The Pirate's Jewel (22 page)

She glanced past her lashes to watch Parker’s blue eyes
narrow in concentration as he twisted and gathered her hair in his large, rough
hands. “Parker, I’m sorry if I misused our friendship,” she said.

He grinned, but he didn’t take his gaze from her hair.
“That’s what I like about you, Jewel. Right to the point.”

She smiled, meeting his laughing eyes in the mirror.
“You’re not angry?”

“I’m relieved. You were putting me in a terrible position.
I was waiting for Captain Kenton to order me flogged at any moment.” With a
quick twist of his hands, he swept her hair up in a perfect chignon. “How’s
that?”

Jewel gasped. The artful sweep made her narrow face
graceful. It even distracted from the freckles dusting her nose by accentuating
her pale neck. “How did you do that? I’ve been struggling all morning.”

He winked at her. “Lots of practice.”

“You knew I was only trying to make Nolan jealous? Why did
you go along with it?” She held up her palm so Parker could pluck pins from her
hand.

He answered, “When you’re on a ship full of men and the
only girl on board—and a pretty one at that—is flirting with you, you don’t
care why. Even if it means demotion to cook.”

“I like you, Parker.” Their easy banter relaxed her. “But
it’s coming to my attention that you’re not the gentleman I thought you were. I
don’t think your sister taught you how to do this.”

“I
know
she didn’t,” a new voice said. Jewel and
Parker both turned to find Nolan standing in the doorway with a scowl that
could melt the sun.

They glanced at each other, and then back to Nolan. His
stare skewered Parker. Without a word, the lieutenant returned the pins he
still held to Jewel’s palm. She grabbed her chignon so he could swiftly make
his exit.

Nolan blocked the man’s escape. “Just because I need you
to be a stand-in for me doesn’t mean you have any other rights to my wife.”

Parker nodded. “Aye, Captain.” Nolan continued to stare as
if he could wilt Parker with his gaze alone. After a moment, he stepped aside and
Parker quickly left the room.

Nolan slammed the door, and then turned his scorching gaze
on Jewel. “Trying out some of your new skills? The tactics you used on me last
night would work on any man, I assure you.”

With jerky movements, she stuck the remaining pins in her
hair. Her trembling fingers made the simple task exceedingly difficult. Surely
she’d misunderstood him. “I didn’t use any tactics, Nolan. I just wanted to…touch
you. I thought you wanted the same.”

“I did, and now I must pay the price. I’m willing to take
responsibility for my actions—and, by God, you will, too!” He strode over to
her with such determination, she stepped back. Before she knew what he meant, he
plucked a hairpin and then another from her unfinished coiffure.

“Ouch.” She slapped his hand away. “You’re hurting me.
Leave it alone.”

He grabbed her by the shoulders, his grip tight enough to
force her to stare up into his penetrating eyes. “I won’t have another man
touching what is mine.”

She relaxed and leaned toward him. He was jealous and
unsure of where their relationship stood after last night. He probably felt as
awkward as she with their newfound intimacy. And he’d misunderstood what she’d meant
about Parker.

“He was only arranging my hair, Nolan.” With her
fingertips, she touched his cheek, and then his lips.

He let go of her as if he could no longer stand the contact,
but the fierce lines around his mouth softened. He gently removed the rest of
her hairpins, obviously taking great pains not to pull her hair again. “He was just
‘arranging your hair’ like I was just ‘trying to comfort you’ last night.”

Jewel forced herself to relax, though he pulled his fingers
through her hair and obliterated any signs of Parker’s neat creation. “You did
comfort me.”

Nolan smiled, but it was tight and cynical. “No, sweetheart—I
fucked you.” He picked up a ribbon from the table. With a hand on her shoulder,
he turned her so he could tie it. She glanced sideways in the mirror. He’d missed
whole chunks of hair in his haphazard efforts, but she dared not say a word
about it.

“How can you be so crude? I love you, Nolan.”

She watched him in the mirror. Every line in his face tightened
at her words. She wanted to close her eyes against what she couldn’t bear to
see. He didn’t share her feelings, not in the least.

