The Blue Diamond (The Razor's Edge Book 1) (21 page)

“Will someone tell me what
has happened? Where is Madame Ivory?” Green asked, slowly lowering his pistols
to the floor.

“Ivory’s gone, in case you
hadn’t noticed, and your captain here won’t give us her letter.” Keara growled.

“Maddox, is this true? Ivory
has escaped?”

“Yes, and we are all wasting
precious time here while she could be out there in grave danger. There are
Royal Navy everywhere,” Maddox stated over a hard swallow.

“Grave danger, you say? And
what was she in before she escaped?” Keara raised her sword to his chin.

Maddox looked at Green and
shrugged, as Green rolled his eyes and raised his arms at the dagger now
pointed at his side by one of Keara’s men. “I can assure you, she was in no
danger whilst under my watch,” Maddox said, moving his chin to the side and lowering
his hands to his hips. “You are all spending far too much time on me, when you
should be out there looking for Ivory.”

“We’re not going anywhere
until this ship is searched from top to bottom,” Keara said, again pointing her
sword at his chest.

“He’s right. We must
hurry.
 
Keara, take Master Green and form
a search. I’ll stay here and keep a close eye on Captain Carbonale,” Cassandra
said drawing her pistol and pointing it at Maddox, whose hands once again raised
to his ears.

“You heard the lady, Master
Green,” Keara ordered. She sheathed her sword and snatched Green’s pistols from
the floor, pointing them at his back. “You men, stay close.
 
And Green, if your crew tries anything, I’ll
blow two holes in you before they can draw breath.”

Once Cassandra was alone
with Maddox, she ordered him to have a seat on the cot and she pulled up the
chair facing him. “Give me the letter.”

“Please, Madame, I’d rather
not…” Maddox was interrupted by the pistol, now pointed directly at the dimple
in his handsome chin. “Of course…here, take it, if you must,” he murmured,
turning it between his fingers and slowly lowering it toward her.

Cassandra stood and backed
away from him as she opened it, looking down at the words and then back at him
repeatedly. She folded the letter closed and set it on the tea table. “Well?”
she asked.
 
“Do you love her?”

“That’s a rather personal
question, don’t you think?”

“How much more personal can
it be for me, while I am standing here holding your life in my hands?” she
asked, extending the pistol to arms-length in front of her.

“Yes. Yes, I suppose I do
love her.
 
But what difference does it
make now?”

“It makes all the difference
in the world. How can you send someone to the gallows whom you claim to love?
Can you answer me that?”

“And how can you throw away
a lover simply because the man chooses not to give up the sea?”

Cass stiffened.
 
“This isn’t about Alphonse and me, Captain.
Although I’m surprised you’d even care to bring it up.”

“Oh, I’d say it’s very much
the same. Love doesn’t play out very well in our line of work does it, Madame?”

“I chose to leave him
because of loyalty. Where’s the loyalty in trading love for fifty thousand
pounds?”

“That was before…before I
knew her,” he answered, lowering his hands and resting them on his thighs.

“According to this letter,
you’ve gotten to know her better than any man alive, in only a week, and yet
here you are in Nassau. Had she not escaped, in several hours she could be
facing her death.”

“Please, I implore you,
Madame; let me go. Let me search for her myself.”

“You’re insane. Why would I
let you do that?”

“For love?”

“You don’t even know the
meaning of the word.”

“Why do you think I was in
this room when you and your people arrived? Did I bust through that door in the
middle of the night because I had nothing better to do?”

“You busted it because you
were afraid your pot of gold had escaped.”

“I busted it because I was
coming to set her free.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Look at me,” he said with
his arms outstretched. “Do I appear as a man who was attempting to thwart an
escape? I’m not even wearing shoes!”

Cassandra pulled the chair
away from Maddox and sat, resting the gun in her lap, but keeping it secure in
her left hand.
 

“May I have my letter back,
please?”

Cassandra reached over and
lifted the letter from the table and then tossed it at him. “Listen to me; I’m
not letting you go. If she’s out there, Keara will find her.
 
So, please, just sit there quietly until she
does. Once Ivory is found, if she chooses to believe your story, then so be it.
I, on the other hand, don’t have to.”

Maddox picked up the letter,
never breaking eye contact with her. He pulled it to his waist and slid it
beneath his hand, into his sash. “I’m terribly sorry, Madame. Yes, you do.”

* * * *

“All clear, Cap’n,” Richard
whispered in the dark, as he took Ivory’s hand and helped her onto the pier.
“Let’s go; they’ll be on to us soon enough.”

