Swept Away (43 page)

Raven stroked Eden’s curls as he tried to force the image of her lying in Alex’s arms from his mind. To him, his actions had never been devious, but all too painfully obvious. He had fallen in love with his wife, and there was nothing he would not do to keep her. He was not the conniving bastard Eden and her father seemed to see, but merely a lovesick fool who would die for a woman who did not love him, and probably never would.

When Eden awakened the next morning, the sky was overcast and gray. Raven was seated near the window, his chair tipped back, his foot resting on the sill. While she felt wonderfully rested, he looked as though he had been up all night. He was clad only in a pair of tight-fitting black pants, and the long red trails her nails had cut in his shoulders were clearly visible. She winced when she noticed them.

Raven glanced toward her then. “There’s another storm brewing. Your father’s gone, but we’ll wait this out before going to Kingston. If the storm’s another bad one, the
Jamaican Wind
will be better off on the river than in a crowded harbor.”

He had thoughtfully placed her silk wrapper across the foot of the bed, and Eden donned it before going to him. “I understand. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I’d scratched you so badly last night. Do you have anything to put on those cuts?”

Raven looked up at her, his stare curiously blank. “Look on the washstand. Yadira makes an herb cream that’s good. It ought to be in a green jar.”

“Is there anything Yadira doesn’t do well?” Eden asked in an exasperated sigh. Finding the cream exactly where Raven had said it would be, she removed the lid and sampled the aroma. Surprisingly, the thick herbal remedy had a fragrance as light as spring rain. “Well, it smells good at least.”

Raven was wise enough not to comment on Yadira’s talents and he kept still as Eden began to smooth the cool salve on the deep scratches. Her touch was light now, without the urgency that had caused her to use her nails on him. When she apologized again, he refused to accept it. “Look, it was my own fault, so stop blaming yourself. A scrape or two won’t kill me.”

“It was most certainly not your fault, Raven.” Eden coated each of the cuts with the salve, then leaned down to kiss his right shoulder, which was still bruised from one of her father’s many blows. When he reached out to catch her wrist and pulled her down on his lap, she did not fight him. It was easier to concentrate on replacing the lid on the jar than on her husband’s face and Eden took her time with the task.

“Look at me, Eden.”

He had not combed his hair, nor bothered to shave as yet, but Eden thought him incredibly handsome. She wanted to snuggle against him, to make love slowly, and this time on her terms rather than his. She let neither of those thoughts show in her expression though. “Yes?” she asked sweetly.

Raven rested his forehead against hers and was silent for a long moment before he finally spoke what was on his mind. “To hear you and your father talk, I’m some hideous spider who’s trying to ensnare everyone in my web. I know you don’t love me, but the very least I expect from you is more loyalty than that.”

That so astonishingly attractive a man would describe himself as a spider appalled Eden. That he would demand loyalty when in her opinion she had shown him an enormous amount was even more upsetting. But most troubling of all was when they made love, all trace of Alex’s touch was gone from her memory. She responded solely to Raven now, and in ways she had never thought possible. Was that being disloyal to Alex? she wondered fretfully.

“I have given you my loyalty, and if it doesn’t seem so to you, then I am truly sorry,” she explained hesitantly. “I never gave any thought to why a widow waits a year to remarry, but now I think that custom is a wise one. Had we not gotten married, we’d not have half the problems we do.”

Raven moaned way back in his throat for her words cut him far more deeply than her nails had. “No,” he denied forcefully. “Marrying you was the most honorable thing I’ve ever done, and even if our lives never run smoothly because of it, I’ll never be sorry.”

Eden did not want to debate the issue when he seemed so anguished over it. Taking care not to hurt him, she rested her hands lightly on his shoulders and leaned forward to kiss him. Her gesture was both sympathetic and enticing, but Raven did not respond as she had hoped.

