The Pirate's Jewel (32 page)

He swam to the bank with a few efficient strokes. “Get
back. I don’t want you falling in. It’s deep.”

Jewel did as he asked, feeling rejected by his harsh words
rather than reassured by his care for her safety. He hadn’t spoken or gotten
near her since they’d left the beach.

With his palms braced on the bank, Nolan pulled himself
from the pond. Droplets rippled down his heavily muscled shoulders and chest.
He had stripped down to his breeches. It seemed like years since Jewel had last
touched him, instead of only this morning. After today’s events, she wondered
if she would ever get to hold him again. He seemed so powerful, coming up from the
depths of the black pool like a myth. And just as elusive.

Parker moved to the pool’s bank. He had paced the side
while Nolan remained underwater. He wanted to go down as well. “Did you find
anything?”

Nolan opened his hand, palm up. Mud dribbled from his
fingers. He shook the contents until more muck slithered down his wrist and
several solid things clinked. Gold peeked through the black silt. Both Parker
and Jewel leaned in to get a better look.

“What’s he got?” Bellamy stood, wiping dirt from his breeches.
Even at his age, his slightest movement flexed well-toned muscles. The extra
padding around his waist only served to make him appear more solid.

Jewel reached for a coin. She had the sudden desire to
hide it from her father’s view. That he hadn’t been wasting away on the island
was as apparent as the fact that he couldn’t be trusted.

Bellamy plucked it from her fingers. He bit it and spit
out the mud. “It’s gold, all right.”

Wayland crowded behind her. “Is that all?”

Nolan held up his hand, offering Wayland the rest of the
coins. “Can’t tell. It’s too dark to see. You have to feel with your hands.”

Bellamy slapped Nolan on the shoulder. “Guess you better
develop some gills—aye, boy?”

Nolan glared a warning, and Bellamy removed his hand.

Jewel didn’t like the idea of Nolan going back down there.
Her father’s obvious pleasure at the prospect scared her even more. “Why would
your grandfather dump his treasure at the bottom of a pond, anyway? How was he
going to get it if we can’t?”

Nolan pushed past the circle of men surrounding the pond.
He shook the excess water from his long hair, stepped in a ray of sunlight
piercing the jungle roof and turned to face them again. “He was desperate.
Pirates don’t usually bury their treasure. They’re too busy spending it.”

“Why did he?” Jewel could see the gooseflesh on Nolan’s
shoulders. She walked toward him but stopped short. She wanted to rub her hands
along his arms, warming him. The distance in his eyes held her back.

“He hoped to use the treasure as leverage. He wanted a
pardon. I figure the coins and whatever else is down there were in wooden
crates or bags. The current from the waterfall broke it up over the years.
Seventy years ago, the treasure would have been a lot easier to retrieve.”

Jewel wrapped her arms around herself, feeling cool from
the shade and the mist from the falls. “They give pardons to pirates?”

Bellamy swaggered forward. “Nay, lass. Captain Kent started
out as a privateer, but once he got a taste of the good life in Tortuga, he
turned pure pirate. Same as what happened to Nolan, here. Did he ever tell you about
Tortuga?”

Jewel stiffened. “I believe he mentioned that’s where you
stole his map.”

Bellamy laughed. “You got spunk, I’ll give you that, girlie.
Did he happen to tell you what he was doing when I secured his map for
safekeeping?”

Wayland moved between them. “Kent was hanged ’cause some
fancy aristocrat got greedy. He hadn’t gone on the account. They say he had
passes from the vessels he plundered, proving he only attacked the ones
sanctioned by his letter of marque.”

Jewel shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Nolan folded his arms over his bare chest. “Bellamy wants
you to know that I was entertaining a woman of questionable virtue on Tortuga,
and I’m not quite sure what point Wayland is making.”

Wayland pointed at Nolan. “Your grandfather was unfairly
hanged, is what I’m saying. He turned himself in after hiding his treasure. He
gave the High Admiralty in New York his passes, proving his innocence, but they
shipped him off to London to be hanged just the same.”

Nolan shifted. “How do you know this?”

Bellamy waved his hand in dismissal. “It’s just a rumor.
You know how sea dogs like to talk.”

