The Pirate's Jewel (34 page)

Bellamy leaned against the tall palm that shaded Jewel while
she sifted through the muck brought up from the pond’s bottom. “Bah—since when
shouldn’t a woman have a pretty bauble?”

Jewel glanced at her father. “When it belongs to someone
else. The Continental Congress gets their share and then the crew divides the
rest.” She touched the gold signet ring, her wedding ring, that hung around her
neck on a cord she’d snatched from a corset. “I have all the jewelry I need.”

Bellamy nodded his head toward the ring. “He took that
from me afore he left me here.”

Jewel stared down at the ring as if it would somehow spring
to life and bite her on the nose. She pulled it over her head and examined it.
In the turmoil of her marriage, the ring, which belonged to Wayland anyway,
hadn’t seemed important.

There were initials engraved on the front. She’d noticed
them before but assumed they belonged to some nameless victim of Wayland’s. In
her musing, the ring had been won in a game of dice, nothing more.

“
WK
,” he said, without actually seeing the letters
she herself wouldn’t have been able to name. She could tell by her father’s
steady stare that those initials should have significance.

When she still didn’t respond, he finally said, “William
Kent.”

“You stole it from Nolan in the first place.” She narrowed
her gaze, but her father only smirked at her show of anger.

“Aye, but he stole something more valuable from me, don’t
you know.”

Jewel returned to her work. She assumed he meant her, and
she had no intention of discussing it further. Last night with Nolan had
settled everything…she hoped. His promise to leave her father alone had been coerced,
but she felt justified. Even the fact that her special instruction had come
from Wayland—with lots of blushing on both their parts—didn’t make her regret
the extreme measure she’d taken to win Nolan’s promise. She had to save her
marriage as well as her father’s life. Not that Bellamy deserved her
protection, but unfortunately he was still her father. She couldn’t turn her
back on him no matter how much she desired.

She stuck her hands in the basket of pond muck and dumped
two fistfuls into a smaller basket. She poured water from a bucket to wash away
the worst of the silt, and then sifted through what was left.

Her plan to seduce Nolan had been born of desperation.
Bellamy had driven a wedge between them, and Jewel would have resorted to
anything to return them to the harmony they’d experienced before their arrival
on this island. Perhaps the way she coerced his promise to find peace with her
father had been wrong. Nolan had always given of himself so easily when they
were intimate, if not in other aspects of their relationship. Last night had
exceeded her expectations. She felt her power over him, and she reveled in it.
His reaction to her bold advances aroused her more than she had ever imagined.
For a brief moment in time, she had controlled their relationship. She had the
forceful Captain Nolan Kent moaning her name and begging her for—

“Does that pretty blush staining your cheeks have anything
to do with Nolan agreeing to let me have a share of his grandpa’s precious
treasure?”

Jewel glanced up. She had forgotten her father still leaned
against the tree. Her cheeks burned, and she had to drop her gaze. “Hadn’t you
better get back to work, Bellamy? The others have brought up twice as many loads
as you.”

“Bellamy, is it? Have you forgotten I’m your father? Nolan
hasn’t, I can assure you.”

Jewel glared at him again. She felt the rise of emotion welling
up inside her, but this time it was different. Her hurt had turned to
anger—righteous anger directed at the father who abandoned her. “You were never
a father to me, so why should I honor you with more than you deserve? I told
Nolan to leave you alone. That’s all I owe you. It’s more than you’ve ever done
for me.”

Bellamy smirked. “Aye, lass. And you two will live the
rest of your lives in wedded bliss without your old sire around to spoil your
happiness.”

His sarcastic tone undermined her belief that she had settled
anything between her and Nolan, but she wasn’t about to let Bellamy know it.
The one thing she had learned about her father was that he found the littlest tear
in a person’s armor and drove his sword home. “Nolan gave you what you wanted.
You have no reason to torment us further.”

Bellamy folded his arms over his chest, either feigning
his relaxed stance or truly not giving a bloody damn about the trouble he
caused. “I could see the muscle working in Nolan’s jaw when he told me he would
give me an equal share of the treasure.”

