The Pirate's Jewel (39 page)

He glanced back at the gaggle of soldiers, who didn’t even
sniff for fear they might miss a word of the conversation. “Corporal Caffy,
take the men and follow the path. I’ll be along shortly.

“Is the man armed, love?” he asked Jewel, so kindly she
was starting to feel a twinge of guilt for what was about to befall him.

“Only with a sword.”

“Excellent. Wait for me by the waterfall, Caffy. Keep the
men at the ready, and we’ll take the chap on my orders.”

The sergeant nodded, but gave Jewel a very unkind look as
he passed. The other men merely smirked, apparently proud or envious of their
commanding officer.

Devlin took a torch from the last man, and then waited until
they had disappeared down the winding path before he faced her again. “You have
nothing to fear from me or my men. I know how to treat women.” He gently brushed
aside the coat he’d draped over her shoulders and caressed the back of his hand
over the swell of her breast, exposed by her low-cut chemise. He saw the cut on
her shoulder and blanched visibly. “He’ll be punished for this, I promise you.”

Jewel sneaked a quick glance at the brush while Devlin
recovered from his shock and redirected his attention to her cleavage. The plan
was for her to lure him into the brush, and for Parker to sneak up behind him. Though
they were still on the path, now seemed as good a time as any for an ambush. As
squeamish as Parker was over this plan, she worried that he’d not figure that out.

“What’s going to happen to me?” she asked, not sure exactly
what to do.

“Keeping a mistress aboard ship is not uncommon for an
officer. My cabin is small, but I assure you, your situation will vastly
improve. And you’ll not be without means when my tour is done here. You have a
lovely mouth. Have you been told that before?”

He traced a thumb over her lower lip.

“Would you like to go into the brush?” she asked. Parker
apparently didn’t understand that the plans had changed, so she had better go
to him.

Devlin laughed. “You have been mistreated. I won’t handle
you so crudely. I can wait until we return to my cabin. I need to find my men.
You’ll be safe waiting here. You have my word…I don’t even know your name.”

Before she could answer, Parker slipped onto the path. He
appeared terrified, completely unsure of himself, but he had the rope they’d
recovered from the pond, their only weapon, stretched taut. He slipped up
behind Devlin. Jewel brushed her hand over the officer’s chest to keep him distracted.

Despite his claimed hatred of this task, Parker brought the
rope over Devlin’s head and yanked it around his neck with dexterity and
enthusiasm. Devlin struggled a bit, thankfully didn’t scream, and then rapidly turned
from red to purple before his eyes rolled back in his head.

“That’s enough,” yelled Jewel when Devlin collapsed, yet
Parker didn’t show signs of easing his hold. The officer wouldn’t be any good
to them dead.

The lieutenant finally eased his hold, panting as if he’d
been the one deprived of air. “God, I hope he’s not dead,” he said.

Jewel drew the sword from the scabbard slung across Devlin’s
shoulder, and then searched him for any more weapons. A hand with surprising
strength grabbed her wrist and squeezed. Devlin glared at her with red-rimmed,
furious eyes.

“Again, Parker. Now!” Jewel whispered fiercely. The urge
to scream the command was hard to resist.

Parker tightened the rope still around their victim’s neck
until Devlin ceased his struggles. Jewel stood, took the officer’s sword and
pressed its tip against his chest. Parker released his stranglehold before
Devlin passed out again.

“So that you understand I know how to use this, I’m the
boy you’re looking for.” She pressed the point of Devlin’s sleek sword against
his chest until the tip pierced his shirt, nicking his skin and forming a
distinct circle of blood. “But I don’t intend to kill you unless I have to.”

He held her gaze, not flinching at the abuse but nodding
his understanding.

“Tie him,” she instructed Parker. “Cooperate, and he won’t
have to strangle you again,” she said to Devlin. This time, he didn’t bother to
nod, but neither did the officer resist when Parker rolled him over to tie his hands
behind his back.

Jewel spotted the forgotten torch that had dropped into the
moist soil that formed the trail. A small flame sputtered but had found no
other purchase in the verdant surroundings. She returned her gaze to Devlin.
Parker helped him struggle to his feet. The marine officer’s coloring had
returned to normal, but he chose to remain silent. The red burn around his neck
stood out clearly in the weak starlight that filtered through the jungle’s
canopy.

