Once a Mistress (27 page)

“But I hunted her like a rutting beast.”

“She was your wife, Alex, and you had been more than patient. When she first refused your attentions, did you go to any other women?”

“No.”

“Because you loved her, and you wanted to show her that. If her parents had only let her fulfill her true desires, then none of this would have happened.”

“You are more understanding than I deserve.” He enfolded her in his arms. “Recently it occurred to me that Bianca should never have married. She should have been permitted to follow her heart’s desire and join the holy order.”

“Indeed she should have. I am sure if you had realized her vocation, you would not have married her.”

“No, I wouldn’t have.”

“Her death was an accident, Alex. Accept it and go on with your life. She was a woman of God. I don’t think she would want you to hate yourself for what happened.”

“Perhaps. I would like to think that she has forgiven me.” He kissed the top of her head. The tension that had gripped him while retelling the tale faded away, and he changed the subject. “Why is it that your hair smells like rum?”

“Perhaps because I sneaked aboard inside a cask of rum?” She traced her finger over the front of his shirt and refused to meet his eyes.

“You did what!” He gripped her arms and gave her a hard shake. “Don’t you realize how dangerous that is?”

“Of course I do, but ‘twas the only thing I could think of at the time.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “You will be the death of me, woman. But what is done, is done. Perhaps this would explain why you are wearing my clothes? Not that they don’t look fetching, you understand.”

Sensing his lighter mood, she stepped out of his arms and gave him a smile of pure seduction. “Would you like them back?” She toyed with the hem of the shirt.

He arched a brow. “Aye, I would.”

“Very well.” His love gave her a confidence she had never felt before. Inching out of the shirt, she drew out the task until he was all but salivating. She tossed the garment aside triumphantly and smiled at him, bare to the waist.

He took her into his arms, pressing her soft breasts against his naked chest. “You’re a wanton bit of goods.”

She gave him a cheeky grin. “Aren’t you lucky?”

“I am at that.” He nuzzled her neck. “So when do I get my breeches back?”

The door crashed open. Birk charged inside, then halted as he took in the scene before him. “Well now,” was all he said.

“Damn it, Birk!” Alex had turned his back at the sound of the door to protect Diana’s modesty. “What the devil do you want now? Haven’t you caused enough trouble for one day?”

“Ha!” Birk grinned as much as he was able with his split lip “Ye should be thankin’ me for makin sure she didna end up buried in the hold.”

“
You knew
!” Diana’s temper snapped as she recalled every word and deed since Birk had first approached Mister James and young Carver. She all but climbed over Alex to get to the grinning Scot, but her lover held her firmly and would not loose her.

“Easy, my love,” Alex laughed. “You are not exactly dressed for battle at the moment.”

Her cheeks flushed with heat as she recalled her state of undress. Peering around Alex’s muscular torso, she narrowed her eyes at the physician. “You will pay, Birk Fraser. Beware.”

“Indeed, lassie.” Still chuckling, Birk left the cabin, closing the door behind him.

“What was that about?”

“Your friend has an odd sense of humor,” she muttered. “I will tell you the whole of it later. In the meantime, where were we?”

“Right here.” He lowered his mouth to hers.

“Ah, Port Royal. A golden treasury of information.”
 

Dressed like a lord in a blue satin coat and breeches with a snow-white shirt, Marcus looked down on the busy street from the window of his room above the Hart & Hound tavern. Much as he preferred the comfort of his own cabin on the
Renegade
, Morgan had made it virtually impossible for him to drop anchor in the harbor anywhere near Port Royal. So Marcus had been forced to send his ship into hiding further down the coast while he and a few of his men took rooms in the city. But the situation did have its advantages.

“If there is information to be bought about El Moreno, this is the place to purchase it. Anything in this city can be had for a price.” He smiled and glanced at the bed. “Wouldn’t you agree, my dear?”

The young girl tied spread-eagled to the bed gave a frightened whimper from behind her gag and turned her face away.

