The Sea Rose (10 page)

“
How did you know to find
Big Jim?” He asked and took her hand. He led her to the hall way
where they backed flush against the wall so he could peer around
the corner.

“
Amos knew. I had no
idea.”

Jack chuckled again. “Amos! And how
did you come to know Amos?”

“
Quite by accident I
assure you.”

“
You’ll have to tell me
everything later. After I’ve given you your reward.” When he ogled
her and raised his eyebrows suggestively it affected her in a
completely different way than when the repulsive soldiers outside
did the same thing.

“
You promise?”

Jack snorted and then crushed her
against the wall in a brief but mind numbing kiss. “You’d have made
a lousy preacher’s wife, my buxom rose.”

Roselyn knew her happiness must be
evident on her face. How she loved this man, this pirate, her
pirate.

“
What’s the
signal?”

“
Big Jim said we’d know it
when we heard it.” Right on cue, a roar like a cannon blast sounded
outside.

“
There we go.” Jack stuck
his head around the corner. “Come on.”

Excitement surged through her body.
Roselyn had never been so exhilarated. Major Hansen was nowhere to
be seen when they reached the outer office. Gray smoke poured in
through the windows and she could see the flames of a burning
building through the open doorway.

“
They blew up the powder
stores!” Jack hooted.

Outside, the flames shot so high from
the outbuilding some of the palms trees had caught fire, too.
Another blast rocked the compound sending debris flying. She was
sure she screamed but the roar of the fire and yelling men drowned
her out completely. Jack pulled her further away from the chaos,
his arm draped over her head to protect her from the
fallout.

“
Here! Over here!” Amos
appeared seated on a mule and holding the reins of a horse. Tied to
the saddle horn of a stallion were two white bags.

“
Good man.” Jack clapped
the smiling boy on the back. Roselyn knew the boy must be feeling
very proud of himself.

She gave the boy a kiss on the cheek.
“Are you having fun?”

“
Best time ever.” Amos’
grin was epic. Roselyn nodded in agreement.

Jack swung a leg over the saddle and
pulled her up behind him. Amos followed behind when Jack spurred
his stallion into a gallop.

Roselyn marveled that the escape had
gone so smoothly. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected but certainly
more of a fight from the soldiers.

“
Hold tight, Rose,” Jack
called over his shoulder. “Here they come.”

A glance behind them confirmed a
phalanx of soldiers had just joined the chase with Major Hansen in
the lead. Amos peeled off and headed down a side street, but Jack
stayed the course down the main drag of town. Cresting a hill,
Roselyn could see the harbor. The Revenge looked poised to sail at
a moment’s notice.

A shot whizzed past their heads, then
another. “Hurry, Jack, they’re gaining.”

“
Almost there,” he
answered back, “keep your head down, sweetheart.”

They were close enough to the harbor
now that she could smell the water. But the soldiers were also near
enough behind them that she could hear the labored breathing of
their horses. Another shot fired off now would hit them for
certain. Roselyn closed her eyes and clung to Jack’s back, her
fingers laced around his chest.

Jack yanked the reins and the horse’s
feet skidded over the cobblestones. She yelped, certain her brief
career as a jail-breaking accomplice was over. With her head
pressed against his back, she felt Jack’s laugh rather than heard
it, the deep rumble vibrating through his body.

“
I love you, Jim,” Jack
yelled and raised his arm in a salute.

Roselyn risked lifting her head to
glance behind them. Huge carts loaded with casks and crates
lumbered into the street cutting off the pursuing soldiers. Big Jim
gave a subtle nod in their direction before turning his attention
to the cart drivers. All the yelling of directions and the horses
bucking created a scene of total chaos that Big Jim managed to
subtly make even more complicated.

By the time the horses clattered over
the boards at the pier, Roselyn knew they were home free. Amos
trotted up seconds later and the rest of the landed crew from the
Revenge were already waiting for them with the boats. With no time
to lose, Jack got them back to the ship in great haste – Amos
included.

Only, it wasn’t Neptune’s Revenge that
bobbed in the bay where they’d left her. Roselyn looked out across
the water and spied a different ship in its place, the Sea Rose
flying the Union Jack.

“
Sea Rose?” she asked
him.

Her pirate smiled at her, a
scoundrel’s gleam in his eye and a rogue’s smile on his lips. “The
captain named her after his lover.”

She stared at him
quizzically.

“
The time has come, sweet
Rose. The world’s changing and I’m changing with it. It’s time for
me to go home.”

“
What’s at home that you
don’t have here? I thought this was your life.” A little spark lit
in her chest and flickered with hope.

“
Respectability is home,
in England,” he told her on the skiff that took them back to the
ship. “I’m going to need respectability when I get
there.”

“
Why? Are you afraid of
what your father will say?” she asked after the sailors pulled her
into the makeshift swing to the deck of the ship.

“
My father’s dead. My
brother is earl now and I don’t give one whit what he thinks,” he
told her matter-of-factly. “I need the respectability for my wife
and my children.”

“
Is this wife and children
waiting for you in England then?” The flicker of hope died
out.

He gazed at her and shook his head
when he gave the order to cast off and a flurry of activity erupted
on deck. Jack steered her to his cabin.

“
You’re getting married
then?” A giggle bubbled in her throat, confidence and hope building
again.