Instead, he tightened his hold on her waist and set her on her feet. “I don’t want to lose myself in you again this morning. Get dressed, and we’ll go downstairs and have breakfast together. Since we can’t leave or tour the plantation, we might as well clean out Alex’s room. That will take us the whole day.”

While Eden didn’t look forward to that chore, she didn’t argue, and carried Yadira’s salve back to the washstand before going to her room. Once there, she decided to bathe before getting dressed and went outside to the room above the privy to do so. Water was heating on the stove, and not bothering to summon a maid, she poured it into the copper tub herself. She hung her wrapper from one of the hooks on the back of the door, and turned to step into the tub.

It was not until then that she noticed the small lavender shadows Raven’s impassioned kisses had left on her inner thighs. It seemed each of them had marked the other, but she bore only the pale imprint of his mouth, while he wore bloody cuts from her nails.

As she sank down into the tub, Eden knew there was a message in that contrast, and while its meaning taunted her, it existed only on the edge of her mind and refused to come clear. She stayed in the tub until the water was too chilly to remain. Then recalling Raven was waiting for her, she got out, dried herself off, tied the silk wrapper tightly around her waist, and hurried back to the house to prepare for the day.

Chapter Twenty-One

October 1863

The storm brought high winds that again left the shore littered with palm fronds and heavy rains that soaked the fields. Although not of hurricane force, it delayed Raven and Eden’s trip to Kingston for a week. They did not count the time lost, however, for Raven’s confident assumption that they could sort through Alex’s effects in a day proved to be woefully inaccurate.

At first Eden feared they would come across a reminder of Alex’s affair with Yadira, or possibly love letters or tokens of affection from other women he had known, but the room was devoid of any evidence of romantic liaisons. Other than a miniature of Eleanora, there were no mementos of her either. What his bedroom did contain were countless things that called forth a flood of memories for Raven.

Eden had not been surprised to find he had as perfect recall of incidents that had taken place in his childhood as those that had occurred since she had met him. It took little to catch his interest: a favorite waistcoat Alex had worn until threadbare and then never discarded, a dog-eared volume of poetry, or an unusual piece of jewelry. He would stop working then, take it to her, and with what usually evolved into a colorful tale, explain why Alex had treasured it. She was the perfect audience for him, and deeply grateful, he was willing to share so many of his precious memories. With such distractions frequent, they would often spend more time at the windowseat reminiscing than working to clear the room.

Occasionally they would look up to find Yadira standing at the door. She would shake her head and wander off, but she made no comment on their project, or the slowness of their pace while completing it. She had soon realized from the reverence with which they handled Alex’s belongings that she need not fear anything he had loved would be thrown away. She had already known that Raven had idolized his uncle, and assumed Eden listened with such rapt interest as he spoke of him because she adored her handsome husband and would have been content to listen to him talk all day no matter what the subject. Having lost her only love, it saddened Yadira to be around the affectionate couple, and she devoted herself to her other duties as soon as she realized they did not need her help.

With their days spent in such a loving pastime, no new arguments had sprung up between the newlyweds, nor did they resort to recalling their old ones. At the close of each day, they made love with a touching sweetness rather than a reckless passion, but it was no less pleasurable. When fair weather returned, and Raven announced they would leave the next day for Kingston, Eden hated to see the tranquil week come to an end. Being with Raven was never dull, but she doubted they would have many other opportunities to complete a project with such perfect accord.

After the blissful calm of the plantation, the boisterous port of Kingston provided Eden with a noisy return to the real world. Bordered on the east by the rugged Blue Mountains, the town had a spectacular natural setting but it was as vulgar and corrupt a place as any in the civilized world. While Raven was eager to show Eden something of the town, he intended to choose those sights with care.

Eden, however, wanted to go straight to the Fife and Drum to meet Molly McCay. “You haven’t forgotten that I wanted to speak with her, have you? I’m sure if John Rawlings frequented the place, there are others among your crew who do as well. She ought not to learn of John’s death from some careless comment one of them might make.”