Richard leapt into the boat,
and Ivory followed. She hurried to sit and grabbed both oars as Richard
struggled to untie the rope from the piling. “Richard…”

“I’ve almost got it, Cap’n,”
he said, looking back over his shoulder at her barely visible face.
 
Even while wet, her glowing pale hair was
unmistakable. “I’ve got it!” he shouted as the rope grew slack in his hands,
and then they were free.

“Nay, lad.
I’ve
got it,” a voice spoke out of the
darkness as the silhouette of a man appeared on the dock, holding the end of
the line. Richard pulled hard, but he was no match for the broad-shouldered
young man at the other end. Ivory jumped to her feet and snatched the line from
Richard’s hands and held on, but pulling on the rope only served to bring them
closer to the pier.

“Let it go you, bastard!”

“I’ve heard tell there’s a
large bounty on a blonde sea-wench who thinks she’s a pirate. I’ll let this
rope go… once I’ve tied it securely around your neck.”

Ivory gasped as she
recognized the voice.
 
“Tommy? Tommy
Boston? This is your Captain, and I’m ordering you to release this rope and
help me!” Ivory was stunned and fought to balance herself as the small boat
rocked under the struggle.

“You’re not my captain
anymore, Ivory Shepard. Your bitch of a cousin saw to that. I have no captain,
and you have no freedom,” he grunted and pulled at the line, trying to tie it
back to the piling.

Ivory pulled the dagger from
her belt and handed it to Richard. “Cut this son of a bitch free, boy!” she
shouted.
 
She leveraged herself against
the bow of the boat as Tommy reeled them, hand over hand, back to the pier. Suddenly,
what sounded like a gun-shot struck the air, and Ivory fell backwards into the
boat. “Cap’n Ivory!” Richard cried out, dropping the dagger and falling to his
knees next to her.

“I’m…I’m fine,” she said,
holding up her bloodied, rope-burned hands.

“I thought ye was shot!”

Ivory looked up from her
back and then clambered to her hands and knees to the bow to find Tommy on his
knees, writhing in pain, with the tail of Maddox’s whip tightly entwined around
his neck. Maddox appeared as a giant looking down upon her. Richard knelt
behind her and grabbed the oars, nervously bouncing them against the water, but
going nowhere. The boat drifted a few feet, when Ivory saw Maddox give her a
nod.

“Richard, wait,” Ivory said,
taking an oar from him and paddling back towards the pier.

“No, Cap’n, please,” Richard
begged.

As the boat reached the end
of the boards, Maddox raised his free hand to hold her off and said, “Another
time,” as he pointed toward the
Cutlass
in the distance.

“But Maddox, wait…I’m
sorry.”

“You have nothing to be
sorry for, Ivory. Go…before I change my mind.”

Ivory pushed off the pier
and sat back as Richard slid the oar from her hands and rowed them into the
darkness.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

“Cass, what happened?” Keara
shouted as she ran into the room.

“He’s gone after her. I’m
sorry, Ke. He overtook me with Ivory’s razor and took my pistol.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, but we’ve got to go.
Untie me, please. She wasn’t aboard?”
Cassandra
asked, as she shook loose the ropes after Keara cut them.

“No, she got away. Let’s get
back to the
Cutlass.
Maybe, by some
miracle, she saw it and found a way to get there.”

“Knowing Ivory, she’d swim
it.”

“What of him?” Cassandra
asked, nodding at Master Green.

“I am no threat to you.
Leave. I will not attempt to stop you,” Green said, standing in the doorway
with his head lowered. Keara and the men walked from the room, and as Cassandra
passed, Green took her arm and held her back. “You are unharmed, I hope?”

“I already said he didn’t
hurt me,” she answered, never meeting his gaze.

“I know that. It is obvious
you are not injured,” he said, as he leaned over to acknowledge the butt of her
pistol that peeked out from beneath the mattress of the cot. “You are a complex
woman, but that is something I have always known. Why did you let him go?”

Upon hearing Keara’s shouts
for her to hurry up, Cassandra finally turned and faced Green, pulling her arm
free. “I had my reasons.”

“When can I see you?”

“You can’t see me—you never
have.
 
It is why we can never be
together.”

“Cassandra, I see you now,
and I want to try again. Ever since that day in Kingston, I…” he whispered. His
voice grew low and rich with emotion, and his breath was hot against her cheek.

“You knew the whole time he
had her, yet you lied to me. Why?” Cassandra asked as she stared straight
ahead.

“He is my Captain. Would you
not lie for Ivory?”

