The Pirate's Jewel (29 page)

She sighed, enjoying watching his powerful movements as he
gave orders to his crew. They were truly man and wife. Nolan had proved that at
every opportunity. She stifled a yawn. If she wanted to survive another long,
sensuous night, she needed a nap. Despite their unresolved past, she wanted to
survive. She wanted a long life with her husband.

“Not getting enough sleep, chit?” drawled Wayland.

She glanced to find the old pirate lurking behind her. His
advice had gotten her into this mess in the first place…and she had never even
thanked him. She gave him a mischievous wink. “I’m sleeping just fine, thank you
very much.”

Wayland closed the distance between them. “Then it must be
your husband that’s making you look so frazzled.”

To her surprise, she smiled instead of blushed. “Perhaps.
And what have you to say for yourself? Were you put off by soap and water at an
early age?”

His good eye widened. “Gotten a little bite, have we? I
guess you had to, to keep that one in line.” He nodded his head toward Nolan.

Jewel tugged on his sleeve. “I’m just teasing you.”

“I know better, but I can take your abuse. At least you’re
smiling at me again.”

Jewel shrugged and strolled along the deck. “Things haven’t
been easy. I didn’t like the way you suggested Nolan and I get together, but I
guess it worked.”

Wayland followed but stopped her with a gentle touch on
the arm before they’d gone far. The serious frown he wore gave her pause to
turn and give him her full attention. “You’re happy, then?”

Jewel’s reassuring smile faltered under his intense scrutiny.
“Don’t look so glum about it. I thought that was what your devious mind wanted
all along.”

Wayland covered his heart with his palm as if gravely offended.
“Devious? Has Nolan been planting the wrong ideas about old Wayland?”

Jewel looked down at the deck, suddenly finding the way
her hem brushed the top of her brown leather shoes fascinating. Nolan had
suggested a lot of things, but none of them regarded Wayland. She glanced at
him from the corner of her eye. “I’ve gotten smarter is all. You knew a lot
more about my father and Nolan than you led on. You pushed us together when
Nolan tried to keep his distance.”

Wayland glanced out across the sea in an obvious attempt
to avoid her gaze. For a moment, Jewel thought he was truly ashamed. That
couldn’t be, though, because it went against everything she knew about him. He
was an opportunist, pure and simple. She really had gotten smarter. People
rarely seemed to be what they presented themselves as. How wrong had she been
about her own father?

“Wayland, why did Nolan kill my father?” The question that
continued to plague her left her lips before she knew she meant to ask it.

Wayland jerked his head up. Jewel winced at her own impulsiveness.
Suddenly, she feared hearing the truth, and had the urge to recall her request.

Wayland stuck his hands in his pockets. “He didn’t, really.”

Jewel blinked, stunned by his answer. She grabbed Wayland’s
arm and turned him toward her. “Say that again.”

“It’s like this: Nolan didn’t want to kill Bellamy; he just
wanted out of his crew.” Wayland stared over Jewel’s head, not looking her in
the eye.

She pulled on his sleeve, trying to force him to meet her
gaze. “I already know that. I overheard their argument.”

Wayland turned his face to her. His cold blue eye stared
in her direction while his brown one drifted over her shoulder. “You probably
seen the scar, too. It almost killed him. He got an awful infection. That’s why
it didn’t heal up proper. I did everything I knew for that boy.”

Jewel’s heart tumbled over itself at the idea of losing
Nolan. They were talking about her father’s actual death, but the real torture
came from the idea of losing Nolan before she’d even found him. “Go on. Get to
the part about how Nolan didn’t really kill my father.”

Wayland shifted. He paused, appearing to choose his words
carefully. “It was mutiny. That’s all. Nolan made no bones about the fact that
he didn’t want Bellamy as his captain. True enough, he was ready to leave before
Bellamy put a knife in him, but after Nolan healed up, he wasn’t the same. The
boy bided his time, and when Bellamy started chasing ships for women and rum over
the ones with booty…well, some of the others got disgruntled. They sided with
Nolan.”

“So the whole crew mutinied against my father?”

“Almost all. I stuck by his side for a while, but he’d been
drunk going on a fortnight, and I just couldn’t see losing my own hide because
he was a bleeding idiot.”

