Fortune Trilogy 1 - Fortune's Mistress (21 page)

“Bring it to me,” Lacy ordered, returning to James’s side. She frowned at the boy. “Do ye never wash your hands? Ye look more like a swineherd than a sailor.” She rejected the filthy cloth the boy offered to wash James’s wound with and glanced at Matthew. “I need clean linen and a flame to put the needle and tweezers in.”

Matthew pushed the cat off his lap and went to a sea chest along the far wall. Carefully, he lifted out a coat, breeches, and several white shirts. Beneath those were women’s clothes.

Lacy crossed the cabin to inspect the contents of the chest, and suddenly her heart skipped a beat. The gown Captain Kay was taking out of the box was the one she’d seen in her vision. She recognized it instantly by the full puffed sleeves and the brilliant indigo color.

“No ...” she stammered, backing away. “Not that.” Her stomach turned over and she felt dizzy. “No,” she repeated. Her mouth tasted of dust.

“There’s more in here,” Matthew said. “I know I’ve—”

“This will do,” she said, snatching up one of the linen shirts.

“Make free with my clothing, by all means,” Matthew said. He eyed her sternly for a few seconds, then broke into a deep laugh. “James said you were a handful ... indeed he did.”

Trembling, Lacy turned her back on him and ripped a sleeve from the shirt. She dipped the material into the basin. “If you’ve more rum, captain,” she said harshly, “James has need of it. For what I’m about to do will make his disposition no sweeter.”

 

Later, when James had drunk enough to fall into a deep sleep, Lacy walked on the quarterdeck with Captain Kay. Matthew had said he wanted to talk to her, and neither of them wished to disturb James after his painful ordeal.

Lacy had lanced the pockets of infection and cleaned James’s wound, removing all the splinters of wood she could find. Then she’d scrubbed the raw flesh with lye soap and rinsed it with fresh sea water and again with rum. It was an unpleasant task, but one that had to be done. She’d seen her father perform similar operations on his comrades back in Cornwall, and once she’d removed a musket ball from her brother Ben’s backside.

Tending to James’s wound had taken her mind from the situation she found herself in, but now, she had to face it again. They had lost the
Silkie
, Kutii was hiding out in the jungle, and both she and James were at Captain Kay’s mercy. Despite Kay’s protests to the contrary, Lacy felt as though she was once more a prisoner.

Matthew had tried to make her feel at ease, even offering her the beautiful blue gown as a gift, but she refused to touch the hateful garment. Instead, she’d donned one of his white linen shirts over a pair of breeches. The shirt hung so loosely about her waist that she’d wound a black Spanish scarf around her middle and knotted it on one hip. She had topped her outlandish garb with a black silk bandana, tied roguishly over her unbound hair. Her feet were bare, no discomfort in the warm tropical night.

The deck of the
Adventure
was nearly deserted. A bobbing lantern at the far end of the ship showed the night watch on duty, but no one came near the quarterdeck. Lacy looked at Matthew Kay expectantly. “Well, what do ye have to say to me? What’s so important that I must leave James’s side?”

Matthew’s chuckle was low and genuine. “You are a most unusual lady,” he said, taking her hand in his. “Was James telling me the truth when he said you were the one who dived down to the
Miranda
and brought up the gold?”

Lacy tried to pull her hand loose, but Matthew held it tightly. “Yes,” she replied. “I did. And I can do it again—but only if ye treat us fairly.”

“You are a very beautiful woman, Lacy,” he murmured. “I meant what I said earlier. You’d do better to switch your allegiance to me.”

“Is this how you repay a friend?” She kept her tone from betraying her rising temper. “Ye try to steal his woman?”

“James has stolen many a wench from me, I can assure you.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the underside of her wrist. “Never one as charming or as courageous.” His voice thickened and Lacy glimpsed the corsair hiding behind the gentleman’s mask. “I’m going to be a power in the Caribbean,” he said. “The right woman could rise with me.”

“A woman branded with the mark of a whore?” she dared, pushing back the scarf so that her scar showed plain in the moonlight.

