Chapter 11
"What are we going to do!" Destiny asked when they had reached their bed chamber. After the duke had dropped his little bomb on them, Spencer had put up an argument, but to no avail. His father wouldn't be budged.
"I don't know, woman! Let me think!" he growled, as he paced the floor. "I still don't know how he figured out that we were not married." He then stopped his pacing a and narrowed his glittering eyes on Destiny. "Unless...YOU told him!"
"Now, hold on just one minute, there buster! I haven't told him a darn thing! You've been acting so hateful towards him, it must have looked like you were hiding something!" she threw back at him. The NERVE of the man!
"Oh, no. Don't blame me for this!" he said, shaking his finger in her face.
Destiny looked at the offending finger and did the first thing she thought of.
She bit it.
But not hard. Just enough to make him laugh. Soon they were both laughing at their childish argument.
He raised an eyebrow in that sexy way of his, and said, "I can think of a couple of other places I wouldn't mind you biting."
Destiny rolled her eyes. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Romeo and help me think of how we are to handle this!"
Spencer sighed, "You're right, I suppose. Though my suggestion does have it's merits... All right, all right. We'll do this your way." This time they were both pacing the room, thinking so hard that it was beginning to give Destiny a headache.
"I've got an idea!" Spencer finally said. "Why don't we just admit that the old man is correct in his assumptions. It'll give him a thrill at any rate. Then I'll convince him that it would be better to wait a fortnight before the ceremony takes place. I'll say that he could throw a large party and let everyone know that his heir has come home and taken a bride, etc. etc..."
Destiny shook her head. "But that will be worse, Spencer. He's going to go to all the trouble to throw a huge party, and then I'm going to up and disappear! Won't it look terrible to your peers - cause a scandle of something?"
"Hmmm.... Not if we make it look like you've been murdered!" he said with great delight.
"Jeez! I have an Alfred Hitchcock on my hands! You are going to make it seem like I was murdered?" she ask with horror. "I couldn't just vanish or jilt you or... something!"
"If you vanish, my father will expect me to spend weeks looking for you and if you jilt me, that will DEFINATELY cause a scandal!"
She came back with, "What if YOU are accused of murdering me. Then your whole past as a pirate will come to light and there's not a court in this century or mine that would believe you! And what about a body?"
He rubbed his chin in contemplation. "You have a point. But we make it look like you were kidnapped, and all I found was a bloody dress... That's it! We'll make a token search, but will give up knowing that all evidence points to your death!"
Destiny shook her head in bemusement. "I can't believe we're talking about this!"
"Do you have a better plan?"
"Well...no, but I don't think you should be enjoying my 'death' so much!"
His face suddenly grew still, and quietly he came over to where she stood with shoulders slumped. "To me, once you are gone, it will be like a death. For I shall never see again. And believe me, I will not enjoy it."
He placed his hands on either side of her face and gently kissed her lips. It was so sweet that it brought tears to her eyes. "Oh, Spencer. I know you don't like hearing it, but I have to tell you anyway. I love you. And when I'm gone I want you to remember that, okay, that someone out there, loves you through all time."
Spencer folded her into his arms, so that she would not see his own tears. Tell her, that small voice inside his heart prompted. Tell her that you love her, too. But he could not. He could not allow himself to explore this love that he had for her when she would be leaving him so soon. It would destroy him. As it was, his heart would be broken, forever.
He cleared his throat as he smoothed a hand down her slim back. "Do not cry for me, Destiny, nor waste your love on someone like me. I'm not worth it. And when you return to your time, you will find someone who is worthy of your love, and this adventure will seem like a distant memory."
She back away from him and she did not look happy. "You just don't get it, do you, Spencer? I've looked for a man to love. I knew that when I found him, that it would be forever. The first moment that I laid eyes on you, I knew you were special, different."
"I was a pirate," he teased, trying to lighten the mood.
She ignored him. "I will love you for as long as I live. And I know that you can't love me, but I pray that there will be someone that you will come to love." She walked away from his and went to stand by the huge canopied bed in the middle of the room. Idly she fingered the rich golden tassle hanging off the canopy. "I suppose you will have to marry, am I right?"
He cleared his throat again. "Yes. It will be expected."
She turned to look at him with clear eyes. "Will you promise me, that you will marry for love."
He looked away. "You must know that love doesn't enter in to it, in my circles. You marry for wealth or class, not for love."
