She gave him a wry smile. “I can’t imagine why, but he’s afraid of you for some reason. The rock throwing is to show you he’s not.”
“That’s courage, to defy his fear.”
“I suppose it is. I’ve tried to get him to come over here with me so he can see for himself that you’re a nice man, but he refuses.” At James’s laugh, she asked, “What amuses you?”
“I don’t think anyone has ever used that word to describe me, Mrs. Ross. But if this isn’t what you wanted to talk about . . . ?”
“No, there’s something else.” She shook her head sadly. “I’ve decided that I must leave my husband. He and I were never suited and—and his gambling has grown worse, and now there is drinking—”
“Has he hurt you?” James cut in with a snarl.
“Goodness, I see now why you can strike fear into a child. No, it’s nothing like that. I was just never happy here, and now it’s so much worse. I don’t want Damon to end up a pauper.”
“Divorce him.”
“I wish I could, but my family would never accept that stigma, and I do want to return to them. But my husband won’t let me go if I try to take our son with me, and I won’t leave without him, so I must leave in secrecy.”
“Do you need money for passage?”
“No, but I hope you’ll take us with you to England the next time you sail there.”
He should have just told her the truth, that he didn’t allow women aboard his ship unless they occupied his bed. Instead he’d lied and told her he had no immediate plans to return to England when in fact he was heading back to the homeland the next day to settle his score with Nicholas Eden.
“I was taken with her,” James said to Conrad now. “She certainly was beautiful. And I was tempted, but she tugged at something else in me that made me want to help her instead of seducing her. She was so bloody melancholy, yet so gracious.”
“But you did help her.”
“Not really. I told her I’d get both her and her son to a ship that would take them to England. She came to the house the next day to get that help, but the boy bolted, and I saw bruises on her arms this time. I bloody well wasn’t going to leave her there for more abuse. So I insisted she come with me and wait in Port Antonio, where we dropped her off. I promised that when I returned, I would help her get the boy away from his father. But Eden and then George proved too much of a distraction. I never did get back to Jamaica to help her.”
“You tried your best. She was a woman of some means. No doubt she made other arrangements, might even have returned to England alone to get her parents’ help in retrieving the boy.”
“Her husband, Cyril, might have been something of a wastrel, but from the few times I saw him in the fields with his son, I could see they obviously shared a closeness. So the lad wouldn’t have come to harm before she could fetch him away from there.” Then James rolled his eyes. “I haven’t thought of her in ages. But I wish I’d kept my promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
JACK OPENED HER EYES but didn’t bother to get out of bed because she couldn’t bear to spend yet another boring day practically by herself in the cabin. Although Damon had given her books four days ago, they weren’t helping to distract her when she’d already read most of them.
Five trunks filled with clothes, soaps, and other amenities had been delivered that day she had her first bath. She’d been both delighted and furious that Damon had planned so well for her kidnapping that he’d even bought a wardrobe for her. Unless he’d stolen it. That was more likely. And she never did thank him. And he’d never explained further what he’d meant when he said Lacross was working for him even though she’d asked several times. Had he been lying? Bragging?
She hadn’t seen a lot of Bastard, whom she’d got in the habit of calling Damon in the last four days, either, except to help change his bandage. She had started to enjoy that intimate contact with him, though she’d never let him know it. But the rough seas they’d encountered kept him at the wheel so much, a few nights he hadn’t even gotten back to the cabin for his dinner, and when he did, he was too tired for conversation. She’d asked why he didn’t have more men capable of manning the wheel, but he’d fallen asleep before she got an answer. Even Mortimer had abandoned her, moving out of the cabin three nights ago, so she couldn’t question him, either.
Damon still wasn’t letting her see Jeremy, but was allowing them to send notes to each other. She was grateful—and for this she thanked Damon. But she didn’t trust him not to read the notes so she’d decided to make them cryptic, and to use phrases and references that only Jeremy would understand. She knew her brother had caught on when in her first note she’d asked him if he looked like Tony after a round at Knighton’s or like Boyd. Unfortunately, he’d answered, Like Boyd, which meant he had at least one injury that was going to be slow to heal. Then Jeremy suggested she do what Reggie would do to get Nick to attend a ball with her. She’d laughed at that one, but didn’t think her brother was really encouraging her to seduce the captain . . . well, at least not physically. But their cousin Reggie did use her feminine charms when she wanted to change her husband’s mind about something, so Jacqueline got the idea. Damon had even suggested she try seduction. Did all men think alike?
Considering that Damon did confirm an association with Lacross, even though he’d been utterly vague about it, she let Jeremy know by writing, Gabby and Drew once met our greatest enemy, so he’d know Damon had confirmed it. Jeremy’s reply to that was Wish I had a knife so I could start sharpening it.
Other than the notes, the only interesting things happening were the strong winds making the ship speed through the ocean, and the few times she’d heard sounds of arguing outside the cabin. Mortimer broke up one of those disagreements; Damon broke up another. It was a bit unnerving because it had sounded as if the pirates were trying to get inside the cabin. She’d quickly latched the door until it was quiet out there again.
