PART TWO: The Reliance
1668 – Porto Bello, Panama
Captain Edmund Merrick propped his head in his hand and gazed at the angel lying next to him. He eased a curl from her face and smiled as she squirmed and snuggled her head deeper into the pillow. How many nights had he spent without her these past three years? Too many to count. Now that he was back in the Caribbean for good, he found he could not keep his eyes off his wife.
Charlisse stirred. Her eyes fluttered open. An ocean breeze floated in from the veranda and danced playfully through her golden curls, then drifted over her nightdress, creating waves of shimmering silk in the candlelight. The alluring nightgown was a gift he had brought her from Francea token that in no way could make up for the many months they had spent apart. No