“Yell for your men and we’ll gut you, then disappear into
the jungle,” Jewel warned with a calmness that surprised her.

Again, her captive merely nodded.

Jewel stepped out of the path and motioned for the men to
proceed her, her sword at the ready. Who looked more unhappy was a toss up
between Devlin and Parker. Of course, she couldn’t see herself and didn’t doubt
she appeared as haggard. With her sword positioned in the center of Devlin’s back,
they marched to the beach. “You’ll tell your men to drop their weapons and free
our crewmen,” she said—not that she didn’t think he already knew what they had
in mind.

“They’ll not,” he croaked, and then stopped. Now she knew
why he’d been so complacent. He couldn’t speak. Parker must be stronger than
she thought, or more likely his terror had caused him to use more pressure than
necessary. Thank God they hadn’t killed him. She dared not glance at Parker to
share her fears. They both were drawing courage from places they didn’t know
existed. When she’d followed Nolan onboard the
Neptune
, she’d not known
what she’d merrily thrown herself into. Though she’d been grateful that she’d
saved Nolan’s life, she’d have taken back killing the young man if she could.
Now, sooner than she could ever have imagined, she’d be forced to do the same thing.
But nothing was too drastic to rescue her husband.

“They’ll not lay down their weapons for me, so you might
as well run me through,” Devlin whispered in a brittle voice that was painful
to hear. “They’ll shoot you on the spot,” he said in barely a whisper. He
panted and swallowed afterward, the effort obviously costing him dearly.

“I believe they will trade you for our crewmen. We’re willing
to stake our lives on it. We have nothing to lose.” Jewel finally glanced at
Parker, and his determined gaze proved her words to be true for him as well.
“And if a single shot is fired, you’ll perish with us.”

The lights from the torches still on the beach shone just
before they heard the roll and crash of waves. They pushed Devlin through the
foliage. His voice would do no good in reassuring his men all was well, so
Jewel didn’t bother suggesting he do so. The soldiers left to guard the
remaining crew didn’t appear immediately concerned when the three of them
walked onto the beach. They glanced in their direction without raising their
muskets. Jewel spared a moment to find Wayland’s gaze, and his grin, which
exposed every rotten tooth he still had in his mouth, gave her a tremendous surge
of confidence.

“Drop your weapons or we’ll run him through,” boomed
Parker in a voice deeper than Jewel had ever heard him use. Though she held the
sword, she was grateful for his intervention. The soldiers would doubt her
threat, and she had no desire to prove herself to be more than she appeared
unless she absolutely had to.

The men looked to Devlin but didn’t immediately comply.
Their commanding officer didn’t speak, whether because the sound of his voice
would give more credence to his captors’ cause or because of a sincere sense of
self-preservation, Jewel couldn’t guess. Perhaps it was the look on his face,
something she couldn’t see since she remained at his back, the tip of her sword
unrelenting, but the first soldier laid down his weapon and the rest followed.

The
Integrity
’s crew sat huddled together on the
beach, their hands tied in front of them. The moment the last British soldier
laid his weapon in the soft sand, Wayland jumped to his feet, and his bindings
fell to the sand. They were already cut. He brandished a wicked-looking dagger
and picked up a musket from the sand. “You did it, chit! Knew you could. Now,
let’s go get our captain.”

A key rattled in the door, and Nolan sprang from his slump
against the curved hull of his prison. He’d not sunk to the floor as Bellamy
had, but the complete darkness, lack of air, and time to do little else except
contemplate his life had made him lightheaded. If this was his chance to
escape, he wanted to be ready. He took a deep, cleansing breath, though that
didn’t help much, considering it consisted of stagnant air from a disease-laden
ship.

Only dim light from a distant hatch reached them. Their
visitor didn’t carry a lantern. “All right, boys—before I let you out of here,
we’ll be talking our terms.”

“We’re listening, Casper.” Bellamy spoke somewhere beside
Nolan, his presence only a vague shape. Nolan hadn’t even heard him rise. “We
know you’re not much better off than us. They’re going to hang you sooner or later.”

“Glad you see the spot I was in, Bellamy. And I’d like to
say I’m glad you’re not dead.” Handsome Jack kept his voice lowered, but he
didn’t bother to step into their makeshift cell. He must not trust them any
more than they did him. “How ’bout you, Nolan—you willing to let bygones be
bygones?”

He wasn’t, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to mention it
right now. “You help us, Jack, and I’ll show you in coin how forgiving I am.”