“What you’ve been in the past is of no interest to me,” he answered. “If you make a pact with me and break it, I’ll dispose of you as easily as I disposed of that stupid gunner.” He yanked her against him and kissed her hard.

She made no protest, other than to clamp her teeth shut to keep him from deepening the kiss. But when he released her, she stepped back away from him. Her lips stung from his rough assault.

“James will never marry you, you know,” Matthew said. “He’s different than we are. If he lives long enough, he’ll return to England and a life you have no part of.”

“I’ve no wish to marry,” she lied.

“Every woman wants to be a wife. It’s bred in their bones. Respectability, a bigger house, and fancier gowns than any other wench in town—that’s what you all want.” He moved closer. “Please me, Lacy Bennett, and I can give you all that.”

“Why would ye need a wife such as me? Any merchant’s daughter would do to warm your bed. And she’d know how to deal with servants, and fancy words to say at a dinner party.”

“I’m a man of blood and gristle, Lacy. I want a woman as shrewd and tough as you are to get heirs on. I don’t mean to die and be forgotten.”

“Ye’d not pass me off as a lady. Those ye wish to impress would scorn ye for takin’ a whore to wife.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “The men would envy me, and their women would soon learn to show proper respect to you.”

“I love James.”

“I’ve not asked for your love. I’ve offered you a bargain. Your body and your wits for what I can give you.”

“Ye think me a cold bitch.”

He laughed again. “I know your blood bums hot, but I also know that you’ve not come so far without thinking of Lacy Bennett first.”

Don’t close your ears to common sense,
her inner voice cried.
You’re a woman alone, soon to have a child to support. What has James Black ever offered you?

He’s the only man I’ve ever loved, she thought. How could I even think of leaving him for a man such as Matthew Kay?

Turning toward the sea, Lacy leaned on the railing and stared out at the gently rolling surface. The breeze off the island was heavy with a thousand exotic scents; musty earth, rotting wood, lilies, orchids, and damp sand. The huge moon hung low over the mountain peak, casting a shining path of rippling silver across the black water. Lacy’s throat tightened as she mentally shut Matthew out and wrapped herself in a cloak of beauty.

Blinking away tears of joy, she noted that the incandescent arrow of light pointed west toward the New World. Was it a sign that she should heed Matthew’s entreaties?

She took a deep breath and clutched the weathered rail until her nails snapped against the wood. What was it Kutii had said? He’d told her not to fear her own power—to use it. Could she? After so many years of being afraid of falling into a trance, could she choose to see into the future?

“If I take his offer ...” she murmured too low for Matthew to understand her words. “What will happen if I accept his bargain?” For a long moment she closed her eyes and waited.

Let me see! she willed. Ten years from this day. Her heartbeat quickened. Her mouth went dry. And then, just when she was about to give up, she stepped from this time to the next as easily as drawing in a breath.

“It’s true,” Lacy whispered. “You will be governor.”

“What?” Matthew crossed the quarterdeck to her side. “What did you say?”

Lacy drew in a breath of the salt air and blinked away her vision. The music still rang in her ears, and she could feel the coolness of the pearls around her neck. The royal governor’s lady. If she chose Matthew Kay, he would keep his promise. She could have wealth and position, and a safe future for James’s son.

She swallowed. She had seen the future. All she had to do was accept Matthew’s proposal. “I know,” she murmured softly. Willingly, she had used the power of her witchcraft to see her own fortune. All she had to do was say yes, and all her problems would be solved.

But, she wondered, if she could see the future, could she change it?

She sighed deeply. ’Twould be good sense to chose Matthew. But a Cornwall girl must follow her heart, and hers was set on a black-eyed rogue she had snatched from Tyburn gallows.

She would have James. Come hellfire or damnation, she would have him and no other.

But if she was to save James and herself from Matthew, she’d have to be clever ... very clever. She couldn’t let Matthew guess which course she’d set.

Smiling, she turned to stare up into the captain’s face. “I can’t bring up the gold without James’s help. If I cast my net with ye, ye must swear not to harm him.” Her voice took on a thread of polished steel. “Not now, nor in the future,” she warned. “For if an accident befalls James, one also might come to ye. If ye take my meanin’ ...”

