Swept Away (40 page)

“That will present no problem if she does not interfere.”

“She has not the slightest interest in interfering with your work, Yadira. Don’t create problems where none exist.”

Yadira nodded slightly, then again regarded Raven with a seductive smile. “I can make your life very pleasant too,” she offered in a husky whisper. “If not tonight, then in a few months when your wife’s waist grows thick with your child.”

Raven did not know which was worse, Julian’s distasteful assumptions or Yadira’s blatant attempt to seduce him. Now there was an unlikely pair, he thought slyly. “I’ll have no need of you tonight, or ever, but Julian might be feeling lonely. I think he’s still in the study.” He turned away then, hoping she would consider the straitlaced doctor an exciting challenge.

Thinking Raven’s suggestion absurd, Yadira closed her door, but by the time she heard his footsteps ascending the stairs, she had reconsidered. Julian Ryan’s looks were too rugged to be called handsome, but she had never thought him unappealing. She had had no interest in him while Alex was alive, but now everything had changed. She took care to close her door quietly, and after leaving a lighted candle beneath Alex’s portrait, she made her way to the study.

Julian was seated in Alex’s chair, and had to turn to see her. He looked startled then rose clumsily to his feet. “Has one of the servants fallen ill?” he asked nervously. In all the years he had been coming to Alex’s home, the attractive housekeeper had always been so prim in her manner that he was flabbergasted by how different she looked in her nightgown with her hair loose.

Yadira moved across the room, and came so close Julian was prompted to take a step back. “Raven suggested you might need some company tonight. Surely you must need a woman as badly as other men do.”

Again Julian was so badly shocked it took him several seconds to find his voice and then he stuttered badly. “Miss, Miss Morales, really, you, you ought to be in your room.”

Yadira outlined her lips slowly with the tip of her tongue, then slipped her hands inside his jacket and laid her palms on his chest. His heart was already beating wildly and she considered that a compliment. “You do like women, don’t you, doctor?”

“Well, of course, I do, but, but

Yadira moved her hands down his body in a sensuous massage but her eyes never left his. She did not stop when she reached his belt, but merely unbuckled it and unbuttoned his trousers. The man looked terrified but he was already hard, and she responded with a throaty laugh as she began to caress him more boldly. “You’ve not been with a woman for a long, long time, have you? Have you forgotten how good it feels?”

She took Julian’s anguished moan for assurance her assumption was correct and abruptly stepped back. “If you want more, you’ll have to come to my room.” When she turned and left the study without a backward glance, Julian had to grab the waistband of his trousers to keep them from falling down around his ankles. Then he followed her with the eagerness of a homeless puppy.

The next morning, Julian asked to see Eden again before he and his sister left for home. Raven did not object, but she was still sleeping so soundly the doctor did not attempt to wake her.

They went into the hallway outside Eden’s door, and Julian took the precaution of making certain none of the servants were nearby before he spoke. The memory of how Yadira had insisted he remain stark naked when she had walked him back to his room shortly before dawn still made him feel as though he were being watched. She had stopped him just outside his sister’s door, where he had nearly gone mad trying to remain silent as she had told him goodbye in a manner he would never forget. The woman had done things to him he had not dared ask the prostitutes in Kingston to do and had given him the most remarkable night of his entire life.

To have to concentrate on his medical duties after such an erotic interlude was nearly impossible. He had not forgotten her comment that Raven had sent her to him, but there was nothing in the young man’s expression that led him to believe she had been telling the truth. Besides, it was far more flattering to think she had sought him out on her own.

“Have Eden remain in bed today, and tomorrow as well if she still seems a bit shaken when she wakes,” Julian instructed in the most professional manner he could affect while so preoccupied. “I imagine she must want this baby rather badly, and that ought to inspire her to keep a better control of her emotions than she did last night.”

“It was the Suttons’ heart problems that worried me, not my wife’s nerves.” Still feeling the sting of the doctor’s insulting innuendos, Raven found it difficult even to look at Julian, let alone converse with him. He just wanted him gone.

“Let’s pray the babe takes after his mother’s side of the family rather than his father’s. Other than that, there’s nothing anyone can do until the child is born. If he’s healthy, he’ll need no special care, and if he’s not, there will be precious little that anyone can do for him.”

“What marvelous advice. Don’t forget to send me a bill for your services.” Without waiting for a reply, Raven turned toward his wife’s door, but Julian reached out to stop him.

Realizing Raven was not going to apologize, Julian hurriedly did. “Wait, I said some very harsh things to you last night, and I want you to know I’m sorry I wasn’t more sympathetic. I’d like very much to continue to treat your wife. Rebecca has very few friends, and I know she’d not come here to visit Eden without me.”

Although surprised by Julian’s apology, Raven remembered his devotion to Alex and accepted it graciously. “All right, I’ll still consider you Eden’s physician then.”

“Good.” Julian sighed in relief. “I’ll stop by to see her as often as I can.”

“You’ve always been welcome here,” Raven reminded him before bidding him goodbye.

Julian took out his handkerchief and mopped his brow before joining Rebecca downstairs. He still thought Raven had extremely suspicious motives for marrying, but if he failed to attend Eden, he would have no excuse to see Yadira again. Fascinated by the exotic seductress, he planned to pay all his calls in the late afternoon so he would be invited to spend the night. Thrilled with the hope of again sampling the housekeeper’s affections, Julian vowed to return within a week.

