Bride of the Baja by Jane Toombs

used the rope to lower her chest, then hung by his hands and dropped to the ground beside her. After manhandling the chest up on one shoulder, he followed her along the side of the house. The heavy scent of orange blossoms sweetened the night. Lantern light shone from behind them and, as Margarita led him to the trees on the far side of the road, he heard a woman laugh.
    "The wagon should be waiting near the oaks," he told her.
    Margarita took his hand and they followed a path through the grove of trees. All at once she stopped.
    "I saw a light," she told him.
    He peered into the dark night. He saw nothing, so he waited, interminably, he thought, before a light gleamed for a moment a hundred feet in front of them. The light was gone as quickly as it came.
    "It is good," he told her.
    Now Jordan led the way, with Margarita's hand small and warm in his. When he neared the place where he had seen the light, he stopped.
    " Erin go bragh ," he said in a low voice.
    "Faith and begorra," Jack McKinnon said, burlesqueing an Irish brogue, "if it isn't the captain of the Kerry Dancer and his lady."
    "You have the wagon?"
    McKinnon unshielded his lantern long enough for Jordan to see the mule cart concealed in the trees near the road. After Jordan heaved the chest into the back of the cart, he leaned against one of the large wheels, catching his breath and massaging his aching shoulder.
    "What in the name of heaven do you have in that chest?" he asked Margarita when he was seated beside her in the cart.
    "A few dresses," she said. "And a few clothes. Shoes, slippers, hats, gloves. And my wedding gown. I want to be a proper bride for you, Captain Quinn."
    McKinnon switched the mules with a quirt and the cart rumbled slowly down the road in the direction of the beach. No one was abroad in the night. They reached the ship's boat beached on the sand without being challenged. As soon as they were on board, the sailors from the Kerry Dancer shoved the boat into the surf and rowed, their oars muffled with canvas, to the ship.
    After helping Margarita over the side, Jordan stood on the deck looking around him. "Have all hands been called?" he asked the mate.
    "They have, sir."
    "See that the senorita's chest is stowed in my cabin, if you please."
    "Aye aye, sir."
    Margarita touched his arm.
    "You may either go to our cabin or else stay on deck," Jordan told her before she had a chance to speak. "Out of the way," he added.
    She walked to the rail, watching the crewmen climb the ratlines into the rigging. One man slipped, caught himself before he fell and cursed loudly.
    "Silence," Jordan ordered. "I don't want the Dons to hear us, Mr. McKinnon." The order was passed from man to man.
    "Ready to set sail, sir," McKinnon told him.
    "Hands to the windlass, Mr. McKinnon." Jordan turned to the helmsman. "Set a course south by southeast to pass through the channel," he told him.
    The windlass clanked as the Kerry Dancer weighed anchor. Jordan slipped the ship's spyglass from its case and scanned the shoreline, seeing an occasional light but nothing more. He nodded, so far he and Margarita had not been missed.
    He watched the sails unfurl and felt the Kerry Dancer gather way before a fair wind that would see her out of the Santa Barbara channel. Already the memory of his time spent ashore had faded--the annoyances, the pettiness, the greed, the tedium of life on land now seemed unimportant. He wondered, for perhaps the thousandth time, how a man could stand to be land-bound all his days when he could be free on the deck of a good ship with all the world awaiting him beyond the horizon.
    Suddenly remembering Margarita, he looked around and saw her at the rail, looking out over the sea. Motioning McKinnon to his side, he said softly, "I never want her to know we had a part in that Indian raid on the rancho's horses. Do you understand?"
    McKinnon nodded.
    Jordan crossed the deck, coming up behind Margarita and caressing the nape of her neck with his