“You already have it. Start and end north. When you’re ready, you’ll know what to do.”

“I don’t know how to decipher riddles.” I handed it back to him. “You could just take me there now. Kidnap the countess. You love her. We could be a real family and live off your treasure.”

“A child’s fairytale. Life isn’t so simple.”

“It could be.”

“Not for us.” He threaded the chain of the compass around the sash on my gown, securing the instrument to my waist. “When Abigail was exiled from English society, it destroyed something inside her. We’re from different worlds, she and I. Imagine her living with a criminal, always on the run and in fear of capture. It would suck the life out of her.” He wet his lips. “If I could, I would give up the sea and stand beside her in society. But I’m neither a nobleman nor a law-abiding man. That path was never an option.”

“But she was with you once.”

“In secret.” He grunted. “When she was young and blinded by love.”

Blinded by love.

The sound of that made me feel warm all over, and I smiled against his shoulder. “If I ever marry, he will be a man of your fortitude and spirit. A man who loves me above all else. Only me. And we shall be blinded by our love for life and beyond the ends of the sea.”

“Accept nothing less, Bennett.” He lifted my chin with a knuckle. “Promise me.”

“I promise.”

His eyes glittered with approval, his voice a deep well of affection. “That’s my girl.”

A few paces away, the hounds lounged in the shade. Seagulls cawed overhead, and late afternoon sunlight sparkled on white-crested waves.

He would be leaving soon, and his impending absence built a burning ache behind my eyes. Anguish coursed through me, so internal, so deep, it embedded itself before rising to the surface.

After a lifetime of goodbyes, I’d learned how to cope. To smother the hurt. Crying never took the pain away.

“Tell me another story about her.” I lay my cheek on his chest, relishing his scent of leather and salt. “Like the day you met.”

“You’ve heard that one many times.”

“I wish to hear it many more.”

“Very well.” He settled into a sprawl with a tree at his back and his arms holding me tight. “I spotted her from the ship deck I was scrubbing. The sun was so bright that day, high in the sky and heavy with heat. But it wasn’t worthy in the light of her radiance. She stood on the dock, glowing in ivory silk, so fair and arresting I couldn’t feel my legs.”

I devoured every word as he told me how he approached the noble maiden, whisked her away from her chaperon, and fell hopelessly in love with the Lady Abigail Leighton.