No Choice but Seduction (35 page)

He had an immediate answer for that, too. “I’ll be ready to give up the sea when you are. In fact, I’d just about made the decision to settle in England myself this year, at least that was my thought before you entered my life. And you have family there, too.”

“No, I don’t.”

“But I thought—”

“So did I. But they want nothing to do with me, and just as they disowned my mother, I’ve now disowned them.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “I’m over it.”

She wasn’t, but she didn’t want to talk about that, any more than she wanted to talk about marriage. And yet they
were
discussing it again. And she was losing the battle. He was making her rethink her goals, and that frightened her. But while he had some nice answers for the future—she wouldn’t half mind settling in England someday—he had no answer for right now. Because there wasn’t one. If they married now, she
would
get with child—if she wasn’t already. How could she not, as lusty as Boyd was? And that would end her trip. Permanently.

But, oh, God, to marry
him
, to know his touch every day instead of giving it up after today, which she’d have to do? She had allowed herself this one day of bliss, but she didn’t dare let it happen again. Unless she was willing to marry him now.

Give up the world for him? When he didn’t even love her? Yet her emotions were screaming at her to do just that, which was a good indication that she was having his problem. She simply couldn’t think straight with him so near.

She was about to tell him she’d give it more thought when she saw the ship on the horizon….

Chapter Thirty-Eight

G
ET OFF THE BEACH,
Katey, quickly. Don’t argue, just do it!”

Being told not to argue didn’t stop her from doing so. “But you said we had to be seen for Tyrus to find us!”

“That’s not
The Oceanus
.”

“How can you tell from this distance?” From delight over their imminent rescue, to confusion, to the beginning of panic, her tone was on the rise.

“It’s a two-masted brigantine, the type favored by pirates in this area.”

He didn’t need to say another word. She scrambled for the bushes behind them. He took a moment to shove several armfuls of sand over their little fire so not much smoke escaped. He also tossed the palm fronds they’d gathered under the nearest palm so it would look as if they’d dropped from it. He then grabbed his shoes and jacket to leave no obvious evidence behind and dove into the shrubbery after her.

She was lying prone, just peeking over the edge of the highest part of the beach. The ship appeared to be just slowly sailing by the island.

“They didn’t see us.” She was trying to sound positive, but her whisper ruined the effect.

“That’s hard to tell yet.”

“But why would they even look in this direction when they’re sailing that way?”

She pointed her thumb in the direction the brigantine was traveling, which was away from the island. Boyd glanced down at her, started to say something, but changed his mind. And that hesitation worried her more than whatever he might have said.

“What?” she demanded.

“Nothing. You were right.”

“No, I wasn’t,” she said, her voice sounding quite panicky now. “And tell me, why wasn’t I?”

He sighed. “The Barbary corsairs don’t just chase down merchant ships for free cargoes. They’re also in the business of supplying the Turkish sultans on the eastern side of this sea with slaves. Even their larger ships are oared by slaves. Finding a few people on a deserted beach, without any dwellings nearby, would be easy pickings for them that would merely require a brief stop while they send in a small crew in a skiff.”

“Slaves? You know, I was only joking about a harem. I would rather not find myself in one. Really.”

“I know.” He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go. I need to find somewhere to hide you while I take care of this.”

“While you what?” she shrieked.

She glanced behind her to see what he was talking about. The two-masted ship was turning around—in the direction of the island.

“Maybe they just forgot something from wherever they came from and are going back—”

“Stop fretting, Katey. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, I promise.”

That sounded as reassuring as he’d meant it to, but he wasn’t taking into account her vivid imagination. Stop fretting? She’d be gibbering in a moment.

“What is there to take care of? They land, they look around, they find nothing, they go away.”

“That would be ideal,” he agreed. “And as long as they don’t leave the beach, then all is well. But if they come inland looking for us—let’s just say I prefer to meet trouble head-on before it finds me.”

“You’d fight them? With what?” she demanded. “You don’t have a weapon.”

He picked up a sturdy branch as he dragged her along behind him. It actually looked like a bent club. “I do now.”

Oh, sure, he was going to take on bloodthirsty and no doubt
armed
pirates with a stick? But she realized she didn’t want him facing any pirates at all, even if he did have a better weapon to do it with. She simply couldn’t stand the thought of him getting hurt.

