This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Your support and respect for the property of this author are appreciated.
Many thanks to Jenny Harden who wanted me to expand the story into a full book, and to Melissa Mathews who encouraged me to publish, and to Mandy (Bennett) Lee who encouraged me by wanting to re-read the story immediately after finishing it the first time.
I hope you enjoy the story and perhaps become one of its characters, if for only a short while.
* * * * *
Lissa's Island
* * * * *
Prologue
1834
THE cannibals swarmed around us by surprise even as I was still tasting Melissa’s sweet lips on mine. They came from everywhere out of the bushes, swarming over us within seconds! The savages grabbed and threw us both to the ground, menacing with their sharp spears and heavy clubs. Melissa screamed and reached for me, but they forced us apart.
At once I jumped up and grabbed my knife from its sheath lunging at the closest one. The sharp blade penetrated flesh and sank into his chest to the hilt. I heard his scream right before a club struck my head and I fell back, dazed while more clubs struck my body. I lay still on the ground for some minutes. Something warm trickled from the back of my head as I listened to them chatter to one another in an unintelligible language. Through blurry eyes, I noticed how Melissa’s beauty caught their interest. Was she their real prize? They began clustering around her as I felt myself about to pass out…
Chapter 1
THE ocean waves slapped against the side of the schooner, leaving a trail of white froth. The brisk winds urged the ship forward as it dipped and swayed in many fathoms of deep water the color of sapphire. The man’s sad hollow eyes followed the ship’s wake and turned away. He did not want to cast his look upon the horizon where the island had been only two days before…HER island. He shuddered at the thought and held tighter to the rope tethered to the mast above him. The warm South Pacific breeze pushing against the ballooning sails was ordinarily a pleasant sensation. Now it dried the burning tears that were blurring his vision... but not his memory.
Oh if I could only forget, yet the torment continues in my mind. I can’t believe it all happened, he thought to himself. Am I still in a daze? A delirium?. Yes, of course, I must be, from a bad fever, brought on by malnutrition, and a…a…broken heart. NO! I must not think of that. I must…push it out of my mind...forever… my beautiful Lissa...forever GONE...
“Erik. Erik, old boy! Are ye quite alright?” came the distinctively British voice of Captain Oliver Blakeshire. Rik at once realized he had been pounding his fist on the deck railing. The captain’s words roused him into awareness.
"I’m alright, Oliver. I…I guess I’m just not over the whole thing. I may never be.” The captain let out a sympathetic sigh and handed him a glass of brandy.
“Rik, me young friend, ye will get over it, and life will go on for y’laddy. Y’ know, y’ were out cold when we found y’ lad. I’m glad ta see ye up and around ag’in. We haven’t 'ad a chance t’ talk much either. When word got to me from a passin’ ship about th' sinking of your ship, the Lady Glasgow, I bloody well-feared y’dead, Rik! But I just ‘ad ta come lookin’ for ya, and it was a darn near miracle to have found ye at all. Thank the stars I was already sailin' at this latitude. Tell me, lad, how did ye come to be out there on that godforsaken island? What the devil ‘appened to y’?”
“Oliver, you saved my life, but right now I wish I were dead.” The sadness shone on his weather-beaten handsome face.
“But why… an’ how the blazes did ye end up on tha’ deserted island in th’ first place?”
Rik tensed up. “My old friend, I carry with me a great sadness. You see I left someone dear to me on that island.”
“Ye left someone behind… on th’ island? But we saw no one else there, laddy!”
“Let me try to tell you the whole story… if… if I can…