Jewel picked up the basket and shook it harder than necessary.
Mud-encrusted coins flew over the side. She picked them up and dumped them back
in the basket. If she ignored Bellamy long enough, maybe he would go away.

“It’s eating at him, you know—knowing I’ll be getting a
share of Kent’s treasure. Over the years, a feeling like that festers in your
gut.”

Jewel plunked two more muddy handfuls into the strainer.
Mud spattered her cheek. She wiped it away, realizing she had forgotten to take
out the coins she had just cleaned. “Why don’t you leave me alone?”

“Because I’m your father.” Bellamy stepped away from the
tree, his smirk gone. “There are a hell of a lot of women in this world, and
it’s not right that Nolan had to go and pick my child.”

Jewel threw down her basket and got to her feet. “You deserted
me. The way I see it, you don’t have any right to claim me.”

Bellamy beat his fist against his chest. “You’re my blood.
As the years pass, Nolan’s going to be looking into my green eyes, not yours.
That’s what he’ll be thinking, I promise you. And he’s going to think about how
much he hates me and the sacrifices he made for you, and then where will you
be?”

“What’s between us has nothing to do with you!” How many
times had Nolan told her that? But she hadn’t believed it then and she wasn’t
at all sure she believed it now.

“Nolan’s always been popular with the ladies. He could
have had an heiress, a lady of standing, at the very least a wealthy widow.
Some folks don’t know about his grandfather, and those who do think Nolan’s
holier-than-thou father atoned for the family sins.” Bellamy looked her up and
down. “So tell me, why would he pick a scrawny, illegitimate tavern wench as
his bride?”

Jewel couldn’t breathe. Her vision blurred. She glanced
around her for something to throw. The bucket of mud-encrusted coins appeared
in the corner of her gaze. She turned and scooped out a fistful of wet mud and
threw it in his face. The slurpy thwack that sounded as the muck found its
target brought her back to reality. He stood there for a moment, black slime
dripping down his face and splattered across his chest, appearing just as
shocked as she.

With slow, precise movements, as if he had been dining on
tea and crumpets with royalty, he wiped the mud from his eyes and then the rest
of his face. “You see my point.”

Jewel’s chest heaved with her spent anger. She had no
answer to his painfully valid observation, and the silence that hung between
them confirmed it.

“It’s only a matter of time before he gets tired of his revenge
against me and comes to resent you. There’s no happy ending in that for you,
Jewel. I see the way you look at him. It’s plain you’re besotted. He’s only
using you to get at me. He doesn’t feel the same.”

Jewel rubbed her temples with the backs of her dirty hands,
shutting him out. But her own thoughts echoed his hateful words. “Stop it. He’s
not like you.”

“No. I know Nolan better than anyone. I watched him grow
to a man. He’s not like me. He’s worse. He may believe he truly cares for you,
but it’s me that eats at his vitals. I’m what’s driving him, and he’ll want to
fight that hatred but won’t be able to.”

Jewel glanced at the pond, searching for Nolan. Parker sat
at the side, catching his breath. Nolan must be under the water. Six men,
Bellamy included, had taken turns swimming to the bottom. They shoveled silt
into a large basket, and then tugged on a rope to have the crew above pull it
to the surface. Jewel had been left in charge of sifting through what they
found. It was exhausting work. As much as she wanted reassurance from Nolan,
she didn’t want to distract him.

She just had to believe he would tell her father
differently. It would surely lead to blows between them, but at least it would
prove…Jewel let the rest of her thought trail off. She glanced back at her
father.

Bellamy must have seen the confusion and doubt clouding
her features. “He hates me more than he could ever love you. And you’re feeding
that hatred by being my daughter.”

Jewel dropped to her knees and frantically sifted through
more mud. “Parker looks exhausted. I think it’s your turn to go down with
Nolan.”

Bellamy smiled to himself, and it chilled her blood. “As a
matter of fact,” he said, “it is.”

He strolled away from her, taking what was left of her
heart.

***

A rapid explosion of bubbles broke the pond’s dark
surface. Jewel glanced to Wayland. “What’s that mean?”

