Epilogue

Wales, 1810

The wind shifted south, and the small sailboat rocked hard to starboard. The bow dipped low as the waves swelled taller.

What a bloody idiot.

Rafe peeked down at Mari, heaving a sigh of relief that she was tucked up tightly against the galley. But he needed help to make it through the storm. He wasn't certain if it was merely the waves tossing him about on deck, or the bottles of whisky he had consumed earlier that afternoon after the earl's daughter broke his heart, but at sixteen, he had already been at sea for five years.

It was the whiskey. And now a storm was barreling down upon them, and there was no glimpse of escape.

"Stay there," he shouted over the howling wind.

The jet-black clouds opened up overhead and unleashed a wicked fury. Cold rain pelted down, making him feel as if he were being lashed by the cat-o'-nine-tails for being drunk and disorderly. What had been difficult to see before was nearly impossible with the driving rain.

He scrambled over the deck, barely missing the jib as the knot slipped loose.

Damn it.

Thunder roared as if the barrier between Heaven and Earth cleaved apart. The vibration rattled deep in Rafe's chest as he rushed to tie off the knot once more. The thick rope slipped against his hands, and he didn't notice the cut until blood flowed down from his palm to his wrist.

Rafe needed to bring them into the harbor. Too many had perished for far less reckless behavior on the sea. He should know better.

He lost his father to the sea. Rafe had lived on a ship since a young boy at eleven.

He grabbed the wheel, launching his body weight against it to avoid the boat from turning into the next wave. The wave towered forward as the boat dipped down dramatically, as if submitting to their wicked, fickle fate.

"I want to go home!" Mari shouted, balling her small fists at her sides. She clamped her hands over her ears, and her large brown eyes widened as she spotted the wave barreling down upon them.

"I'll see you safe, love," he shouted over the din.

The storm raged on as the boat steadily climbed another monstrous wave. Up, up.

"Hold on," he shouted again, except the wind carried away his voice, and Mari scrambled to her feet, panic filling her eyes. Her plum satin sash fluttered in the wind.

"Sit down." He couldn't release his grip on the wheel. The boat rolled port side, and she stumbled.

"Rafe!" She scurried, frantically grabbing at the jib to take a firm hold and not lose her balance.

The boat crested and then slammed down on the other side of the wave. The jib's knot slipped loose, and it swung right.

He let go of the wheel and dove to protect Mari.

His boots slipped on the wet deck. His numb fingers clasped around her ankle as the jib swung wide and crashed against her head. His little sister's body went limp and crumpled to the deck as the boat listed sideways into the upcoming wave.

"Mari!" Rafe held on to her ankle and stretched to reach a rope. But even if he could tie her to the deck, he didn't have time to right the sailboat.

He barely had any time at all.

The storm roared around him as the boat rocked starboard, and a monstrous wave reached overhead, replacing the dark clouds above with angry whitecaps.

Then they were lost. The wave engulfed Rafe, his sister, and his sailboat, then dragged them all down.

Down.

Into the deep and dark.

Down.

Down.