Fortune's Flames (24 page)

Jared set her aside and faced her. “Or maybe he’ll be more clever and try harder next time. You’ve alerted him to our suspicions, Maren. He’ll be more careful now, harder to trap.”

“Well I can’t just sit here doing nothing. My life is
in danger.”

“And I’m responsible for it,” he told her angrily.

“So am I,” she retorted, matching his tone.

He exhaled loudly in frustration. “I know you want to help, love, but please don’t intrude again. This isn’t a game, Maren. I’m experienced in such matters. Let me handle them.”

“I’m not trained as you are, Jared, but I’m not stupid. We need answers, and we can’t get them without asking questions.”

“There are ways to get information without exposing ourselves. I want you to remain upstairs tonight. It would give us away if I was guarding you.”

“I can’t become a prisoner in my room,” she protested.

“Damn it, Maren! Please do as I ask until you’re safe. I can’t concentrate when I know you’re dangling yourself before a crazed man.”

Maren noted his genuine concern. “All right, we’ll do it your way,” she conceded. “Just visit me as much as possible.”

“My willing captive, that’s what you once promised to be and I’m holding you to your vow. You know the rules; a wife obeys.”

“Oh? Perhaps I should give this marriage further consideration,” she teased as she ran her forefinger over his lips.

“Oh, no, you won’t. You’re marrying me tomorrow. It’s all set.”

“When? Where?” she asked, anticipation flooding
through her.

“We’ll go over the plan later. Right now, I’ve got to get downstairs and keep my eyes open. I want to memorize every face in case there’s another attempt.”

“You really think he’ll try again, don’t you?”

Jared did not want to worry her by revealing that they both were in danger. “Not if I can catch him. If anything happened to you…”

He seized her roughly and pulled her against him, pressed his mouth urgently to hers. His kiss was forceful, nearly desperate, and a little frightening. His tight grip was bruising Maren’s arms and his lips were ravaging hers, but she yielded eagerly to this show of intense emotion.

She was breathless when his mouth left hers and he clutched her to him. She could hear his heart beating, swiftly and heavily. He is afraid for me, she concluded and smiled.

“Please don’t let any harm come to you, Maren,” he urged hoarsely. “I need you and I want you. I can’t lose you, too.”

Maren leaned away from him and met his troubled gaze. She started to ask for an explanation of his last statement, but decided it was best to wait until he offered one. The look in his eyes touched her, ensnared her. “I feel the same way, Jared,” she said.

He smiled and hugged her again, this time tenderly. Then he rested his head against the sofa and closed his eyes, and Maren realized how weary he seemed. He had many burdens: his missions, her safety, and something painful from his past. She
cuddled against him to offer him comfort.

When he didn’t move or speak for some time, she finally asked, “Do you want to lie down for a while? You seem tired and depressed.”

“I only want to relax for a minute. It’s nice to have you beside me and in my life. But it feels strange to be open and vulnerable again; it’ll take some getting used to. I haven’t needed anyone or leaned on anyone since my father and brother died and… Be patient with me, Maren. Don’t lose faith in me. There are some things I must settle in Savannah before we announce our marriage. If you don’t mind, I’d rather not discuss them just yet.”

Jared had told her that he had never loved before, so Maren assumed his problems did not involve another woman. Still, she wondered if he had ever been married…if he had children at home? She would have married without love; suppose Jared had done the same. She hadn’t seen him in years, and his life could have changed more drastically than she had imagined. The thought of another woman being that close to him sent ripples of jealousy through her. His words and his tone haunted her, but she replied, “You can tell me everything when you’re ready.”

He cupped her face and tilted her head so their gazes locked. “You do trust me completely, don’t you, Maren?”

“More than I trust myself, Jared. I need you and I want you.”

“You are my Lady Luck, Maren. You’re going to fill all the empty spots in me and in my life. I’m not
forcing you to marry me tomorrow, but I need to know you’re mine before I’m called away.”

“And I need to know you’re mine, Jared, all mine.”

They moved toward each other and kissed, again and again. They began to caress each other, to share their great need, but when fiery passion seized them, Jared reluctantly drew away from her.

