Dark Rider (14 page)

He bowed slightly. “I have that honor.”

“Then I’ll learn how to do it myself. I’ve no confidence
in you, and I’ve no desire to be run aground or sunk because you decide to blind your senses with strong liquor.”

“You needn’t worry. I’m always sober when there’s a challenge in the offing.”

“I don’t trust you. You’ll show me the navigation maps when we board.” She turned to Jared. “Two hostages are better than one. You have no quarrel with my coming?”

“Why should I? A man’s mistress could be a greater draw than a daughter. I just didn’t anticipate your eagerness to sacrifice yourself. Come ahead. Welcome.” He paused. “As long as you don’t get in my way.”

“I won’t get in your way.” She moved toward the longboat. “If you walk the path of peace.”

Which nullified the first words very neatly, Jared thought dryly. He turned to face Cassie and watched her stiffen, then brace herself.

“I’m taking Kapu,” she said defiantly. “I know he’ll be a great deal of trouble, but I’ll not have it any other way.”

“You seem to have a strange idea about the privileges of hostages. They don’t make demands.”

“I’m taking him,” she said flatly. “You can argue all you please. He goes—”

“I’m not arguing.” He took a step nearer and touched Kapu’s muzzle. “I thoroughly approve. It will give me the opportunity to persuade you to sell him to me. I have only one question.”

“Yes?” she said warily.

“How the devil are we going to get him on board? There’s no dock here, and the ship’s anchored a good half mile out in the bay.”

“Oh, the same way he was taken off the ship when
he was brought here. I still have his halter.” She moved to the back of the wagon and pulled from its bed a web of leather-bound canvas straps and iron rings. “We fasten this around Kapu’s middle and you attach it to a pulley on the deck of the ship and we pull him out of the water.”

“How simple,” he said caustically.

“Not simple but it works.”

“Providing you can get the horse to swim that far out and then keep him from killing himself or us when we try to attach the ropes to the straps.”

“It’s the only way.” She unfastened Kapu’s saddle and pulled it off. “I can do it. Kapu and I swim out farther than that when we play together.”

Jared frowned, still absently patting Kapu’s muzzle. “But if he panics, you won’t have the strength to hold him.”

“Yes, I will. I’m very strong.”

Jared shook his head. “You go on board with Bradford. I’ll do it.”

“No!” She stepped forward, putting herself between Jared and the stallion. “He’s my horse. I’ll do it.”

“For God’s sake, I’m not trying to take him away from you. You’re mad if you think I’d enjoy going for a swim with a fear-crazed animal. I’m merely saying it’s only reasonable that the strongest rider do the task.”

“He’s my horse.” She turned her back on him and grabbed Kapu’s reins. “Take his saddle and go back to your ship and set up the pulley. I’ll stay here with Kapu until I see you wave. If it’s dark, light a lantern and swing it three times.”

His lips tightened. “You’re not staying here.”

“Are you afraid it’s not safe? I’m not going to run
away. You’re taking Lani to your ship. Do you think I’d leave her?”

“No, I’m not afraid you’ll run away. Dammit, it’s too dangerous. You can’t—”

“You’re wasting time.” She slung the halter over Kapu’s back and began fastening the leather straps. The stallion neighed and shifted uneasily. “Kapu’s already getting nervous.”

“Not nearly as nervous as he’ll be when we try to fasten those ropes to him,” he said grimly. “You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t crush you against the ship. I have a chance of keeping him away but you— What are you doing?”

“Taking off my clothes.” She finished unbuttoning the jacket and shrugged out of it, revealing only a thin cotton chemise. “This riding habit is too heavy. It will drag me down once I’m in the water.” Her skirt dropped to the sand and she stepped out of it. Her hands went to her petticoat.

“Wait!” He cast a glance at the longboat, where the four sailors were watching with delighted grins and Bradford with an expression of startled bemusement. Only Lani’s expression was impassive. “You can’t strip naked here.”

“I most certainly can.” The petticoat fell to the sand, and she held on to Kapu while she took off her boots and stockings. She stared at him with impatience. “Why are you so upset? You’ve seen me wearing less.”