But this morning, her seventh at sea, yet another argument started outside the cabin just as she was finishing her breakfast, and it sounded like a particularly nasty scuffle. Someone or something was thrown so hard against the wall that even her empty plate rattled on the table. Damon entered the cabin a few moments later, looking disheveled and angry.
“Let’s go!” he ordered. She was too confused to move immediately, so he came over and took her hand. “I’ve decided to keep you at my side. It’s the safest place for you.”
Safe from what? But she was being pulled along with him out of the cabin, so she couldn’t ask yet. She saw blood on the deck, not much, but it alarmed her. He didn’t stop until he was at the unmanned wheel and turned it sharply to get them back on course.
He’d placed her in front of him, between him and the wheel. She could feel his chest against her back, though the physical contact didn’t seem deliberate and was gone as soon as he was done turning the wheel. But he was still holding the wheel, which left his arms on both sides of her.
Jacqueline’s grin showed up immediately. Freedom from that damned cabin—did she care why or that she had to share it with him? And she hadn’t needed to make any concessions for it. Wind and sun on her face, the wheel in front of her, barefoot and in britches, this was such familiar territory for her that she didn’t need to wonder why she was suddenly so happy.
She watched some of the crew working or loitering on deck. She’d seen nothing of this ship before, except to watch it sail away from St. Kitts. She didn’t even know if it was the same ship.
Most of the crew were dressed like normal English sailors, were even barefoot like her. A few weren’t; of the more flamboyantly dressed men, one wore an ancient green satin coat, tattered and frayed, and another, a dirty white silk shirt, with a saber hanging from each hip. They gave her such leering looks it caused a slight shiver down her back. Satin Coat even had four pistols stuck around his belt.
“You’re allowed to ask why I haven’t waited for you to seduce me,” Damon said f
rom behind her.
She choked back a laugh. “I don’t care why I’m out here, just that I am.”
“Really?”
She glanced back to note his frown. “Fine, if you’re dying to tell me, go ahead.”
“I’m not. We can discuss where you got those britches from instead.”
She turned around to face him. He was looking down at the new floral-patterned britches. “I finished making these yesterday out of one of the dresses you supplied.”
“Those were expensive dresses.”
“Stop trying to evade. Why am I suddenly only safe at your side?”
“The pirates have been lusting after you ever since they saw you dripping wet after Mort and I fished you out of the ocean. They keep trying to get past my guards.”
“But you warned them off.”
“They’re pirates, Jack, the dregs of the Caribbean. They aren’t known for being loyal under any circumstances, but certainly not to me. They’re merely along for the ride.”
“Explain,” she demanded.
“Then let me be blunt. I can continue to fight them off and risk failing or give them a reason to back off for now.”
“What reason?”
“They need to think you’re sharing my bed.”
Her eyes flared. That was a little too blunt. “That’s not happening!”
He feigned a sigh. “I wish you wouldn’t say that so adamantly, but I did say they only need to think it’s so. The pirates know you stabbed me, and two of them saw you sleeping in your own cot rather than my bed. Perhaps if you made an overt gesture of affection toward me out here on the deck, the pirates will think you’re my woman.”
She gave him a suspicious look. “If this is some convoluted plan you dreamed up just to get me to smack my lips to yours, that’s not happening, either.”
He grinned. “If I thought that would work, I would have tried it long before now. So, no kiss?”
“Not one.”
A much louder feigned sigh. “How disappointing.”
Turning the conversation to a safer topic, she asked, “Why don’t you train some of your normal crew to man the wheel?”
His answer was surprising. “That my only helmsman is Mr. Thomson, who takes over for me at night, is all that’s keeping the pirates from mutiny. They can do most of the work on the ship as they did on the way to London, but they became suspicious when I hired a new crew there, so they don’t even bother to help now. But none of them knows how to chart the course or man the wheel, so for now, they think they still need me.”
“That’s why you won’t let me steer? You don’t want them to know I can?”
He grinned. “I’m actually looking forward to the day you can prove it, but yes, if you can, I don’t want them to know it.”
“Mutiny? Really?”
“It’s possible sooner or later. They’re eager to get home, but they’re more eager to get their hands on you. They could just keep Thomson alive to steer for them and tie the wheel down while the wind is steady from one direction or drop the sails when it’s not. Poor Thomson won’t get much sleep in either case.”
“That’s sooner. What’s later?”
“Once we reach the Caribbean and they start recognizing islands, they’ll figure out they can finish the trip without me.”
“Then shouldn’t we get rid of them before then?”
“Funny you should mention that. . . .”
He didn’t elaborate, only laughed. She gritted her teeth. Sometimes he was forthcoming; other times, too damned tight-lipped. But she hated it when she amused him like this without knowing why.
“Seriously, Jack, the best way for you to stay safe is to pretend that you are sharing my bed.”
She could indeed, and all sorts of things popped into her head about what he was suggesting. Touching him intimately, under duress, of course, but she still got a little excited over the carte blanche he was giving her.
“Are the pirates on the deck watching us now?” she whispered.
“A handful are.”
