The Raider (28 page)

“I wanted time alone with you. I knew you'd come tonight. I felt it. Come back to me. We have all night to make love.”

“I thought you were an honorable woman, Jessica Taggert, but I can see you aren't.”

“And who are you to talk of honor? You who encouraged me to marry another man. You who slipped into my room on my wedding night with my poor, broken husband only feet away.”

“It's different for a man.”

“Like hell it is,” she snapped, further shocking him. “Go on, get out of here. I'd rather have my stinking, balding, poor-kissing husband than you any day. At least he has brains.” She left the cove.

By the time she got back to the Montgomery house, Jessica was feeling a little guilty. After all, Alex was suffering because he loved her. He was afraid to reveal himself as the Raider for fear she'd hate him.

But then she remembered some of the many underhanded things he'd done to her as either the Raider or as Alex and her resolve hardened.

Eleanor waylaid her the next morning.

“Jessica, whatever you're doing to Alexander has to stop. He looks worse each day. And why does he keep breathing into his hand and sniffing? And this morning he asked me what wearing a wig does to a person's hair.”

Jess smiled. “I'm not doing anything he doesn't deserve. When I think of what he's put me through…”

“Yes, what you've put each other through. I think you should tell him you know.”

“Not yet.”

“Jessica, if you don't tell him soon, there won't be much of him left. He's refusing to eat anything you've touched.”

Jessica laughed.

“Did you tell the Raider you were poisoning Alex?”

“Close enough.”

She was still smiling when John Pitman halted her. She generally did her best to avoid him and she was grateful the Montgomery house was large enough to do so.

“I want to buy that cove you own.”

“What?” Jess asked, not sure she had heard correctly. The cove where the dilapidated Taggert house stood was worth next to nothing.

Pitman spoke again and this time he offered her a healthy sum of gold.

If you've ever had any brains, now's the time to use them, Jess thought. “Sold,” she said, smiling. “It's yours.” And I'll do what I can to find out why you want it, she told herself.

J
ESSICA
surreptitiously watched Pitman for two days and nights before she was able to follow him. She'd been very careful not to say anything to Alex about what she was planning so he wouldn't feel it was his duty to “save” her.

She climbed out the window and began to follow the man. She kept well behind him because she knew where he was going.

At the old Taggert house, he stopped, looked around him, then pulled a light net from under his coat and cast it into the waters at the edge of the cove.

Fishing at night? Jess thought. Whatever for?

The next minute a heavy weight landed on top of her and a hand engulfed her mouth.

“Keep quiet,” came Alex's voice in her ear.

She struggled a bit, then gasped when he released her. “You nearly smothered me! What are you doing here?”

He moved to lay beside her. He was wearing his smallest wig and a plain brown coat. “I heard you thrashing about and went to investigate.”

“Why weren't you asleep?”

His face was very close to hers and he gave her such a hot look that Jess could feel her skin warming. “I haven't been sleeping much lately.”

Jess tried to recover herself. “Alex, your health can't stand this dampness. I insist you—”

“Quiet!” he commanded as he looked through the trees toward Pitman. “Tell me what's going on—and I want no lies, Jessica.”

She smiled in the darkness. It amazed her that she'd not realized Alex and the Raider were one and the same. “Pitman offered me a purseful of gold for my land.”

“For
that
land?” Alex gasped.

Jess gave him a look of disgust.

“What's he doing?”

Jess strained upward to see. “He's just pulled in a net of oysters, he's opening them and now he's throwing them away.”

Alex raised himself. “Is he putting that oyster in his pocket?”

Jess grinned. “Oysters in lint sauce.”

Alex grimaced.

Jess sat back down. Alex was hovering over her and she looked at him. The cotton padding in his breeches was lumpy and concealed his muscular thighs but there was no padding in his big calves. They came from years of walking on a swaying deck.

“If only the Raider were here,” Jess sighed wistfully. “He'd know what to do.”

Alex sat down beside her, keeping Pitman in view. “I thought you said his brawn was more than his brains.”

“When it comes to acts of courage, he intuits what needs to be done. Animal instinct.”

Alex's eyelids lowered. “Jess, are you seeing him again?”

“Not like you mean. He tries to persuade me to come to his bed, but I resist. I am your faithful wife.”