“I was hoping you’d say that, Kenton.” Jack slipped into
the small hold and shut the door behind him, plunging them all into total
darkness. “Me and my crew have been biding our time. Looks like tonight’s our
best chance to take this rat trap.”

A rattling of chains sounded next to Nolan, followed by a
metallic scraping noise. Bellamy had something with which he was trying to pick
the lock of his shackles.

“I don’t want to take the ship. I just want to get to shore
and Jewel,” said Nolan, the hair on the back of his neck suddenly standing on
end at having to cast his fortunes in with these two.

Nolan heard Bellamy’s chains fall to the deck. Before he
could fully comprehend what that meant, Bellamy gripped his shoulder. “Hold
your hands up. We have to take the ship. They’ll catch us otherwise.”

“I can outrun them.” Nolan held his hands in the air while
Bellamy poked his wrist a few times with a metal object, finally fitting it in
the lock and releasing him from his shackles. He placed the key in Nolan’s
hand, and Nolan attacked the metal bands on his ankles.

“What do you know, Jack?” Bellamy asked, as if Nolan
hadn’t spoken at all.

“Well, there ain’t nothing to speak of resistance-wise on
the ship right now. All the marines who aren’t sick are on shore. They had to
send some regular seamen over to your ship, Nolan, to take your watch. Don’t know
how that turned out. The rest who are here probably wouldn’t put up much of a
fight. Everyone’s scared of the yellow fever. Too many to count’s held up in
their hammocks. I don’t think any of ’em’s really got it, but I told ’em they
did.”

“How many men do you have?” From the sound of Bellamy’s
voice, he had already moved to the door.

Nolan remained silent, glad to let his old mentor take over
in this respect. His only goal was to get out of here and find Jewel. He’d
never be glad to serve under Bellamy again, but when it came to surviving, Bellamy
Leggett was your man.

“Only ten, but I figure we can rid ourselves of some of
the seamen quiet-like. Don’t have to be an out-and-out fight. I already took
care of the fellow with the keys. One of my crew’s paying a visit to the
captain in his cabin right about now.”

Nolan didn’t have to wrestle with the idea of slitting the
throats of men unawares. He’d do whatever he had to do to get off this ship and
rescue his wife. “Agreed. Do you have weapons for us?”

The door opened and light flooded the cabin. “A couple
knives right now, but we’ll pick up more as we go along.” Jack stepped out of
the cabin.

Bellamy blocked Nolan from following. “You get off first
chance you get and go find Jewel.”

Nolan studied Bellamy’s face, searching for the hook in
his bait. Bellamy nodded, and Nolan could find only one conclusion. The old
captain said, “That’s right. I care about her, too. Not as much as you, that’s
true, but I don’t want her to come to harm. Never did. Even when I gave her the
map, I never intended to tell anyone else.”

Nolan nodded and followed Bellamy from the cabin. Jack had
already made his way up a moonlit passage. Bellamy paused one more time. “And
instead of thanking me, you can just have my hunk of the treasure ready when I
find you again.”

Nolan smiled for the first time since he’d agreed to fight
to the death the father of the woman he loved. This was as close to a truce as
he and Bellamy were ever likely to come.

***

Wayland grabbed the first rung of the rope ladder that hung
over the
Neptune
’s side. The ship seemed to have lanterns on every
rigging. The girth of the vessel outlined in light made it its own
constellation in the murky night, blotting out the moon and stars. Jewel
wondered if the extra lanterns were merely an illusion created by the fact that
they had doused the torches on the beach, or if the crew of the
Neptune
expected them. Wayland continued to hover above the skiff and stared up at the ship,
and she suspected he pondered the same question.

Shadows danced across the tall masts, signaling a flurry
of activity. Maybe it was just a luminescent reflection from the waves that
lapped against the side. Jewel secured another button on the red coat she wore.
She tried to reassure herself with the fact that they’d plunged the beach into
darkness the moment they relieved the soldiers of all their weapons. The
Integrity
’s
crew had made quick work of wresting the British of their coats and tying them
up. They’d not bothered finding the group of soldiers who still lingered at the
waterfall, but left the beach as soon as possible, taking all the longboats
with them. Even if they did choose to swim back to their ship once their
comrades returned to the beach and untied them, which she doubted they’d be
able to do in time to fight, their muskets would be useless if soaked.