The Ransom (39 page)

She bolted from the bed, blood cycloning through her veins. Hazy morning sun peered in through the stern windows as she tried to focus her sleep-laden eyes on her surroundings: the large oak desk sprinkled with charts and instruments and trinkets from exotic ports; the mahogany sideboard against the far wall that held silver lidded flagons, a gold-plated tea urn, and several books; the carved wardrobe beside it; the leather-strapped chest with an iron lock; and the collection of fighting swords and paintings of ships mounted on the wall. At the foot of the bed sat a cannon, squatting like a bulldog, its barrel and breech gleaming black. No sign of Mr. Pirate. Mayhap she had just dreamed that he’d come in last night.

Mayhap she had dreamed the kiss they’d shared.
The utter shame!
What had come over her? Some wicked spell not of this world, to be sure, for she had no other explanation for her wanton behavior. Or the way his lips had made her feel.

The lock clanked and the oak door swung inward, admitting a squat black man wearing a red-checkered shirt, stained breeches, and a blue bandana wrapped around what she suspected was a bald head. His grin revealed brown wooden teeth as he set the tray he was carrying on the captain’s desk. “Some tea an’ biscuits fer ye, miss,” he drawled out as he continued to peruse her, the whites of his eyes as wide as a full moon.

Unsure of what to say, or of the man’s intentions, she remained silent, praying he would disappear. Thankfully, Jonas entered the room. “That will be all, Spittal.”

The man growled, turned, and lumbered out the door.

“Spittal?” Juliana found her voice.

“Our ship’s cook.” Jonas smiled. “I had him make some ginger tea for you. The captain mentioned your stomach was giving you trouble.”

Juliana stared at the tray filled with a cup of steaming tea and some crusty objects that looked more like rocks than biscuits.
Spittal?
She gulped down a burst of nausea and drew a deep breath of the fresh sea air gusting through the open door.

“Where is the captain?”

“On deck. He wishes me to ask you if you require anything, milady.”

“Pray, do not start calling me that as well, Doctor. And all I require is to be set free. Can you not see he has kidnapped me? Locked me in his cabin for some obscene purpose?” She eyed him, expecting a response, but he merely stared at her in amusement. “And why does he have a lock on the outside of his door anyway? No doubt I’m not the first woman to be enslaved within his cabin.”

She gave him her most pleading look, complete with tears pooling on her lashes. “You are an educated man, a doctor who has vowed to heal others, to do no harm. I beg you, please save me from this ruffian.”

He seemed impervious to her feminine appeal. Stepping further inside the cabin, he glanced out the stern windows, where a ray of sunlight oscillated over him with each sway of the ship. Tall, built along solid lines, he wore not the garb of brigand but could pass for any gentleman on the streets of Port Royal. A pair of spectacles peeked at her from his coat pocket.

“Let me put your fears to rest, Miss Dutton,” he said, facing her with eyes as green as sea moss. “Alex”—he hesitated, flattening his lips—“the captain means you no harm. In truth, quite the opposite.”

Her skin tightened in anger. Her eyes dried. “I cannot believe a man of your distinction could be so fooled. But I suppose you are just a pirate like the rest of them.”

At this he smiled. “You flatter me, Miss Dutton. I am a surgeon, indeed, but a
pirate
surgeon, as you have so aptly declared. My first loyalty is to God. My second to my captain.”

“Ludicrous! They are on opposite sides!” This man was as mad as his captain. She stood, attempting to press down the wrinkles in her mantua. Was it only last night she wore this to the Rosemere’s soiree? “Nevertheless, Mr. Nash, I insist on seeing your captain at once.”

“Alas, he is busy at the moment and insists you stay below for your own safety.”

We shall see about that!
She squinted out the windows as if she spotted something on the horizon. As soon as his gaze followed hers, she made a dash for the open door, smiling to herself when she avoided the doctor’s hurried reach.