“Ye drive a hard bargain, Lacy Bennett,” Matthew said.

“Aye,” she agreed softly, “but I’m worth it.”

 

L
acy had deliberately drawn out the process of retrieving the gold from the
Miranda
in the weeks that followed. She dived to the bottom only once a day, pleading fatigue and disorientation from the pressure at such depths. When James recovered from his injury, she insisted that he dive with her because she was afraid of sharks. And even though he couldn’t go as deep as she could, the knowledge that he was safe above her in the water—and not where Matthew could do him harm—relieved her worry.

Sharks were the least of her concern; she saw them almost daily, but most passed her by in the azure water without a second glance. She wondered where Kutii was, and if he was all right. But her biggest fear was that Matthew Kay would realize that he didn’t need James anymore.

She wasn’t sleeping with the captain, but she was sharing his cabin. James spent his nights shackled to the mainmast with only a thin blanket between him and the hard wooden deck. “Just so he doesn’t decide to leave us,” Matthew had said. “James has been known to wander away when it suited him.”

So far, she’d been able to hold Matthew at bay. He hadn’t forced her to anything more than a kiss, but she knew he wouldn’t wait long. He was convinced that she’d changed her allegiance, and that she meant to leave the island under his protection.

“You’re a fool if you trust him,” James said to Lacy one morning on the deck of the ship. Matthew was forward, giving the day’s instructions to his bosun, and James and Lacy had a rare few moments alone.

“He said the same about you,” she answered.

“I know him, Lacy. He’ll court you with sweet words, but in the end, he’ll take what he wants and discard you.”

“And you won’t?”

“Damn it, woman! I’d not have betrayed you. Not for any amount of gold.”

“Matthew offered me his name. It’s more than you’ve ever done.”

James took hold of her arm roughly. “I loved you.”

She pulled away and turned her head so that he couldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes. Loved. He’d said he loved her. Not “I love you.”

The pain was sharp and deep.

She’d wanted him to believe she’d gone over to Matthew’s side. If James didn’t believe it, Matthew wouldn’t. But her success left her empty and aching ... wondering if James would ever understand why she’d had to pretend.

Matthew came toward them, a satisfied expression on his face. “Not quarreling, are you, children?” He draped an arm over Lacy’s shoulder. “We can’t have that, not with most of the treasure still on the ocean floor.” He grinned at James. “Not after what we’ve gone through to get it.” He let his arm slide down so that his hand caressed her buttocks. Lacy moved out of his reach.

“Don’t ...” James warned softly.

The captain pretended to ignore James’s black stare. “Henry Morgan sent us back across Panama by the jungle route,” Matthew said. “We’d taken Panama City for him, stripped it of a pope’s fortune in gold and silver—not that Henry will ever admit it. He told the crown representatives that the Spanish loaded all their treasure on a ship and sent it into the Pacific just before we arrived. Henry always was a poor liar.” He grinned at James. “You remember the mountains, don’t you? A pesthole of bugs and savages.”

“And snakes,” James put in. “Morgan knew that the Spanish sent regular shipments of gold by land from Panama City to Porto Bello.”

“We caught up with such a shipment,” Matthew said, “a big one, well-guarded. We were outnumbered, but we had the advantage of surprise.”

“What’s your point, Matt?” James asked.

“Just sharing the history of our mutual fortune with the lady,” Matthew replied blandly. “We killed the Spanish soldiers, and we took the gold.”

“We had to bury part of the treasure along the trail when natives killed our pack animals,” James said. “And we had to bury twenty-two of our men.”

“They died rich though, didn’t they, boy?” Matthew laughed. “Rich as popes.”

“Some died of snakebite, others of fever.” James’s voice thickened. “The Indians killed four with poison darts. They would have got me too if it wasn’t for Kutii. He risked his life to shove me facedown on the ground during an attack by hostiles. We found Kutii with the Spanish, and we took him with us to help carry the gold.”

