Swept Away By a Kiss (46 page)

Authors: Katharine Ashe

BOOK: Swept Away By a Kiss

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“Stubble it, Mattie, or I’ll stubble it for you,” Alex warned without breaking stride, hand still upon the metal at his hip. He forbore grinding his straight, white teeth, the only bright spot on his polish-blackened face except the whites of his eyes.

“Big Mattie has a point, Captain,” his quartermaster said quietly, falling in beside him, matching stride for stride. Jinan stood a mere inch shy of Alex’s considerable height, of similar build though somewhat leaner in the chest like his Egyptian ancestors.

Alex met Jin’s steady blue gaze, the intelligence glinting in it reminding him as always why he left his ship in this man’s hands for most of the year.

“Big Mattie has an unhealthy thirst for blood, like his master,” he muttered, swinging down the steep steps to the gun deck, leaving the gray of the spring day behind. “We don’t need to worry about the smugglers. They’ll keep to their own if we keep to ours.” From habit his gaze scanned the cannons as he ducked beneath the beams, moving aft through the open space.

They entered the day chamber. Appointed in Aubusson carpets, with brocaded upholstery sheathing walnut and cherrywood furniture, a crystal carafe cradling French brandy upon the sideboard, a silver and onyx writing set upon the desk in the adjacent office, ivory bookends supporting leather-bound volumes of Greek verse, and the finest linens in the bedchamber opposite, they looked like the private rooms of a lord of the realm. Unbeknownst to all aboard except Alex and his quartermaster, they were.

Jin closed the door and affixed the shutters of the windows letting on to the deck. He folded his arms.

“Thirst for blood, my arse. Mattie might gripe, but your mercy stands you in good stead with the men, as always. Even when they’re itching to be ashore.”

“Lilies, the lot of them, just like he said.” Alex waved a dismissive hand. “They ought to be ashamed to be weary of the sea after a mere seven weeks abroad.”

“They’re not weary, only looking forward to a lick at the grog we took off that Barbadian trader.” Jin shook his head. “You’re right about the smugglers, of course. But, Alex, the hull won’t clean itself. We’ve got to careen the ship.”

“Which you should have done before the last cruise.”

“I couldn’t heave to for that. Not after the
Etoile
challenged us off Calais.”

“And left you twiddling the sweeps when the wind died and she failed to show for the fight. Jin, I did not give you permission to go after that blasted privateer. We are at peace with France now, or hadn’t you noticed? Even if we weren’t, that is not our purpose.”

“The men think it is, at least since you put French merchantmen off limits after the treaty last November.”

“You sound as though you agree with them.” Alex moved into his washroom, pulled off his sash strung with dagger and pistol along with his leather waistcoat, and hung them upon a hook. His sweat-stained linen shirt came next. “Have you finally become greedy for pirate’s gold after all these years, my friend?” He drew on a fresh garment.

Jin scowled, marring the aristocratic lines of a face that mingled the blood of English nobles and eastern princes.

“Don’t insult me. But after our run-in with that American frigate last week and the quick repairs, the crew deserves a break.” He paused. “And so do you.”

“Have a yen to take the summer cruise without me? Are you hoping to storm the Channel and win a fat French prize despite my prohibition?” Alex chose a dark, simply tailored coat from his compact wardrobe and took up a wrinkled cravat. Tubbs would have his head for donning such a rag. But Alex did not answer to his valet, or to anyone else.

“Of course not,” Jin replied. “If you say we mayn’t take merchantmen any longer, we will not. The boys got accustomed to it after three successful years, though.”

“The war didn’t last long enough for some.”

“Long enough for you to take out a half-dozen French men-of-war,” Jin murmured.

Alex ignored his friend’s look of measured admiration and wound the linen about his neck. It smelled of salted fish, but that was a good sight better than plenty of the other aromas upon the
Cavalier
at the end of the seven-week cruise. Jin was right. Both ship and crew needed a break before the next trip out. And, according to the note Billy brought back from his trip ashore last night, Alex had business at home.