“Why you little—”

“He's leaving,” Jess said and rolled under Alex's body, snuggling against his warmth. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was silence Alexander.

Alex seemed to forget Pitman as he slid down beside Jess and began kissing her.

Jess was losing her resolve. “Alex, don't you think we should see what Pitman was doing?”

“In a minute,” he murmured, seeking her lips again.

“Alex!” She pushed at him with all her might. “At first I can't get you to kiss me and now you won't stop. Let's get out of here, I'm getting cold,” she lied. The truth was, the small of her back was beginning to sweat. I'll have to stop this soon, she thought, because I'll not be able to last.

She managed to roll out from under Alex and stand, her breasts heaving, her face flushed, her body yearning for his. She lifted her skirts, turned on her heel and started running toward the water.

Once she was away from Alex, she could think more clearly. She knew some rotting nets had been left at the back of the house and she retrieved the best one now. When she returned, Alex was standing at the edge of the water.

She refused to look at him. A couple more of those hot, longing glances of his and they'd be tumbling about on the sand.

“Jessie.”

“Stand over there, Alex, and find some flint. I'm going to haul up some oysters and you're going to open them. And don't you dare touch me. Go!”

Alex smiled slightly and left her as she tossed him the first couple of oysters. “You know, Jess, I'm not really as ill as you think. In fact, in this moonlight with you looking so lovely I just might be able to—”

“To what?” she said impatiently. Maybe he'd been punished enough. Maybe
she'd
been punished enough. Maybe she ought to tell him that she knew.

Alex walked to her. “Look at this.” Up to the moonlight, he held between his fingers a fat, perfect pearl.

“Pearls?” Jess gasped. “In these waters? No wonder Pitman wants to buy my cove. Alex, he'll be rich.”

Alex kept looking at the pearl. “I wondered what had happened to it.”

“To what? Here, let's open these oysters.”

“My mother's pearl necklace.”

“Your mother's…Alex, are you saying these pearls were planted?”

“Think Pitman will notice the holes drilled in the pearls? I can't see in this light, but the hole seems to have been filled with a paste.”

“Filled? Seeded?” Jess asked. “Nathaniel. He did this. Wait until I get him.”

Alex caught her arm before she could move. “I'm sure Nate did do this but he didn't make the plan.”

Alex put the pearl in his pocket. “My brother-in-law embezzles Montgomery funds, then uses that money to buy your land, thereby keeping the money in the family.”

“Your father,” Jess said.

“Exactly. My father. That crafty old devil. I had no idea he knew what his son-in-law was doing.”

“He'll go a long way to protect his children,” Jess said, but Alex didn't seem to be listening. “Maybe he didn't want to hurt your sister.”

Alex started walking. “Let's get back.”

“Yes, you need your sleep.”

Alex just kept walking, Jess having to run to keep up with him. At the house, he left her in her room and gave her orders not to leave. Jess started talking about his poor health, but the look he gave her made her sit down on the bed.

“I swear I won't leave,” she said and meant it.

Alex nodded and left the room. He went down the hall to the boys' room, picked up a sleeping Nathaniel and carried him to his father's room. He dropped Nate into the feather mattress beside Sayer.

“What the hell!” the old man yelped.

Alex lit a lantern.

Nate sat up in the bed while Sayer floundered about, trying to right himself. “Hello, Mr. Alex,” Nate said. “Did something happen?”

Alex pulled the pearl from his pocket and tossed it to his father. “Familiar?”

Sayer looked at Nate, then back at his son. “Possibly.”

“How many did you put in the oysters, Nate?”

Nathaniel looked like he wanted to run away. He didn't like being caught between the two men.

“I think we've been found out,” Sayer said. “Took you long enough,” he said, looking at Alex.

It took Alex a moment to comprehend just what his father was saying. “What do you know?” he asked in a low voice.

Sayer locked eyes with his son. “I breed no cowards.”

Alex didn't know whether to laugh or be enraged. He'd been hating his father these many weeks, yet his father had known all along. “You kept your secret well.”

“Can't say the same for you. If it hadn't been for some of us in this house protecting you, you'd have been long dead.”

“Jess helped me a few times, but she was helping a man other than her husband. She has no idea I'm the Raider.”

“She does, too!” Nate said, then subsided under Sayer's glare.

