If they could come up with a good guess, he’d take it and run. Or, well, sail. To Gugh, and then just start digging. He didn’t much care where. Truth be told, his hands were just hungry for the taste of dirt and a good shovel. Even if they didn’t begin in the right spot, he just wanted to begin.
“I do wish there was some record of where they lived.” Beth, her hand tucked snugly against his arm as they walked, looked not to the sea or the beach, but up at the roofs of the cottages barely visible over the waving seagrass. “Or at least Briallen’s family. It’s likely they stayed there after their wedding, don’t you think?”
Sheridan made a face. “Spending one’s wedding night in a two-room cottage with one’s new in-laws? I can’t say as that would be ideal, no.”
But the mention of it brought a beautiful flush to Beth’s cheeks, even as she laughed. “Perhaps not ideal, but I don’t know how many empty cottages were just lying about at the time.”
“Nor do I, but let’s not forget he was a royal. He probably could have bought a few nights of privacy, even here.”
She granted it with a tilt of her head and a pretty little hum. “Which means we really can’t narrow it down at all. They could have let pretty much any cottage for a few days. So, if he kissed her good-bye there . . .”
“I don’t know that he would have, though.” Sheridan paused when a glint caught his eye in the sand, just near the high-tide line. He bent down, scooped up the piece of blue sea glass, and handed it to Beth. Mamm-wynn had quite a collection of sea glass, and her eyes always lit up when Beth brought her a new piece.
Beth smiled and slipped it into her pocket. “Perfect. And why not kiss her good-bye at a rented cottage?”
“Because.” He dusted the damp sand off his fingers, onto his trousers. It would fall off long before they got back to the Tremayne house and Ainsley’s eagle eye. Probably. “If we’d just married and I was sailing away without you, would you really say good-bye to me at the house?”
When she lifted her chin and raised her brows, he was reminded again of why he’d tumbled head over heels in love with her within minutes. Or at least hours. “If we’d just married, you would not be sailing away without me, Lord Sheridan. Make no mistake about that. I’d stow away in the ship’s hold if I had to, but your future adventures would include me right by your side.”
As they most assuredly would. It would get a bit complicated once children came along, but what child of theirs wouldn’t enjoy hopping about the world from excavation to excavation? And then coming back to doting aunties and a wise uncle and great-grandparents to regale them with all the stories they could ever want? They’d make it work—though it may require a few extra hands. They’d definitely have to bribe Senara into joining them. It was that or see if Ainsley would play nursemaid.
He grinned at the thought of Ainsley changing nappies and scanned the sand for more treasures. “I didn’t say Rupert wasn’t a fool. But my greater point was simply that Briallen wouldn’t just wave farewell from the doorway, would she? She’d have walked with him.”
“I can’t imagine her kissing him good-bye right at the quay, though, with all his crew watching.”
She may have a point. “True. And due south of the quay isn’t on the north shore of Gugh anyway.” He glanced over his shoulder, in the general direction of said quay, though they couldn’t see it from here. They’d already passed by Piper’s Hole and were making their way to the southern point of the island. “But that’s where his ship would have been anchored, isn’t it?”
“Hm.” Her brows wrinkled in thought. “That depends on the size of the ship. There was no anchorage around Tresco at the time that was deep enough for the large vessels. They had to anchor at St. Mary’s.”
“Well, Rupert’s ship was large. Not quite as large as Mucknell’s John had been before it was sunk, but it would have had a fairly deep draft.” So, it likely would have been at St. Mary’s. But that didn’t make perfect sense, did it? He let out a long breath and toed a shell that looked promising—no, it was just a sliver. “We know Mucknell and his wife lived on Tresco, though, at the house Tas-gwyn Gibson now calls home. And Briallen’s family was on Tresco as well. So even if his ship was anchored at St. Mary’s, he must have been staying here.”
“The locals have always had small boats to use for hopping between the islands.” Beth motioned at a few sails out upon the water even now. “And we’ve never minded ferrying people about, either from island to island or from island to ship—that’s actually where the gig racing began, did you know? Locals racing the sailors to their ships. He could have been staying here and then gone in a rowing boat or sloop to his ship. It even could have sailed out of the harbor in Hugh Town and come as close to Tresco as possible to fetch him.”
Well now, that was an interesting thought—both the actual one about Rupert and that such things were what started a tradition reaching even into the present. “And where would he have met it? The quay in Grimsby? But you’d already said she wouldn’t have kissed him there.”
“We obviously can’t know for certain. But . . .” Beth pressed her lips together and shot him a wide-eyed look.
He hadn’t quite mastered reading her mind so well, though. He could tell she liked whatever idea she’d come up with—but he hadn’t a clue what that idea was. “Yes? But? Don’t leave me hanging, you know. It’s cruel. And you’re not angry with me anymore.”
She tugged him into a faster pace. “But when one is coming from St. Mary’s and not looking to dock for long, there’s a far more likely location. On Tresco’s southernmost point.”
“The one at the end of Carn Near Road.” He matched her new pace quite happily. They could look for more shells on their way back from the little docking area. “It’s certainly nearer to St. Mary’s than any of the others. I’ve seen it, of course, and walked by it, but we’ve never used it.”
“Well, no, not since we keep our sloops in the quay. But so far as I know, it’s been in use for centuries.”
“Well. Let’s see if it has any locations near it perfect for a kiss, shall we?” He wiggled his brows at her and pulled her a little closer to his side for a step or two.
She laughed. “Sounds like a perfectly scientific experiment.”
“Absolutely. And, really, we’d be remiss in our duties if we didn’t explore each possibility in search of the most likely one.”
Though as they neared the southern tip of the island, where the road terminated at the sand, he began to see Beth’s point about Briallen not just kissing her pirate husband farewell in any old place. The shoreline grew busier here, and several boats were either making use of the dockage, just leaving it, or sailing toward it even now.
One of which looked rather familiar. “Is that your brother and my sisters already?”
Beth lifted a hand to add a bit of extra shade to the narrow brim of her hat as she peered to the south. “I believe so. They made good time. Your sisters must not have requested another tour today.”