“No, I’d not forgotten,” Raven said, but he was still reluctant to escort Eden to the dockside tavern. “It’s just that you’ll surely be the first countess who ever set foot in the place.”

Eden was dressed in her gray gown and bonnet, and held out the skirt as she turned slowly in front of him. “Oh come now, surely I look more like an industrious captain’s wife than a countess, don’t I?”

How she looked was exquisitely beautiful, but that compliment stuck in Raven’s throat. “Well, I suppose we could go over there now. The place might not be too crowded in midafternoon.”

“Will we have to rent a carriage?”

“I wish that we did, for the Fife and Drum would undoubtedly be far more respectable if it weren’t so close to the docks. It’s only a short walk, however, so none of the sailors who enter the port can get lost on their way there.”

“My goodness, it certainly sounds popular.”

“That it is,” Raven assured her, and offering his arm, he left Randy to supervise the unloading of the cargo and guided his bride to the Fife and Drum. A drunken sailor had just been forcefully ejected and, after picking himself up off the walk, would have reeled into them had both Raven and Eden not been so light on their feet.

“You see what I mean?” Raven asked with a rueful shake of his head. “This is no place for a lady.”

“We won’t have to stay long,” Eden assured him as she peeked through the open doorway into the tavern’s dimly lit interior.

On a sudden impulse, Raven moved ahead of her. “Wait here a minute. I’ll go and ask for Molly. If she’s not working this afternoon, we needn’t stay.”

Before Eden could argue with that idea, Raven had disappeared into the smoke-filled tavern. She had no choice but to stand back from the doorway then, and try to ignore the curious glances she was drawing from the sailors strolling by. Only a few seconds had passed before three amorous young men mistook her nervous smile for an invitation to stop and chat.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty one,” the most gregarious of the trio greeted her enthusiastically. “My name is Robert, but I always ask women to call me Rob. This is Paul and Jack but you needn’t bother to remember their names.”

Eden clutched her reticule more tightly, but did not respond, a fact Rob and his companions failed to notice. Rob stepped closer still and again flashed a wide grin. “We got into port too late yesterday to have any fun, but we intend to make up for that today. Do you want to go into the Fife and Drum for a pint or two of ale first, or would you rather take us straight to your place?”

Eden did not appreciate the men standing so close. They were at least clean, and sober, but she knew she had done nothing to encourage their company and just wanted them to go away. The boys she had known at home were certainly a lot better at sensing a woman’s lack of interest but she hoped these men would get that message soon. Not wanting to be drawn into a conversation with strangers, she turned to look into the tavern, praying she would see Raven on his way out. Unfortunately Rob again misinterpreted her actions. He slipped his arm around her narrow waist, simply picked her up, and carried her inside with Paul and Jack following close behind.

“I’d hoped you’d go for the ale. It always helps to make things friendlier.”

Raven had located Molly and had just begun to explain his wife wanted a word with her when he saw the three young sailors whisk Eden through the door. Not understanding why she had not been able to stay out of trouble for the short while they had been apart, he quickly excused himself.

Rob paused to allow his eyes to adjust to the tavern’s dim lighting before showing Eden to a table, but the first thing he saw was Raven striding toward him wearing so murderous an expression he quickly looked behind him hoping it was being directed at Paul or Jack rather than him. When his friends squared their shoulders and stepped closer rather than turning tail and running away, he knew they would back him up if there was going to be a fight over the pretty blonde. He braced himself and prepared to stand his ground.

Raven did not bother to introduce himself. He simply reached for Eden’s hand, plucked her from Rob’s arms, and swung her out of his way. He then belted Rob in the chin with a crushing blow that lifted the astonished sailor clear off his feet. Rob came down on legs that wobbled so badly he staggered back into his friends and would have slid to the floor had they not caught him. Raven took another step forward, clearly prepared to deal with Paul and Jack just as harshly, but they had seen enough, and keeping a firm grip on Rob’s arms, they dragged him out the door.