“What?” Alex gasped. “Nathaniel, I'll raise blisters on you if you don't tell me the truth. Does Jessica know I'm the Raider?”

Sayer put his hand out to his son. “Of course she does. She's known since you kissed her in this room. I thought you'd been tormenting her long enough and I wanted an end to it. Jess is a good girl and she didn't deserve what you were doing to her.”

“But she said my kisses weren't—And that my hair—” He stopped and shook his head. “I'll get her for this.”

“She was prepaid,” Sayer snorted. “Can you forget your bride for a moment and concentrate on the pearls? You think Pitman believes the cove is full of pearl-bearing oysters?”

Alex told of seeing Pitman. “He's offered Jess four times what the cove is worth.”

“My money,” Sayer muttered. “Tell Jess to hold out for more money. I'll get all the Montgomery money back yet.”

“I didn't know you knew of his embezzling.”

Sayer gave his son a cold look. “What was I to do? Accuse my own son-in-law? Haul him before the courts?
You
may have no loyalty to your family, but I do.”

Alex just smiled. He was so pleased that his father didn't believe he was a weakling and a coward, that nothing could make him angry. He toyed with the lace at his sleeve. “How many pearls did you plant and how many have been found?”

“With this one and the one Pitman found tonight, I'd say there are three left. If Jess waits, he'll raise his offer.”

“And what happens if he finds out he's being played for a fool?”

“He's too greedy to see that. Now, the two of you may be young enough to do without sleep, but I'm not. Go on and go to bed. And you, boy,” he said to Alex, “go in to your wife and stop this charade. You can trust her.”

“Yes, probably,” Alex said noncommittally. “To bed, Nate,” he ordered and followed the boy to the door. Then, on impulse, he turned, hugged his father and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for believing in me.”

“Humph!” Sayer snorted. “When
I
make a son, he stays a son and doesn't change.”

Alex smiled. “I'm as good as Adam and Kit?”

Sayer looked as if Alex had lost his mind. “When I see those two I'll let them know what I think about their not coming to help us when we needed them. I'll tell them about leaving you here all alone to save an entire town.” Sayer took Alex's hand. “And I'll tell them what a goddamn fine job you've done of it, too.” Sayer chuckled. “Even won the hand of a beauty like Jessica without so much as removing your wig. You're a Montgomery all right, boy, and one of the finest.”

Alex left his father's room feeling twenty feet tall.

*   *   *

Eleanor was laughing at Jessica as her sister struggled under the weight of two buckets of hot water.

Jess gave her sister a malevolent look.

“It's your own fault,” Eleanor hissed at her. “You're the one who continues playing the game. Tell Alex you know he isn't ill.”

Jess shifted the buckets. “He thinks I think he's dying. Until he trusts me enough to tell me the truth, I cannot tell him what I know.”

Eleanor threw up her hands in despair. “You've made it nearly impossible for him to tell the truth. All right, have it your way. Wait on him until your fingers fall off, for all I care.”

“Thank you,” Jess said and started down the hall with the hot water.

“He knows,” Sophy said. “Alexander knows she knows he's the Raider.”

“Of course he does,” Eleanor said. “But let them play their lovers' games.”

“Speaking of lovers' games, where were you and that handsome Russian last night?”

Eleanor blushed.

“Mmmm,” Sophy said. “I think I'll postpone my journey south another day. I couldn't bear not seeing how all of this turns out.”

*   *   *

“Here you are, Alex,” Jess said tenderly, setting down the basins of hot water for his feet. It had been two days since they'd seen Pitman at the Taggert cove, and since then Jess was beginning to doubt that Alex really was the Raider. He looked awful, he seemed to be too weak to move, he wouldn't eat, he just lay in bed, his eyes only half open. Jessica was beginning to think she'd been wrong. How could this sick man be the Raider?

Just before sundown, Alex went to sleep and Jessica left the room. She went outside, enjoying the cool air, and began to walk. Before she knew what she was doing, she was at Farrier's Cove.

She watched the sunset and tears began to trickle down her face. She knew she was feeling sorry for herself but she couldn't help it. She didn't seem to have either of the men she loved anymore.

“Jessie.”

She turned to see the Raider standing there in the fading light. She took a step toward him but he stepped back. She stopped.