Catalina's Caress (4 page)

C
atalina sat in the dark confines of her carriage, seething with an anger that made her tremble. Never had she been subjected to such blatant insults or to such an evil and malicious man.

He does not have one grain of honor in his entire body, she thought miserably. Yet she could still feel the heat of Copland's gaze as it swept over her. It had set her skin afire, as if he had touched her in some sensual way, and remembering that sensation did not soothe her anger.

His soft taunting laugh when she'd passed him, that had been the
coup de grace
. Did he really believe she would subject herself to him! Not even to save her own life would she do that.

As her anger became more controlled, her fear for her brother mounted. She knew this episode could quite possibly destroy the fragile relationship between him and her father. If that happened, the choice Seth might make caused her to know a moment of real terror.

She would have to think of some way ... she would have to! But how? Marc Copeland held all the cards at the moment. Still, the game was not over yet, and Catalina was not one to give up easily. She would think of a way. She had to.

Catalina had slipped away from home in the middle of the night and had gone to Captain Lahey, the master of the Silver Queen, one of her father's fastest boats. She had traveled downriver, after sending a note informing her parents that a sudden emergency had called her to the sick bed of a very dear friend.

Once the boat had docked in New Orleans, she had gone to the home of her dowager aunt, Charlotte McNeil. Her aunt had seemed to believe her story, so she had waited until Charlotte had gone to bed and then had sent a surprised servant for her carriage.

It was now after midnight, and she entered the house as quietly as she possibly could. She tiptoed down the hall to the room she had been given, then breathed a sigh of relief when she closed the door behind her.

The gravity of her situation increased her anxiety. How could she sleep when she knew a man like Copeland held her brother's life in his hands? She paced the floor restlessly, annoyed by the fact that her thoughts kept returning to the arrogant and very suggestive smile on Marc Copeland's face.

Why, she wondered, did this man want to damage her brother and her and the rest of her family? Why? He had deliberately created this situation and she had to know what had set him on this path.

She worried about what had happened between Seth and Travis. Had Travis seen fit to lend Seth the money he needed to redeem himself? God, she thought, two hundred thousand dollars! It was a fortune.

She began to undress slowly, then sat before her dressing table to brush her hair. Her hand stopped in midstroke and she gazed into her reflection.

Her cheeks were pink, and the small red mark at one corner of her lips suddenly brought to mind the feel of Copeland's hard mouth against hers. Her body tensed at the memory of the strength in the arms that had held her, the feel of his body as it had pressed against hers. Then she slammed the brush down on the table, upset with her body's heated response. It was frightening.

She walked to her bed and slid beneath the covers, but after some time she reluctantly acknowledged that she was not going to find sleep very easily ... if she could find it at all.

❧

Travis walked up the steps to the McNeil home. It was a modest two-story dwelling built for Charlotte by her brother because Charlotte was independent. She refused to live with anyone or in someone else's house.

He knocked on the door, and it was opened by a slim Creole girl.

Travis had known where Catalina would go since Charlotte was her only relative in New Orleans, with the exception of several cousins she did not like.

"Good morning." He smiled and took off his hat. "Is Miss Carrington up yet?"

"Yassuh, she be up. She be havin' breakfast in her room."

"Would you tell her that Travis Sherman is here to see her please?"

"Yassuh ... come in please."

She led him to a small parlor where he waited impatiently for several minutes before Catalina appeared in the doorway.

Try as she might, and though she knew that Travis might be Seth's only salvation, Catalina found it difficult to suppress her response to him when he rose and approached her. She didn't want to dislike this man; Seth needed him. And she didn't want to distrust him because of a feeling she could not even name.

"Mr. Sherman."

Travis stopped beside her. His smile was warm.

"Catalina, I've asked you many times to call me Travis."

Travis." She smiled hesitantly.

"You know why I'm here."

"Yes, I do. Seth came to you?"

"He did. Seth and I have been friends for some time. Who else would he turn to for help?"

