The Pirate and the Puritan (15 page)

Not for the first time, he sensed
he should apologize, but felt too muddled to do so with any sincerity.

“I have to go,” he said instead.

He turned and searched for the
key he’d absently thrown down when he’d entered the cabin. Both keys rested
among the dirty dishes from their meal. If Solomon hadn’t stopped him, he was
sure he would have been deflowering Felicity in a spray of broken dishes and
spilled wine at this very moment. Almost simultaneously, the thought shamed and
aroused him all over again. He dropped one key in his vest pocket and tore his
gaze away from the table. After straightening his rumpled shirt, he glanced at
Felicity.

Bloody hell. Was she crying? He
cocked his head, inconspicuously trying to catch a glimpse of her face. Her
cheeks remained dry. He didn’t know what he would do if he’d made strong-willed
Felicity Kendall cry.

He strode to the door, assuring
himself he would apologize if necessary when they had both calmed down. Of
course, that was assuming he could calm down. His heart still thumped against
his chest and his unfulfilled arousal thrust painfully against his breeches.

He halted in his tracks with a
sickening thought. What if he had frightened her rather than merely embarrassed
her? That had been his intention in the beginning. Her passionate reaction to
his advances had not made sense with what he knew of Felicity, but he’d been
well beyond reasoning. He fished into his pocket and removed the only other key
to the room besides the one lying on the table.

“Felicity,” he called. When she
looked up, he tossed the key in a shimmering arch. She caught it in one hand,
while she managed to keep her stranglehold on her robe with the other. He
wondered if she would ever cease to amaze him. “Lock the door behind me.”

A dark obstacle loomed over the
hatchway, eclipsing the night sky. Drew didn’t need the aid of a lantern to
identify the barrier between him and the fresh air he desperately needed to
clear his head.

Ignoring the ladder leading down
into the cabin, Solomon pounced from his perch to block Drew’s path. “Would you
explain what I just witnessed?”

“Has it been that long, Solomon?
You need to get off the island more often.”

Drew felt a sneer tug at his lips
rather than the smile he intended. Irritation roiled through him, replacing the
lust that had almost sucked him under. Actually, he should be thanking Solomon
for interrupting his headlong descent into madness, but right now he wanted to
punch something, and Solomon eagerly offered a target.

“I don’t need to prove my manhood
to every woman who crosses my path. I would never taint Marguerite’s memory by
mimicking your behavior,” Solomon countered.

Drew couldn’t remain angry in the
face of Solomon’s heated gaze. This was no good-natured lecture on Drew’s
excessive and sometimes dangerous romantic escapades. Solomon was serious, or
he never would have mentioned Marguerite. His devotion to his deceased wife was
nothing to make light of.

“I’m sorry I got you involved in
this,” Drew told him.

Instead of defusing the
situation, Drew’s comment brought Solomon a menacing step closer. “Since I
am
involved, I want to know what you were doing in there. I never would have
agreed to bring Miss Kendall along if I thought you intended to abuse her.”

“Abuse her? Hell, Solomon, you
met her. I was only taming a hellcat.”

Solomon balled his hands into
fists. “By forcing yourself on her? Have those rumors about
El Diablo
inspired
you?”

A blow from one of Solomon’s
ready fists could not have done more damage. “I wasn’t...forcing her to do
anything. At least, that wasn’t my intention. That woman makes me crazy.”

Drew smoothed back his loose
hair, wishing he hadn’t lost his ribbon or his control in his dealings with
Felicity. She’d wanted him just as much as he’d wanted her. Drew glanced at
Solomon, who didn’t appear any more convinced.

“I gave her my key to the cabin.
She can lock herself in and me out if she wants.”

Solomon relaxed his fighting
stance, but worry lines pinched his features. “Felicity Kendall is trouble.
Avery and Red have already questioned me about your mysterious guest. They
won’t tell the others yet, but if you don’t get rid of her quickly, they’ll
begin to grumble. After all, you’re the one who instigated the
no-women-on-board rule.”

Drew slapped Solomon’s unyielding
shoulder, relieved they were again on the same side. “I take full
responsibility for anything that happens while Felicity’s aboard the
Rapture
.
What choice did I have? I couldn’t very well leave her on an uninhabited
island.”

