Passion's Tide (37 page)

“Does it matter?” He met her hard gaze
.
“No
,
I’m not American, I’m originally from Ireland, but I moved to England when I was a child
.
I can talk like this, if it makes you feel any better,” he said, switching to a Br
itish accent.

She shook her head
.
“Hold on a moment, how many of you have adopted fake accents?”

Pax shrugged. “Most of us, I would assume
.
Well, that’s not entirely true, but at least half
.
The newer members of the crew are probably all from the
colonies
.”

“Where is everyone else from?”

“Eli I’m pretty sure is British, Anton is from Morocco, and Deacon is Irish, but I’m not certain about the others
.
You’d have to ask them yourself.”

Amber glanced around
.
“What about Logan?”

“The men seem to think he
’s British, but I couldn’t tell you one way of the other,” he admitted, dropping his voice
.
“None of us are sure where he came from, or whether he has any family to speak of
.
But we can’t talk about it anymore; it isn’t safe to mention his name
.
Besides
, we’re here.”

Amber lifted her head to take in the sight of the inn, very similar to her own but larger and more impressive
.
It also apparently boasted a higher form of entertainment than hers, for the voices being carried into the street indicated the p
resence of a large crowd
.
Wishing all of a sudden to see Logan before she entered, she swiveled her head around but
did not see
him
.
“Stop looking about
;
we don’t want people to go searching for
him,” Pax whispered in her ear
.
She n
odded and followed him into the Maravilla
I
nn.

Concealing a grimace as Pax slid an arm around her waist she forced a smile and let him lead her to a table in the center of the room, where they were certain to be no
ticed
.
“I apologize now for how obnoxiou
s I’m about to be,” he muttered as he
seated her
, and then straightened himself up
.
“Perdón,” he shouted with terrible Spanish articulation, “some drinks and dinner for me and my beautiful wife
.
And fast!”

The room went quiet as every pair of eyes turned to stare at the brash Irishman who had no concept of propriety, and at the woman sitting beside him with an embarrassed expression
.
A serving girl dropped two flagons of ale in front of them and offered them an option of red bean
stew with chorizo and ham, or fish in salsa verde
.
Amber opened her mouth to ask for the stew when Pax interrupted her
.
“I will have the bean stew and my wife will take the fish.” He smirked at the Spanish girl
.
“She was having trouble fitting into her
dress this evening.”

He waited until she had sauntered away before whispering to Amber, “Feel free to act angry with me.”

“Who’s acting?” she grumbled into her drink
.
His hand moved to cover the mouth of the mug, lowering it to the table
.
He pulled it
towards himself.

“Sorry.”

“Remind me again what my role is in this whole endeavor? Or are you to do everything, while I simply sit here and become further agitated?”

“Your goal tonight is to capture the attention of one man, and you have successfully accomplished that
.
The die has been cast.”

“Mendoza is here?”

“He is seated at a table to your right
.
No, don’t look now; it will be obvious we have been talking about him
.
Wait,” he commanded before polishing off both of their mugs of ale
.
He winked at
her and then stumbled to his feet, waving the empty flagon about
.
“I’m still thirsty!  Don’t you Spaniards have anything stronger? You know, tequila, gin?” He staggered over to a table, empty except for one man.

“What are you drinking?” he demanded of the dark Spaniard, who eyed him coldly.

“Orujo.”

“Orujo, eh? Sounds strong.” He raised a hand with a smile and hailed down the serving girl
.
“I’ll have what he’s having, and make it two glasses.”

Mendoza
lip curled
, drawing her attention to
the
large ragged scar that bisected his left cheek
.
“I like your style, Irishman
.
Come, sit down,” he offered in heavily accented English.

“I’d love to, but I’ve got to keep the miss
us company while she eats.”

“Is that your wife over there?  She is quite beautiful.” Amber dropped her eyes to the table to avoid Mendoza’s piercing gaze.

“Aye, isn’t she?  Just picked her up on my last trip to the
colonies
,” Pax boasted. “Looking at her you’d think she was Irish born, but believe it or not the lass is from Connecticut
.
Her father was all too happy to get rid of her and I didn’t hesitate to take him up on his offer
.
I mean,” he slurred as he stood, “look at her.”

Amber glanced up to se
e that Mendoza was indeed looking at her, his dark brown eyes boring a hole into her
skin
.
She looked away again, just as the serving girl brought them their food
.
Pax excused himself from his new friend and returned to the table, grabbing his spoon and diving right into his stew
.
“You certainly play the p
art well,” she whispered as she picked at her meal with a fork, wondering what type of fish it was and why it smelled so foul
.
Her stomach was already in knots from the corset and Mendoza’s stare, so she gave up
any hope of eating.