Before she could think of something to say in the awful
silence, he rested his hands on her shoulders and slowly turned her to face
him. His expression was no longer angry, but grave. “I hope that’s true, Jewel…because
I’ve arranged for us to be married this afternoon.”

“Married?” Her excitement rushed up like a fountain, obliterating
what had just passed between them. What he had said to Parker upon entering the
room came back to her. “How? Who will marry us?”

He dropped his hands, removing any hint of emotion from
his face. “I will perform the ceremony. Parker will stand in for me as groom.”

Jewel lunged to hug him. That was why he’d spoken to her
so harshly. He had wanted to ask her to marry him and was infuriated to find
another man—Parker, of all people—with his hands in her hair. She realized how
it must have looked. She kissed the small space above Nolan’s tightly tied neck
cloth, planning to prove her devotion to him. “I’ll make you the best wife.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Jewel glanced up to find him stiff and unmoving. He didn’t
even return her embrace. She pulled away, but continued to grip his arms. The
vacant look in his eyes gave her the impression that, if she let go, he would
be lost to her forever. “What is it? Is it Parker? We’re merely friends.”

Nolan stepped away. “I wish he were the problem. It’s me,
I’m afraid. There is something you must know before we marry.”

Jewel wrapped her arms around her to stave off the chills
creeping up her spine. The sensation of losing Nolan grew stronger. Whatever it
was, she didn’t want to know. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m afraid it does. It’s about your father and our
relationship. It changed drastically after our visit to you.”

She squelched the desire to defend herself. It was unfair
of Nolan to hold the past against her. “Are you angry because I let my father
hurt you? I didn’t know what he was going to do.”

Nolan sighed and rubbed his shoulder. “No. I don’t want
you to feel responsible. I’m going about this all wrong. Sit.” He gestured to
the bed with his upturned palm.

She sat hesitantly, feeling as fragile as glass. He rubbed
his bottom lip with his index finger, while looking through her. Perhaps she
had turned as transparent as the oval window at her back. The man who had lain with
her, adored her on this very bed, didn’t appear to recognize her—nor she him.

“I killed your father,” he blurted, his words delivered like
a blow.

Jewel could only blink. Her hands grew numb. “I don’t
understand,” was all she could mumble. But she feared she did understand.

All those years ago, when her father had given her the map
for safekeeping, she’d hardly thought about Nolan. He’d been the enemy, the
reason she wasn’t able to leave with them to find the map. When he’d walked
into the Quail and Queen five years later, she no longer saw the shaggy boy who
had challenged her father in desperation to leave his crew, but a gentleman in
buff breeches and blue coat who came to her rescue. Of course, she had
suspected briefly that Nolan had done in her father, but she had easily
convinced herself otherwise.

His features remained stony even as her expression must
have shown the frantic direction of her thoughts. He perched on the desk’s
edge, unmoving, revealing nothing of his feelings. “I was a member of Bellamy’s
crew. An involuntary member, if you remember. I led a mutiny. I won; Bellamy
lost. He was sentenced to death, and I became captain in his place.”

His tone was sickeningly icy. He acted as if he were speaking
about the position of the sun rather than the death of a man Jewel had never
really known but who had still been her father. Had Nolan any remorse? He certainly
hinted at none. Nolan knew how many childish dreams she’d vested in her
father—probably unfounded, true, but that didn’t make his desertion any less
painful or Nolan’s words any less cruel. Why had he decided to tell her this
gruesome tale now?

“Who sentenced him to death?” she asked, fearing she knew
the answer but still hoping to whisk away the black dusk settling over what
she’d thought would be the start of a bright new life.

“I did.” Nolan straightened, and then came to stand in front
of her. “Do you want to be married in that?”

She glanced down at her dress, the green one, the one she’d
thought was Nolan’s favorite. It no longer held any pleasure for her. She
didn’t want to be married in it. She hated it. When she glanced up at his cold,
blue eyes, the same chill swept over her skin. “I need some time…to think.”

He folded his arms in front of him. “No. Time to think
would definitely be a mistake. We’ll be married within the hour. That should be
long enough for you to compose yourself.” He turned and strode to the door.