A wall of wind knocked her backward as she emerged from the companionway to a jolt of the deck that nearly sent her careening overboard. Toppling to the side, arms flailing, she finally found a grip on a thick rope tied to a mast. She righted herself, held her heaving stomach, and squinted across the bright deck until she spotted the object of her fury—the Pirate Earl standing with his back to her at the head of the quarterdeck, boots spread apart, arms crossed over his chest, hair and white shirt flapping in the wind.

Jonas emerged from below and started toward her with a scowl. Cat calls and whistles shot her way like cannon fire as pirate after pirate halted in their tasks to gape at her. The Pirate Earl spun on his heels. His eyes narrowed. His mouth grew tight. Juliana ducked away from the leaping doctor and charged toward the nefarious pirate captain.

“You will return me at once to Port Royal, sir!” She halted before him, brushing hair from her face.

He grabbed her arm and drew her close. “You will return to my cabin,
sweetums
, or I fear neither of us may make it home alive.”

She jerked from his grasp, causing a deluge of chuckles from the crew. “What are you talking about? You and you alone can order this ship to turn around.”

“I’m sorry, Captain. She got away from me.” Jonas appeared beside her.

“I can see that, Doctor. Now, if you will rectify your mistake.”

Grabbing her skirts, she dodged the doctor’s hand once again and circled the binnacle. “I will not be kept behind lock and key like some criminal!”

“Aye, I agree wit’ the lady,” the pirate manning the whipstaff announced as he cast her a look that chilled her to the bone. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she took in the ship and found that most of the crew’s eyes roved up and down her as if sizing her up for some task. A task she dared not contemplate. Her pulse rose. Mayhap it hadn’t been such a great idea to come on deck, after all.

“Yer articles state, Cap’n,” one rather greasy-looking fellow shouted from the quarterdeck, where more of the crew congregated, “that yer t’ share all the treasure wit’ the crew!”

“Aye, aye,” several pirates agreed.

Juliana gulped.

Alex faced the main deck, his jaw tight, his stance commanding. “She is not treasure, gentlemen. She is a lady.
My
lady. And her presence here is by accident. And by God she will be returned in the same condition in which she arrived.” He gripped the hilt of his cutlass and scanned them all with biting eyes. “Or you’ll answer to me. Do you take me, gentlemen?”

His voice boomed, and Juliana suddenly found herself glad he was in command.

“Now, back to work, or I’ll leave you worthless maggots on the nearest empty speck of land!”

Though a few grumbled, and a few stared back at their captain in defiance, eventually all returned to their duties. All except one man who slowly emerged from below, shoulder-length dark hair tossed in the wind and a hand to his forehead as if his head pained him. When he finally halted mid-deck and glanced up, his pleasing looks did naught to suppress the chill that slithered down Juliana when his gaze met hers.

♥♥♥

“Take her below,” Alex ordered Jonas, then leapt down the quarterdeck ladder and approached Larkin. But the man’s eyes were locked on Juliana like a bolt without a key.

“Scads! Do my eyes deceive me? Who is the beauty?” He snapped hair from his face and ran a hand over his mouth, swallowing as if he were dying of thirst.

“She’s mine,” Alex said, looking over his shoulder just in time to see Jonas and Miss Dutton slip below. “What did you do with the tapestry from Madrid?”

“Where did she come from?”

Alex jerked the man around to face him. “Never mind about her. What did you do with the tapestry?”

“No need to shout, Captain.” Larkin scratched the stubble on his jaw and gaped at Alex with gray eyes streaked in red. “The what?”

“There is
every
need to shout!” Alex returned, his patience waning. “We were nearly boarded last night by the Navy. Confound it, man! If I could but trust you.” Alex ran a hand through his hair and lowered his voice. “You put the entire crew at risk of the noose!”

Larkin closed his eyes and held up a hand. “You do me most unfairly, Captain. I have given you no cause for mistrust, have I?”

Lud, the man
had
. But only in Alex’s gut. “A most damnable folly, Larkin. Where is that tapestry?”