“
If my Sea Rose will have
me.” Jack closed his cabin door, and bolted the lock. The giggle
did escape when he knelt in front of her. “Miss Weldon, Roselyn, I
have a name that’s still good, and more money than Midas. And, I
give you my heart.”

She pulled him to his feet and
answered him with a long, sweet kiss.

“
If your name’s not Jack,
then what is it?”

The pirate dipped a low bow before
her. “Honorable John Wallingham, brother to the Earl of
Harrington.”

“
So, John,” she purred to
her new fiancé, “Do you want to play cards? I still have a lot of
questions.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’m fairly sure
that I’m not going to want to answer many questions,” he
teased.

“
Too bad,” she said,
loosening the laces of his shirt, “because we’re playing by Pirate
Rules.”

The End

Wonder what happened to Jack and
Roselyn’s children?

Lady Belling’s
Secret

The first in the Secret Series is
available in print at most online retailers

Chapter One

“
Thomas? Is that really
you?”

In fact, it was. Thomas had not yet
cleared his solicitor’s office doorway before the stunning redhead
nearly launched herself at him from across the well-appointed
lobby.

“
You are addressing the
Earl of Harrington, miss.” The solicitor was a stuffy blowhard, as
all good solicitors surely must be.

“
I know exactly who he
is,” the redhead declared. She beamed at him from less than an
arm’s length away.

Thomas opened his mouth to say he was
sorry he couldn’t say the same for her, though he would be more
than pleased to make her acquaintance, when her identity struck him
like a lightning bolt. “Frankie? Oh my God.”

“
How long have you been
back?” She smiled at him, all teeth and perfect lips. Thomas
suspected it was her glorious smile that reminded him who she was.
Once he knew it was her, he was flabbergasted that he hadn’t
recognized her instantly, but it had been five years—five years
which had treated her extraordinarily well. “Don’t tell me you’ve
been back in London for days and didn’t come home because of what
happened.” She took a step back and her excitement
paled.

“
Of course not. I docked
last night. I was going to come to the house today.” He ran a hand
through his hair and made an effort not to ogle.

“
I certainly hope so,
because if Mama found out you had arrived in town without coming to
see her, she’d flay you.” She reached out a long-fingered hand and
touched his coat sleeve. Her grin had faded not one bit. She was
beautiful. She’d always been a pretty girl, but now she was a
lovely, lovely woman.

A little blonde stepped up next to
Frankie with her hand extended. “Good to see you home safely,
Thomas.”

“
Miss Sinclair! This is
such a surprise. I surely hadn’t expected such a greeting at my
solicitor’s this early in the morning.”

“
I just can’t believe
you’re home,” Frankie repeated, shaking her head.

“
Yes, yes, he’s home
indeed.” The impatient voice of the solicitor broke through the
happy reunion. “I have a very busy day, Miss Sinclair. I don’t have
time to dawdle between appointments.”

Thomas had forgotten what a spitfire
Frankie’s friend was until she turned and gave Mr. Berger a look.
“Certainly, sir, I’ll be with you in a moment. Frankie, you needn’t
stay with me. I can take care of what I need to without
you.”

“
Are you certain?” Frankie
asked, hope filling her voice.

“
Absolutely. If you’re
here with me, you’ll drive me crazy fidgeting and wishing you were
elsewhere. You visit with Thomas. I’ll find you later.”

Thomas knew his grin was enormous.
“Superb. You’re the one who can help me with my next
errand.”

“
Are you sure you
want
me
?”
Francesca asked. Her eyes filled with hope.

“
Will you be able to
control yourself in my carriage?” He grinned at her, pleased that
his jest was taken in the spirit it was intended when she flashed
her toothy smile back at him.

“
Miss Sinclair? I really
do have a very busy day.” Mr. Berger made a grand, sweeping gesture
towards his office.

Frankie kissed her friend on the
cheek. “Thank you. I’ll see you at home later.” She linked her arm
through Thomas’s, and he swung her out the door.

“
I was so sorry to hear
about your brother,” Frankie told him and squeezed his arm. Thomas
raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, I wasn’t sorry exactly, but that’s
not a very nice thing to say. When I noted that the accident
couldn’t have happened to nicer people, Mama lectured me for over
an hour.”

Thomas grasped her about
the waist—a tiny waist, he duly noted—and set her up in his high
phaeton. He snapped the reins, and they were off, gamboling down
Chancery Lane headed for St James Square. Silence stretched for a
few long moments while Thomas navigated the carriage through the
busy morning traffic. Most of
ton
society would still be in bed for hours yet, but
the working class of London was busy going about their
business.

He glanced at Francesca’s face and
could almost see the wheels spinning in her head while he suspected
she was weighing her options of what to say next. Of course, he
could ease her mind and tell her that all was forgiven, that he
never thought of the incident anymore, but that would be a
lie.

“
So what is this errand?”
Apparently, she wasn’t prepared to dive into murkier waters yet.
That was fine. Thomas had time.

“
It’s about the house.” He
turned the horses onto Upper Brooks Street. His home loomed at the
end of the block, a giant white-and-gray stone building. It
hunkered there, regal and important, as if it had a more strenuous
job than holding down the dirt. “I can’t very well have it torn
down, even though it is a monument to my father’s desperation for
status.”