“Now, none of that.” Marcus approached the bed. He stopped about a foot away, admiring the contrast of the girl’s pale, naked body against the dark coverlet of the bed. He sipped at the goblet of wine he held, his gaze missing no detail, allowing her no secrets. “For instance, it was quite simple to find a man so fond of drink that he was willing to sell his virgin daughter for the price of a cask of ale.”

The girl whimpered again, hiding her face in her long, dark hair.

Marcus chuckled. “Given that, my dear, it should be a simple matter to acquire information about my enemy.”

He said no more, merely stood there sipping his wine and watching her body tremble beneath the weight of his stare. He enjoyed this game, making her so aware of him, so frightened of him, before he even touched her. It made the triumph of bedding her that much more exciting.

A knock sounded at the door. He scowled. “Enter.”

Scroggins shuffled into the room. “He’s comin’, cap’n.”

“Is he?” Marcus turned away from the girl. “Are you certain?”

“Aye. Ship’s been sighted. He’s comin’ all right.”

“Excellent.” Marcus rolled the pewter goblet between his hands. “Send a man to the docks. I want to know everything he does from the moment he drops anchor.
And
if that red-haired bitch is with him.”

“Aye, cap’n.” With a bob of his head, Scroggins retreated from the room.

Marcus turned back to the bed. “What marvelous news!” He dipped his finger into the wine and slowly traced a line of crimson over her naked thigh. Then he set the goblet down. “We must celebrate. And, my dear, I insist that you share in my joy.”

Smiling, he began to take off his clothes.

The return voyage to Jamaica seemed to pass much more swiftly than had the journey to Besosa. Diana stood at the rail and watched the familiar buildings of Thames Street become clearer as the ship approached King’s Wharf. Though she knew Port Royal as well as she knew her own estate, the city looked different to her now. More colorful. More alive. More exciting. She knew that Port Royal could not have changed that much in the time she had been gone, which meant the transformation had to be in her.

Alex came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “Happy to be home?”

“Yes.” She let her head fall back against his shoulder and closed her hands over his where they clasped around her waist. “But at the same time I wish we had not returned. What are we to do now? I worry about you walking so freely through the city with so many soldiers about.”

“Do not concern yourself,” he reassured her. “I have never once been detained by the military.”

“There is always a first time.”

He laughed and turned her to face him, dropping a kiss on her lips. “There is no need to fear, my sweet. You are the only one who can identify El Moreno.”

“I wish we didn’t have to return at all,” she sighed.

“We must if we are to help your father. Besides, Port Royal is where Chilton is, and therefore the best place to begin searching for Marcus.” He arched a brow. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to confine yourself to the cabin while we are in port?”

“No.” She tilted her chin, anticipating an argument.

“I didn’t think so. But you will obey my every order to the letter, do you understand?”

“I will. I just want to be with you.”

“I cannot object to that.” He pulled her closer, but she held back from his embrace with her hands on his chest.

“Alex, I would ask something of you.”

“Name it.”

“Allow me to visit with my father while we are here. I know he must be worried about me.”

“No.”

“
Please
, Alex!”

“‘Tis too dangerous. You may send your father a message, but you will not leave the ship.”

“He will not believe a piece of paper. I know my father, Alex. He will want to see for himself that I am unharmed. Let me go to him.”

“No.”

“You can send men with me, armed men—”

“No.”

“Please, Alex.” She stroked the hollow of his throat with her finger. “What if it were your daughter that had been taken? Would you not wish to assure yourself of her safety?”

“I have no daughter.”

“Are you certain?” She gave him a mysterious smile. “Perhaps I carry your child even now.”

Alex stared at her, images exploding in his mind. Diana, round with child. A dark-haired infant suckling at her fair breast. Himself swinging a dark-eyed little girl in his arms, her giggles filling the air with joy.

His mouth suddenly dry, he placed a trembling hand on her abdomen. “Nothing would please me more.”

“Think how you would feel,” she said, covering his hand with hers, “if someone like Marcus snatched your daughter away without a word. You have no idea what happened to her. Horrible possibilities haunt your dreams. Frustration eats at you.”