"Look at me, Spencer." She waited until his eyes met her own. "Promise me."
He swallowed past the lump in his throat and told her what she wanted to hear. "I promise to marry for love," he lied.
Pain filled her eyes and she nodded, looking away. "Well, that's good. I won't have to worry about that."
But she would grieve. Grieve for the love that might have been, and for the life they might have had, if only he could love her.
If only the man realized that she would stay in a heartbeat, if only he would tell her that he loved her. She would give up family and friends and every twentieth century convenience just to remain with him for her lifetime. But she couldn't make him love her.
"Well," she said after a moment. "We'd better go and talk to your father."
He nodded distractedly. "Of course."
"Oh, and while we are going down there to meet him, I thought of a way to get you and your father communicating."
Spencer raised his brows in inquiry. But she could tell his mind wasn't on what she was saying.
It soon would be.
"I think you should tell your father that you were a pirate."
Yep. That got his attention.
"You must be out of your bloody mind!" he stormed.
She took his arm and pulled him towards the door. "Trust me on this, Spence. You'll see. It will open up all kinds of doors!"
"Yes, to boot me right out on my arse!"
"Come on, doubting Thomas!" With that she escorted him down the hall.
************************************************************
"I suppose that pushing the wedding off a fortnight, will cause no harm. But I forbid you to share the same chamber! Destiny will be put into the chamber next to mine. I think we are beyond protecting your virtue, but at least we shall keep the appearance on the up and up."
Destiny sighed. "My 'virtue' is still intact, thank you very much. Although, I doubt that you will believe me."
"My dear, with you, I could believe anything!" he declared with a laugh and a quick pat on her hand lying next to his.
Spencer marvelled at how quickly Destiny had completely charmed his father.
Destiny laughed a little nervously. "Well, if you can believe that, I hope that you will believe something else. Uh...Spence has something to tell you. Don't you Spence?" She looked at him with innocent eyes. Deviously innocent eyes, they were!
"I want to tell you what I've been up to for the last twelve years."
The duke let out a 'hrumpt'. "Is that all. Well, you can save your news. I already know what you've been up to."
Spencer's eyes flew to Destiny's where they met in confusion. "You...know?" he asked carefully.
"Spencer, dear boy, do you think that I'd allow my youngest son to dilly dally about the world without the singlest knowledge of what he was up to? Really, son. You do me a discredit."
Spencer felt like a scolded little boy. "So you ... uh... know that I was a..."
"A Pirate. Yes, I know that," the duke stated calmly.
Spencer once again looked at Destiny and helplessly shrugged his shoulders, as if asking "What now?"
Destiny moved closer to the duke. "In other words, your saying that you wanted to make sure that your son was safe. That you didn't forget about him. That you were concerned about him."
"Good God! I wouldn't put it like that. You've made me into some sentimental fop! But as a father, I have certain obligations. Who do you think kept Spencer out of trouble all those years! He would have been arrested a long time ago if it wasn't for me!"
"The Devil you say!" Spencer barked, ignoring the glare from Destiny.
"Come now, boy. You were never a very clever pirate. But I knew that if I let you have your fun and kept you safe that you would come home soon enough." He then frowned at his son. "But you never did, did you. Too much pride, there boy. I had to come and get you. Which I would have done anyway whether your brother had passed on or not."
Spencer was fuming with indignation. "I cannot believe I'm hearing this! How can you say that I was not a good pirate? We may not were the richest on the sea, but we were bloody well close!"
The duke merely smiled. "If it pleases you to think so, son, then you go on thinking it."
Spencer turned his anger towards Destiny. "Do you have any more ideas from that silly brain of yours?" And before she could say anything, he had stormed out of the room.
Destiny groaned, "Oh, great! I've really messed things up, now." She then frowned at the smiling man. "And you weren't helping matters any, either. Why couldn't you have just gone along and pretended that you didn't know. Now, you've made him embarrassed and scolded like a child!"
The duke stopped smiling. "Well, Good Lord, I was just telling the truth!"
She shook her head. "I'm trying my best here to help you two get along. But neither of you are helping."
He looked at her with speculative eyes. "You love my son, very much, don't you."
She looked down at her hands. "Yes. Very much so."
"And so do I, my dear. So don't fret. All will be well," he told her without so much as a care.
Destiny looked worried. She didn't have a lot of time for 'all to be well.' What would she do, if they were still not getting along, by the time she had to leave?