“The next time I make love to you, I want my ring on your finger. I want it to be perfect. I want us to give our all to each other. Is that all right with you?” Maren smiled radiantly. “Hard, but I agree.” “Let’s make it easier on ourselves. I’ll leave.” Maren locked the door after he departed, and leaned against it. She sighed happily, then suddenly danced around the room, nearly bumping into a table. Halting her dizzying twirl, she laughed softly. His wife, she was becoming Jared Morgan’s wife— tomorrow! He was no longer alive only in her dreams and fantasies. He was hers.

Maren spent the time trying to distract herself with reading, but every so often she halted and lowered the book. Her father’s letters kept coming to mind, as did the mystery he had created in them. Unable to concentrate on the book, she went into her bedroom and approached the bookcase. She looked at the doll, which Mary had repaired, and at her father’s favorite Wedgwood piece. The doll was mostly in red and the piece was in blue. They were on opposite ends of the same shelf. She called the letter to mind: “Cut them in half….”

She searched the shelf for another clue, but could
find nothing. Perhaps the objects had been moved since her father had died. “And you still have two.” Two more what? she wondered. “Shelves!” she concluded aloud. Quickly she searched the second shelf above the doll. Nothing. She knelt and searched the second one below it. Her fingers encountered a catch on the underside of the shelf. As she worked with it, the bookcase moved slightly and squeaked.

Maren shoved it open and stared inside. The space revealed was large enough to conceal a person standing up! She noticed more shelves to the rear. Fetching more light, she stepped into the secret enclosure. She could not believe what she had found: letters, papers, and money.

Maren checked the records and the money first, and realized she had found the missing “special fund.” This was Jared’s money, his share of the profits before Eric took control. The deeds to Lady Luck, the townhouse, and the plantation were inside, as were the ownership papers of the shipping firm. Instantly Maren wondered how Eric had sold everything— anything—without these deeds. Then she knew. That devious lawyer had forged copies. The sales were not legal and she still owned everything! But how could she recover her inheritance? Some of the properties might be out of Eric’s hands?

She read the letters, all in blue envelopes. They were addressed to her. In them her father spoke of his worries and fears about the changes in Eric, or rather the dropping of Eric’s lengthy pretense, and he revealed his disappointment in his brother’s son. Her
father sounded deeply concerned about Eric’s behavior toward their clients and about the way her cousin was running the business. He charged Eric with trading with the British, and said he was going to revoke Eric’s authority and send him home!

There was another letter on the shelf, addressed to Jared, unsealed. She read it and was dismayed to sense the anguish her father must have endured. He begged Jared to help him get Eric out of his life and firm, and to correct Eric’s wrongs if anything happened to him. Maren’s heart lurched, but she closed her mind to such an idea.

As she read on, her father told Jared all about her and encouraged him to consider her for a wife! Maren reread that line. The next few surprised her even more: “Maren is a strong and stubborn girl, but she’ll bend to the right man, a man like you, Jared. I can’t believe she’ll go through with her marriage to Daniel Redford. She doesn’t love him.” Maren’s eyes widened as Cameron exposed her reasons for agreeing to the union, the ones she had confided to her mother, but the next lines were heartrending. “If anything happens to me, I beg you to find Maren and help her. Eric isn’t to be trusted at all, Jared. Don’t let him disarm you and fool you as he did me.”

Maren lay the letters aside, then leaned weakly against the wall. Jared was right; Eric was dangerous and greedy. Maren’s emotions were a maelstrom of fury, sadness, anguish, bitterness, and alarm. She had to outwit and punish her cousin. With Jared’s help, she would do it very soon.

But they had to be careful. Eric had many men working for him, and perhaps Evelyn Sims. Maren didn’t want to endanger her love, and she knew Eric would retaliate. Since her cousin could return at any time, she dreaded the confrontation that was imminent. She had to show this compartment and its contents to Jared. The letter…

She straightened. Jared often came in and out of her room. He had been in business with her father for years. The letter she’d found on the floor had been blue, like those in this secret place. Did Jared know about this compartment? Had he already checked it out?

Maren snatched up the letter to her love and finished reading it. She clenched her teeth as she read the last line: “When you check here for your money and find this letter…”

“Damn you, Jared Morgan! You asked me to trust you, and I did. But you deceived me. You knew about this place—this evidence. Why did you make a fuss about the missing money? Why did you intend to force me to marry you? Why didn’t you confide in me?”