Jewel jumped to her feet, her fists clenched. Fury she didn’t
even know she possessed welled inside her. The man who faced her was not the
same who had shared her bed last night—and if he were, he’d played a merry game
at her expense. “No, I don’t need time to think. I’m not marrying you. I don’t
even know who you are.”

He stood stiff, daring her with his gaze to strike him.
“You know exactly who I am. I’m the same man who fought your father for his
freedom in an alley behind the Quail and Queen. I lost that time. Later, I won.
I didn’t do it to hurt you. Just the opposite, but I don’t expect you to
understand. If you recall, I tried to keep my distance from you from the
start.”

She turned away from the indignant curl of his lip and tight
line of his jaw. Hitting him became the furthest thing from her mind. She
couldn’t even dare to look at the remote stranger who had replaced the man she
had mistakenly thought she loved. “Well, what were you thinking when you came
to get the map from me?” She wanted to ask him what he was thinking last night
when he’d made love to his victim’s daughter, but his crude summation of the
event had already told her.

“I was retrieving my property. The map belonged to me. It
always did.” His bitter tone warned her that his stance hadn’t softened in the least.
In fact, he was becoming angrier. Jewel thought of the young British guard she
had killed. Having to face his mother or sister would easily tear her in two.
If he had a child—and she prayed he was too young—the guilt would be
suffocating. The very idea that she might have forced some little boy or girl
to endure the loneliness and want she had, crippled her with remorse. A man who
could do such a thing, and then deliver the news with such cold detachment,
couldn’t be the Nolan she thought she knew. He must have some explanation. He
must. “How could you face me?”

“I didn’t invite you on board my ship. You stowed away and
continued to insinuate yourself into my life when I wanted nothing to do with
you. Now you’re stuck.”

Again, the truth clawed at her sense of righteous
betrayal. She had forced him to see her as a woman when he was bent on ignoring
her. Her desperation to have him at all costs had included taking the advice of
a disreputable old pirate whose only experience with women undoubtedly came
from prostitutes. “I didn’t know. You didn’t tell me the truth. If I had
known—”

“Nobody else gets the truth, Jewel. Why should you? You
wanted me to be some kind of hero, but I’m just a man. You played on my needs
and I played on your vulnerability. We used each other, and now we have to pay
for our mistakes.”

She backed away from him. He’d bedded her, knowing he had
murdered her father. He’d thought about it.

A flush crept across Nolan’s face, and a vein in his neck
indicated his rapid pulse. “You will marry me,” he said. His voice was
frighteningly calm in contrast to his appearance. “And believe me, I don’t like
it any more than you do.”

“I won’t marry you. You’re a killer!” That he obviously
didn’t care for her in the least made last night all the more vile.

“So are you.” His fists were clenched.

She shrank from his accusation. “Get out. Leave me alone.
I don’t want anything to do with you ever again.”

He stalked up behind her, and she felt his breath on her
neck. After a pause, he said, “I’m sorry I said that. It’s not true. You were
defending yourself and me.” He placed a soft hand on her shoulder, and she
jerked away. His voice grew harsh again. “Don’t be a little girl, Jewel. I
can’t
leave you alone
. You could be carrying my child. I won’t abandon
my child as Bellamy did his.”

Jewel turned, this time, provoked enough to strike him.
“You have no right to put yourself above my father.”

Nolan didn’t move a muscle. He almost looked to be anticipating
a blow. “Fine. I’ll never speak of him again. But my child won’t be born a
bastard. And if you would stop being so bloody selfish, you would realize why
we must marry. Today.”

“You didn’t marry your other whores. Why bother with me?”

His smile was a strained, half-mad grin. He spoke words
she didn’t expect. “They didn’t make me want to explode from just a touch of
their sweet fingers. With them, I was able to control myself better.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. She turned away,
unable to look into his smirking features any longer, but he grabbed her arm
and forced her to face him. His smile faded. “I know you’re not a whore. I took
your virginity, and I know I have to suffer the consequences of what I did.
Think of the child you might be carrying and you’ll see there are no other
choices. And think of your own rep—”