Authors: Kitty Margo
“Yes
,
a woman would be fortunate indeed, Aunt Gypsie,” Lynna answered dutifully, accepting the fact that both her aunts had matchmaking on their minds.
Supper the following evening was a gay affair with traditional Jamaican
cuisine
and lively conversation. Lynna found she enjoyed Michael’s company immensely and they were never at a loss for a topic to discuss. He
had the group rolling with laughter
when he recounted the mermaid story.
Crystal rarely left Lynna’s side, sitting beside her at suppe
r and curling on the sofa next to
her when they adjourned to the parlor for coffee and rum. “Lynna is going to step on you if you
don’t
stay out of her shadow,” her father teased with smiling eyes.
“Oh,
do not
t
ease her, Michael,” Lynna giggled. “If she ever gets underfoot I will simply change my legs to a mermaid’s tail,
so I
won’t
cause her any harm.
”
“Can you really do that?”
“
She is just teasing you,
Crystal,” Cliff grinned. “
By the way, d
id I ever show you how a horse bites corn
?
”
“No, how?” she replied innocently.
He opened his hand wide and grabbed the ticklish spot just above her knee and gently squeezed until she was rolling with squeals of laughter. “That’s how.”
When Crystal settled down, she wiped the tears from her eyes and then, out of the blue, inquired, “Lynna, will you be my new mother?”
Michael rolled his eyes toward the heavens, then quickly lifted his inquisitive daughter from the sofa and started toward the door. “Thank you for inviting us to supper. It was
delicious as always.” Lynna noticed
the
sudden
look of longing in his eyes as he mouthed the words, “
I’m
sorry.”
“Nonsense.” She smiled using his earlier explanation. “She is but an imaginative child.”
T
urning at the door, Michael’s eyes held hers.
“Would you still like to see the cane works tomorrow?”
“Yes
, I would. I have been
looking forward to it.”
“
Then c
ome by for lunch
,
and afterwards
I will
give you the grand tour.”
“
I will
see you at noon then,” she answered, just before Crystal reached over to give her a bear hug and a resounding smack on her lips.
The mill works astonished Lynna. There was a boiling house, a curing house, and a still house. At the mill
,
Michael explained the process of extracting sugar from the sugar cane. She learned that inside the hard rind of a cane stalk is a soft
,
sugary fiber. Between November and June
,
the cane is harvested and hauled to the mill. There the juice is crushed out by a series of rollers turned by a huge water wheel. The juice that is squeez
ed from the cane,
cloudy green and about thirteen percent sugar
, is
then clarified, evaporated
,
and separated into golden sugar crystals and molasses, from which a goodly amount of the molasses is used in the making of Jamaica’s famed rum.
“It
seems terribly com
plicated.” All
the facts
seemed to run
together in her mind.
“I suppose it would to a newcomer, but
it’s
all second nature to me.” Again his voice
took on a sharp edge.
“
I will
wager the man who owns Eden doesn
’t know half as much about cane
as I do. But
that i
s neither here nor there.”
In the weeks that followed
,
Lynna was a frequent visitor at Eden. During the day
,
while Michael was busy at the distillery, she and Crystal oft
en sought the cool
waterfall. If they were
no
t
playing in the cascading water,
they could be found searching for small fish in the tidal pools at the ocean
’
s edge, building sandcastles, or laughing gaily as they frolicked through a field of wildflowers. Lynna
could not
l
ove the child any more if she were
her
very
own. In the evening
,
after Crystal was unhappily hauled off to bed, she and Michael took rides in the cart or relaxed on the verandah
,
enjoying breathtaking sunsets.
Two months to the day they met, Lynna became Mrs. Michael Devereux in a simply ceremony held on a cliff overlookin
g the ocean. She wore a simple
wh
ite off the shoulder gown
that had been stitched by her own hand and cried tears of joy and regret that
Aunt Judith wasn’t there
. Uncle Cliff gave her away in her father’s absence and Crystal was her only attendant, scattering rose pe
tals from a hand
-woven basket. After the ceremony, Aunt Bertie insisted that Crystal visit with them for a few days while Lynna and Michael enjoyed a brief honeymoon.
Lynna was as fidgety as a schoolgirl as she slipped a lacy peignoir over her head. Would Michael stir the same feelings of passion that Joshua had? Thus far, Michael ha
d
no
t seemed overly romantic, since he had never once
tried to kiss her. But he was by no means the forceful man that Joshua wa
s. He was more shy and reserved. B
ut she was comparing him to Joshua and that wasn’t fair. Michael was kind, gentle, caring, and devoted to his daughter. He would
make a wonderful father for their
children, and Jamaica was such a marvelo
us place to raise them
. Passion would come in due time, hopefully tonight. She longed for someone to love and be loved in return.
