Despite the delicious meals, the walks and rides, the thousand presents and good times they shared, Marina and Castillano agreed that the best of his visit to Tortuga turned out to be the chance of waking up together, which they'd only had before the first time they'd met at Helena Point.
The girl's bed remained untouched while he was there. As soon as the others went to sleep, Marina tiptoed across the hall and sneaked into Castillano's room. They undressed each other among kisses and sighs and fell together on the tall canopied bed. There they enjoyed the complete lack of rush their meetings used to bring, and gave in to sleep in the same tight embrace they woke up to.
And that was what pushed Castillano to make up his mind.
On the brief hour from Cayona to Port-de-Paix, he led Marina to the Phantom's bow. He guided her over the bows and down to the beak, where they could be alone without locking themselves up in the cabin. He helped her to sit on the beak between his legs, her back against his chest.
The girl's eyes opened like grapefruits when he grabbed her left hand and slid on her ring finger a thin golden band with an aquamarine, the same bright blue of the sea around them.
"Marry me," Castillano whispered in her ear, resting his chin on her shoulder and still holding her hand. "I don't want to wake up without you ever again."
He felt her quiver in his arms and waited, his heart drumming, wondering what he would do if she rejected him, like her silence seemed to forecast.
Marina stared down at the gem. It had not only the color of the sea, but that of the eyes of the man she loved. Fear squeezed her belly, and she breathed deep.
"I... What do you want out of marrying me?"
Castillano understood she was voicing for the first time something she'd asked herself many times. And that his answer would shape hers. Lucky him, that his happiness depended on his pathetic skill with words.
"I want to quit rowing like a slave after making love to you. It makes my back ache like seven hells."
She let out a shaky giggle. "Come! I mean it."
"Me too. It hurts for days. What do you mean, what do I want? You, child. You are the only thing I want in this world."
The girl remembered Morris' smack in the back of her head three weeks earlier and forced herself to go on. "And where....? Where would you want to live?"
"Does it matter? Wherever you want. I don't care where the roof is as long as you're under it."
Marina closed her eyes and pressed her chest with the hand he still held. "So you would want me to stay there, wherever there was."
Only then did he realized what she was afraid of, and he held her tighter in his arms. "I'd like you to be there when I come back from the sea, of course. But it wouldn't be the end of the world if you're late because of the wind or the tides. Well, if you apologize properly. I'd also like that you wouldn't take so many risks. Or that we took them together. Or that we don't take any risk together. I don't know. We have time to figure that one out."
It was a good thing that he was holding her so tightly, because Marina seemed to melt down in his arms. She wriggled to turn around as much as she could and face him. The tears in her black eyes made his blue eyes well.
"You don't...? You don't want me to stay away from the sea?"
"Of course I do, to know you're safe. But what's the point in caging a bird if you love to watch it fly?" He kissed her forehead." And what would become of the sea without you? I love you just as you are, child. With your sword I can't beat, and your ship with a mind of her own, and your hundred scoundrels shaking in fear when you frown."
"And would you agree to live in Tortuga?"
"You expect me to make you trade your palace for my shack?"
"Like I would care if you're there."
Castillano caressed her hair off her face and smiled. "I don't have a family to take you in, child, and no friends but Luis. I can't even go around with my real name. I would never steal you away from your people to chain you to a life of loneliness and lies."
His plain, straight words, his honest smile, his arms holding her up with a strength that offered her security and confidence. Marina hated the tears that blurred those eyes like the sea smiling at her from up close. She could only nod, sticking to the chest that protected the heart she didn't want to be parted from ever again.
Castillano rested his cheek against the raven curls fluttering in the wind, sprinkled in sun and salt. The shore was a dark line up ahead. They didn't have much time left together, but at least now he knew it would be the last goodbye. And that certainty filled him with a calm he'd never felt before.
"How...?" Marina muttered, cuddling in his arms. "I mean, when? I mean, when would you leave Cuba? You can come live with us for as long as you need."
"I'm supposed to take a shipment to Trujillo after New Year. I can talk to Don Carlos as soon as I'm back to Santiago, and make it my last trip for him."
"And how long would it take you to pack your belongings in Santiago?"
"Pack? I'm a sailor, child. My belongings always fit the chest in my cabin."
"Would you want me to pick you up in Trujillo?"
"And meet in Helena Point one last time? I'd love it."
Marina tugged at his shirt and he lowered his head to kiss her. And for once, he didn't care that he couldn't stop smiling like an idiot.
They were forced to climb back to the deck when they made port. And Morris and Alonso had to pull them apart, because the merchantman they were supposed to board was only waited for them to get underway.
On the merchantman, Castillano sat on some crates by the gunwale with a happy grin. Alonso and Alma traded a look and she nodded.
"I'll start packing first thing tomorrow," she said.
Back on the Phantom, Morris took Marina's hand, studied the ring and smacked her head softly.
"Blockhead!" he grumbled, making her laugh.