Swept to Sea (9 page)

Then she realized her baby brother's life was at stake. Why was she wallowing on the ground in self-pity and not doing something?

"No! Please! Don't hurt him, I beg of you! He is just a child! Please, sir. Show some mercy." Her screams were stifled by the cloth over her mouth.

Lord Rutger chortled at her useless attempts. Ivy regretted ever allowing, even slightly encouraging, her dearest friend’s engagement to this wicked, heartless man. She had nothing he could want from her, and yet for some reason, he was here. Threatening her. And William.

"I will unbind you if you vow to remain silent."

She nodded fervently. Really, she would do anything he asked just to remove that knife from little William’s throat.

"And if you make a single noise without my permission, I swear I will kill the baby. The child means nothing at all to me.

“Now, you will be a good girl for me, will you not?" he threatened in a demeaning tone.

She nodded again, her eyes wide as he removed the cloth from her mouth and dragged her up to a standing position. She was tempted to scream, but she knew from the hard look in Lord Rutger's eyes he would kill William without a second thought. What could he want so badly from Ivy that he would visit her in the middle of the night and threaten her and her brother like this?

"I am aware that you have been one of my fiancée's closest friends for many years."

She nodded hesitantly. Eden. Her stomach tightened into a nearly unbearable knot of dread. A droplet of cold sweat slid down her back beneath her nightdress and stopped between her shoulder blades.

"I assume she has graced you with the knowledge of all of her deepest, darkest secrets," he continued, grabbing one of her red curls and squashing it between his manicured fingers. She jerked away, disgust boiling within her. Had she truly, foolishly, once thought this man handsome?

How she wanted to smack away the malicious grin that was plastered on the face she certainly no longer found attractive.

She remembered his question and nodded again.

"Tell me where she has gone,” he demanded, tugging on that lock of hair brutally before releasing it.

"I don't know." Ivy felt her face redden as it always did when she told a lie.

He smacked her across the face with the back of his hand, sending her flying onto the floor. "You filthy, lying little wench!"

****

Eden leaned over the captain’s son as she tucked him into bed that night. Captain Archer was nowhere in sight to do so, and it seemed the child was far too accustomed to staying up late. Well, she would have no more of that. Reed needed a responsible mother figure to help him grow up to become a good young man. She would have to scold the captain for neglecting the dear boy.

“Lady Trenton, I’m glad you are here. I am so happy that Papa didn’t throw you to the sharks like he did with the other stowaways we have found on other voyages.” The child’s hand found hers and squeezed it gently.

Eden gasped, surprised to find that the captain’s claims of tyranny were true. “He actually did that, Reed? Captain Archer… your father threw some poor, helpless person into the ocean like that?”

The little boy paused, a frown tightening his small face. “I can’t remember, Lady Trenton. He always told me that is what we do with stowaways onboard our ship, but I remember one time when we found an old man down there. Papa did not do anything to him; he just let him join the crew until he had paid for his passage on the ship.”

“That was kind of him.” Eden hid a satisfied grin. Maybe the captain wasn’t so harsh behind the gruff exterior he portrayed after all.

“Yes, it was, Lady Trenton. He’s the best pirate captain in all of the Caribbean!” The boy’s voice beamed with pride for his father.

Eden grinned down at him. “I am sure he is, Reed. By the way, darling, there is no need to call me ‘Lady Trenton.’ Please, you may call me Eden; I insist.”

A smile spread across his little face.

A smile that was an exact replica in miniature of his sire’s. “I would like that very much, Miss Eden.” She stifled a giggle at the polite title of “miss” he had given her. It seemed his father was actually teaching him some manners even though they lived on a barbaric pirate ship. Eden stepped away, preparing to sit in the leather armchair for a couple of moments before sleeping in the bed herself.

“Miss Eden?”

Eden stopped. “Yes, dear?” A surge of motherly longing swept through her when she saw his mussed blond hair and those purple-tinted blue eyes. She had never realized how much she longed for a child of her own. Well, there was no way she would have one because she had vowed to herself she would never marry. There was no way she could ever promise herself to a man. Never again would she allow another man to control her life like she had in the past.

