Blue Velvet

even be legal, damn it. It takes all sorts of special seaman's papers to be qualified for a job like that.'

'Then we'll have to move on to plan two,' Beau said grimly. 'It's got to be legal. If we get someone on board with the right papers and it takes place in American waters…'

Kate was looking from one to the other in bewilderment. 'What's this all about? I must have missed something along the way.'

'Yes, Beau, tell her what it's all about,' Daniel said silkily. 'After all, it does concern her. In a minor way of course.'

'Shut up, Daniel,' Beau growled. 'You're not making this any easier.' His expression was grave as he turned back to Kate. 'We have a small problem. Last night when I came back up on deck to talk to Daniel I had to make a decision about where we were going.'

'Yes?'

'I made it. We're about a half-day's journey from our destination now.'

'And that is?' she asked, puzzled.

'Santa Isabella.' He paused. 'First.'

'First?'

'Then we're going to continue on to Norfolk, Virginia.'

'Virginia!' she echoed. 'But that's the United States. Immigration will never let me in without a passport.'

'I decided I was tired of batting around the Caribbean. I want to go home,' he said quietly. 'And you're coming with me just as you agreed.'

'But I can't without a-'

'We'll get you a passport, but it may take time to track down your papers. That's why we're stopping off at Santa Isabella. We need to get all the information out of Brenden we can regarding your birth and the possible whereabouts of your mother. In the meantime I'm not willing to sail around aimlessly like the Flying Dutchman waiting for the lawyers to come up with something.'

'Then you'll obviously have to go without me,' she said, trying to smile.

'The hell I will,' he said softly. 'Not when there's a way that I can have it all. Daniel can fix it.'

Fix it?'

'Right now we're anchored a mile or so off the coast of Lanique, a U.S. possession. That means we're in American waters. Since Daniel isn't qualified to do the job himself he's going to go ashore, find a justice of the peace or some other official and bring him on board the Searcher.' He took a deep breath. 'To marry us.'

'Marry?'

'Marry,' he repeated, a trifle nettled. 'You obviously view it with very little enthusiasm.'

'A very intelligent lady,' Daniel said promptly. 'Let's forget you ever had this latest attack of insanity, Beau.' He made a face. 'If it ever got back to Sedikhan I'd played Cupid for love's young dream, it would totally ruin my reputation.'

'We're not going to forget it,' Beau said grimly. 'We're going to be married today. Once we're ashore we'd have all sorts of problems tying the knot without papers for Kate. The minute we're married, she's automatically an American citizen and has the protection of both the Lantry name and the Lantry conglomerate. We'll still have trouble with Immigration but it should simplify the whole process enormously.'

'That's a pretty drastic solution,' Kate said dazedly. 'Isn't there any other way around it?'

Daniel opened his lips to speak, but Beau gave him a quelling glance and said quickly. 'There's no other way. You made me a promise and this is the only way you can keep it.' His lips twisted. 'You needn't be so apprehensive. Even conventional marriages seldom last more than a few years these days. It's not as if it has to be forever.'

No, it wouldn't be forever, she thought dully. It would only be a convenience in order that Beau could have her at his disposal for as long as it suited him. She mustn't let those words hurt so much.

'I know that,' she said quietly. 'I was just thinking that in time you may consider it to be more trouble than it's worth.'

'I rarely regret any decision I make, regardless of the consequences,' he said with a curiously bittersweet smile. 'I'll consider it worth it, Kate. You'll do it, then?'

'If that's what you want.'

'Very docile,' he said mockingly. 'Is our Kate so tame now?'

'I don't think I'm particularly meek,' she said, meeting his eyes steadily. 'I just believe in keeping my word.'

'And so do I,' he said, his expression softening. 'Remember that, Kate. So do I.'

His mood was changing from moment to moment with lightning rapidity, she thought dazedly. What did he actually want from her? She'd agreed to what he'd said he wanted, but she was still aware of the current of leashed restlessness and discontent behind that mocking facade.

'Hop to it, Daniel,' Beau said. 'I want to get it over with as soon as possible.' He shrugged. 'We'll be married in your cabin. It's as good a place as any.'

'No!' Kate said. She'd never thought much about weddings, certainly not her own wedding, but she was experiencing an odd repugnance at the idea of a hurried ceremony rattled off in the confines of Daniel's cabin. The vows they were going to speak may not have any importance to Beau, but they did to her and she wanted to be surrounded by beauty when she said them. 'Up here on deck, in the sunlight.'

There was a flicker of understanding and tenderness in Beau's eyes. 'Why not? Then we can have the entire crew as witnesses. We're going to need all the documentation we can scrounge together.'

'I'm on my way,' Daniel said, turning away. 'I'll have to go down to my cabin first and get my captain's papers and the credentials Clancy provided to prove how respectable I am these days, A justice of the peace isn't precisely the type of official I'm accustomed to using my powers of persuasion on.'

Kate took a step forward and placed an impulsive hand on his arm. 'You don't really mind, do you, Daniel?'

Daniel's impatient gaze traveled from her hand on his arm to her troubled face. 'You bet your sweet…' He stopped abruptly as he met her eyes. He was silent a long moment before he smiled with surprising gentleness. 'I'll live through it.' He patted her hand. 'I'll not only be best man, I'll even make the supreme sacrifice for the occasion.'

'What's that?'

He glanced ruefully down at his naked muscular chest with its curly thatch of auburn hair. 'I'll put on a shirt.' He turned away. 'But don't expect anything else from me. Enough is enough!' He was almost to the door leading below deck when he abruptly turned around again. 'Well, maybe one more thing. You're going to need a ring for the ceremony. I know Beau never wears one. Do you have one, Kate?'

She shook her head.

He was taking a large ring of Florentine gold off his right hand. 'Use this one.' He tossed it to Beau. 'It's my lucky ring though. I want it back.'

Kate studied the ring. It was obviously very valuable, aside from the fact that it was fashioned of pure gold. The workmanship was exquisite and the design on the surface very unusual. A rose in full bloom pierced by a sword. 'Lucky?'

Daniel nodded. 'It was given to me by a powerful Sedikhan sheik I did a favor for once. I didn't know it at the time, but wearing it put me automatically under the sheik's protection. That particular symbol is recognized throughout Sedikhan.' His lips twisted. 'The revolutionaries I told you about stole the ring after they captured me. When they sold it in the bazaar the buyer took it to the sheik and he contacted Donahue.