By nature a restless man, Raven paced Eden’s bedroom waiting for her to wake until the sight of her wistful smile and graceful pose drove him so mad with desire he had to ask Amy, the youngest of the half-dozen maids, to take his place. He went down to the study to sort through the invoices for the portion of the cargo that he planned to sell in Kingston, but he found it impossible to keep his mind from wandering so badly he got little accomplished. It was his wife that mattered most to him, not how much he would earn from the voyage.
Jamaican Wind
’s

When Amy came to tell him Eden was awake, Raven dashed up the stairs two at a time. He paused outside her door to smooth the curls off his forehead and catch his breath, then strode into the room as though he had nothing more pressing on his mind than wishing Eden a good day.

Despite Amy’s protestations that she was not to leave her bed, Eden had not allowed the girl to send for Raven until she had gotten up and made herself presentable. She had returned to bed, but planned to get up again as soon as she had assured her husband she felt fine. When he leaned down to kiss her, she raised her hand to caress his cheek fondly.

“I’m so sorry about last night. I feel very foolish now. What must Julian and Rebecca think of me?”

Raven sat down beside her, and took her hands in his. “It really doesn’t matter what they think. You’re the only one who matters. How do you feel?”

“I’m always a little queasy when I wake, but other than that, I’m fine.”

“Good, but you mustn’t rush things. Julian wants you to stay in bed for a day or two.”

“But why? Did I make that great a fool of myself?”

“No, not at all. I told him about the baby, and whose it is. He just wants to see that you get plenty of rest and don’t become so upset ever again. I’m sure you must know as well as I do that it isn’t good for the baby.”

Eden thought it exceedingly unlikely that the babe could discern her state of mind, but she wanted no repetition of the previous night’s emotional turmoil for her own sake as well as her child’s. “You told me Yadira made that oil,” she reminded Raven self-consciously, concentrating on their clasped hands rather than risk meeting what she feared would be an impenetrable stare.

“That’s only one of the many things she does, Eden. She makes the scented candles, the fragrant soap, our cologne.”

At the mention of the cologne that had once caused her to mistake him for Alex, Eden’s head shot up, but she was relieved to find Raven’s expression sweet rather than hostile. She prayed that he would remain in such an understanding mood for a few more minutes. “She’s obviously very clever so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find her another position. Would you arrange that, please? Just find her a housekeeper’s job elsewhere.”

“You want me to dismiss her just because of that oil?”

“No,” Eden responded. “I think you know why I want her to leave. Please don’t make me say it.”

Raven had hoped Eden would never question the intimacy of Alex and Yadira’s relationship, but obviously she already had so he did not insult her by denying it. “Alex hired Yadira nearly ten years ago, and I can assure you it was because of her talents for running the household, not for any other reason. He was not yet thirty, a recent widower, and she took advantage of his loneliness. She was merely convenient, Eden, he never loved her. As far as I know, he hadn’t slept with her in several years.”

“He just used her. Is that what you’re saying?”

“No! She used him. I think she hoped that eventually Alex would marry her, but he had no intention of remarrying, and most especially not to her. They had an affair, but it meant nothing to him. There’s no reason to dismiss Yadira when Alex is dead and whatever existed between them was over a long time ago.”

“Did he stop sleeping with her because of his heart?”

“I don’t know what excuse he gave her, but believe me, it was over long before he met you.”

Eden clung to Raven’s hands more tightly as she tried to make him understand the reason for her request. “I don’t want to have to share this house with Alex’s former mistress. Don’t ask that of me, Raven. It’s positively obscene.”

“You’re pregnant and not feeling completely well. We ought to begin looking for a nanny to be certain we’ll have one next spring. This is no time for you to take on the added burden of hiring a new housekeeper too.”

Eden could not believe that Raven would be so obstinate, but she would not give in. “I want Yadira gone, Raven. We can find her a new position when we’re in Kingston next week, and send her to it with a generous severance bonus when we return. I won’t live in this house with Alex’s mistress. I won’t do it.”

There was not a trace of moisture in Eden’s glance now, but instead the menacing glow of fierce determination. Cut to the quick by her narrow view of the world that included no one but Alex, he released her hands and rose to his feet. “It hasn’t even occurred to you that there might have been something between Yadira and me, has it? Probably because you wouldn’t care one bit if there were. All you care about is your precious Alex. Well, the man is dead and I’ll not send Yadira packing just because she once slept with him. Christ almighty, if every woman fired all the servants her husband had slept with, there wouldn’t be a single English lord with a female on his staff!”

Raven stormed out of her room and slammed the door so loudly Amy came running to find out what was the matter. When she found Eden staring into space, she grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Oh my lady, what’s wrong with you now?” she began to wail.

The girl’s pitiful cries jarred Eden from the shock of Raven’s bitter farewell and Eden brushed her hands away. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I want to bathe, Amy. Go heat the water and I’ll be there as soon as I gather my clothes.”

“But you’re supposed to stay in bed.”

“Do as I say,” Eden scolded, in no mood to argue. She and Raven had far too much to straighten out for her to lie in bed all day waiting for him to cool down enough to return. He had been right, of course, she had not stopped to consider what his relationship might be with Yadira, but that he had failed to understand how that possibility hurt her now, was heartbreaking.

When Eden didn’t find Raven downstairs, she walked down to the docks. While the decks of the
Southern Knight
were alive with activity, the crew of the
Jamaican Wind
were either fishing in the river or huddled in small groups playing cards. Randy MacDermott directed her to the captain’s cabin, and thinking Raven would be alone, she did not bother to knock before she opened the door.

Both Nathan and Raven turned when she entered, but Nathan alone looked pleased to see her. “Can you give us a few more minutes, sweetheart? We’re discussing something important.”

Raven was eyeing her with so threatening a stare Eden had no desire to remain. “I’ll go for a walk, and see you later, Daddy.” Embarrassed she had disturbed them, she left the ship as swiftly as she had come. She paid no attention to those she passed as she started down the path beside the river, but when Michael Devane saw her, he quickly gave the men he had been supervising a break and ran to catch up with her.