Anger and torment gnawed at her, and when Mary came up to bring her refreshments, she asked the woman to send Jared to her. While the housekeeper left, Maren paced the room anxiously. She was not going to marry Jared just so he could take care of Cameron’s daughter. She was going to confront him with everything!

If this was a misunderstanding, it would be
resolved promptly. Her mother had warned her about such tricky matters. “Don’t simmer until you burst, Maren,” she’d said. “If something troubles you, take care of it quickly before it causes problems.” Maybe Jared had a good reason for keeping his secret, and maybe he didn’t.

The housekeeper returned with the message that Jared would come up later, that it wouldn’t look proper if someone saw him going into her room at this time of night.

Maren thanked Mary and dismissed her. She then replaced everything in the compartment and closed it. She was tempted to dress, go downstairs, and drag him up to her room to make an explanation. But she dared not do that in her agitated state. She sipped some wine to relax her tension, and she cried about the implications of her discoveries. Soon, physically and emotionally exhausted, she fell asleep.

Jared entered her room shortly after twelve. He watched her slumber for a time, then decided not to awaken her. Tomorrow they would be married and would be together all night.

At ten, Jared knocked on her door and called out, “Up, woman, we have a busy day. Don’t keep a nervous groom waiting.”

Maren knew Mary was always gone on Sunday morning, so she unlocked the door and walked away from it, halting with her back to him.

Jared’s sunny smile faded when he detected the
chill in the room and saw that she-was not dressed to leave. “Don’t tell me you’re miffed with me for not answering your summons last night,” he teased anxiously. “You were asleep by the time I finished and came upstairs. I didn’t want you to be grumpy and tired today from lack of rest.”

Maren whirled to face him. “You demand that I trust you, Jared; then you refuse to trust me. Don’t you think it’s time to be honest?”

Jared tensed and stared, trying to figure out the change in her since last night. She was distant and cool, nearly hostile. She could be referring to many things, so he asked, “Be honest about what, Maren? I’m utterly confused.”

“About everything,” she retorted, her tone curt.

“You want to hear my life story before we get married? Heavens, woman, you’re marrying the man I am today, not my past.”

In response she declared gravely, “If you don’t tell me the truth, we won’t be getting married, today or any day.”

Jared stepped forward and reached for her, but Maren avoided his embrace. “Don’t touch me until you explain everything,” she said.

“Explain what, Maren? How can I answer you when I don’t know what you want to know?”

“Me, I’m the question. Tell me everything about your connection to me.” When his brow wrinkled in bewilderment, she added, “You can begin with the secret panel in Papa’s bedroom and what’s in there.”

“You found it? When? How?”

“Does it matter? You lied to me, Jared.”

“No, love, I didn’t. I just kept silent. I didn’t want you to see what was in there just yet. I wanted you to accept the truth about Eric before you saw Cameron’s allegations. That’s all they are, Maren, your father’s fears and charges. And we still have to prove those deeds are the real ones. Eric is a big man now, with powerful friends. If we reveal those papers too soon, we could be accused of fraud. Your cousin is clever, Maren. He knows the real deeds are hidden somewhere. He probably hoped you could lead him to them after your return.”

“Is that why you asked me to marry you, as a favor to my father?”

“Never, Maren. I didn’t even go through that stuff until Monday, and you were already under my skin before that.”

“Under your skin so deeply that while I was out with Beth you were snooping through my room? Why didn’t you tell me later? Certainly after we spent the night together! Did it slip your mind?”

“No, Maren, it didn’t. I wasn’t ready for you to learn such things.”

“It isn’t your place to decide what I should and shouldn’t know!”

“Blast it, woman! Don’t you realize what those letters imply?”

Pain knifed through her. “Yes….”

“After I read them, I was afraid of how that information would affect you. I didn’t think you were ready to hear those things so soon. Heavens,
you’ve only known about your parents’ deaths for a few months. How could I hit you with the possibility they were… killed by Eric? Don’t you see, love? Eric wants more than Lady Luck from you. He needs that evidence.”