“That Incan had the devil’s own luck, but I never cared for him. He always made the hair rise on the back of my neck.” Matthew rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “At least one man drowned, if I remember correctly,” he said. “Dutch Johnny Went down in that cursed green river and never came up again.” He glanced at Lacy. “We figured crocs got him.”

“Dutch Johnny was a good man,” James said.

“They were all bad men, and the best crew a captain ever had,” Matthew said. “But none of you would have lived to see the Caribbean if I hadn’t given the orders. It was my command, you see,” he said to Lacy. “Before James thought he knew more than his teacher.”

“We’re wasting good diving time,” Lacy said. “If you want me to bring the gold up—”

“And so I do,” Matthew agreed. “And so we all do. Aye, James?”

James’s only reply was a dark scowl.

As each day passed, the tension grew among the three of them, and the pile of gold in Matthew’s sea chest increased.

Lacy had been able to widen the hole that led to the
Miranda’s
bowels. Now, she could seek the contents of three shattered boxes of Spanish treasure instead of two.

Her largest find had been a golden bowl, inlaid with leaping silver fish around the flaring eighteen-inch rim. The precious vessel was too large and heavy to be drawn up in the bucket, and when James helped her to carry it to the surface, the gold gleamed so brightly in the hot sunlight that the reflecting rays nearly blinded her. Now, the magnificent receptacle was swathed in wool and hidden at the bottom of Matthew’s sea chest, lest it tempt the greed of his crew and cause a mutiny.

While Lacy dived for the treasure, there was little to keep Matthew’s crew occupied. They were a rough lot, not just sailors but men who could wield a cutlass and board another ship in the midst of battle. Matthew demanded instant obedience and was willing to punish any infraction of his orders with merciless punishment, even death.

To prevent mischief, Matthew commanded that the crew drag the sunken
Silkie
ashore and repair the damage done by the cannonball. James helped with the woodwork himself, and Lacy was surprised to see that he had considerable skill in carpentry.

On this particular morning in the latter part of February, Lacy had chosen to make her dive early. The sea was choppy and the sky an ominous gray. The aqua water felt cooler than normal when she dived off the gunnel of the
Adventure,
and she wondered if she was beginning to experience the fancies of childbearing.

As she had suspected in December, she was with child. Her monthly flow had ceased, and her breasts were tender and swollen. Her stomach was still as flat as ever, but she knew that in another two months she’d no longer be able to hide her condition. If she and James had been as close as they’d been on the
Silkie,
he might have guessed her secret—but now that he barely exchanged words with her, he was as much in the dark about her pregnancy as Matthew Kay.

She had thought that holding Matthew off sexually would be more difficult. But it was obvious as she continued to bring up a king’s fortune from the
Miranda
that Kay’s greatest interest lay in the gold. And as he told her, as much as he might enjoy sharing pleasures of the bedchamber with her in the future, nothing must interfere with raising the treasure. The gleaming armbands, masks, and headpieces of beaten gold were what was really important.

James followed her into the water armed with a knife and a rapier. His diving had improved, but he still was unable to hold his breath as long as she could. His attempts to reach the interior of the
Miranda
and the scattered treasure had all resulted in failure.

Today, Lacy used the weighted rope to descend to the bottom. She was wearing a pair of men’s breeches and a man’s shirt, cut off and knotted in the front. Diving in so many clothes was awkward for her, but with the presence of the leering sailors, she had little choice. Still, she envied James, dressed only in his sword belt.

Hand over hand, she pulled herself down into the multicolored depths. For the first forty feet, James was right behind her, then he stopped, and she went on alone.

Even the light was erratic this morning. The normal azure color had turned a deeper green. Schools of silvery dwarf herring flowed in and out of the coral outcrops as Lacy swam down along the reef. Clinging to the side of a cluster of sea whips, a starfish writhed in a stately dance and even lower, Lacy caught sight of a brilliant red-banded coral shrimp.