“It means they’ll be up in a minute. Stop that pacing, chit.
You’re wearing me out,” Wayland answered without opening his eyes. He lay flat
on the ground with his arms folded over his chest, his shirt balled under his head
for a pillow. He was even scrawnier than he appeared in clothing, but he must
have strength in that wiry form because he had pulled up the heavy baskets of
silt and coins since early that morning. She had never seen him work so hard.
Obviously, gold motivated him.

Jewel paced the pool’s length again. The ripples from the
erupting bubbles drifted toward her in lazy abandon. Even the water’s surface
had started to look gilded in the setting sun. She had seen enough gold for one
day. It would be dark soon. Nolan had no reason to go down one last time. Nor
Bellamy to volunteer to accompany him.

Most of the crew had left to haul the treasure back to the
beach. All the men were exhausted, and even the lure of wealth had lost its
appeal in favor of much-needed rest. “Parker, would you dive down and check on
them?”

Parker lifted his head from the arm he used as a pillow,
his long body curled under the shade of a bowed palm tree. From the slow way he
opened his eyes, Jewel could tell he had fallen asleep. “Pull on the rope.
He’ll yank back.”

The men who went down tied ropes around their waists to
ensure they could pull themselves to the surface in the event they became
disoriented. Exhaustion set in long before they had retrieved half of the treasure,
but sheer excitement drove them on. They had continued working until more silt than
gold was brought to the surface.

Jewel picked up a bundle of ropes. One end was tied to a
tree, the other either to a man’s waist or a basket. Only three ropes led
underneath the water. One must be tied to Bellamy, one to Nolan, and the third
to the basket they had taken with them.

Jewel neared the water with all three ropes in her hand.
Suddenly, one of the ropes went taut. Bellamy broke the surface of the water,
gasping for breath. Jewel dropped the rope attached to him before Bellamy could
get a breath. She started gathering the excess of the other two. “Where’s
Nolan?”

Bellamy swam to the side. “There’s been an accident. Nothing
I could do.”

Her frantic yanking dragged one of the ropes across the
sandy bank, frayed and dripping water. The end had been cut with a knife. “You
did this!”

Bellamy pulled himself out of the pond. “Had to. He got
tangled in his line.”

“Why did you come up without him?” Jewel strode toward the
pond’s edge. She sucked in as much air as she could take in her lungs. A hand
on the back of her dress stopped her from jumping into the deep water.

“I thought you couldn’t swim,” Bellamy growled.

Wayland leaped to his feet. “She can’t.”

Jewel tried to wrench free of her father’s hold. “I have to
find Nolan.”

Parker shook off his sleepy haze and rushed to the pool.
“Don’t let her go. I’ll go down.”

Before he reached the edge, Nolan exploded like a cannon ball
from the pond’s depths. He choked and gasped for air. Jewel reached out to him,
but Bellamy still held the back of her dress. Parker leaned over the side and
helped pull Nolan out.

Once on solid ground, he braced himself on his hands and
knees. He coughed up so much water, Jewel feared he would still drown even
though he was on dry land. His face was red and he couldn’t catch his breath.

Before she could break away from her father, Nolan’s choking
eased and his raging gasps subsided. With his head still hung between his
shoulders, he took several shuddering deep breaths. After a long moment, he
turned and glared at Jewel. The hatred in his gaze stopped her heart. No. Not
at her. She started to breathe again and followed his gaze. He poured all that
venom and fury at the man who stood by her shoulder, her father.

Bellamy backed away. “Just a little joke, Nolan. I wanted
to see if you could still get untied if you were forced to walk the plank.
Remember how I used to drop you overboard with your hands bound and bet on how long
it would take you to surface?”

Nolan got to his feet. “You were trying to kill me, you
bastard.”

Bellamy continued his retreat. “If I wanted to kill you, you’d
be dead by now.”

Nolan took two steps toward Bellamy, and then broke into a
run. Bellamy didn’t even have a chance to brace before Nolan dove at his knees,
sending him onto his backside. He tried to kick Nolan’s head before either
could recover from the momentum of the fall. Nolan managed to duck while
clawing Bellamy in his attempt to get a better grip. The two men rolled on the
ground, Bellamy squirming to get away and Nolan hanging on like a bulldog.