Author's Note: Thank you to the fans of the series for waiting so patiently for an update. This is not the end of Kate The Kid, keep that in mind, this is just a major chapter on the relationship between her and Rafe. The gang still has to rescue Izzy so there is more to come!
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"Dan! Finn!" Kate ran to her friends on the deck of the Adovanti and hugged them both around the neck, they in turn raised her legs, swinging. They set her down, all three grinning madly as Rafe and Jerome watched with smaller smiles.
"It's still amazing to see you in a dress," Dan said, shifting uncomfortably in his own suit.
Kate looked at him and Finn done up like city gents. "I take it Jerome has remade us all?"
"Not everybody," Rafe said after clearing his throat.
She glanced back at him, having noticed him first on the deck of the ship, still in his denim shirt and rough pants. The open sea air blew his hair, almost curly from the humidity that was upon them all like a wall.
He'd left as she was packing to roust the others and it had been Jerome, not Robert, who had come to collect her. To her consternation Jerome had spent the entire morning with her gathering up clothes suitable for the journey, even having a dressmaker take precise measurements and cabling them to a dressmaker in Rome. As they went he told her stories in a melancholy way of his life on the rough streets and how time had removed him from that life, in fact any life, until Izzy had come along.
Even if she hadn't loved Izzy with her whole heart, Kate would cross mountains on foot and swim the ocean to bring Jerome his woman back.
"No, not everybody," Kate said. Smiling she turned back to her old friends. "Who ever thought the gang would be in the states and even leaving them for Europe?"
"So what's the plan?" Finn asked quietly.
"We have a month at sea to figure that out," Dan said. "Let's use some time to find out more on this Vercelli and then we'll come up with a plan."
Kate nodded to Jerome. "If it's worth doing, it's worth taking our time and using it wisely for our goals. C'mon, I ain't never been on a ship, let's explore!"
Rafe watched them race off like children. He'd never been on a ship before but he had other goals. And a month at sea with Kate ought to give him enough time to bring her around to his way of thinking. The woman was too focused on finding Izzy to take the blinders off and really see him. He vowed when they set foot in Italy everything would be different.
"It's amazing, she has no idea, does she?"
Rafe roused himself from his thoughts and turned to Jerome. "About what?"
"I tried to tell her, her mother was the sole heir of the Reynolds dysnasty, and now that makes Kate the heir. The woman could afford to buy three ships like this if she wanted."
Rafe put his hand on his friend's tight arm. "Let's not tell her."
"Why on earth not?"
"Jerome, I mean to marry Kate. I think I knew it before there was talk of a child, and I damn well knew it before there was any talk of money. I don't want anything but her, but I doubt she'll see it that way."
"Rafe, you're playing at dangerous things ere. She has a right to know that at leas one of her parents was a good woman, from a good family, with a solid legacy for her."
"Christ, Jerome. I love her and I have this one chance not to lose her. What could be more important than that?"
Jerome leaned back against the railing and folded his arms. "Is that true?"
Rafe swiped a hand through his hair and then placed his shaky hands on the railing next to his friend. "It is. I know it sounds crazy. She's nothing like Faith, she's nothing like any other woman. Damn it, I wasn't looking for a woman, I had no intention on settling down, but now I know I'll never be happy until I have her with me. Is that so wrong?"
Jerome turned and looked across the sea into the distance where he knew Izzy was, scared and alone but for the bastard Franco. If he touched her...he felt his fist clench and unclench. "No, it's not wrong. Love makes fools of us all, but in the end we're stronger men for it."
"I hope to hell you're right."
***
It seemed everyone was intent on some for of merriment in order to forget their troubles. Everyone but Jerome and Kate. Jerome retired to his cabin after dinner pleading a headache and need of rest, Rafe disappeared without a word, and Dan and Finn made noises about a poker game, apologizing to Kate that in this world, women did not play.
Alone Kate had three options; retire to her own cabin, stroll the deck, or join the other ladies in a parlor for tea and gossip. Since the latter appealed about as much as a lynching to her and the former felt a mite bit depressing, Kate grabbed one of the shawls Jerome had bought her and headed for the deck.
The ship was one of Izzy's and transported cargo, cotton she learned from the first mate, as well as a handful of passengers. There were just twelve outside their group and after dinner only the crew was on deck, bustling, cleaning, ad patrolling. They all ignored her, and she was grateful.
She allowed her mind to wander at last from Izzy to Rafe. Izzy was safe enough on board one of her own ships she'd have the captain's quarters and Franco would not be allowed to try anything. They would only have to worry upon docking and that was a month off.
Rafe...now that was another matter. Her heart still ached from that morning. How could he share his body with her like that but have no kind words, nothing she wanted to hear? She felt a fool, how her heart had jumped when he had offered to marry her, but it had all been an illusion.
Ruby's words came back to haunt her...Rafe was a man of honor but little emotion. As foolish as it seemed she didn't want to tie her fate to the wagon of a man who didn't love her. But why was that, she asked herself did she love him?
There was a twinge in her chest and she knew the thought was scary. Life was in turmoil right now but she was no further along than she had been the day she met Jerome and Rafe. She needed to strike out on her own. MacMasters didn't change anything, the range was her home, Frisco too, but she needed to settle down and do something ow that the Kid was retired. Perhaps she would talk with Finnegan and get some tips.
Disheartened she pulled the shawl tighter around herself and left the deck for the small passageways leading to the cabins. She slipped the key for her door from her pocket and slipped it into the lock, but the door swung slightly ajar.
"Tarnation," she mumbled and went for her .45 in the other pocket. She kicked the door open with her boot to find Rafe sitting in the small chair next to the bed. All the candles had been lit giving the small pace an intimate light, and the gold of the flames cast his skin dark.
In his suit still from dinner, albeit with the collar open, everything about him was dark except those amazing eyes. The room was delicate and feminine and he seemed impossibly large and masculine against it.
"What are you doing here?"