Jewel swallowed hard. Though she had expected her sire’s
character was less than sterling, no one had ever been so blunt about his
shortcomings. “My father was an idiot?”

Wayland slapped his leg. “I didn’t mean that. It was just
my memories talking. Your father was a savvy one—but the life he chose started
eating at him. He kept trying to drink more, fight more, and womanize more all to
make his unhappiness go away when all he really wanted was you.”

Her old wound ached at Wayland’s words. “Did he tell you
that? Did he talk about me?”

Wayland brought his brown gaze to rest on her face. “No,
chit. He didn’t. Bellamy wasn’t what you would call a kind man. He didn’t do
right by you, and I don’t know if he ever would have. I do know he was empty inside.”

Jewel shook her head. If Wayland was trying to make her
feel sorry for her father, he was going about it the wrong way. She didn’t have
a father, and the hard work her mother had endured to raise her had taken the woman
from Jewel also. She rubbed her temples. “So you’re saying the crew killed my
father, not Nolan.”

Wayland sketched an invisible circle on the deck with his
toe. “Nolan gave the order to kill Bellamy. But he did it in a decent way when
the crew wanted to rip him limb from limb, slow and torturous. They wanted to
make a sport out of it and wager to see how long it took him to die—and that’s
no exaggeration. An unhappy crew of pirates is something you don’t want to
reckon with.”

“So Nolan had no choice?” If Jewel could believe that, her
problems would be solved. She could bury the past once and for all.

Wayland glanced over her shoulder again. She followed his
gaze to where Nolan had climbed up the mainmast with his spyglass.

“Nolan sparked the crew’s grumbling. No one had the
ballocks to stand up to Bellamy ’cept him. He took those cutthroats in hand and
they followed. Would still be following him if he hadn’t decided to go honest.
He’s back where he belongs now.”

Jewel watched Nolan jump to the deck and  scan the area
until he caught sight of her. Even from a distance, she could feel the
intensity, the possessiveness of his gaze. He didn’t wave to acknowledge her.
He didn’t have to. He smiled at her briefly, and then turned to give orders to
a crew member. Jewel faced Wayland again. “How did my father die?”

Wayland’s mouth became tight. “You don’t need to know
that.”

Jewel knew Nolan wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. If he were,
he wouldn’t have let Jack and the rest of his crew go free. “Do you think Nolan
did the right thing?”

Wayland scoffed. “What does that have to do with anything?
Right or wrong don’t come into our kind of life. And it sure didn’t keep me to
my ripe old age.”

“But you said he didn’t want to kill my father. He did what
he had to do.”

“That don’t make it right. But if that’s what you’re looking
for, I guess Nolan would be your man. He’s got that useless sense of good and
bad more than most.”

Jewel smiled. “And you don’t?”

Wayland gave her a lopsided grin, which was much more
pleasant than his toothless smile. “I just might be learning in spite of
myself.”

She tilted her head and laughed. “Been around Nolan too
long, huh?”

“Nope, been around you.”

Jewel narrowed her gaze, trying to surmise if he was teasing
her. He glanced away, immediately hiding the rare show of sincerity. “Don’t
listen to me. I’ve had way too much kill-devil in my day. I just wish Bellamy
could have gotten to know you like I do. You would have given him a treat, you
would have.” Wayland started to walk off.

Jewel smiled, the closest thing to contentment she’d ever
experienced in regard to her father. “You think I could have had the same
effect on him as I’ve had on you?” she called out.

He turned and walked backward for a few paces. “I certainly
hope so.”

They reached the island shortly before dawn. The inkling
of dread he’d thought he would experience the moment they slipped into the
welcoming arms of the sheltered cove didn’t plague Nolan in the least. In fact,
a certainty that the journey he’d begun at fourteen would soon come to its
culmination, banished the last of his doubts.

Nolan and Parker lowered the longboats in the hazy blue
light. No one wanted to wait for daybreak. They were all too excited. If the
rumors were true, there was enough treasure for everyone—and more important, enough
to finance a war. At least a good portion of it.