But somehow that nudity on the beach had not been as provocative or stirring as the sight of her standing here in those flimsy undergarments. He was acutely aware of the curve of her small breasts beneath the thin cotton chemise, the contrast of smooth golden skin against the soft white garment. The curve
of her bare calves beneath the drawers. He was readying, and, goddammit, he knew his arousal was being echoed by those gaping seamen in the boat. He wanted to step forward and bundle her back into the riding habit, veil her from their eyes, from any man’s eyes. He gestured furiously toward the longboat. “But they haven’t seen you, blast it.”

“Not me, perhaps, but Lihua and the others.”

“You’re not Lihua.”

“I’m no better or worse. I feel no more shame of my body than she does in hers. It’s you and those others who take and then try to heap shame on us.”

“I haven’t taken anything from you yet,” he said curtly. “I just want you to put that habit back on.”

“I won’t do it.” She shrugged. “But I don’t have to take off anything else. The chemise and drawers are light, and I may need whatever protection they offer.”

“What protection? That cloth is thin as cobwebs. Put on the habit.”

She glared at him. “Would you rather I drowned?”

“I’d rather you kept your clothes on and let me ride the blasted horse.”

“That’s not a choice. I told you that I was going to do it.”

“Because you’re too stubborn to admit how dangerous it is for—” He broke off as he realized she wasn’t listening to him. She had made up her mind and was closing him out. He muttered an imprecation, snatched up the discarded habit and saddle, and turned on his heel. “Go on. Ride the damn horse. Dive into the sea as naked as Venus. Let him crush you. Why should I care?” He strode down the beach toward the longboat.

“I take it you lost the battle,” Bradford asked as
Jared climbed into the boat and tossed his burden to a seaman. “She wouldn’t listen?”

“She’ll be lucky if he doesn’t kill her,” he said savagely.

“Kapu loves her,” Lani said. “He won’t hurt her.”

“Even when he’s mad with fear?”

“She’s given him patience and love and care for two long years,” Lani said quietly. “He will know she means him well.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Jared glanced back at the woman on the shore. She was standing beside the horse, talking quietly to him while she stroked his mane. She looked small and frail and infinitely breakable beside the big stallion. He tried to hold on to his anger, but he could feel it ebbing out of him, replaced by cold fear. “Christ.”

The sun had gone down, but it was still twilight when Cassie saw Jared wave from the
Josephine
. That was good, she told herself. Kapu would be less nervous if he wasn’t swimming in darkness.

Maybe.

She took a deep breath and pulled herself onto the stallion’s back. He shied nervously, and she instantly bent over and whispered in his ear. “Easy. It’s going to be fine. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. We’re just going for a swim.” She nudged him gently forward into the surf. “You like the water, remember?”

He might like water but Kapu didn’t like ships. He had too many memories of neglect and starvation and a master who wandered drunkenly down into the cargo hold to beat him. When she had first seen Kapu after he had been brought ashore, the fresh whip marks on his body had filled her with anger. It would
be a miracle if he submitted meekly to having the ropes put on him.

But it had to be done. She couldn’t leave him here. “It won’t be like the last time,” she murmured as he reached deeper water and began to swim. “No one cared about you then. We’re together now. I’ll take care of you.”

His ears were back, listening, but she could feel his muscles tense beneath her thighs. He sensed this was not like their other swims.

A quarter way to the ship.

He didn’t know their destination. If she could keep him turned slightly away from the ship until the last minute …

She lifted her head and saw Danemount leaning over the rail, watching, his expression grim. But he always looked grim and intense.

No, that wasn’t true. That night on the beach he had been sensual and free, and his smile had lit his face with pagan recklessness.

He had been happy because he had found her father.

Halfway to the ship.

She whispered to Kapu, “Just stay with me. We can get through this.”

He neighed softly as if he understood.

Surely that was a good sign. It was possible he might have forgotten his experience on the ship. It had been two years, and she had made sure he had known only kindness since then.

Almost there.

She kept Kapu’s head turned away as she angled toward the ship.

“That’s right,” Danemount said quietly. “Edge him just a little closer. The rope can’t reach him yet.”

What did he think she was doing? she thought in exasperation.

“Two feet closer. Just a yard or so more and the rope—”

Kapu jerked his head sideways, toward the ship. Dear God!