“Miss Eden, I wish you were my mama.” Pity welled up in her heart at the boy’s sweet, innocent words. From what she had understood from the captain, Reed had never known his mother.

“Oh, Reed, darling, why would you say such a thing? I am certain your own mama loved you dearly,” she replied, pressing a gentle kiss onto the child’s forehead. She inhaled his innocent scent of childhood and the fresh, salty sea air.

“But my mama went to heaven without me before I even knew her, Papa says. She never tucked me into bed at night like you do.”

Warmth swept through her veins at the thought of the boy liking her so much. It was such a sad thing he would eventually grow up to be what she despised most: a man.

“Well, I will be more than honored to act like your mother for this voyage, darling, but I don’t ever want you to forget you had your own, real mother. Your Papa seems to have loved her a lot, so I am sure she was a very special woman.”

Chapter Seven

Eden closed her eyes and counted to ten. "Here I come!" she called.

Reed had persuaded her into playing a game of hide-and-seek with him in his father's cramped cabin while the captain was away commanding the ship. He was hardly ever around to spend time with Reed. The poor boy deserved much more attention.

Eden put a hand to her stomach. Since she had woken that morning, it had been upset, and she felt rather weak. The captain had told her it was probably just an unusual case of seasickness, but she had not realized it could hit her after well over a week of sailing. But she pushed her ailment aside, enjoying the chance to play with Reed.

She opened her eyes and almost immediately spotted the child lying down flat under the bed. To make him think he had found a great hiding spot, she wandered about the cabin, feigning the search for him.

"Hmmm, where did Reed go? Where on earth could he be? I do believe he has turned invisible," she mused, brushing a lock of her hair out of her face. Her words were answered by a fierce giggling. She knelt down next to Reed and tickled the child underneath the ribs.

He laughed all the more. Finally, out of breath and shaking with amusement, both stood. She put a hand to her forehead to fight off a thick wave of dizziness. The cabin moved around her more than it normally did on the rocking ship. Was that her dizziness or had the waves grown more choppy?

"It's your turn to hide now, Miss Eden!" She simply could not make herself say 'no' to those eager blue eyes that were a darker and younger version of his father's.

"Oh, really, Reed, I am far too big to hide in this tiny cabin. Why, I am over twice your size."

"Please, Miss Eden, please?" He pleaded, wrapping his little arms around her waist.

"Very well." She sighed as she finally gave in to the young boy's pleading tone.

"You have to count to
twenty,
Reed. Miss Eden is not as good at hiding as you are." She shivered, though she had no idea why. After all, she was having a good time, and if her memory served her correctly, it had been rather hot in the cabin just moments ago.

"All right!"

He covered his eyes, and she frantically searched for a nook large enough to conceal herself in. Eden squeezed her eyes shut to dismiss the black that was edging into her vision. She had never known seasickness felt like this. With a shake of her head, she continued the hunt for a hiding place. The captain’s sturdy wooden desk appeared in the corner of her vision. If she did not find her hiding spot soon, she would be spotted by the boy the second he opened his eyes, so she slipped underneath the piece of furniture as quietly as she possibly could despite her swishing skirts. Reed counted all the way up to twenty.

Just then the cabin door burst open.

****

"If you do not tell me where that blasted trollop ran off to, I swear I will kill your sniveling, whining little brat over here."

A shiver of terror convulsed Ivy’s entire body. The monster of a man would truly kill her poor little William.

"Please, sir," she whimpered. He struck her again, ruthlessly. Had he beaten poor Eden like this?

Oh, God, please keep Eden safe wherever she is. Please don't let this horrible monster find her.

"If I tell you, you will leave me and my family alone and safe? You will never harm us again?" she whispered, too afraid to look at his clear, emerald-green eyes that she once had thought were handsome. She most certainly no longer held that opinion.

"Yes."