With no hesitation at all, she moved a little closer to him and raised a hand to his shoulder, slowly moved it up his neck and into his hair. It was softer than she’d imagined. She ran strands of it through her fingers several times before she caressed him behind one ear.
Damon made a sound that told her he liked what she was doing. “If I were steering a carriage instead of a ship, I would have wrecked it by now. You’re a wicked woman, Jack.”
She threw back her head and laughed.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
JUDITH RAN INTO THE house on Berkeley Square, not waiting for Nathan to help her out of the coach. Henry was in the hall and immediately nodded toward the parlor because that was where Georgina was.
Amy and Katey were on the sofa with her. Amy stood when she saw Judith, saying, “Katey and I moved in with Aunt George to keep her company, since our husbands are both with Uncle James. Welcome back!”
Judith smiled slightly at her cousin and her half sister, but she moved to kneel on the floor in front of Georgina and took the hand that wasn’t holding a brandy snifter. She noticed that all three women had snifters. Was this how they were getting through this nightmare?
“You’re back from your wedding trip early,” Georgina noted in a lackluster tone.
“Mother wasn’t going to tell me any of this,” Judith replied, guessing Georgina might be a little foxed. “But I suspect she’s been as frantic as you are, so she gave in and sent word to me a few days ago. Nathan and I came straight here.”
Nathan appeared in the doorway just then, but seeing the room filled only with women, he told Judith, “I’ll collect your mother. She’ll be annoyed that we’re here and she’s not.”
Judith glanced back to say, “Thank you,” and mouthed a kiss for him, then asked Georgina carefully, “How are you faring, Aunt George?”
“Stop looking at my glass,” George scolded. “It keeps the tears away.”
Judith sighed. Of course Georgina would be as upset as her mother was, if not more so. After all, it was her daughter who had been abducted—again. Judith had just never seen her aunt drinking brandy before.
“Have you heard anything a’tall?” Judith questioned. “Mother didn’t tell me much in her note, only that Jack has been kidnapped again and my father sailed off to catch up with Uncle James to tell him.”
“Tony should have been back by now,” Georgina complained.
“You don’t think he would have continued on with Uncle James after he found him?” Amy asked.
“I suppose he might have, but he still would have sent word back with that captain Jason hired for him. Instead they are leaving me in this horrid position of not knowing!”
Judith hesitated before saying, “I hate to mention it, but it’s possible they haven’t found the fleet yet. If Uncle James followed the sea currents to get to the Caribbean faster, it’s unfortunately a very wide lane. Jack taught me that.”
“Jack knows too much about sailing,” Georgina said with disapproval. “But are you suggesting Tony might not have even found James yet?”
“No, well, yes. I don’t want to lie to you. It’s such a wide shipping lane that he could have passed Uncle James’s ship without spotting it, though I’m sure his captain is familiar with the lane and is doing diagonal searches.”
“Which still could miss the fleet?”
Judith winced with a nod. “My father knows where Uncle James was heading, doesn’t he? He can wait for him if he gets there first.”
“So I’m to know nothing about what’s happening for two to three bloody months?!” Georgina cried. “I’m going to the Caribbean.”
“Now, George, you really don’t want to do that,” Katey said. “By the time you get there, they’ll already be on the way home.”
“But what’s that got to do with Jack?” Judith asked.
“Your mother didn’t tell you?” Amy said. “Jack was taken out to sea. Uncle Tony might even co
me across the ship that has her.”
Judith frowned. “No, she didn’t mention that part. How did you find out?”
Amy explained, “The night Jack went missing, Percy’s mother showed up just before your father left for the ship Jason obtained for him. The old dame told us that her son, who mucks up everything except letting her know where he’s going, told her he was heading for some excitement near the docks. But then his driver returned home without him and told Lady Alden about a terrible fight by the water on Wapping Street. He ran away from it just as it started, but he hid behind a tree and watched the mayhem play out to its conclusion, then came straight home to inform her.”
“What was the conclusion?”
“The ruffians won. Percy, as well as Jack and Jeremy, were rowed out to a ship in the Thames that then sailed down the river.”
Judith gasped. “It wasn’t—?”
“It was,” Georgina cut in furiously. “I got his note three days ago. But we already suspected who had them, and Tony sailed off to let James know that. The bastard even signed his note ‘Bastard.’ I suppose he figured we’d know him by the name Jack gave him. He wants James to meet him in St. Kitts, and if they can come to terms, he will release Jack.”
Judith sat back on her heels with a curious frown. “That’s a very different message than the one in his previous ransom note. No mention of an exchange this time?”
“No, just a meeting, which James won’t even know about!” Georgina exclaimed. “Obviously the pirate didn’t know that James sailed before he did. Ironically, they’ll both end up on St. Kitts, though James probably won’t stay there long enough to learn that’s where Jack is—unless the pirate gets there first and is watching for him.”
“That will be quite the surprise if Bastard approaches James expecting to have a parley with him,” Katey said.
“Let’s hope not,” Amy put in. “Or Uncle James might kill him before he even knows the man has Jack.”
Judith sighed. “I confess I’m somewhat relieved to know that it is Bastard who has her—and certainly that the demand is different this time.”