“I just lied to my cousin
and best friend for Ivory. Of course I would.
 
But I didn’t lie to you.”

“Yet, you did not answer my
question. When can I see you?” Green grabbed her again.
 
But this time, he wrapped his arms around her
waist and pulled her flat against him, lifting her off her feet to meet him
face to face. “Let me go, Alphonse!” she cried out as she struggled against
him. She turned her face from side to side to avoid his wanting mouth. His lips
pressed repeatedly against her cheeks as she twisted away from him. Once he
found the soft opening he was aiming for, he claimed it hard and held her by
the back of her neck to keep it, until she succumbed to his desperate kiss.

When she pushed off from him
and freed herself, there were tears in her eyes. She swiped them away, hard,
with the backs of her hands and ran off into the night. She hurried to the
waiting longboat, jumped in, and pulled the oars up into her lap.
 
She said almost nothing all the way back to
the
Cutlass.

“Is everything alright?”
Keara whispered over her shoulder.

“Never better,” she
sniffled.

“So, what are we goin’ ta’
do ‘bout Blacksnake?” Sandy asked.

“The first thing we’re going
to do is find Ivory. Then, we’ll worry about Blacksnake.”

“You know he ain’t gonna let
it rest, Cap’n.”

“I know. However, I may have
an offer he can’t refuse should he decide to pursue us back to Port Royal.”

“He won’t—at least not
tonight,” Cassandra mumbled.

* * * *

“Richard, look. That’s my
ship,” Ivory proudly announced as they each pulled an oar.

“So, that’s the
Cutlass
, then? Fine looking vessel,
Cap’n,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at the silhouette of the ship.
The small bits of light emanating from it could easily be mistaken for
twinkling stars.

At last they pulled
along-side of her, and Ivory blew her signature whistle to gain the attention
of whomever was closest on deck to toss down the rope ladder.
 
To her delight, it was Willy who answered the
call. He scrambled to toss the ladder and awaited their climb.

“Ahoy! Aye, lass, it’s you!”
he exclaimed as he gave her a hand up, and she in turn pulled Richard up as
well.

“Yes it is, and all in one
piece,” she said smiling.

“Made ye a friend, did ye?”

“Yes, this is Richard, cabin
boy to Maddox Carbonale…well he was. Now, he’s a sailor in training, although
his first lesson will be how to take a damn order.” She smiled down at Richard
who appeared completely exhausted and barely able to hold his eyes open.

“Come along, laddie. I’ll
find ye an empty bunk,” Willy said and waved for Richard to follow him as he
waddled off. Richard stood frozen and looked up at Ivory for her approval.

“Go on. Get some rest.
Willy, wait… where is everyone?”

“I imagine Madame Keara,
Madame Cassandra, and the rest should be back soon since you’re here and not
o’er there. Miss Miranda was in the Cap’n’s quarters, last I seen her.”

Ivory ran her hand along the
rail as she walked towards the cabins and gave a heavy sigh. She was met with a
rousing welcome and a pat on the back from every man still awake and standing.
The door to her cabin was open, and the room was softly lit by the pale glow of
a candle on her desk. Miranda had fallen asleep and now lay with her head down,
using her forearms for a pillow. Ivory stepped around behind her without a
sound and leaned over and spoke in her ear.

“I’m gone a little over a
week, and I find you asleep at your post?”

Miranda’s head popped up and
twisted from side to side, and then she sat back hard in the chair and rubbed
at her eyes. Ivory stepped out from behind her and slammed her hand down on the
desk. Miranda jumped out of her seat and pounced on Ivory, nearly knocking her
over. “Cousin! They found you!”

“Well, no, not exactly, but
I’m back,” Ivory said with a laugh, holding tightly to Miranda.

“You’re alright, then? That
ol’ Blacksnake didn’t beat you or anything else…did he?” Miranda stood back and
inspected her cousin from head to foot and found no notable injury.

“No. I need to get out of
these wet clothes, but I’m as fit as ever—maybe better.”

“But, if you’re here, then
where’s Ke and the rest?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t
really try to board the
Cat,
did
they?”

“Well...that was the plan—to
board the
Cat
and rescue you.”

Ivory snatched the spyglass
from her desk and raced off to the deck. She swiped it open and pressed it to
her eye and found them, perhaps five minutes away. “I see something. I think
it’s them!” she shouted to Miranda, now rushing to her side.

“Thank God.”

Ivory raised the spyglass
again and aimed it straight at the
Cat
.
“I can barely see through this thing. I knew Richard had doused the lights,
but…”

“Well, we’ve an hour until
sunrise, and Ke will be aboard any minute now. Don’t you think it would be a
good idea to raise sail and get the hell out of here?”

