Bride of the Baja by Jane Toombs Read Free Book Online Page B

no idea of the direction she was taking—and found nothing except more timbers and shattered crates washed up on the shore. Overhead, gulls screamed at her, the birds hovering almost motionlessly above her as they fought against the force of the wind. When she had walked about a mile, she stopped and began retracing her steps, passing the place where she had come ashore during the night.
    At first she thought the black mass ahead of her on the beach was just another rock. When she realized it was a man with one arm outstretched, the other curled under him, she ran toward him. One of the crewmen, she thought, thrown onto the rocks as she had been. When she drew near, she saw the fingers of the man's huge hand spread out on the black of the rock and knew it was Malloy.
    She put her hand on his chest and felt the slow rise and fall of his breathing. He was alive! She stood up and looked both ways along the beach, glanced inland and then out to sea as though seeking help while knowing she would find none. When she looked down at Malloy once more, she remembered his hands on her body and the taste of bile rose in her throat.
    A few feet away she found a large boulder. Lifting it, using all her remaining strength, she returned to stand next to Malloy, holding the rock above his head. She would dash it down on him, kill him. She raised the boulder to her chest, then higher, to her chin. Now! she told herself.
    She swung around, staggering away and letting the rock fall from her hands. No, she couldn't kill him. The day before, in the cabin, she could have shot him and felt little remorse. Here, with Malloy helpless at her feet, she found it impossible. She lowered her face into her hands.
    "You meant to kill me."
    She looked down to see Malloy's brown eyes flick away from her face. He raised himself on one arm, then sat with his arms around his knees, staring at the ground between his legs.
    "Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?" he asked. "You had cause enough."
    "I don't know," she told him. "I couldn't."
    He looked to sea “They managed to get the boat away," he said slowly. "I stayed with the Yankee until she broke up on the rocks."
    "Do you know where we are?" she asked.
    "No. On the California coast, surely, but just where I can't say. Not within a hundred leagues. I thought the ship was far from shore. I was wrong."
    She had never seen Malloy so humble. The loss of the ship, his ship, must have come close to destroying all his faith in himself.
    "We have to join forces," she told him. "We can't afford to be enemies, not here. We'll do much better with two pairs of eyes to look for ships, with two of us instead of one to search for food and water."
    "Have no fear, I'll not harm you."
    For the first time he looked at her, and she followed his glance down to her bare arms and legs, to the damp chemise outlining her breasts and hips under its thin cloth. Instinctively she folded her arms over her breasts as she saw the sudden glint in his eyes. When he pushed himself to his feet, she drew back.
    "I'll not harm you," he said again.
    He walked from her and stood at the top of the beach looking about him.
    "Can you recognize any of this from the charts?" she asked.
    "No, none of it. I'd best climb one of those hills and have a look."
    "I'll come with you."
    "There's no need."
    "I want to. You lead and I'll follow."
    He shrugged and made off with his rolling sailor's gait across the rocks toward the grassy hills, with Alitha a few steps behind. She felt the wind change--a warm sun came out from behind the clouds.
    After a time, without looking back at her, he said, "Why do you hate me, Miss Alitha?"
    "I don't hate you. I don't hate anyone. It's not Christian to hate."
    They walked on in silence. Did she hate him? Was he right? Yes, he was, admit it, she told herself. "You—you tried to force me," she said.
    "I mean even before. All during the voyage from Boston. Is it my hands?"
    "Of course not," she said quickly. "How