Her concentration was not on the now-familiar dive to the
Miranda.
Even the excitement of the gold and the future it would buy her had begun to pale. She was thinking of James and the hurt she felt every time he cast her an accusing glance. She’d not been able to explain her decision about Matthew Kay to him. James had been so cold to her that she’d not even tried. She only hoped that in the future he would understand her motives and forgive her.

She felt uneasy this morning and wished she’d made some excuse not to dive. She didn’t know if it was the threatening storm that disturbed her or something else. Her skin felt more sensitive than normal, and her hearing seemed overly acute.

Another exotic fish swam into view, followed by an orange-striped one, an ugly spotted lime, and a vivid yellow and black one. The silent beauty of the reef calmed a little of her apprehension and when a bright blue fish came within inches of her face, she let go of the rope and reached out to touch it. The fish circled just out of her reach, then when she put out her hand again, it wiggled through a crack in the coral outgrowth and vanished.

Without warning a hideous, green-headed monster with daggerlike teeth lunged at her out of a hole in the reef. She jerked back, twisted, and tried to swim away, but the giant eel dove after her. Terror gripped her as she opened her mouth to scream and water rushed in. She flailed backward, knowing with a rush of horror that there was nowhere to flee.

The creature lashed its snakelike body and rose before her; its bulging eyes glowed with malevolence. The yawning mouth opened wider, poised to crush through her flesh and bone.

Then, in a heartbeat, James was between her and the eel, thrusting a steel rapier into the gaping maw. There was a violent swirl of blood and water. Lacy watched as the sword was wrenched from James’s hand. The eel’s body thrashed and bucked while gore streamed from the head.

Lacy turned and seized a handful of James’s hair and tugged hard. He twisted away from the dying eel and swam after her, up toward the world of light and air.

James was barely conscious when they broke the surface, halfway between the ship and land. He sucked in great lungfuls of air, and she helped him to stay afloat.

On the deck of the
Adventure,
men were yelling, but Lacy ignored them. She turned toward the island, pulling James with her.

“Where the hell are you going?” Captain Kay shouted. Lacy turned her back on him and kept swimming.

They waded out of the water and climbed up the bank. Lacy was still numb with shock, but it was important that she be alone with James—to hold him in her arms. If she closed her eyes, she could still see the eel coming for her, and she knew that death had missed her by a hair’s breadth.

“Come ...” she managed. “Come with me.” Her hand trembled as she held it out to James.

His eyes met hers, and she winced as the old anger filled his gaze. “Why should I?” he said brusquely.

A few running steps took her into the jungle. She darted into the dense green forest without looking back. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she ran, heedless of the scrubs and vines that scratched her legs and threatened to trip her.

“Lacy!” James called.

She kept running. The snap of branches behind her told her that he was following. She ran until her breath came in ragged gulps, then she stopped and turned to face him.

“What game are you playing, you cold, calculating little bitch?” he demanded as he stepped out of the trees and took an arrogant stance, wide shoulders back and one hip thrust forward.

He was naked except for the leather sword belt and the knife at his waist. For a long moment she stared at him, eating him with her eyes. God, but he was beautiful! He looked like some mythical merman come up from the sea to ravish an earthling female. His dark hair had come loose from its queue and hung down around his shoulders. His eyes glittered dangerously; she could feel the raw power emanating from them.

She trembled in spite of the warm air. “James, I—” she stammered.

He moved so quickly that she couldn’t have escaped him if she wanted to. His powerful hands closed on her shoulders and shook her roughly. “What do you want of me, Lacy? Is this what you want?” He lowered his head and crushed his mouth against hers in a bruising kiss of lust and anger.

“No!” She struggled free and retreated from him, rubbing her lips with the back of her hand. “Not like that,” she said. “Not like you’d take a dockside whore.”

“And what are you, if you’re not a whore? You sell your favors to the highest bidder.”

She shook her head, blinking back tears of pain and anger. “That’s not true,” she choked. “I’ve not—”

“Save your lies for someone who’ll believe them.”

Her voice cracked. “You’re the only man I ever loved.”

“Don’t talk to me of love. What does it matter? We were business partners, remember? What do I care if you’ve left me for Matthew? We never made any promises.”