Ivory lowered the spyglass
and found herself lost in thought for a few moments. “I’m sorry, what did you
say?”

“Are you sure you’re
alright?”

“Yes…yes, of course I am. I
just need a few hours of sleep, and I’ll be my old pain-in-the-ass self. I’ll
have Willy wake the crew and ready her for sail immediately. Let’s go home,
Mir.”

“Let’s get the others aboard
first, right?” Miranda suggested with an arched brow.

“Of course…” Ivory dipped
forward towards Miranda and began to fall. Miranda caught her in her arms and
screamed for help, bringing several sailors to her aid. “Help me get her to her
bunk!”

Several hours had passed
before Ivory opened her eyes and realized they were at sail under a good wind.
She sat up on her elbows and found Keara asleep in the chair next to her bunk.
She rubbed at her eyes and yawned before she sat up and threw her legs over the
side.

“Ivory, you’re up,” Keara
said, sitting up straight in the chair.

“Barely. I have to
pee…badly.”

“I’ll get it for you.”

“The hell you will. I think
I can remember how to do this for myself.”

Keara stood and paced the
room as Ivory relieved herself. “So, you’re alright then?”

“I was just tired, Ke. Not
to worry. I was locked up in a room for a week. You know me; without fresh air
and my crew I get a little addled.”

“Addled is a good word for
it, I suppose,” Keara mumbled.

“Instead of our usual
bickering banter, how about a welcome back?”

“I’ll welcome you when
you’re through over there,” Keara said, waving Ivory off over her shoulder.

“Thanks for keeping things
right, Ke. I knew I could count on you.” Ivory walked to her desk and sat down.
She flipped open the log and studied it for a moment, while Keara sat in the
opposite chair and dropped her bare feet on the desk, crossing her ankles.

“Really, Ke?”

“We need to talk.”

“I can’t talk to the soles
of your filthy feet. Do you mind?”

Keara put her feet back on
the floor and scooted the chair until her knees touched the backside of the
desk. “So…are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Why don’t we wait for Cass
and Miranda?”

“I think you and I should go
over this first.”

“Well, as I’m sure you know
by now, Carbonale sent the two sloops after the
Diamond
.
  
Once she was
underwater, I climbed into a longboat and floated around for a few days, baking
in the sun with nothing but a half bottle of rum. They pursued me and dragged
me from the boat, half-dead.
 
Then, they
locked me up, nursed me back to health, slapped a dress on me, and drug me to
his ship, bound for Nassau.”

As she spoke, she dressed
and walked to the mirror. She lifted a comb from her dresser and pulled it
through her hair slowly, glancing back at Keara to gauge her temperament. Ivory
never knew what to expect from Keara. Her disposition could be like the edge of
a dagger, but her heart was the size of a whale. When Ivory combed her hair
back away from her face, the short piece kept falling forward.
 
She pulled it as close to her head as she
could, tucking it into the leather tie. “Ugh! It will be months before this
stupid hunk of straw grows out.”

“So…it sounds as if you left
out the part where you and Blacksnake ended up in bed together.”

“Now, hold it right there,
Ke…” Ivory said, no longer able to put off Keara’s questions.

“Hold my ass, Ivory. What
the hell really happened? We risked our necks to get you back only to find out
you two were having some twisted affair. Tell me you only did it to win him
over. Tell me you did it because you were desperate. Jesus Christ, tell me you
did it because he’s so damn pretty… because the Ivory I know wouldn’t allow herself
to be bedded down by some pirate traitor who plans to sell her ass to the
guard!” Keara’s voice rose to a shout.

“Stand down, Ke. First, how
do you know any of this?”

“I’ll stand down, but you
have to explain this to me. Are you certain you weren’t drugged or something?”
Keara took her signature stance and burrowed her hands into her waist.

“How do you know about
Maddox and me?” Ivory repeated. She flew to her feet and slammed her hands down
hard on the desk.

“Because when we reached the
cabin where he was holding you, he was there.
 
He gave us some bullshit story that he was there to let you go.”

“Let me go?” Ivory’s voice
softened.

“Why the hell else would he
let you go, but for some intimate reason? We certainly didn’t believe he’d just
had a sudden change of heart.” Keara was now on her feet as well, staring into
Ivory’s face. Ivory spun away from her cousin’s prying gaze and walked to the
window.
 
She stared at the waves, as
every churn and bubble behind the ship led her further from Maddox. Keara waited
for an answer and took her seat.