“Tossed overboard, as you ordered.” The creak of blocks and rattle of sails joined Larkin’s painful groan as he rubbed his eyes and gave a snort of disdain. “I assume you executed a search? Wouldn’t you have found it otherwise? Why such bad faith?”

Why, indeed. Yet the mistrust continued. Mayhap ’twas the malicious gleam in the man’s eyes, or the defiance in his grin, but something had the hairs on Alex’s neck standing on end.

“Very well. Set us on a course back to Port Royal.” And, in the meantime, Alex would assign more men to search the ship.

“Aye, aye, Captain, Port Royal it is.” As the man sauntered away, whistling a tune, several of the crewmen glanced up as he passed, a few with winks, some with knowing nods. All causing a knot to form in Alex’s stomach. Was a mutiny brewing aboard his ship? Had Alex been so preoccupied with Juliana over the past month that he’d missed the telltale signs? The men had been disgruntled when he’d not attacked the Dutton merchant ship. And of course now having the lovely Juliana aboard didn’t help. But surely those two things weren’t enough to cause his crew to turn on him when he’d done naught but line their pockets with gold.

Yet pirates were a fickle lot. Fickle and greedy. Not just for gold and silver, but some for power as well. There could not be a mutiny now—not with Juliana on board. For he did not want to consider what the pirates would do to her once they got him out of the way.

Chapter 31

“Alex is not who you think he is,” Jonas said as he escorted Juliana back into her prison.

“Yes, I believe I found that out recently,” she quipped, running her hands over the oak desk, admiring the carvings of ships on either side.

“I do not refer to his role as Lord Munthrope. What I mean to say is that he’s not barbaric or cruel. He doesn’t murder his victims.”

“After he robs them of all their goods, you mean? How comforting.” She turned to face him. “A pirate is a pirate, Mr. Nash.”

“We are not all alike.”

This man who stood before her certainly wasn’t a typical pirate. Intelligence and civility shone from eyes that were a pleasant mixture of green and gold. She could not fathom his purpose in aligning himself with such cutthroats and thieves.

Shouts filtered from above, sails roared, and the ship pitched to port with such violence that if Juliana hadn’t been holding the edge of the desk, she would have tumbled across the deck. Mr. Nash merely braced his feet farther apart.

Her glance sped to the open door, and, no doubt surmising her zest for flight, he closed it and leaned back against the hard oak, arms over his chest.

Though they were alone and the doctor was no slight man, she bore no fear of him. There was something very calming and gentle about him. Even good. If a pirate could be called so.

“Alex is confused and a trifle lost, if you’ll allow,” he started, “but his heart is good. True, he steals, but never from his own countrymen. And it may surprise you to know he gives much of his plunder to those in need.”

A vision of Lord Munthrope helping that poor widow and her child in town flashed through her cynical thoughts. “That the man is confused and lost, I will grant you, sir. For, to what purpose would a pirate risk his life for money he plans to give away?”

“As I said, he is not like other pirates.” Mr. Nash glanced above, where Alex’s voice could be heard bellowing orders. “I must attend my duties. Rest assured, Miss Dutton, Alex will do you no harm. He is no ravager of women.” He winked playfully. “Especially those he’s quite taken with.”

“Taken? Fie! He cares only for himself and his own pleasure.”

“If that were true, you would be a maiden no longer.”

The declaration brought heat racing up her neck. She pressed a hand on her embroidered stomacher. “Then, pray, what does he want with me?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” And with that, he left and shut the door.

♥♥♥

Against every impulse within him, Alex decided ’twas best to stay away from Juliana as much as possible. They’d be in Port Royal by early morn, at which time he’d escort her safely home. After that, she’d most likely never want to see him again. Though he hardly blamed her, the thought sliced through his heart nonetheless, and he wondered what purpose there would be to his life afterward. In the meantime, having her in his cabin was driving him to distraction. Especially after their kiss, the remembrance of which had finally overpowered the pain of her kick afterward.