“It ain’t no rumor. I met someone who was locked up in
Newgate with your grandfather. My friend got deported to Barbados, and Captain
Kent got hanged when he should have been set free. The bloody lord who sponsored
him just wanted his treasure.”

Jewel touched her chin. “Can they still do that? Hang a
privateer to get his treasure?”

Nolan grinned. “That’s why we’re fighting a war. A monarch
can do anything he wants. Old George is through using us to fatten his
coffers.”

Jewel found it hard to breathe. “But will you be killed?”

Bellamy settled under a palm tree. “He ain’t no privateer.
He’s a pirate. Always has been and always will be. He’s just like his grandpa.”

Nolan moved out of the sunlight to stand at the edge of
the pond. “For once you’re right, Bellamy, and I’ll take the comparison as a
compliment.”

Parker knelt beside Nolan at the water’s edge. “Do you
want me to go down, Captain?”

Jewel came up behind them. Things had definitely changed
in their relationship. She could sense it. Nolan had relaxed with his crew, and
now they loved him as much as respected him. He commanded with easy self-assurance,
no longer holding himself rigid, as if he were about to come apart at any
moment. And Parker had changed as well. He no longer bothered to tie back his hair,
and its sun-bleached tangle brushed the tops of his tanned shoulders. The dark
stubble on his face, several shades darker than his hair, added a few years
along with newly defined muscles that ran the length of his lanky body.

Nolan stood. “You’d better save your breath for tomorrow,
Parker. It’s getting late, and we’ll need to spend the rest of the afternoon
rigging something to haul the treasure up. We can’t do it by hand.”

“Baskets? We’ll need something that lets the water pass,”
the lieutenant suggested.

“Excellent idea. You and I and the other strong swimmers
will take the baskets under water and fill them with sediment from the bottom,
and the rest of you will pull them to the surface.” Nolan turned to face the group.
“The waterfall can hold you under if you get disoriented. It could be
dangerous. All the divers will be volunteers.”

Bellamy leaned his head back on the palm tree with his
eyes closed. “Good thing we have a big, strong captain to lead us.”

Nolan strolled over to him. “You’ll be the only forced diver.
You’re a strong swimmer, but you’ve never been the type to volunteer for hard work.”

Bellamy opened his eyes. “Not when I have a young lad
around fool enough to do it for me.”

Nolan shrugged. “The only problem with that is when the
young fool gets old enough to shove you off your throne.”

Bellamy winked. “We’ll see about that, boy.”

Jewel shivered. She didn’t like the gleam in her father’s
eye. He had given in to Nolan’s taunt too easily. Nolan strode back over to
study the pool. She wished her father had refused to dive with them tomorrow.
His easy agreement had to be a ruse.

Nolan glanced at her as he passed, and he grinned. It was
the first time he had smiled since they had landed on the island. “Let’s get
back to the ship and get to work on Captain Kent’s revenge. The British killed
him for this treasure, so it’s our duty to get it back and use it to blow them
out of the water.”

Nolan’s crewmen cheered. Jewel tried to smile in an attempt
to hide the fact that a lump of dread had settled in her throat. She prayed
Captain Kent’s grandson fared better than the luckless man himself.

Nolan lay on his bunk, letting the damp night breeze cool
his naked body. He rested his head on his curled forearm and counted the
grooves between each beam of the deck above. Today, he had found his fortune
but lost his heart. With that thought, his mood plummeted even further.

Even the revelation that his notorious grandfather wasn’t
the villain of legend and that Nolan’s father had portrayed him as, couldn’t
dislodge his bleak state of mind. The fact that he wasn’t the spawn of some
evil and depraved man only confirmed what Nolan already suspected. He and he
alone had steered the disastrous course his relationship with Jewel had taken.

True enough that fate had thrown in some fairly serious
obstacles, but Nolan had used those to build a fortress of misunderstanding and
distrust. From the moment he withheld what had really happened to her father
when he’d gone to retrieve the map, to the time he saw Bellamy Leggett on the
beach and could only think of proving to his former mentor who was the better
man, Nolan had locked Jewel out.

It hadn’t occurred to him that the better man might take
his wife’s feelings into consideration and try not to strangle her father, no
matter how much he deserved it. That was, until Nolan lay alone on his empty
bunk. Jewel’s scent surrounded him, hardening his body with a surge of lust
tainted by fierce longing.

