Swept Away (9 page)

Stephanie fussed with her kid gloves, tugging on them as though their fit were not superb. “I have missed you,” she whispered, silently praying he would reply with something sweet even though he had never used even the slightest endearment with her. When Raven appeared to be too astonished by that confession to say anything at all, she quickly moved to his side and threw her arms around his neck.

“Oh Raven, don’t you have any tender feelings for me? I’m so fond of you and I don’t want the gossip Eden and Alex’s elopement has caused to keep us apart any longer.”

Raven turned his head quickly and her wet kiss slid off his cheek. Disgusted she would be so forward when he had given her no indication he would welcome such an affectionate display, he took a firm hold on the distraught young woman’s shoulders and forced her away. “Stephanie, please. I can understand why you’re upset, but it really has nothing to do with me.”

“But it has everything to do with you!” she exclaimed, the carefully constructed façade of her ladylike demeanor now ripped to shreds. “You enjoyed my company, I know that you did. Now Eden has ruined our chances to find happiness together, and I’ll never forgive her for that. I wish she had stayed in Richmond where she belongs. She ruined all our lives by coming here!”

Stephanie’s hysterical accusations failed to move Raven. He eyed her coldly as she withdrew a lace handkerchief from her reticule and continued to sob as though she had suffered some terrible tragedy. She obviously blamed Eden for the embarrassment she and her mother had suffered and despised her for it. While he still doubted Alex would have thought of eloping on his own, Raven was repelled by Stephanie’s spiteful condemnation of her American cousin. Not about to take Eden’s side, however, he remained silent until they reached the Lawton home. He then escorted Stephanie to her door, but when he refused the loan of her carriage to return to the docks, she again grabbed his hand to detain him a moment longer.

“I could come to your ship again tomorrow. If only we could be alone for an hour or two, I know you’d realize how much you really care for me.”

Stephanie was quite blatantly offering herself to him, but Raven was merely annoyed rather than intrigued by the possibility of making love to her. An affair with her would not provide the escape he sought when she would undoubtedly demand marriage in exchange for her favors. Perhaps she was attempting to lay the same trap Eden had, but he was far too cautious a man to be caught as easily as Alex apparently had been.

“I think we should count ourselves fortunate if we never meet again, Lady Stephanie.” Raven reached around her to open the front door, and placing his hand in the center of her back, he propelled her into her home. He pulled the door closed behind her and turned away, hoping that a long and tiring walk would help him to get a better night’s sleep than he had had in a long while.

Lydia heard her daughter race up the stairs and slam her bedroom door. Curious as to the cause of that dramatic return, she looked out the window in time to see Raven striding down the walk. His features were set in a sullen frown and she guessed instantly what Stephanie had done. Hurrying to her room, she found her daughter lying across her bed, convulsed with tears.

“Have you taken leave of your senses?” Lydia began in the harsh tone she reserved for criticizing her only child. “Of what possible use is Raven Blade to us now? Do you think I would allow you to marry him now when it will be Eden who will be running Alex’s household? I was a fool not to realize that Alex could be tempted to remarry. He could have been yours if only we had guessed how vulnerable he was before Eden did.”

“But I don’t love Alex,” Stephanie insisted in tear-choked gasps. “Raven is the one I want.”

“So you paid him a call at his ship?” When Stephanie did not reply, Lydia assumed that she had guessed the truth. “I’ll not have you down on the docks chasing after men who haven’t the manners to call on you here. You’ll not leave this house again without a responsible chaperon. You knew better than to throw yourself at men before Eden came here to live. Your actions today are clearly the result of her influence rather than mine.”

“I’m nothing like Eden!” Stephanie shrieked. “I hate her, I hate her! Raven would have married me had she not interfered, I know that he would have.”

“Forget the man. He’s of no consequence now. Rest with a cold compress on your eyes until it’s time to dress for the Russells’ ball. We’ve already wasted too many nights on the wrong man. We can’t waste tonight as well.”

“I don’t want to go to the Russells’,” Stephanie complained in a hoarse sob.

“You’ll not only be there, you will be so charming none of the other girls will receive even half the attention that you do. We must begin to use the scandal Alex and Eden have created to our own advantage. You will not only draw attention, but use it to increase your popularity. Now stop carrying on so. There may be few men who are as handsome as Raven Blade, but you know which ones can equal the Clairbourne fortune and it’s one of those men you must enchant now.”

Stephanie had been tutored from the cradle to know she had to marry well, not only to ensure a comfortable life for herself but to uphold her family’s reputation. Because her mother’s plan offered the only way to salvage the pride she had sacrificed in declaring her feelings to Raven, she gave in and wiped away her tears. “Yes, Mother. I’ll go tonight, and I’ll try to impress everyone.”

“You’ll not merely try, my dear. You’ll succeed.” Lydia closed Stephanie’s bedroom door behind her and returned to her own room. She needed to take a nap herself after that scene. With Eden now a countess, Stephanie had to do at least as well. Lydia simply would not allow Sarah’s daughter to outshine her own. As she drifted off to sleep, she ran through a mental list of eligible bachelors until she was satisfied there were several who would find her daughter absolutely irresistible that night. She was determined that they would soon have another wedding in the family, and this time an appropriately elaborate one that would be the envy of all her friends.

It was dark by the time Raven reached the
Jamaican Wind.
He went to his cabin to clean up before supper, but found he had little appetite despite the long walk Stephanie had caused him. At every party he had attended, she had always been surrounded by eager admirers so he could not honestly believe she had actually missed him.

He had not missed her at all.