He wrapped the cravat about his jaw, stretching it over his nose and tucking it fast at the base of his skull. With the black face paint and a concealing hat, the disguise had not failed him in eight years. It still astounded Alex that, despite the
Cavalier
’s repeated visits to the north Devon coast of late, no one among the
bon ton
connected the notorious buccaneer Redstone with the Seventh Earl of Savege. With a vast, prosperous estate stretching miles of remote Devonshire coastline, the earl was far too busy in London whoring and gambling away his fortune to set foot at home often.

Alex took some pride in Redstone’s mysterious identity. His brother, Aaron, positively delighted in it. Blast him.

“Last autumn the men grew richer than bilge rats should,” Jin said.

Alex dropped a nondescript hat atop his head and tugged it low over his brow.

“Then they should be content this season with an occasional English yacht. In the meantime, allow them ashore, north as usual. But for God’s sake tell them to behave and stay clear of those blasted smugglers. I don’t want them getting mixed up with that bunch of miscreants, or being mistaken for them.”

“The locals know the boys well enough by now.” Jin frowned. “But Billy didn’t like the looks of the
Osprey
’s crew, and he brought back news.” He shook his head, bracing his stance against a sudden sway of the ship. The far-reaching eddies of the Bristol Channel were friendly enough in gentle weather, but rain beckoned. Alex could feel it in his blood as he felt sunset, moonrise, and the ebb of the tides.

“What have they done?”

“Seems they roughed up a girl.”

Alex’s gaze snapped up. “Roughed up?”

“Aye.” Jin nodded. “A group of them.”

“What girl?”

“A dairy maid. Did it right under her brothers’ noses. In a barn.”

“They took a girl from a barn and no one challenged them?”

“
In
a barn—”

“No.” He lifted his hand. “I understand. The farm sits upon the shore, doesn’t it?” Weeks ago he’d come upon the smuggling brig out of a fog and had a good look at it. Well armed and deep in the draft, the
Osprey
was an impressive vessel. Even if she sat too far off shore for the cannon shot to reach land, sailors’ cutlasses and pikes could readily best a farmer’s pitchforks and axes. The girl’s brothers could not have saved her virtue, much as Alex’s brother could not have saved their younger sister’s years earlier.

Alex headed toward the door. “Why did you wait until now to tell me this?”

“You always say you don’t wish to know the business of English smugglers. Let them go their own way. But this is a nasty one. Captain goes by the name of Dunkirk.”

“I don’t care about the
Osprey
or her captain. Only—”

“The pleasure boats of spoiled English nobles. I know.”

Alex set an even gaze upon his friend.

“If you object to the
Cavalier
’s purpose, you are free to find other employment. I’ve made that perfectly clear many times, and you must have enough gold stored in London banks by now to buy yourself a fleet. You owe me nothing.”

Jin returned his steady stare. “I will decide when my debt to you is repaid. And you need me, now more than ever.”

Alex refused to bite at that bait. He reached for the door handle.

“What about Poole, then?”

Alex paused, a hot finger of anger pressing at the base of his throat once more. But it did not spread to fill his chest as it had for so many years. Now it merely lapped at his senses, taunting him with what might have been. Revenge was sweetest served hot, and eight years had in truth cooled Alex’s thirst for blood. Now the sole reason he pursued his present course sat in solitude at Savege Park awaiting his return.

“
Swept Away by a Kiss
is a breathtaking romance
filled with sensuality and driven by a brisk and
thrilling plot. Her characters are intelligent,
vibrant and wonderfully complex.
Katharine Ashe writes with eloquence and power.”

New York Times
bestselling author Lisa Kleypas

“A hero who is not what he pretends,
a heroine who is determined to unmask him,
and a sexual chemistry that burns up the pages.”

New York Times
bestselling author Sandra Hill

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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ISBN 978-0-06-196562-3

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