"And?" she questioned quietly.

"Do you doubt that I would want to help him?"

"Want... but can't?" she responded.

"No. Want and tried."

"I don't understand."

"Catalina, why did you go to see Marc Copeland last night?"

"How did you know that?"

"Because I was there right after you. I don't know what you said or did, but Copeland refused any offer I made. I tried to buy the
Southern Belle
back, for any price."

"And he refused to sell it?"

"Yes. He refused. He also said something very strange."

Catalina moved away from Travis to sit on a straight-backed chair near the window. Travis watched, enthralled by her graceful movements and the way the light from the window glazed her skin.

"What did he say?" she asked softly.

"He said that I should remind you that his offer still stands. What did he offer you?"

Catalina stood frozen like an alabaster statue. Damn him, she thought, to have enough nerve to say such a thing. Did he truly believe she would stoop so low? Did he think that saying such a thing to Travis would frighten her into trying to keep him quiet by acceding to his wishes? Well, he had judged his victim wrong this time. There had to be a way out of this dilemma.

Travis watched her, wondering where her mind drifted.

"Catalina, there must be a way to best this scoundrel, and if you will allow me I will do whatever it takes to insure that he doesn't succeed in what he's attempting."

"There has to be a way to get the boat back before my father finds out. If not, Seth will be destroyed by this. Oh, that man is a monster!" she cried.

"If he won't sell it to me, then what do you suggest? Maybe Seth should go to your father and tell him the truth, just make a clean breast of it. Wouldn't your father understand? Surely with his wealth the money can't mean that much."

"You don't understand. Under any other circumstances that would be true, but..." She was hesitant to voice words that might damn her brother, but she went on, speaking with all the control she could muster. "For the past three years Seth has seemed to lose control of himself. It's ... it's almost as if he is afraid. He has drunk and done ... other things to the extent that Father is thinking of cutting him off."

These were not the worst words Travis could hear. With Seth gone, Catalina would be the heir to the Carrington fortune.

"Seth is ... weak," she continued helplessly. "I am almost afraid of what he might do."

"And," Travis added, "you think of him as your responsibility?"

"He's my brother. Should I turn my back on him?"

"No. But this time there doesn't seem to be much else you can do."

"I must talk to him again."

"Him?"

"Marc Copeland."

"You are joking. You would go to him after he has refused you?"

"Don't you see, Travis, if I had the money he wanted, I could reach him and explain that this is all a terrible wrong, surely he would show some decency. Ultimately he would let me buy the
Belle
back."

This put an entirely new light on the situation. Travis was elated. Finally he had found some way to make Catalina indebted to him. First with money ... and then with gratitude. He would be the one to be there when she needed him.

"All right, Cat," he said gently. He went to her, took her hand, and raised it to her lips. He kissed it softly. I'll help you. Maybe together we can save this foolish brother of yours from himself."

At first Catalina blinked in surprise, then she smiled, her eyes warming with a gratitude that made Travis's pulse pound.

"I'm sorry I doubted you. You really are Seth's friend. I am grateful for your kindness and understanding. Seth and I will pay you back I promise."

"Don't worry about it Let's just take care of this messy situation first. Then we can worry about paying me back. The money couldn't be put to better use."

"Thank you, Travis."

"When will you see him?"

I'll go to the
Belle
tonight"

"Shall I come with you? He could be dangerous."

"No. I'm not afraid of him."

"All right."

"Travis, is Seth at your home?"

"Yes."

"Go and tell him we're doing our best. He must be worried to death. I'm afraid he will do something stupid."

"I can go to Baton Rouge and come back in a few days. Shall I bring Seth back with me?"

"Yes, bring him back. Maybe this has finally reached him. We can finish it up, and he can start over." "I'll get you the money this afternoon." "Thank you."

He kissed her hand again, then turned to leave. Catalina watched him walk away. This was the only chance she had to keep her brother's mistake from becoming a tragedy, yet she couldn't fight the idea that she was making a mistake that might be hard to walk away from.

