Princess at Sea (20 page)

The flesh running to my elbow and waist was slightly numb and swollen yet from the poison. I went worried upon recalling what Jeck had said about the venom fixing itself into the healing tissue instead of working itself out as it usually did. Resigned that there was nothing I could do about it, I tugged the cord holding my dress together tight. The bandage lay beside me, and thinking it ugly, I scratched out a shallow hole and buried it.

I felt the strain from the effort of doing just that, and disgusted with how weak I was, I sat in the dappled moonlight, sleep gone and feeling restless. The sand was cold upon my left hand; the sand upon my right hand I couldn't feel but for a faint whisper of movement. I stifled a surge of pity, telling myself I was a fool.

My gaze drifted to where Contessa and Alex lay, and I froze in a sudden wash of fear. Alex was there, but Contessa was gone.

Pulse hammering, I looked to the fire and the pirates, then the silent huts.
Had someone taken her without my knowing? How could I not have heard?
I thought, my mouth opening to call Alex.

But then a movement at the edge of our tether's reach caught my attention, and my held breath escaped me. It was Contessa, her knees drawn up to her chin as she sat in the shelter of a water-smoothed root that had washed ashore long ago, sitting to look toward the unseen ocean.

She was fine—as much as any of us were—and, feeling foolish, I decided she looked too melancholy to leave alone. Carefully I got first to my knees, then my feet. Right leg slow and lethargic, I adjusted my blanket about my shoulders and crossed the sand. My tether dragged behind me, and I hated it.

Contessa jumped as the sound of my approach reached her. “Oh, it's you,” she said, giving me a weak smile as she wiped a hand under an eye. The thin moonlight that made it under the trees made shadows on her face, but I could see where tears had left a soft shine.

“Sorry,” I said, hunched and holding my blanket tight with my good hand. “Didn't mean to startle you.”

She made a very unqueenlike face and scooted sideways. “Here. Sit. It's warmer with your back against something. Just watch out for the clams. They're sharp.

I squinted, seeing where mussels, not clams, had attached themselves when the root had been submerged. Feeling old and pained, I cautiously lowered myself to sit beside her. She was right. It was warmer. With a sudden thought, I took the rope about my ankle and started rubbing it against the remnant of a sharp shell.

Contessa saw what I was doing. Saying nothing, she sniffed loudly and pushed her hair back behind an ear. I had tried to braid it for her today with one hand, finally giving up when she told me to stop. “I don't know what to do anymore,” she said softly. “Everything was so much easier when I was a foundling at the nunnery.”

I stifled a bark of rude laughter. Life had been easier for me when I was the crown princess, innocent and unaware of my true potential. “Alex?” I guessed.

She nodded. “He's like no man I've ever met. So neat and tidy.”

My hair swung into my eyes in time with my sawing.
Tidy? She thinks he's tidy?

“He shaves every day that he can,” she continued, but her eyes going everywhere but to mine told me she wasn't saying what she wanted. “And he's always concerned about me.”

“He teases you,” I prompted, digging. “You hate that.”

“No,” she breathed. “I don't.” She was silent, bringing her gaze back to me. “I like him, Tess. And that's wrong. I love Thadd, but I don't want to hurt Alex. He's too good a man.”

The last was a faint whisper of guilt. I didn't look up, busy with the rope. I knew there would be more.

“And he gave up everything,” she said, her tone bordering on that of justification. “Everything so I wouldn't grow to hate him and his Rosie.”

The first strand of the rope parted. I cut my finger, and took a moment to stick it in my mouth.

“It's not fair,” Contessa all but whined.

“No, it isn't,” I said, unable to keep silent anymore. “It would be easier if he was ugly and fat and beat you to leave bruises where no one could see. No one would fault you if you should find your own happiness among your court then.”

“But Alex is so . . .” Contessa said. “He's so . . .”

“He's a Misdev prince,” I finished for her, resuming my work. “Sound of body and reason. Courtly and kind. Able to make you laugh and willing to die for your safety, with nothing promised from you in return. God save you, Contessa. You couldn't ask for a more fortunate match. I know you love Thadd, but you have to face this.”

Contessa turned to me, looking like a younger version of our mother. The shadows hid the hunger and fear, making her beautiful. “I don't know what to do,” she admitted. “I promised Thadd—”

“I can't tell you what to do,” I interrupted. “I don't know either. But our parents loved each other, and it made them stronger.”

“They knew they would wed strangers,” she said bitterly. “They didn't make ties to anyone else. I did. I can't just leave Thadd because—something better came about.”

“That's not fair,” I said shortly, tired of her whining. “And Father . . .” I took a slow breath, asking Father to forgive me for the coming falsehood. “Father did.”

Her eyes went wide in the faint light.

I nodded, unable to hold her gaze. “Father had a courtesan he loved very much,” I lied. “No one talks about her, and everyone denies she ever existed. Mother was said to have been very polite, though it must have torn her inside. Father grew to like Mother, finally seeing the pain he was inflicting on her, and because of it, he finally asked his mistress to leave.”

I sawed at my bindings, not knowing if the sudden slick-ness was sweat or blood. “It must have been one of the hardest things he ever had to do,” I said softly. “He offered to put her up in a fine house with servants, but she simply left one night, and he let her go, never searching her out. I think it was the sole best thing he ever did to ensure the safety of the realm.”

“How?” Contessa asked, and I could hear the pain in her voice for her understanding of what I was telling her to do.

I glanced up, then back down to the rope. I was almost through it.