Ivy bit her lip. She considered screaming for help but thought better of it. Her brother would be dead the instant she made a noise. Holding back a sob, she looked into the child's trusting, wide blue eyes that were just like their mother's. Second, her father would run in the minute he heard a cry. He was a small, thin man who was no match at all for Lord Rutger's tall, bulky frame.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her rattled nerves.

It did not help one bit.

She prayed Eden would find it in her to forgive her for this.

"She told me and A-," she had better leave Aimee out of this, she decided, "she told me she wished to catch a ship and head toward the Caribbean. Port Royal, possibly."

****

"Aimee, wake up." An anxious voice jarred Aimee awake from a peaceful dream. “Wake up this instant!”

"What?" She moaned, rolling over onto her side. Her soft embroidered coverlet squished underneath her. Reluctantly, she cracked her eyes open to see Ivy leaning close over her.

"It is an emergency, Aimee. You must get up and dress immediately."

She rolled over once more, and then rose from the comforting cocoon of blankets to begin dressing. "What is it that was so important that you had to come all the way up to my bedchamber this early in the morning?" Aimee groaned, stepping behind a curtain in the corner of her bed chamber. She called a maid in and waited until the young lady who did not meet her eyes came forward, pretending to ignore her mistress’s conversation. The woman tightened Aimee’s stays near to their breaking point as Aimee always demanded.

"It took a quarter of an hour to get past your grumpy old housekeeper. She did not want me to come up here, and I was almost ready to climb through your window. Lord Rutger has set sail in pursuit of Eden."

Aimee poked her head through the curtain. Ivy was sitting at Aimee’s vanity, sorting the jars and bottles that cluttered it. The strong, fragrant scent of lavender perfume filled the air.

"And…?" Aimee sighed the tired question. Lord Rutger was Eden's fiancé. He possessed every right to seek his runaway bride.

"
And
he happens to be a horrible, wicked man who will stop at nothing to obtain what he wants, no matter what the cost. He snuck into my bedchamber last night when I accidentally left my window open. First he threatened me with a knife, and then he threatened to kill little William if I did not do exactly as he said."

Aimee gasped at this news. So Lord Rutger was every bit as terrible as Eden had hinted to them. Why, then, had Aimee and Ivy refused to believe their poor friend's claims?

"Whatever did he do that for? What would he want with you and your little brother?" Aimee inquired, frowning. She dismissed her maid and emerged from the curtain.

"He threatened me and my brother until I was forced to reveal to him that Eden had planned to head for Port Royal. I… I was so frightened."

"Egad," Aimee whispered strongly, not caring about her unladylike language. Her mother was not in the room to correct her, anyway.

Poor Eden.

"And now I am utterly terrified he will catch her and hurt her, and it will all be my fault because I told him where she was going." Ivy’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

"What can we do, though, Ivy? We are simply women; we’re no match for Lord Rutger and whatever he could do to her."

"I know, but perhaps we can get someone to aid us in her rescue. We have a few merchants and privateers in our congregation who hopefully might be headed toward Port Royal." Ivy didn’t add that she wondered who would ever agree to help them find a young woman who had run away.

****

Lord Clive Rutger stood in his bedchamber and glared at the light flickering in the fireplace. It reminded him of the fire he saw in Eden’s eyes when he hit her. He needed to extinguish that fire. A woman should learn how to obey the men in her life without question, and the little flower still had not.

He paced about the room, his fists clenched tight.

So, the little disrespectful woman had run away. Did she not realize he would not let her go so easily? She was promised to
him.

He sank down onto a chair, rubbing his face with his hands.

The Caribbean.

Of course she would run off somewhere far away, somewhere exotic where she thought he would never find her. Well, she was wrong. He could hire a ship to take him to find her.

He would
not
let her get away.

****

"Hmm, what have we got here?" Caspian chuckled, tossing his baldric and weapons onto an armchair rather than putting them away. "Why, I do believe that I have a beautiful young lady hiding out under my desk. Now, is that not a strange occurrence, Reed?" Caspian asked. The child giggled, his eyes sparkling in amusement. "I daresay this has not happened to me before."