“As do you, my dear wife
.
One would believe you were about to strangle me, with that poisonous look you’re giving me
.
Don’t try
to
change it, that is the plan,” he reminded her
.
“We want Mendoza to think
you are fed up with your marriage, so that when you return alone tomorrow night he will target you.”

“You’re not coming back with me?”

He shook his head as he shoveled another spoonful of stew into his mouth
.
“He won’t approach you if I’m around.”

“What happens after I have him alone?”

“It will all be explained later,” he mumbled as he used his bread to soak up the rest of the broth
.
He apologized to her again as he reached across and dragged her plate towards himself and began to eat that as well
.
“Now look up and meet his gaze, blink coyly or whatever it is th
at you do and then look away.” She did, unnerved to see that his eyes
were focused
her still figure at the table
.
He gave her a slight nod before she turned away
.
Pax finished Amber’s meal and stood, throwing several coins onto the t
able.

“Enjoy your Orujo,” he called back to Mendoza
genially
, his hand sliding to cup Amber’s bottom
.
“I’m going to enjoy my woman.”

She waited until they were several streets away before reeling back and slapping Pax
.
His hand flew up to rub
his stinging cheek
.
“What was that for? I thought he told you the plan!”

“He never told me you would take advantage of my position as your
wife
to publicly grope me,” she said, hearing Logan’s distinct laugh somewhere behind her
.
“Don’t think you aren’
t in trouble too, mister
.
I expect to be filled in completely when we get back to the room.”

Pax scowled as he led her down the winding streets
.
“This is why I’m never getting married.”

“You’re not getting married because no woman in her right mind would have you.”  Feeling bad, she apologized as they neared the inn
.
“I was just taken off guard,” she explained
.
“How’s your cheek?”

“Could be worse, at least you didn’t break my nose again,” he said with a chuckle
.
They were in better moods as they finis
hed the journey and he walked her to her room
.
“How about a goodnight kiss?”

She rolled her eyes, her hand already
pushing open the door
.
“Sleep well, dear husband.”
She shut the door in his face and turned to Logan
.
“You.”

“Me?”

“Tell me what this plan entails, so I don’t have any more unpleasant surprises.”

He rose from the bed and motioned for her to turn around
.
“I needed you surprised tonight
.
If you had anticipated Pax’s actions you would not have been able to react to them as spectacularly as you did
.
Now Mendoza, and everyone else who saw the way he treated you, believes you to be the stunning, quiet wife of an outspoken drunk
en
Irishman
.
The shock on your face when he grabbed you proved to Mendoza that you despise your husb
and, and he will be sure to make a move tomorrow night when you are alone
.
Now raise your arms,” he instructed, lifting the dress up and over her head and dropping it onto a chair
.
With quick movements he went to work on her stays, chuckling as she inhal
ed deeply once the restrictive garment was loosened.

“Good lord, that was awful
.
And I’m starving.”

“I anticipated that,
so I had the maid fix you a light meal
.
She should be back soon with something to get you through the night. His hand moved to
caress her cheek
.
“You were incredible this evening, and you looked radiant.”

“Where were you standing?” she
inquired as his nimble fingers went to work on the clasp of the emerald necklace
.
The heavy piece of jewelry dropped into his hand.

He gestured for her to remove the earrings as well
.
“Sorry, the fewer people know where I am the better. I don’t want you looking around for me
.
I was planning on letting you keep the ring on tonight to let you get more comfortable wearing it, but I’ve changed my mi
nd. I don’t know if you were conscious of it, but you were fidgeting with it all evening. It looked very
convincing.”

She wordlessly slid the ring from her finger and dropped it into his palm, then walked over to the small basin to splash some water on her flushed face. Logan set the small table with the food the maid delivered, and she joined him
there
.
“
What
exactly is the plan for tomorrow?” she asked, holding out a hunk of cheese.

He shook his head
.
“Tomorrow evening you will return to th
e Maravilla Inn alone and order dinner. Mendoza will approach you, and you will accept his proposal to join you and drink everything he puts in front on you, which, from what the men have observed, will be a lot of alcohol
.
You may not have seen him toni
ght, but Deacon has acquired a job as the bartender, and will be watering down all of your drinks.”

“Thank goodness for that,” she laughed, recalling her last experience with too much alcohol.

“Yes, well, we’ve seen what happens, and we are trying to avoid it
.
Not that throwing yourself at Mendoza wouldn’t be the perfect way to obtain information, but
you’d regret it in the morning
.
Besides,” he said as he stood and held out his hand for her to join him on the edge of the bed, “you’re mine.”

She tried to ignore
his hand cradl
ing
her head as he began kissing her neck
.
“Logan, what happens after he thinks I’m drunk?”  He mumbled something into her shoulder and she laughed, pulling backwards so that she could see his face
.
“The sooner we ge
t through the boring information, the sooner we can move on to more important things,” she told him.