“When she left, Mother's wounded pride healed. Their love deepened, and their trust in each other grew absolute. There was no way for a manipulative, power-hungry lord to drive a wedge between them, splitting the throne and making political upheaval possible.”

“Oh,” she whispered, reaching up to touch her lips. “I never realized.”

Satisfied, I nodded. “The palace was sound, and the populace felt secure. Happy people don't listen to dissidents intent on revolt.”

“I can't ask Thadd to leave,” she blurted.

“And I can't tell you what to do,” I replied. “No one expects you to like all the choices you make.”

“But you were the crown princess, once,” she said. “Didn't you ever find the needs of the kingdom crosswind to your desires? What did you do? How did you decide?”

I sighed, taking a moment to shake my left hand out before continuing to work on the rope. “I didn't allow myself to have desires,” I whispered, thinking that admitting that aloud was probably the lowest point of my existence.

Her chin dropped, and she sniffed once. “You can't say that. I saw you kiss Duncan,” she said, and my face warmed.

The rope snapped under my efforts, and I jerked forward, my knuckles hitting the sand. Contessa moved her tiny feet so I could reach her tether. Somewhere between reaching the island and now, they had taken her boots. Silently, and without comment, I started working on her bindings, being very careful not to hit her pale skin. If we could get Alex free, we might sneak out and find a place to hide. What I'd do then, I'd worry about later.

Contessa pulled her blanket tighter about her shoulders. “Please don't be angry with me. But, Tess, I don't trust Duncan.”

My fingers were cramping, and I stopped, looking up to see her miserable for her admission. “You don't trust him?” I said, my back starting to hurt high up my shoulder. “After all he did for us? Is doing right now? I'm alive because of him.”
And Jeck, but no need to bring
that
up.

She curled her lips in on themselves, her eyes on the moon. “I know you like him, and I think he likes you, too, but . . .”

With a huff, I returned to her rope, watching the strands start to part. “But what? Is it his thief mark?” I asked. “I told you he got it by mistake. A so-called friend tricked him into taking the blame for his thievery. The man was a god to him, and he felt he owed him his life. Duncan is a good man under the street dust.”

Her tether parted, and I heaved a sigh of relief. Her hand went down to rub her ankle. “You're right,” she said. “Never mind.”

I sat on the sand, my pulse fast from just that little exertion. She had said never mind, but that's not what she wanted to say, and I didn't need magic to see it. “Is it because he lived on the streets?” I asked belligerently. “Because that's where I would be if it wasn't for Kavenlow.”

Contessa's face pinched in the moonlight, and she hunched into herself. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. I've been watching him, and yes, he cares for you. He almost spends as much money on you as he does himself, which is saying a lot for him. It is obvious that he thinks highly of you and doesn't want anything to hurt you. It's just . . .”

I rubbed my ankles, glad to be free. I wanted to leave, but I had to catch my breath first. Silently I waited.

Her held breath slipped from her. “When you were bitten,” she said reluctantly, “he was the first one into the pit. He saved your life, but Tess, it was almost as if you were a thing to him. Something that he wanted to put on his shelf that would ensure his future. He fought hard to keep the crew from leaving you down there and filling up the hole, but it was greed in his voice, not love.”

I watched her worried, pained eyes—and listened, weighing her hard-to-spot but substantial savvy with people against the touch of his fingers on me and the shared pain in his voice when he caused me pain to save my life. “He's been hungry most of his life,” I said hesitantly. “Maybe that's the only way he can convey his need for someone,” I said, and she dropped her eyes, adjusting her dress about her bent knees.

“We should get Alex free and find somewhere to hide until the palace finds us,” I said, awkwardly getting to my feet. I dropped the ends of her rope in the sand beside her, then reached down with my good left hand and pulled her up. The food I had eaten today gave me a new strength, and the freedom beckoning beyond the dark vegetation was better than any tonic.

Contessa brushed the sand from herself and glanced at the distant coals of the community fire. A shuffling in the brush beside us brought a small gasp from her. Pulse hammering, I spun, my hand going over her mouth.

“Or,” came Jeck's voice out of the black, “you could row out to the
Sandpiper
and be gone entirely.”

“Jeck!” I exclaimed in a muffled oath, wondering how long he
had been listening. “How did you find us?” I stammered before remembering I had slipped into his mind during my overdose of venom and pointed the way.

My left hand dropped from Contessa's mouth. An uncomfortable flash of emotions ran through me at the sight of his tall shadow lurking at the edges of the underbrush: embarrassment for my sorry state and that I needed rescuing, fear that I looked weak and that Jeck would take advantage of it, and worry that he was a better player than I and that I would ruin my master's game beyond repair. And over it all was the knowledge that he had saved my life.

I didn't like any of the things I was feeling, but I was glad to see him nonetheless. The
Sandpiper
was nearby. Freedom.

He made the smallest of motions with his head. “This way. And keep it quiet. You make more noise than three children with candy.”

Contessa stiffened. “Captain, you forget your place. Don't talk to my sister like that.”

Jeck made a little start. I could see it as the moonlight glinted on the brim of his hat. “My apologies to Your Majesty and her lady,” he amended, so sincere that I almost missed the faint sarcasm he hid in his slight bow. “If you would
please
come with me with all due haste and stealth into the shadows so I may cut your tethers?”

Contessa made a short harrumph as she gathered her filthy skirts and headed after him, awkward because of the sand. “Tess already cut our bonds, Captain. We're not so helpless.”