❧

Travis did give Catalina a black carpetbag containing the money late that same afternoon, and she spent the balance of the day in her room, steeling her nerves for the night's confrontation.

Late that evening, thinking that Catalina was, at that very moment, with Marc Copeland, Travis sat in a darkened corner of a tavern with two unsavory characters.

"You know what he looks like?" Travis questioned.

"That we do, mate. We've seen the gent around for a while," one replied.

"You know where the
Belle
is berthed?"

"We know that too. What we wants to know is where the money is?" the second man growled.

Travis reached into his breast pocket and withdrew a thick envelope. He tossed it onto the table, and the man snatched it eagerly.

"I want him taken care of at your first opportunity," Travis declared quietly. "But make sure he's not on his boat. He'll have too much help there. I'd rather he just disappeared."

"Don't ya worry, we'll take care of him. He won't even know what happened."

"But remember to be careful. He's no fool, and don't think he'll be easy. If you strike and don't succeed, he'll make you wish you'd never been born."

Both men nodded, smiled grim determined smiles, and then left the table. Travis finished his drink with satisfaction, and he soon left the tavern.

In good time, he thought, I will have access to what I have wanted for a long time, a place in the circle of the wealthy. I will move in the midst of the Carringtons and their friends. I will have Catalina ... the boats ... and everything I want.

There was much about Travis's past that no one knew. He had struggled against severe poverty, in a small town on the muddy banks of the Mississippi. The road to where he now stood had been a long and very difficult one.

He had used whatever means were necessary to travel it—brute force and deception and theft. Inside him burned twin fires: one for Catalina herself and the other for her wealth. He was determined to have both and he wasn't going to let her stupid brother or Marc Copeland stand between him and his goals. He would rid himself of any threat as he had before. He would simply eliminate it

Travis left the tavern and walked to his carriage. He ordered the driver to head for the docks, and in a short while he was looking at the graceful beauty of the
Southern
Belle and wondering what was happening in the captain's quarters at that moment.

❧

Seth was wretched. The longer he was inactive and frightened, the closer he began to look at himself and his wasted life.

He had enjoyed the wealth and prestige of his family without realizing he had a moral obligation to those who had given him so much. He realized now the effect his slide toward debauchery had had on his relationships with the people who loved him and consistently made excuses for him. He thought of Catalina and his misery worsened. Again he had let her take command and try to right his wrongs.

It had taken this final blow to scrape away Seth's veneer, to make him search for a strength he hadn't known he had.

After several hours of waiting and worrying Seth made a decision. First he was going to go to Catalina and tell her that this time he would be responsible for what he had done. Then he would tell his father the whole sordid truth and accept his punishment. After that, he would begin to build his life again. Maybe, he thought hopefully, in time his family would look at him with pride again. And maybe after a while he could begin to look upon himself without shame.

Seth sent for his horse and left Rosepoint, determined to talk to his family. But it was not to work out the way he had planned. When he reached
Belle
Haven, he found that Catalina was gone and his parents were not there either.

"Where are my father and mother, Thomas?" he asked the butler.

"They received an invitation, sir. They have gone upriver to St. Louis."

"And where is Cat?"

"She left for New Orleans, sir. It seems a friend of hers is quite ill and she has gone to help."

Seth groaned. "Her sick friend is getting sicker by the minute."

"I beg your pardon, sir?"

"Never mind, Thomas. Just pack some clothes for me."

"You're leaving again, sir?"

"Yes. I'm going to New Orleans. I have to find Cat It's time she stopped playing nurse. She has one sick friend who has finally learned he can cure himself."

"Sir?" Thomas was truly puzzled by Seth's ramblings.

Seth laughed. I'll explain some other time, Thomas. Right now I'm in a hurry."

He was already taking the steps two at a time. He entered his room, washed, and changed his clothes.

An hour later he threw a small satchel of clothes into the carriage and started toward New Orleans.