“Let’s just keep heading for the other side of the island,” she suggested.

He stopped to grip her shoulders. “One of us has to stay near that beach, and it isn’t going to be you. If Tyrus comes in range and sees pirates anchored here with no sign of us, he’ll sail on by to continue looking for us elsewhere. So if they dally too long looking for us, I’m going to take out that first group of pirates, and the next if they send in another skiff. Hopefully they won’t waste any more than that and will move on.”

“Would the pirates chase
The Oceanus
if she does show up before they leave?”

“Only if they are very, very stupid. Skylark ships are all well armed for just such a contingency. Haven’t we already discussed this subject?”

She vaguely recalled him saying something to that effect. He continued to drag her along until they ran out of easy paths. She kept to herself all the little ouches she wanted to cry out because she was stepping barefoot on little pinecones. Tall pines, other trees, bushes grown bigger than she was, and tropical vines spread among it all—it was now a solid mat of green they were standing in. And no wonder no one wanted to settle on that coastline when no clear land was anywhere to be seen.

“Get behind those bushes there, hunker down, and stay put until I come back for you. If you’re capable of silence, now would be the time to prove it,” he added with a wink.

He left her immediately after saying that. It took her about five minutes to finally get irked over it. Implying she was a chatterbox was rather rude, and she groused mentally for another ten minutes about that, all of which took her mind off of the pirates for a bit. Did he do that intentionally? She doubted it.

But then a local bird screeched nearby, making her start and look for other signs of wildlife. What she actually saw was that Boyd had pretty much left her at a dead end. Without a long knife or other tool to cut through the thick vegetation behind her, she had nowhere to run if she needed to, except back toward the shore, where the pirates were probably even now landing. Had that much time passed? Boyd was going to do something foolish, she was sure, and get himself caught or killed. And then they’d come looking for her.

With that alarming thought, Katey scrambled to her feet and headed back toward the shore, but she wasn’t going right back to where their camp had been. As soon as she found an opening in the path to the left, she took it and moved off in that direction for quite some ways.

Thankfully, she didn’t run into another dead end. The foliage wasn’t as thick nearer to the shore. She also picked up all the stones she could find along the way, lifting the lower hem of her robe to form a pocket to pile them in. She wasn’t going to be completely defenseless.

When she got far enough down the shoreline, she inched her way back toward the beach so she could at least see what the pirate ship was doing. Maybe it had already left! She could hope.

But the ship was still there, anchored rather close. Any closer and it would have run aground. And a small boat was only now rowing swiftly toward the beach. It had taken them this long to come ashore!?

The beach wasn’t a straight line, it was curved slightly, not enough to call it a cove or a bay, with their camp at the center of that arch. She was far enough away that she didn’t have to lift her head far to see where the campfire had been buried. There was a little boat beached there, empty, so the one rowing in wasn’t the first? Then where were the men who had been in it? No one was on the beach right now, it was completely empty aside from that little boat. And where was Boyd?

What she should do was keep moving in the opposite direction, but the fear that came over her was entirely for Boyd. She had to know that he was all right. And until she saw that with her own eyes, she wasn’t going anywhere except to find him.

Crouched over and keeping a fist around her improvised sack of stones still bundled in her robe hem, she ran from tree to bush to tree, keeping hidden, but making quick progress back toward their camp. When she was halfway there, she stumbled across yet another boat!

This one had been pulled all the way up to the grass line out of the sand and shoved under the bush she’d stopped to crouch behind, or she would never have seen it. A large, broken, leafy branch was even lying over it, as if an attempt had been made to hide it. Why? And how many boats were those pirates going to send in? This made three. Could they really have a crew that big? Or maybe only a couple men had manned each boat. That made better sense. And Boyd might be able to easily handle two men at a time.

Some of her fear left her, though not enough to turn her around. But a word caught her eye just as she was about to dash to the next bush. Neatly painted in white lettering on the edge of one of the two wooden planks in the boat used for seating was a single word. Bent over right next to the boat, she had no trouble making it out.
Oceanus
.

She stared. And stared. She was going to kill him. The implication was mind-boggling! No, she wasn’t going to touch that thought. Not now. She felt heat wash over her. Angry heat. She tamped it down, took a deep breath. But she
was
going to kill him. Later. If the pirates hadn’t already done so yet.

Chapter Thirty-Nine