Her words struck home. He was a man who was dedicated to his family. Hadn’t this whole farce begun because he was determined to avenge his brother’s murder? His conscience nagged at him. He did not want to leave Diana’s father in torment.

“I will think about it,” he sighed. “But that is all.”

“Thank you, Alex!” She kissed him.

“I’m going to regret this,” he muttered.

“No, you won’t.” She kissed him again and made him forget his misgivings.

It was time. Frederick removed the ledger pages from behind the portrait of his late wife. The time limit he had given Chilton was up, and there was still no sign of Diana. A man of his word, he would bring the evidence to Morgan and set events in motion to recover his daughter.

He knew the pages could incriminate him as well as Chilton, but the sacrifice was worth it. His own fate meant nothing. It was Diana who mattered…if she still lived.

Tucking the papers safely in the deep pocket of his coat, Frederick left for Morgan’s office in Port Royal.

“I cannot fathom it.” Diana bit her lip as she contemplated the disturbing news. The sailor who had borne the ill tidings shifted his feet as he awaited her decision.

They had dropped anchor in Port Royal early that morning, and Alex had left but a half hour past on an errand he had declined to discuss. He had refused to depart, however, until she gave him her word that she would remain on the ship until his return. At that time, he said, he would consider allowing her to visit her father. Truly, she had had every intention of obeying him.

But this changed everything.

She closed her hands over the rail and stared unseeingly at the buildings of Port Royal. She needed to determine what she would do next. She longed to keep her word to Alex. But Rico Fernandez, one of Alex’s gunners, had heard in the marketplace that her father had become desperately ill shortly after her disappearance. Now, more than ever, she needed to go to him and assure him of her safety.

But she had promised Alex.

She bit her lip and tried to control the rising panic in her breast. Her mother had died of a fever four years past, as had her betrothed, Edward. She did not think she could stand to lose someone else she loved.

There was no choice. She had to go.

Alex would understand. As things stood, she could appreciate his reluctance to let her visit her father. Not only was there danger in doing so, but there was no guarantee that once returned home, she would be able to come back to him. Knowing Frederick Covington, Diana had every reason to expect her father to keep her under lock and key until she was safely wed to some suitable gentleman. But this was different. Her father was ill, and he needed her. If Alex only knew, Diana was certain he would allow her to go back to Covington Hall. She had to assure her father that she was alive and unharmed.

“Would you arrange some sort of transportation, Mister Fernandez?” she asked, her decision made. “I would like to go visit my father.”

Fernandez scratched his head. “The captain no like this,” he said in his thick Spanish accent.

“The captain will understand. Now will you do as I ask, or must I do it myself?”

“No, no… I help you.” He slapped his chest and grinned, displaying rotted teeth. “I come too. Protect the woman of El Moreno.”

“Very well.” An armed escort would certainly placate Alex. “The captain will appreciate that, I am sure.”

Fernandez nodded eagerly. “I go now…get carriage.”

“A carriage would be perfect.” She watched as he nodded again, then scurried away to see to his task. Alex would have no objections, she thought as she turned away from the rail. She knew he would understand that she had to go to her father when he was ill, and one of his own men would be accompanying her. She only wished Mister Fraser had not gone into Port Royal. Though she was acquainted with Fernandez, due to his notoriety as the only man from the skeleton crew aboard the
Renegade
who had survived Marcus’s escape, she would have felt safer with someone she trusted at her side. Also, Birk was a physician.

Alex would have been her first choice, of course. She would love for her father to meet him, so that he could see for himself what a fine man Alex was. She thought they might like each other, both self-made men, men of the sea.

She would tell her father about him, she decided. She would tell him how El Moreno had saved her life. How he had protected her. And how she loved him. Aye, Frederick Covington would come to know El Moreno for the man he was, not the legend. Just as she had.

With a contented smile, she went below to ready herself for her journey.

Chapter Eighteen