Virginia Henley (38 page)

“In Wicklow? But that’s just down the coast. My God, I can’t believe it! Is she all right?”

“She is wonderful, hasn’t changed at all; she’s as lovely as ever. Johnny, she didn’t desert us. Father almost beat her to death for what she did with Joseph O’Toole and tossed her out so she could never see us again.”

“I suspected that’s what happened, and I was glad she was free of him. I always hoped she was living happily in Ireland. Wicklow’s not far off, we’ll be able to see each other from now on.”

“She’d just love to see you, Johnny. Why don’t you sail down to Wicklow?”

“Oh, I shall, but
damn
, I can’t go today, Em. I shouldn’t even be here. Perhaps I can see her next week. Did you take my letter to Nan?” he asked anxiously.

“I did,” she said evenly, wanting to tell him of Nan’s plight, but remembering that she had promised not to.

“Will it be all right if I borrow a horse? I want to ride to Maynooth to see her.”

“That won’t be necessary, she’s staying here with me.”

“Oh, God, that’s marvelous news. Where is she?”

“She’s upstairs in the same room you used when you were here. Speaking of marvelous news, I believe Nan has some for you, but you’ll have to coax it from her.”

He was gone in a flash and remained upstairs for the next two hours. At lunchtime Emerald decided to go upstairs herself, rather than have Kate round them up. Through the closed bedchamber door she heard Nan crying and Johnny trying to soothe her. She knocked lightly and waited to be invited in.

Johnny was pale; his eyes sought out his sister’s for support.
“I want us to get married. I want her to come home with me.”

Emerald recoiled. “You can’t take her to Portman Square.”

“I’ve moved into a flat of my own. I want us to be married.”

“Johnny, 1 agree you and Nan should be married, but don’t take her to England. An Irish girl wouldn’t be happy away from her family, especially a FitzGerald.”

Johnny sighed heavily, knowing Emerald spoke the truth. He ran a distracted hand through his brown hair. “Then we’ll have to be married and live apart, at least for the present. There is no way I am leaving Nan with an English bastard in her belly.”

Emerald closed her eyes at the harshness in his voice. This was the second time in as many days she had been reminded that the child she was bearing would be a bastard. She pushed her own problem away to concentrate on Nan’s. “Do you think Father Fitz would marry you?”

“Oh, I’m sure he would!” Nan’s face lit up with renewed hope.

“Do you mind being married by a Catholic priest, Johnny?”

“Of course not. Let’s go to the chapel right now and talk to him.”

“Thank God Sean isn’t here,” Emerald murmured. “Nan, I think we should take Tara with us. Father Fitz is a bigoted, opinionated authoritarian. We need someone from the family who can overrule him if he turns obstinate.”

    
F
ather Fitz, a beatific look on his round face, joined Nan and John in holy wedlock, then he blessed them. Emerald was astounded at the kindly way he looked at and spoke to Nan, while turning a stony countenance in her direction. Emerald knew that if she asked Father Fitz to keep this from
Sean, his wrath would descend upon her, so when she kissed Nan she whispered a suggestion in her ear.

“Please don’t tell the earl, Father. We’ll find the right words ourselves when the time is right.”

“What you have done today, my child, pleases God. I am not in the business of informing on my flock.”

Instead of returning to the house, Nan and John went down to the stables, where they could be private to say their farewells and pledge their love and devotion to each other. The Greystones stables were quite large, so hand in hand they made their way to the back and slipped into an empty stall. Johnny sat down in the fresh straw and gently pulled his bride down beside him.

“I love you so much, Nan. I’m sorry that I let this happen to you. I don’t know how I could have been so damn careless and thoughtless.”

“John, it’s my fault. I didn’t realize it could happen after just one time. I don’t want you to think I did it to trap you into marrying me.”

“Nan, sweetheart, don’t blame yourself I’m the one who should have known better. But I’m not the least bit sorry. Because this happened, we are married a lot sooner than we would have been otherwise. My only regret is that we have to be apart. But Emerald is right about your staying safely in Ireland. My father and I have unfinished business that I must protect you from. I don’t know when I can see you again, but I’ll write to you and if you need me, get a message to Soho. Don’t sign your name; there is only one lady who will be writing to me.”

She lifted her mouth for his kiss. “Love me, Johnny, it may have to last us for months.”

    
B
efore John went back aboard to continue his voyage, he left a brief note for Sean. “He’ll know I was here within
five minutes of dropping anchor. Explain that I only came to give him a report.”

“He has an uncanny way of discerning everything that goes on,” Emerald said doubtfully.

The worried look came back over Johnny’s face.

“Don’t you worry about Nan. The FitzGerald women are like a sisterhood when it comes to childbearing. They close ranks and will look after her and protect her at all costs, and so will I.”

Johnny’s eyes widened in comprehension. “My God, I must have been blind! What the hell will you do?”

She smiled. “I will have Sean’s baby, of course. Johnny, I couldn’t be happier or safer than here at Greystones. Just look after yourself, Johnny.”

Johnny enfolded Nan in his arms for a tender good-bye. He hated to leave his bride, but knew he had little choice. He kissed her for the tenth time and murmured, “Try not to worry about anything, Nan. I promise to write and always remember that I love you!”

Nan was on cloud nine. Even though she was wistful that Johnny had sailed away so quickly, she was vastly relieved that she was no longer in trouble. “Emerald, I can’t believe I’m married! I needed him and he came. Isn’t he just the loveliest man in the entire world?”

Emerald’s strained face softened. “Well, we love him, so perhaps we’re prejudiced. But I am very proud of the way he faced up to his responsibility; he’s a good man who doesn’t give his love and trust carelessly. I’m so thankful Sean didn’t arrive home in the middle of the ceremony.”