She breathed deeply of the smell of approaching rain in the air. Her eyes went
to the sky as jagged heat light
ning flashed and low dark clouds, heavy with rain swept over the mountains. A gust of wind molded her negligee to her body as fat drops of rain began to fall.
These b
rief thunderstorms were an evening occurrence in Jamaica.
An hour later
,
she paced the room
,
wondering at her husband’s d
elay. What could be keeping him
o
n their wedding night? Surely there was
no
t a problem at the distillery or he wasn’t in his office surrounded by paperwo
rk, completely forgetting
his bride
?
On bare feet, she hurried downstairs and was at once beset by a flurry of emotions. She was offended, hurt, and angry to find him asleep and snoring on the couch, with an empty r
um bottle close by. Was he inebriated
? He
could not
be. She
had
never even seen him tipsy. However
,
his drunken state was proof
that
he had little interest in consummating their wedding vows.
She had never felt more humiliated
! Feeling lonely and dejected
, and with mounting despair,
she climbed the stairs
,
and after much tossing, turning, and t
ears, she finally drifted into a restless
sleep.
“Good morning,
” Michael said,
during a breakfast of hominy corn porridge, country ham, and thick cane syrup poured over flapjacks. “You slept well, I trust.”
“I slept alone,” she mused, sipping coffee and trying to keep the irritation out of her voice as she stabbed at a thick slice of ham.
“Oh that. Sorry. I guess I imbibed in too much of my own distilled rum,” he said cheerfully.
“Evidently.”
Michael was growing an
noyed with her accusing tone
. “Most women find
that
obligation more of a chore than a pleasure, don’t they?”
“This wife
would not
, Michael. I look forward to being your wife in every way and having your children, and I certainly
would not
consider making love to you a chore. If I felt that way
,
I would never have married you.”
Suddenly, looking mad enough to spit fire
,
Michael stormed out of the house without a word, leaving his breakfast untouched. Lynna
could only stare
after him
,
utterly confused by his er
ratic behavior. What had she said
to make him so angry?
Other than the disturbing lack of intimacy from her husband, Lynna’s days on the island were filled with joy. She and Crystal spent many carefree hours at the waterfall or down by the beach splashing in the waves, chasing fiddler crabs, or finding seashells to take home and deposit in a glass vase. Lynna’s days were wonderful, but her nights were
nothing short of
torture.
Six weeks after their wedding, her husband still had
no
t made love to her, or even attempted to
,
for that matter. His nights were spent in a drunken stupor on the sofa
,
and a hurried peck on the cheek was the most romantic gesture he offered before rushing off to the mill. As embarrassing as it was to admit, her husband had no desire
to bed her. Was he repulsed by
her? Did he already regret his hasty proposal and even hastier marriage? Was he in
the habit of getting intoxicated
every night to drown the sorrow he felt over being tied to her for a lifetime?
Just before drifting into an exhausted
sleep
,
Lynna decided to have a heart to heart discussion with her husband the following morning
,
and ask if he would be agreeable to having their farce of a marriage annulled. She would cut her losses and move on. Surely there was someone who could love and desire her.
Chapter Eighteen
M
ichael was asleep on the sofa just after midnight when the owner of Eden tied his horse to the hitching post outside. He entered the quiet house to find Michael still fully dressed, passed out cold, drooling onto the embroidered sofa pillow, and snoring like a lumberjack.
Strange. The docks were abuzz
with rumors of Michael’s recent nuptials to a young lady of exceptional beauty. Why then wasn’t he enjoying the fruits of his marriage? “Michael!” He shook him vigorously in an attempt to shake him out of his drunken stupor. Michael, wake up!”
Michael opened one blurry eye and saw two faces leaning over him. “Evenin’, boss.”
“And a good evening it is, Michael.” His boss grinned, although he was deeply disturbed by the sight of his overseer, who was semiconscious at best. “For some of us at least.” He had
no
t known Michael to imbibe so heavily in years, not since the n
ight his wife had died after a sudden
illness. Then it was to be expected, but now? Surely his recent marriage
did
no
t
bring about such stress. “I hear a celebration is in order. Finally tied the knot after all these years, did you?”