He should have insisted Jewel come back to his ship. If he
had, Bellamy and he would have come to blows. Again. They were both looking for
any opportunity to act on the hatred between them. Nolan wanted to punch Bellamy
right in his smirking mouth, and he could feel the same desire rolling off
Bellamy in waves. To avoid an all-out war, Nolan had no choice but to concede to
Bellamy’s insistence that his daughter stay on the beach with him rather than
return to the
Integrity
.

Arguing with Bellamy wouldn’t help his relationship with
Jewel. They had been fighting over her like two dogs over the same bone. Each
tug tore her love apart. If Nolan weren’t careful, there would be nothing left.

His hatred of Bellamy had nothing to do with Jewel, anyway.
She had to understand that. He couldn’t pretend Bellamy had changed just
because he was her father. Bellamy had been dangerous before Nolan disbanded
his crew. Nolan intended to make sure Bellamy didn’t get the chance to take up
where he had left off. Financing his next sailing venture would be just as if
Nolan wielded an evil sword himself. He couldn’t let Bellamy loose in the world
with a share of this treasure.

Nolan lay his curled fist against his forehead. In keeping
her father in his place, Nolan could lose Jewel permanently. She would never
understand why her father could not share in the vast fortune. It was apparent
she was beginning to see Bellamy’s true nature, but her generous heart would
never wish the man or anyone to be treated unfairly. The guilt of leaving
Bellamy alone on the island would kill her. And that’s exactly what Nolan intended.
Bellamy could find his own way off. He had before. Let his whole plan explode
in his face.

The bastard had succeeded, though. Bellamy’s treachery
would steal a part of Nolan that had become more precious to him than the
bloody treasure. He didn’t even want the damn thing. Look what it had done for
his grandfather—or worse, his father, who had lived his life in pious repentance,
hoping to erase the murderous taint from the family name.

Nolan’s father had seen Kent’s lust for adventure and
associated it with his own son, squashed it unmercifully, unfairly comparing a
mischievous boy with the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean. Worse, his
grandfather had been unfairly punished. Nolan realized now that what his father
had feared, had taught him to hate in himself—a hunger for life and all it
offered—didn’t have to be evil or all-consuming. Tempered with a desire to do
right by the world, such passions would help build a nation and even make a
good and loving husband. He would be so, if Jewel would give him the chance.

Unfortunately, he still had to keep his focus on the treasure.
Nolan wanted the riches for the revolution, and he would use every penny of it
on ships and weapons. He would probably have his letter of marque by the time he
returned to the colonies—but by then it could be too late for him and Jewel.

He truly had believed his marriage legal under the law and
God. His word was as good as any document or stamp. He prided himself on that.
He had vowed to take Jewel for his wife, to cherish her and protect her. That was
enough for him. Yet the look on Jewel’s face when Bellamy pointed out the flaw
in his reasoning told him it wasn’t enough for her. Bellamy was right, of
course, and that knowledge gave Nolan one more reason for murder.

He turned onto his side and punched his pillow. A thin
stream of light shone beneath his door. He froze. When no sound accompanied the
intruder, Nolan carefully reached for the pistol he had already loaded. His sword
was also close enough to grab in a hurry. With Bellamy nearby, Nolan had
prepared for anything.

The intruder tried the door’s handle. It didn’t turn. Nolan
had locked it, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise. Sneak attacks
were Bellamy’s specialty. Nolan moved off the bed in silence.

A soft rap sounded. Definitely not aggressive. The knock
was almost hesitant. “Nolan?”

He leaped for the door, turned the key and yanked it open
before she changed her mind. “Jewel, what are you doing here?”

Her eyes widened. “I had to see you.” She dropped her
gaze, and a grin crept across her face. “I guess I got my wish and then some.”

He pulled her into the room and locked the door. It wasn’t
that he didn’t trust her, but he wouldn’t put it past her father to trick her
into doing something she hadn’t intended. “Does Bellamy know you’re here?” Not waiting
for her answer, he turned to pull on his breeches. He didn’t want to have to
face Bellamy stark naked if he didn’t have to.