Solomon shook his head and
scowled. “No, we wouldn’t want to scare any poor pirates who might happen by.”

“She isn’t
that
bad.” Drew
didn’t know why, but he took Solomon’s criticism of Felicity a little
personally.

Solomon molded himself against
the wall of the narrow companionway to let Drew pass. “Isn’t that bad? She was
ready to cart me back to Barbados in the name of freedom and turn you in with
any information I would tell her—all for our own good. The woman is rash. She
doesn’t understand the ways of the world.”

Drew reached for the ladder. Solomon’s
complaints echoed his own sense of foreboding.

His friend clutched the back of
his shirt before he could escape. “Did she ask about Hugh?”

Drew’s fingers tightened around
the varnished slats. “No.”

Anything else he might have added
stuck in his throat. He never lied to Solomon, though Solomon knew he lied to
everyone else. Felicity had not mentioned Hugh by name, so his answer didn’t
misrepresent the facts entirely. He never should have told Solomon she had seen
the documents Marley had created.

“Good,” said Solomon, letting go
of him. “One more thing. Avery mentioned you spent most of the voyage from
Barbados locked away in the great cabin. You mustn’t let your attraction for
Felicity show in front of the others. The crew has been too long in hiding and
is eager for a fight. I don’t want it over who will be the new captain.”

“I can handle the crew.” Drew
climbed onto the main deck, eager to busy himself with doing just that.
Commanding a band of half-civilized men was easier than handling one headstrong
female.

If Solomon insisted on drowning
her, Drew couldn’t intelligently argue against it. Though he’d promised to take
responsibility for Felicity’s actions, he agreed with Solomon. Trouble
accompanied her as faithfully as the moon rose over the Caribbean night.
Despite knowing better, Drew’s clandestine meeting with disaster in the form of
Felicity Kendall tugged at him with more power than the strongest current in
the sea.

***

Another lurch from the ship
ground Felicity’s knees into the wooden deck. Her search for a section of
uncarpeted planks on which to kneel in prayer proved fruitful. A slow spasm
tightened her lower back. Pain was a good sign.

Surely an hour or so of serious
repentance would erase the giddy grin she’d had on her face upon waking that
morning. Dashing Captain Crawford wanted her and wanted her badly.

He’d been successful in
disguising more than just his identity, though. The self-centered swindler he
played turned out to be as false as his name. His aid of runaway slaves
revealed his true character. He might sway toward the wrong side of the law,
but that proved easy to do with the unfair edicts issued by the crown.

She tried to focus on the
screaming protest of her stiff joints, but her mood remained as cloudless and
sunny as the warm day flooding through the open portholes. So she told herself
the redemption of Drew’s character didn’t change the fact that their mutual
lust went against everything she knew to be right.

She sighed. Why did his
dishonorable intentions have to make her feel young and pretty again? After
years of accustoming herself to being soiled, she could not whole-heartedly see
the harm in feeling desirable, though the harsh voice in the back of her mind
told her she should. She chased the voice away. After all, the real damage had
already been done. She was no longer a virgin and would never have the
opportunity to marry. Being in Drew’s embrace reminded her of how much she’d
given up. In the confines of Drew’s cabin, all the reasons she should be chaste
slipped away in favor of being truly alive. After all, he was a confessed rogue
and she a vulnerable woman at his mercy. No one would expect her to emerge from
the situation unravished.

A rattling sound at the door
abruptly stopped her dangerous thoughts. She uncurled her abused limbs and got
to her feet. On the other side of the door, a metal object scraped inside the
lock as someone tried unsuccessfully to turn the latch. Drew must have
forgotten he’d given her his key.

A glance at the neckline of her
bodice confirmed the borrowed garment exposed more than it concealed. The
lavender and raspberry brocade gown pushed her breasts up to her chin. The
clothing did more than flatter her figure; the frivolous apparel rendered it
almost impossible to remember why she was supposed to restrain her natural
impulses. She found herself dashing to the door with a foolish grin on her
face. If she could steal just a little more time in Drew’s arms, she’d repent
even harder tomorrow. It seemed a small indiscretion compared to a lifetime of
loneliness.

