Passion's Tide (35 page)

Amber’s excitement grew as the towering cliffs came into sight, the fog of the morning dissipatin
g with an eerie silence around the Costa de Morte and revealing the roar of the white caps crashing against the treacherous rocks
.
She watched as the two men steered the small boat to safety with finesse,
then jumped into the cool water and pulled t
he vessel into a cave to keep it hidden
.
She was staring up at the vertical wall before her when Logan whistled
.
She spun around to see him standing in the shadow of a footpath, cut into the side of the cliff, beckoning her to follow him
.

Careful
not to touch the damp walls she hugged the skirt of her dress close to her and stayed behind Logan as they climbed the dark, slippery slope
.
All light soon faded, and she gasped as something with more legs than she cared to count crawled across her hand. With a violent s
hudder she shook it off. A shriek behind her followed by the crunch of a booted foot making contact with the large insect
told
Amber
that
she must have flung it directly at Elijah
.
Refusing to think about what other creatures scur
ried in the darkness
,
she pressed on
.

At last they reached the end of the path
.
Logan signaled
them to be silent as he inched forward into the scattered rays of sunlight and peered out, inviting them forward
.
The brightness of daylight blinded her
as she emerged from the caves
.
She
was unable to look around before Logan
shoved
her against the wall and kissed her
.
She blinked against the aggressive advance, pushing him away.

“I don’t think this is the time or place—
”

“I know it isn’t,” he growled, his hands bunched in the fabric of her dress
.
“If I had my way we wouldn’t be walking around in the middle of the day, drawing attention to ourselves
.
Hell, we wouldn’t be here at all.”

She raised a hand to his coarse cheek
.
“I know, but we’re here
now.”

“Damn it,” he kissed her once more, and then pulled a black scarf from his waist
.
“Put your hair up with this
.
We don’t want you being noticed just yet.”

“Logan, now is as good a time as any,” Eli called from the street
.
“We need to get her to the
inn before it gets too crowded out here.”

Amber looked to Logan for his consent
.
He nodded and with a final kiss he pushed her towards Eli
.
She began walking briskly alongside the tall pirate, hiking up her skirts to match his long-legged pace
.
When s
he glanced behind her Logan was nowhere to be seen, and a sudden sense of panic filled her. Eli felt her body tense alongside him, and turned to see what she was looking at
.
“Don’t worry, he’s there.”

As if he
had been
listening, Logan stepped forward from the shadows and just as quickly disappeared, leaving Amber to wonder if she had seen him at all
.
But Eli’s hand on her elbow steered her forward, allowing her no time to search for him.

Finally she noticed Pax, his lanky body leaning against the
whitewashed outer walls of a building, the painted sign above his head reading
Las Meninas
.
His smile grew as he saw what Eli had in tow.

“Brought me a present, did you?”

“Actually, I did
.
Pax, meet your new wife.”

“I…she…my what?”

“Let’s get you inside,” Amber suggested as she led him through the front door, “and we’ll explain everything.” When they reached the room, she was startled but not surprised to find Logan already reclining on the bed
.

They filled Pax in on the plan, and sent him off to make contact with the others and let them know their roles
.
Logan ordered a small lunch from the kitchen downstairs to be sent up.

“Isn’t it a bit early to eat?”  Amber asked as she walk
ed the perimeter of the room, her body still teeming with nervous energy.

“It isn’t if we want to go out when the streets are the least crowded, which is when the sun is the highest overhead
.
Luckily it doesn’t get too hot up north, but the people still tend to head indoors during midday, making it a perfect tim
e for us to go explor
ing.
”

“We get to explore?”

“I did promise to show you a little of Spain, didn’t I? And as long as we stay
in
the outskirts of town and avoid being out for too long, I think we should be fine. I wish we had more time though, because I would love for you to see
Madrid, or
Barcelona, or even Sevilla
.
They are stunning.” He saw her frown
.
“What’s the matter?”

“It’s just that my mother and I always spoke of exploring E
urope and the Mediterranean once I was old enough, but I see now that it was probably a ploy to get me excited about my studies
.
Learning history and foreign languages seemed so much more important when I thought I would get to use that information someday.”

He led her over to the bed and sat her down, his arm resting on her shoulders and drawing her against him
.
“I am sorry about your mother; Eli told me what happened after I walked in on him hugging you that one night
.
I take it you were close to her?” She nodded. “When did it happen?”

“Less than a week before I met you.”

He winced and
pulled her closer
.
“No wonder you thought I was an ass,” he murmured against her hair, planting a kiss on her forehead.

“Logan, I would have thou
ght you were an unmitigated ass no matter when I met you, had I met you under the same circumstances.”

“Fair enough,” he replied with a chuckle, moving the conversation into lighter territory
.
“Are you looking forward to seeing your family in England?”