She could feel his muscles bunch beneath her thighs as he saw the ship less than four yards away.

“It’s all right,” she said frantically. “It won’t hurt you. I won’t let it—”

He went wild! He screamed with rage and dived under the water, his legs thrashing wildly.

Cassie’s mouth and nose filled with salt water as she fought her way off Kapu’s back. She grabbed wildly for the reins.

Missed.

Reached again.

Leather! Her grasp closed on the reins as Kapu surfaced, pulling her with him.

“Drop the reins!” Lani’s voice.

But she couldn’t drop them. It was her only way of controlling Kapu. They would both drown if—

Blinding pain streaked through her shoulder. She had struck the side of the ship.

“Let go, dammit!” Not Lani, this time. Danemount, she realized. He was in the water, only a few feet away. “I have the ropes to fasten him. Let go of the reins before he kills you.”

He had the pulley ropes. “Give me one of them,” she gasped.

“Get away from him. I’ll do it.”

“He’ll drown before you fasten both of them. You take one side and I’ll take the other. We have to get him out of the water.”

His eyes blazed at her. “Get
him
out of the water? Swim to the ladder and let them pull you up.”

“We don’t have time to argue. He may decide to strike away from the ship. Give me one of the ropes.”

“Damn you!” He threw one of the pulley ropes to her. “Stay away from his legs.”

She dived below the water, trying to avoid Kapu’s flailing hooves. She could dimly discern the white canvas webbing of the halter. Where were the steel rings?

Her lungs were bursting as she fought to hold her breath. She could see Danemount on the other side of Kapu, his hair billowing about his face like seaweed. She felt a sudden surge of confidence. Together they could do it; together they could do anything.

The salt stung her eyes as she searched desperately for the ring that—there it was!

Kapu’s hoof narrowly missed her head as she dived beneath his belly and passed the rope through the ring.

Hurry. She had to hurry. Her breath was almost gone.

Once through the ring and then back. Knot. The knot had to be very secure to hold his weight.

Done!

She fought to the surface.

No Danemount. Panic iced through her.

No, there he was, surfacing about ten feet away.

“Did you—” She broke into a fit of coughing.

He nodded as he drew in great gulps of air. “You?”

She nodded.

He waved his arm to the men on the deck. “Take him up.”

She moved closer to Kapu. He was going to be so
frightened. “It’s all right. I’m here. It will be over in a moment.”

“Stay away from him,” Danemount said.

“I can’t. He needs me.”

“He’ll need you more when he’s pulled on board the ship.” He added grimly, “He may explode once he’s out of the water. We may all need you at that point.”

He was right. It was more important that Kapu sense a friendly presence when he reached the deck of the ship. She struck out for the rope ladder.

Danemount reached the ship before her and was already climbing the ladder.

She heard Kapu’s terrified squeal behind her as he was lifted from the water by the pulley. She forced herself not to look back as she climbed the ladder. Soon the stallion’s ordeal would be over. They would be together on the ship, and she could comfort him and make him feel safe again. Dear God, she was weary. Now that the task was done, all the strength seemed to be seeping out of her.

Danemount reached the deck, turned, and lifted her the final two rungs. He was no longer the sleek, fastidious nobleman, she thought dully. His shirt and trousers were plastered to his lean body, and his long hair hung in wet strands about his face.

“All right?” he asked tersely. When she nodded, he didn’t give her another look but instead went to the rail to watch Kapu’s ascent.

“How’s your shoulder?” Lani was there beside her, wrapping her in a blanket.

“My shoulder?” That’s right, she had rammed it against the hull. Only now was she aware of a painful throbbing. “It’s not bad.”

“It doesn’t seem to be bleeding anymore.”

“Bleeding?” she repeated, startled.

“There was blood on the water when you surfaced. That’s when Danemount dived overboard. He swims very well … for an Englishman.” She added grudgingly, “And he has courage. Not many men would have been willing to risk being maimed by Kapu to fasten those ropes to the halter.”

Cassie scarcely heard her. Kapu was being lowered to the deck. He wasn’t struggling; he appeared frozen with terror. She dropped the blanket and hurried to the rail.