Nolan paused to feel the soft breeze caress his tired face.
The island’s tropic scent drifted over the stale smell of sea and brine, always
a welcome event. During the long passage here, Nolan had grown to trust his
fledgling crew. In the months they had been together, they had all grown,
especially Nolan himself. Finally he was his own man. Answering only to
himself—not Bellamy, not to his father, and certainly not to a ghost.

He took Jewel’s hand, kissed her knuckles. A firm grip on
her arm in the event she slipped, he helped to establish a foot on the rope
ladder’s first rung, and then held the lantern while she climbed steadily down.
Parker waited below to settle her into the skiff. He wrapped his hands around
her slight waist, supporting her transfer into the rocking boat. She glanced up
at Nolan, and he smiled to reassure her. Jealousy no longer flashed its fangs
at the slightest cause. The fear that he’d lose her to another man had stopped
creeping into his thoughts, at least when it came to Parker.

Nolan’s smile faded as Jewel looked toward the island. He
wasn’t going to lose her to anyone, he told himself. He followed her gaze. The
island was blanketed in shadows, the perfect home for a ghost.

“You told her you love her yet?”

Nolan turned abruptly to find Wayland breathing down his
neck. “Haven’t you learned not to sneak up on people?”

“I’ve been standing here the whole time. You haven’t told
her, have you?”

“Get in the boat if you want to go.”

“You can’t take her for granted. You got to tell the girl
how you feel. Women need more than a rough tumble to know their man loves
them.” Wayland wedged himself between his captain and the rope ladder.

Nolan took a whiff of the pirate and snapped his head back.
“How much have you had to drink?”

Wayland pushed him away. “I always smell like rum, and I’m
damn proud of it. It’s a good tonic for the skin.”

Nolan raised the lantern. “You don’t shave. No one can see
your face.”

“I can see yours well enough, and it’s got me wondering
why you’re staring at the island like something is waiting there to eat you
alive.”

Nolan glanced at the island’s dark shape and tensed.
Despite his earlier optimism, a bad feeling seeped around him like a graveyard
mist. “You know why. Get in the boat and let’s get this over with.”

Wayland shrugged. “All right, but you don’t sound like a
man going to find a king’s ransom.”

No? Nolan followed Wayland down the ladder. As soon as he
had the treasure on board and they sailed away from this place, he’d shriek
with happiness. He settled in the boat and took Jewel’s hand, letting the other
men row.

Maybe he
should
tell Jewel he loved her. He had never
thought of it, because he didn’t know that he did. He definitely lusted after
her, but love…he wasn’t sure the feeling existed. The only love he had known had
been for his parents. The sensation had been cloying and repressive, always
leaving him with more guilt than pleasure. He didn’t feel that way about Jewel.
A little obsessive maybe, and there was guilt when he caused her to be unhappy.
The tightness in his chest when he looked at her could be described as cloying,
but…no. It wasn’t the same. Men weren’t expected to natter on about things like
love. He had married her. That was enough.

He lifted his head, and his heart stopped as the ghost came
into view. Nolan shifted, sitting up straighter. No one else must have seen it,
because they all still appeared half-asleep. He focused his gaze. A man dressed
in tattered rags stood on the edge of the beach, waving his arms over his head
in a desperate attempt to gain their attention. Nolan’s stomach lurched.

My God, was he going mad? If anyone could accomplish
making him so, it would certainly be Bellamy Leggett—dead or alive.

Parker glanced at Nolan, his oars raised from the water. “There’s
someone on the beach.”

Jewel peered around the men blocking her view. Nolan’s
gaze shot to Wayland, who looked not the least bit surprised. Then, with the
force of an unexpected blow from Bellamy’s solid fist, Nolan knew. He almost
wished he had been going mad. Bellamy had topped himself in deception and
manipulation. Nolan had been his pawn from the very beginning. “Son of a—”

Jewel squeezed his fingers. He turned and glared at her.
For the briefest, heart-stopping moment, he thought she had been part of her
father’s diabolical plan. Her bewildered expression told him his suspicions
were unfounded. They had used her even more cruelly than they had him, which
only added to Nolan’s murderous fury.

He pinned Wayland with a look that would have shoved him
out of the boat if that had been possible. “This isn’t over. Far from it. It’s
just begun.”