island, or Briland as he sometimes called it, of turtling and wrecking. He inquired after her fishing exploits and noted how she’d sailed Charlie’s skiff past his sloop on a perfect beam reach. Her excellent seamanship ought to show him how perfectly matched they were, but instead he’d danced with empty-headed girls. He’d even bowed and kissed her friend Caroline’s hand, but not hers. Never hers.
Well, today he’d see her as a woman.
Elizabeth stomped forward, pulling the reluctant Charlie with her. They turned off Caroline Street to take their usual route to the wharves, but the boardwalk across the tidal pond was flooded. Though Charlie begged to go back, Elizabeth refused. By the morrow, Rourke might have sailed or, even worse, begun to court one of those addle-brained girls who whispered behind their fans whenever he walked into a room. The ship to Charleston might arrive to whisk her away. Good things did not come to those who waited.
So she tugged Charlie another block to Whitehead Street, which had a small bridge over the narrow end of the pond. Even there, the water ran deeper than she’d ever seen, nearly to the planks. If this gale continued, the bridge would be underwater too, necessitating an even lengthier return.
After they rounded the corner onto Front Street, the wharves lay ahead, but the two-story warehouses blocked her view of the vessels except for a smattering of mastheads. Usually the harbor was so full of ships that the masts sprouted like grass. Some of the masters must have decided to haul anchor and ride out the gale at sea.
Not Rourke. Please, not Rourke.
Heart pounding, Elizabeth hurried her pace over the coral gravel. One foot landed in a puddle, drenching her kid leather shoe. The closer they drew to the harbor, the more water pooled on the ground. Soon wet feet could not be avoided. The skies loosed again. Elizabeth squinted into the windblown rain, trying to make out the warehouses that had been so clear moments before.
The wind shoved each breath back into her chest, which was already aching from the stays she’d insisted Anabelle cinch particularly tight. Only when they reached the lee of Tift’s warehouse could she take in enough air. Though this warehouse was built solidly, the old one nearby creaked and moaned. Charlie pointed fearfully at its roof, which had already lost a few shingles.
Elizabeth could not be deterred by a shaky old building.
She pulled Charlie around the corner and into the full force of the wind. The seas, whipped up by the northeast gale, crashed over the piers and sprayed high into the air. The water, ordinarily several feet below the docks at high tide, now overran them. Charlie’s tiny skiff, once moored with the other dinghies at the base of the nearest pier, was gone. The few vessels left in the harbor strained against their anchor lines, barely visible in the howling mists. With the water so high, they looked as if they could sail straight onto Duval Street.
Charlie’s hand gripped hers even more tightly. Perhaps he’d been right.
She couldn’t see Rourke’s sloop through the rain and sea spray. He must have left with those who chose to weather the storm at sea. All her preparations had been for naught. If he did not return once the storm passed, she had no choice but to sail for Charleston. He would return. He had to return.
“We’ll go home,” she shouted, but the wind carried her words away.
Charlie clung to her. Terror danced in his eyes.
She motioned back toward the way they’d come. This had been a bad idea. Best return while they could. But before she could move, a terrible blast of wind caught her voluminous skirts and shoved her to the ground. She lost hold of Charlie, and the slight boy fell to his knees.
She reached for him, but her fingers brushed just short of his hand. “Charlie!”
He could not hear.
She tried to rise, but the wind pressed her down. It suffocated like a blanket pressed over her face. Only by lowering her mouth to the crook of her elbow could she draw in a breath.
Her brother struggled to his feet only to tumble farther away.
She crawled toward him. The rough coral rock ripped at her lace and bows, and sand ground into the fine muslin gown.
Then she saw the waves. They’d crested the wharves and rolled toward her, turning the land into a shallow sea. The first wave dampened her hands and knees. The next rolled in deeper. She tried again to stand, to get to Charlie.
He stared at her, his eyes wide. He could not swim, had refused to learn.
Oh, that she had not donned six petticoats and a bustle. In the murky water, the garments tangled around her legs and weighed her down. Oh, that she’d listened to Anabelle and stayed home where she belonged. If anything happened . . .
Elizabeth could not allow doom to seize a toehold. This moment required courage.
She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “I’m coming for you!”
Charlie showed no sign he’d heard her.
With all her strength she rose to her hands and knees and inched toward her brother. He’d reached high ground near the old warehouse and was safely out of the water. If he could get into the lee of the building, he could stand. If he had the strength. If the water didn’t rise higher.
Again she attempted to stand. The swirling water knocked her down. She cried out. Seawater filled her mouth. She gagged on the brine and coughed it out. When she’d regained her balance, she noticed the surging sea had carried her even farther from her brother.
Despair knocked, but she could not let it take hold. She must reach her brother, but how? Another wave rolled past, and she struggled to hold her ground.
The sea! Rather than fighting the waves, she could use them to her advantage. If she allowed each one to push her forward and angled toward the warehouse, she could reach her brother and bring him to safety.
Crack!
The sharp report came from above. Looking up, she saw with horror that the warehouse roof heaved up and down. Shingles swirled like a maddened flock of gulls. A pi