She shrugged and slipped from his reach, rising to pace the room once again
.
“I suppose, although I haven’t seen any of these people since I was a child
.
They are practically strangers to me.”

“Are they expecting you?”

“Do you mean, will they be wor
ried that I have not yet arrived? I can only speculate, but I assume that they are aware of my mother’s death by this time, as our butler Maxwell was sending several more trunks with my belongings to England on a passenger ship that departed two weeks after mine
.
A fastidious man, I will put money on the fact that he packed a note
to my relatives should the trunks for some reason arrive before I did.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, what’s done is done
.
We’re here now, and we have a job to do
.
Ridding the seas of Antonio Castaños Mendoza, remember?”

“I remember,” he said, forcing a smile as the maid knocked at the door with a platter of food
.
They ate in silence, and as Amber was adjusting her day dress and tying on the boots Logan had procured for her, he came over and placed a wide brimmed straw hat on her head
.
“Ready?”

He led her out into the blinding sunlight, sending a pointed look at a dark figure slouched against the wheel of a wagon
.
Johnny hopped to his feet and began following the pair as they headed towards a market on the outer edge of town
.
Although they appeared
inconspicuous, Amber knew that under the shadow of Logan’s tricorne his eyes were darting around for any sign of trouble, his hand never far from the pistol strapped beneath his coat
.
She too was
aware of the glances they were receiving, ready to grab the knife that was tied to the inside of her thigh.

More distracting, however, was the beauty of the foreign land surrounding her
.
She was assaulted by the strong scent of flowers that seemed to adorn every pathway, window box, garden, and market st
all, and the Moorish architecture
took her breath away
.
But she was unable to admire it further, as Logan pulled her into a store.

“Good afternoon,”
the shopkeeper said as she approached, obviously annoyed at being taken from her lunch
.
“What may
I help you with today? I’m afraid I’m rather busy at the moment, perhaps you can return later—”

“I would like the dress in the window for my companio
n,” Logan interrupted
in English
, holding up a coin purse and tossing it towards her
.
“I believe this should co
ver the dress, the necessary alterations, and another dress for tomorrow evening.”

“Señor, I assure you I cannot possibly…” her eyes widened as she opene
d the pouch and examined the contents
.
“My apologies, right this way,
S
eñorita
.
Santos!” A young boy
burst forth from the back room
.
“Santos, pull the silk gown
and
bring
it
to me, as well as the…” she eyed Amber’s complexion and the tendrils of red hair that curled around her face, “
green
from the back.”

“But
D
oña, that gown was commissioned for—” he stopped as the shopkeeper raised a hand to silence him
.
He gave a bow and hurried from the room.

“Follow me please
.
Señor, you return in one hour.”

“You aren’t staying?” Amber practically pleaded as she was being led away from him.

He smiled
.
“And watch you try on clothes?”

“No! It is not allowed,” the shopkeeper said forcefully
.
“You will return in one hour.”

“Johnny is waiting outside should you need anything
.
If I’m not back by the time you finish
, he can get you safely back to the inn, where you will wait for me
.
You are not to wander around without me, understand?”

“Where will you
go?”

“Just to take care of a few things,” he said with a
wink
as he pushed open the door
.
“Have fun.”

Fun was far from how she would describe the next hour and a half at the hands of the rough seamstress, who seemed to push and prod and pin
ch her for her own enjoyment, so much so that Amber feared she
might
bruise from the assault
.
After being stuc
k by what felt like the hundredth pin, the woman stepped back to survey her work
.
“Yes, you
take this off and give it to me a
nd I will sew it
.
You come back later this afternoon with your husband and I will have it ready for you
.
And tomorrow you may
come for
the other one.”

Amber picked up the skirts, careful to not prick herself further, and moved to the settee where her own dress had been carefully laid
.
“Let me help with that,” the seamstress offered as she stood from cleaning up h
er fallen pins, astonished to see Amber in her chemise and pulling her dress over her head.

Amber caught her look and blus
hed
.
“My maid is often ill, and so I’ve gotten used to being self-sufficient,” she lied. The storekeeper gave her a strange look, an
d to avoid rousing suspicion Amber presented her back to the woman, allowing her to lace her dress and smooth the skirts
over her petticoat. It was a foreign feeling having someone help her get dressed, so long had
she
been at sea and without a maid’s assistance. It was not an uncomfortable situation, but it reminded Amber that in a few weeks time she would be once again be introduced to the finer things in life
and
would have to get used to being taken care of by a large household staff. And it brought to the forefront of her mind that soon she would be separated from Logan
—
a most unwelcome thought. Trying to ignore it, she thanked the woman for her time and exited the shop
.
She looked around for Logan,
but
found only Pax
.