“Oh, Emerald, I’m such a coward; I don’t want to face him. Would you mind if I went home? I can’t wait to tell my mother, and the cousins will be grass-green with envy.”

“Of course I don’t mind. Would you like me to come with you?”

“No, no, I’ll ask one of the grooms to come with me. If
you’re not here when Sean returns, he’ll come to Maynooth for you.”

“Does he intimidate you so much?”

Nan shivered. “He’s the Earl of Kildare.”

    
W
ithin an hour of Nan’s precipitous departure the
Sulphur
slipped into Greystones’s own harbor. Emerald spent that hour making herself beautiful for Sean’s return. As she changed her gown for one that had arrived recently from Mrs. McBride in Dublin, a disconcerting thought struck her. The new garments both accommodated and camouflaged her ripening figure, yet at the time Sean had ordered them, even she herself hadn’t been aware of the child. There was only one possible explanation. Sean had anticipated her pregnancy.

As she brushed her hair and threaded a jade-green ribbon through it to match her gown, she admitted that the man she loved was an enigma. He shared many things with her, but never his inner thoughts. He kept them locked inside and he hadn’t yet given her the key.

Suddenly he was home and all her introspection vanished like a magician’s rabbit. Whenever Sean was with her, he lavished all his attention upon her. She knew she was spoiled and felt guilty about wanting more of him.

As he bathed and changed his linen, Emerald joined him. Simply watching him and listening to his deep voice gave her untold pleasure. “Sean, I can never thank you enough for bringing Mother to Greystones, and would you believe it? Not an hour after you both left, Johnny arrived. I do wish she could have seen him; it would have made her so happy.”

“Well, you had her all to yourself. He’ll see her another time. Eve been half expecting him.”

“He left you a letter … a report, he called it.”

When he took the letter from her, Sean noticed a strained
look of anxiety on her face. He opened the note and scanned its contents. “The news is good, but I don’t know why he didn’t wait for my return. Still, he’s only gone over to Lambay Island. I’ll sail over and talk with him.”

His dark eyes examined her face. “You look tired. Are you feeling all right, sweeting?” Without waiting for her reply, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her down tenderly, then stretched out beside her and gathered her close, smoothing dark tendrils from her brow.

“I don’t need to leave just yet. I’ll stay with you to make sure you rest. Would you like me to rub your back?”

Emerald buried her face in the hollow of his throat. “No,” she whispered, “I just want to lie quietly with you and feel your love surround me.”

Sean stayed with her until she drifted off to sleep. He smiled down at her. After the excitement of her visit with Amber and then with John, a little quiet time would do her good. He lifted a curl from the pillow and rubbed the silky texture between his fingers. The tender smile reached all the way to his eyes; at this moment he knew Emerald was happy.

    
W
hen Johnny saw the sails of the
Sulphur
approaching Lambay so soon after his own arrival, he stiffened with wariness. Had O’Toole learned about him and Nan so quickly, and was Sean here to beat his brains out? Johnny’s resolve hardened; to hell with it, there was nothing he could do about the marriage short of making Nan a widow. For that matter, Sean O’Toole’s behavior didn’t bear close scrutiny. It had been morally wrong to impregnate Emerald when he couldn’t marry her.

When Sean dropped anchor and came ashore he was happy to see the skeleton of the old slaver was beyond resurrection. Danny FitzGerald had done his work well.
Sean greeted Johnny and turned his eyes toward the ship that belonged to the Montague Line. It was one of only four that remained, according to his calculations. Since the crew from the wreck had already boarded the
Seagull
, O’Toole joined them. Over his shoulder he asked Johnny, “How many crew did you bring?”

“Only three. I was mate and also worked the lines, though I hate the damn job.”

Sean clapped him on the back and grinned. “You’re a mite pale, but you’re holding up well. Summon the
Seagull’s
crew; since they’ve sailed to Castle Lies, we can’t let them go back to Montague carrying tales, can we? From your note I take it the Montague Line is ready to secure a hefty marine loan?”

“Father thinks it will be temporary until the insurance pays our losses.”

“You’re a shrewd devil; I admire that in a man. It will help you survive in this corrupt world. I’ll be in London shortly. Your loan will be coming from a company called Barclay and Bedford. Doesn’t the name have a solid English ring to it? All I need to secure the loan is the deed on the Montague house in Portman Square.”

John stared at him with renewed admiration. When Sean vowed to ruin Montague, he meant it quite literally. When O’Toole was done with his father and Jack, they wouldn’t even have a roof over their heads. It was a bloody good thing his father was expecting insurance money from Lloyd’s or he’d never get him to temporarily sign the deed on Portman Square. O’Toole’s next directive emphasized that he was still not done with Wily Willie.

“Why don’t you suggest the Montague Line concentrate on illegal French brandy? The profits far outweigh the risks and the demand will become unquenchable as Christmas approaches.”

*   *   *

    
A
s the
Sulphur
and the
Seagull
sailed away from Lambay in opposite directions, John was thankful there were more hands aboard to set the sails. The encounter with Sean O’Toole had been particularly unsettling and his stomach threatened to void its contents with every successive wave.

O’Toole’s vengeance was relentless. John could not forget the night he had awakened to find Sean’s knife between his legs. When he learned that Nan was with child, would he and his knife be back?

    
A
t the wheel of the
Sulphur
Sean O’Toole’s thoughts did dwell on Johnny Montague for a while, but those thoughts were filled with a grudging respect. Sean knew without John’s cooperation, his task would be prodigious indeed. One thing was evident, Johnny Montague was no longer gutless.

The hour was late when Sean arrived back at Greystones. He trod softly as he ascended the stairs and slipped silently into the master bedchamber. