Into His Arms (22 page)

Elizabeth smiled and patted her hand. “They look so human, it is easy to forget, but they do not have feelings like you and me, dear.”

How could this woman who was so accepting of the differences between people be so unable to see past a mere difference in color? Faith wondered. Aloud, she answered, “They are not beasts.”

Elizabeth sighed. “You must try to understand, Faith. When I first married Miguel, slavery appalled me, too, but it is a necessary evil. You’ll grow accustomed to it. The plantations simply couldn’t run without African labor.”

“Does that justify it?”

“They’re savages, dear. Little more than wild animals.”

“And kept so by their owners.”

Elizabeth set her lips into a thin line. “There is naught that you can do about it. In this, it is better to just accept the way things are. Perhaps I have chosen not to see things anymore, but to dwell upon the Africans’ plight only causes heartache. Once you have lived here awhile, you will come to understand.”

Faith fell silent. In the last few months, she had learned that people could be either too rigid in their beliefs or too rigid in their denial. It seemed that they could be too willing to bend, as well. She doubted that anything could accustom her to the cruelty that plantation owners insisted was a necessity.

Her aunt’s statement also brought to mind another quandary. She could hardly impose upon Miguel and Elizabeth’s kindness forever. Elizabeth had subtly mentioned that several of their friends had fine sons who stood to inherit healthy farms, but Faith shuddered at the thought of one day becoming like her aunt, complacent at the suffering of the people who worked the cane fields.

As if that weren’t enough, though she still felt much bitterness toward Geoff, she could not bear the thought of any other man’s touch. Her hosts had been thoughtful, content with her tales of family and village life in Massachusetts, never pressing her for details of her voyage. That part had simply been too painful to speak of.

The two women arrived at the beach and alighted from the carriage. The slave who had driven them there laid out a blanket in the shade of palms on the fine, white sand and unloaded a hamper of food and wine. Faith smiled and thanked him, causing him to look at first startled, then suspicious, before Elizabeth sent him on his way to return in two hours’ time.

“It does trouble you greatly, doesn’t it?” Elizabeth sighed. “You have great affection for your uncle and me, but you cannot abide the way we live.”

Realizing that it was a futile subject, Faith replied, “It is not for me to judge you.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Nay, it is not for any of us to judge each other. Life is not as black and white as we would have it.”

“Some things are.”

Her voice matter-of fact, but without malice, Elizabeth replied, “So, there is a bit of Jonathan Cooper’s steely will in his daughter, after all.”

Faith gazed out at the excruciatingly blue sea. Ripples on the surface hinted at the eternal motion of wind and water, but otherwise it was as smooth as glass. Even as it had done when she surveyed it from the ship’s rail, the ocean seemed to pull at her soul, and she voiced her thoughts aloud.

“Perhaps my father is not perfect, but as you said, he is solid and commands respect. I am not ashamed that he is a part of me. If only I could have his absolute certainty without sacrificing the freedom that I have found.”

“For myself,” Elizabeth replied, “I tend to be rather suspicious of those who seem convinced that they possess an absolute understanding of the Almighty.”

“You sound a bit like someone else I know,” Faith reflected.

At Elizabeth’s suggestion, the two women tucked their skirts up above their knees and waded into the warm water, basking in the feel of the breeze upon their faces.

For all that she had let go of much of the hellfire and brimstone of her past, there was still a heavy weight upon Faith’s soul. There were rules that were an intrinsic part of her, and she had broken them. She had begun to think that if she could but speak of it, then forgiveness might follow. Faith drew a deep breath and bolstered her courage.

“In many ways, Geoff is as certain as ever my father was. He is an atheist,” she said, broaching the subject that had plagued her for weeks.

To the younger woman’s surprise, Elizabeth didn’t seem at all shocked by her pronouncement or the casual use of Captain Hampton’s Christian name. “Is he?” she replied mildly.

“Aye. It troubled him, our different beliefs.”

“Troubled him? I would have thought it to be the other way ‘round.”

“It seemed to me that we were not so very different at all. Neither of us could keep our philosophies if we examined them too carefully. He is as consumed by blind faith in nothing as I was in blind faith to the church of my childhood.”

Elizabeth perused her niece with a look of heightened respect. “You are wise, indeed.”

Faith looked down at the waves lapping at her calves. Wise? She doubted that.

“Interesting thing, that,” Elizabeth commented.

“What?”

“What happens to you whenever you speak of your ship’s captain. There is some deep turmoil there. It cannot be as bad as you think, my dear.”

“We were lovers!” Faith blurted. She held her breath and waited for her aunt’s reproach, but again found she had worried for naught.

“Of course you were.” Elizabeth took Faith’s hand. “I wondered what had come between you.”

“You knew?”

“Not when he came to tell us of you. He’s a handsome man, that’s sure, but he was so cold. I thought perhaps he harbored some grudge against you for stowing away on his ship, but he would accept no payment for your passage. I knew not what to make of him. As for you, you were obviously distressed when we met you, but that could easily be attributed to the loss of your family and all that you had been through.”

“Aye,” Faith agreed, “I had hoped you would believe that was all it was.”

“In the weeks that you have been here, you have opened much of your heart to me, but whenever you speak of the ship, you lapse. Suddenly you are a guilt-ridden daughter of Eve. And you are miserable.”

“Do I seem so? I try not to be morose.”

“You are entitled to nurse your broken heart. Come, let us eat. We’ll drink that bottle of wine, and you can tell me all about it.”

Shadows moved across the pale sands, and Faith and Elizabeth laughed and cried and held each other. By the time the slave who had brought them there returned, Faith’s face was tear streaked and her brain a bit muddled with drink, but her heart felt lighter than it had in weeks. The two women giggled while Faith managed to gain her seat in the carriage and pull her aunt in unceremoniously along side her.

Elizabeth opened the second bottle of wine which they sipped slowly, staying somewhere short of truly drunk on the journey back.

Miguel was plainly shocked and dismayed when they tripped into the reception hall amid giggles at some private jest.

“
Querida
, you and our niece have returned!”

“We have!” his wife replied. Her eyes sparkled and she draped her arms about him rather more affectionately than their lack of privacy warranted.

Miguel firmly extricated himself from her embrace, and his wife pouted. “How unlike you, Miguel, to be so prim and proper.”

“I did not expect you to come home is such disarray and having had too much Madeira, I think.”

“Oh, we had just enough,” Elizabeth insisted. “I assure you.”

“We have another visitor,” Miguel announced, and a man with ebony hair, a dashing smile, and elegant, Spanish style clothes joined them from the library. “Elizabeth, Faith Cooper, allow me to present my brother’s son,
Capitán
Diego Montoya Fernandez de Madrid y Delgado Cortes. He was on his way from Spain to Cartagena when he was beset by pirates. He is here in Jamaica seeking the captain of the marauders. You will not believe it, but it is Captain Hampton he seeks!”

“I seem to be most fortunate,” the captain added in flawless English, accented slightly by his native tongue. “By my count, Miss Cooper was aboard his ship at the time.” He smiled hopefully at Faith. “You can act as a witness when I find him.”

Chapter 20

The room spun crazily, although Faith was hard pressed to tell whether it was a result of the wine or the situation. She was vaguely aware of her aunt’s protest.

“Oh, nay! Surely you are mistaken. Faith would have told us if Captain Hampton had accosted a Spanish vessel while she was on it.”

“I must confess,” Miguel said, “I was bewildered by Diego’s claim, as well, but he is certain he was attacked by Captain Geoffrey Hampton and the crew of
Destiny
.”

Faith looked back and forth among those who gazed at her expectantly. What could she say? This man had seen the name of the ship, and Geoff was arrogant enough to have made sure that
Capitán
Montoya knew the name of the man who raided his cargo.

“He—he did it for me,” she stammered. Then more passionately, she explained, “He wanted to let you go in peace, but his crew would not hear of it. They threatened mutiny, and he feared for my safety. Please, you must believe me.”

Her uncle looked utterly dumbfounded, and Faith felt her face suffuse with color.

“This was a very important event to have left out of the tale of your journey here,” he reproached. “You never told us the ship you sailed on was a pirate ship. You were in grave danger, Faith!”

“I wasn’t, truly! Geoff—that is, Captain Hampton—protected me at all costs. I am so very sorry, Capitán Montoya, that the greatest price was borne by you. The fault is mine.”