Before her courage escaped her,
she flung open the door, but found the companionway empty. Movement at the
level of her waist caught her eye. She looked down into the wide-eyed face of a
child.

“You’re not a cabin boy. You’re a
wench.” The small boy stomped past and into the cabin.

His curly black hair sprouted
wildly about his head, forming a tangled halo. A scowl furrowed his brow,
reminding her of Solomon despite the child’s slender build.

“This place looks like pigs lived
here.” He pointed to the table that still held the remains of last night’s
dinner. “I hope you know the captain won’t like this.”

“Thank you for the warning. And
who might you be?” She suspected she already knew his father.

“Do you know what a waggoner is?
Or a quadrant?”

“I’ve seen a quadrant, though I
don’t know how to use one. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a waggoner.” The fact
that Drew had a child on board his ship surprised her almost as much as the
child’s hostile manner.

“I thought so. A waggoner is a
book of maps, and you would be lost without them. Captain Drew just gave you my
job because you’re a girl.”

Felicity knelt so they could be
face to face. “He didn’t give me your job, I promise. I’m glad you got here
when you did. As you can see, I’m making a mess of things.”

Her admission of failure seemed
to appease him. “I’m Hugh. What’s your name?”

“Felicity. It’s very nice to meet
you, Hugh. How did you come to be the cabin boy on this ship?”

“Hey, are you the one who didn’t
want me around here? My papa and Captain Drew said I couldn’t be the cabin boy
anymore because of grown-up things I didn’t understand. Are you the captain’s
woman?”

After she caught her breath, she
searched for an appropriate answer for a child. She didn’t have one, and the
boy’s vocalization of her dark desires stunned her. “I’m not sure what you
mean. I’m merely a guest.”

Hugh narrowed his gaze, as if she
were teasing him. Apparently, he didn’t appreciate her discretion. “You know.
He kisses you and takes your clothes off. Pirates love women. That’s all they
talk about.”

The warm blush in Felicity’s
cheeks turned cold. “Pirates? You spend time in the company of pirates, do
you?”

In a stance she’d seen Drew use,
the boy folded his arms over his bare chest. “You’re on a pirate ship, you know.”

Drew was a pirate. The knowledge
should have surprised her, but the revelation instantly filled in all the gaps
left by his version of the truth.

Before Hugh figured out he had
told her something he shouldn’t, she quickly disguised her rampant interest
behind a sweet smile. “Would you tell me what a cabin boy does on a pirate
ship? I don’t think I’ve ever met one before.”

Hugh’s small stature swelled an
inch or two as he started talking about instruments and how Captain Drew liked
his cabin tidied. He took her hand and led her over to a chair in front of the
table. After instructing her to sit, he reverently brought out instruments, and
maps from a cabinet hung on the wall. He explained them carefully while
instructing her not to touch.

“You never told me how you got
your job, Hugh.”

“I’ve always had it.” Turning the
pages of a book of maps while pretending to figure out a course with a
two-pronged device he had called a divider absorbed him.

“How long have you known Captain
Drew?” She picked up a compass and examined it.

“That’s not a toy,” he warned.
“I’ve known Captain Drew since before I was born. He and my papa were
servants.”

She put down the instrument.
“Servants? Servants to whom?”

“A mean man, but they couldn’t
leave because they were ’dentured. But I don’t think Papa was a servant. He was
something worse, but I forgot what his job was called.”

The word eluding Hugh came to her
easily, but the servant part baffled her. She couldn’t picture the commanding
Captain Drew in any form of servitude.

“Indentured servant?” she said,
surprised. That’s what Drew had been. And Solomon a slave.

“That’s it.” He nodded, then
continued with his imaginary navigation. “That was a long time ago. Papa says
they would still be in that bad place if it wasn’t for Captain Drew. That’s why
we have to forgive him his wild ways.” He stopped and gazed up at her. His
eyebrows knit together, a serious contrast to his round, childish eyes and
turned-up nose. “But we shouldn’t act like he does.”