It was Alex he missed, but he knew he would have an even more difficult time adjusting to his uncle’s return when his bride would always be by his side. Alex and Eden had been so close a couple before their marriage Raven was certain they would have no time for him now that they were husband and wife. He wasn’t jealous of Eden, he refused to call it that. He was merely apprehensive about being around her when it would be so difficult to keep his suspicions about her motives to himself. He had never been noted for his tact, but he had vowed not to reveal his opinion of Eden rather than upset Alex by voicing his doubts about her aloud. That was a promise he intended to keep, but he feared it might prove to be the most difficult challenge of his life.

Glancing around his cabin, he knew he should move his belongings into the smaller quarters Alex usually occupied so that the newlyweds could enjoy the more spacious captain’s cabin. It would be a generous gesture on his part, so he decided to do it, but not yet. Now he needed the space to pace, to stretch his legs on the nights when he could not sleep. There would be time enough during the next two weeks to trade cabins.

“Two weeks,” Raven whispered. He was so anxious to return home that a two-week delay seemed like an interminable wait. On the other hand, he knew that was not going to be nearly enough time to prepare himself to face Eden again.

He stretched out on his bunk and propped his head on his hands as he finally allowed his thoughts to dwell on her. He had no way of knowing what had been clever pretense and what had been real, but from the night they had met, she had had eyes only for Alex. Raven knew he was handsome, he heard it often enough from women, but Eden had never given him more than a passing glance. Whenever they had danced together, she had always seemed preoccupied, and relieved when the music ended and they could part.

Was her clear preference for Alex based on his wealth? Or was it possible Eden actually felt something for the man? He could not bear the thought she had married Alex for his money and not for the charming man he was. That was too cruel a trick to play on any man, no matter what the gain, but try as he might to analyze her actions, Raven still could not understand why Alex had married her. It was a question that plagued him both day and night. Why had Alex chosen to wed when he had so little time left to live? Why would any man inflict the pain of widowhood on a woman, no matter how irresistibly young or pretty?

When a familiar ache filled his chest, Raven finally recognized it as the painful loneliness he had endured as a child. With Alex’s elopement, the desolation of being alone had returned with full force. “My God,” he moaned softly. It had been nearly twenty years since Alex had taken him in but now the wretched memory of the shabbily dressed orphan he had once been tortured him as though he had never found a loving home with a kind and generous man.

With his usual thoughtfulness, Alex had urged him to use the joy of marriage to dull the pain that his death would surely bring. That the only young woman who had caught his eye was now his aunt struck Raven as the cruelest of jokes. Fate seemed determined to kick him right back into the gutter but he was equally determined to continue his escape from the lowly circumstances of his birth. One day, and he dreaded all too soon, he would be the Earl of Clairbourne, and he planned to wear that title as proudly as Alex always had. That he would have to face his future alone on that day did not frighten him, and he refused to wallow in sorrow while Alex was still alive.

Determined to overcome the tormenting sensation of isolation that threatened to overwhelm him, Raven left his cabin, and went to find Randy. The mate was always eager to go in search of a good time, and while Raven knew getting drunk again would only serve to blur his pain until morning, he needed sleep too badly to care.

Three days later, two letters arrived from Alex. They were hand-delivered by a groom named Peter Brady, who had a sweetheart in London and was always eager for an excuse to travel into the city. He handed over the two envelopes bearing Alex’s crest with so wide a grin Raven knew instantly they could not possibly contain bad news.

“I trust all is going well at Briarcliff,” the tall captain inquired of the groom.

“Much better than that, sir,” Peter informed him with a hearty chuckle. “None of us has ever seen his lordship so happy, and his bride is such a dear young woman we have all come to love her.”

Unable to reply to that unwanted piece of news with a polite response, Raven tipped Peter and sent him off to a nearby tavern for an hour to give him time to read the letters and answer them. Once seated at his desk, he found the envelopes were marked with numerals to indicate the order in which they were to be opened. Curious as to what sort of messages they contained, he slit open the first and found it to be a request to increase the amount of munitions they were carrying home. They had already loaded gunpowder, but Alex wished him to double the amount, and to purchase as many Kerr five-shot revolvers and Enfield rifles as the London Armoury could provide, along with as much of the appropriate ammunition as possible.

Raven thought the Confederacy was probably still desperately short of arms since the South had lacked munitions factories at the start of the War and had had to rely on blockade runners to supply their needs from European manufacturers. Was that what Alex intended to become, a blockade runner?

“No,” he answered himself aloud. “It is what Eden wants him to become!” Her plan was immediately clear. The first time Alex had mentioned he owned a clipper ship, Eden had been keenly interested in hearing all about it. Both he and Alex had assumed that was due to her family’s shipbuilding interests, but such a conclusion now seemed shockingly naïve. She had made no secret of the fact her father captained the
Southern Knight,
and now it seemed she planned to use her husband’s wealth and ship to keep her beloved Confederacy supplied with arms.

Raven drummed his fingers on his desk in an anxious rhythm as he weighed the wisdom of granting Alex’s request. It soon became apparent that he had no choice but to comply or he would make Alex appear to be an ineffectual fool in his bride’s eyes. He had never questioned Alex’s purchase orders in the past but he had never had reason to either. He would visit the London Armoury, and buy whatever he could, but he would not pretend to Alex he was pleased about what he intended to do. Tossing the letter aside, Raven opened the other one and found its contents even more disturbing.

Alex had written not to explain his elopement, but to praise the beauty and grace of his bride. He described the days they had spent together in rapturous detail and swore they were the best of his life. It was the last two paragraphs, however, that tore Raven’s heart in two.

“You have been the best friend I have ever had, and I was proud to name you as my heir,” Raven read aloud. “I beg you to look after Eden when I am gone. She is so wonderfully generous with her love that I cannot bear to think of her spending the rest of her life alone when what she deserves is the endless bliss she has given me. Please help her find a second husband who is as fine a man as you, a man who will cherish her love for the treasure it truly is.