Diego eyed her with mild skepticism. “I can hardly fault you, Miss Cooper. Your presence on his ship was surely as much his reason for wanting to let us pass as it was his motive for attacking us after all. If you had not been there, he simply would have taken my ship with greater relish.
Magdalena
was by no means the first Spanish ship to be harassed by him.”

Unable to refute the truth of his statement, she merely replied, “I doubt he is still near Jamaica. I cannot imagine where you might look for him. I am sorry, Capitán. The attack must have cost you dearly.”

“It cost my crew and my employer far more. Several of my men died that day. And I do not own the ship or its cargo.”

“But he spared the lives of as many as he could,” Faith argued. “He told me so.”

Diego seemed unmoved. “He killed one of his own men.”

“There you have it!” Faith cried. “Proof that his men were near mutiny. The man he killed was about to kill him, was he not?” At Diego’s begrudging nod, she continued, “He risked much when he spared your lives.”

“How can you defend this man, Faith?” her uncle asked.

Elizabeth intervened. “It seems to me that her argument has some merit.”

“Perhaps some,” Diego conceded. “Nonetheless, I will find him and take him to Cartagena to face justice.”

“Will you not send him to England, then?” Miguel asked.

“After the ‘justice’ that has been served to Henry Morgan? King Charles promised to arrest and try him, but he walks the streets of London as free as a bird.” Diego made a small, disgusted sound. “Nay, I will take Hampton to Cartagena.”

Faith’s face paled, and Elizabeth addressed the men. “We spent too long in the heat, I’m afraid, and had a bit too much wine. Our Faith, here, is unaccustomed to spirits. I think I’ll take her upstairs now, if you will excuse us.”

Faith allowed her aunt to lead her upstairs, her mind awhirl in all that had transpired. In truth, it was relief to escape to the protective confines of her room.

*

Diego watched the women ascend the mahogany stairs to the upper gallery. His uncle’s niece-by-marriage was a lovely girl, and well meaning, if misguided. Miguel had told him of her deeply religious background and of her heartbreaking departure from her home and family. It only made sense that she would see the English captain as her savior of some sort, hence, her misplaced feelings of loyalty.

Diego turned to his uncle and smiled. “
Su sobrina es muy hermosa,
” he said.

“
Sí,
” Miguel agreed. His niece was indeed beautiful. “
Parece mentira, pero ella no tiene el esposo o novio.
”

Diego’s uncle spoke true! It was hard to believe that no fortunate man had yet laid claim to such a beauty. He doubted he sounded at all sincere when he replied, “
¡Es una lástima!
” A shame for her perhaps, but he counted himself lucky. If she had felt some infatuation for Hampton, well, the man was out of her life, now.

Diego and Miguel exchanged quick, significant smiles and retired to the library again. He might come away from this excursion with more than just Captain Hampton and command of
Magdalena
.

*

The group reassembled to break their fast the next day, and Faith had recovered herself. In the wee hours of the morning, listening to the relentless songs of tree frogs, she concluded that it was most unlikely that the Spanish captain would find Geoff, and even if he did, Geoff had already defeated him once. Surely he could do so again. The comfort of these thoughts had finally permitted her to sleep.

Now, she was dressed in a pale pink gown with a tight bodice that came to a low point in front and was covered in deep wine embroidery. The light silk skirts billowed over lace-trimmed petticoats, and the sleeves ended at the elbows with fetching, wine colored satin bows. Though the neckline was modest, it was by no means prim, showing her ivory throat to full advantage.

Her aunt had chosen the gown, and she knew very well why. Perhaps Elizabeth was right to push her in this direction. It was time to accept the fact that whatever had happened between her and Geoff was over. It was time to think of the future.

Miguel and Elizabeth quelled their own garrulous tendencies, allowing their nephew to take center stage, and Faith had to admit, he was delightful company. He told colorful stories of outsailing pirates and encountering strange and humorous people in his travels. She allowed herself to consider him, much as she had once considered Aaron Jacobs. He was more pleasing to look upon than Aaron had been, and he was a ship’s captain. Goodness knew, she had come to love the sea, and he kept no slaves.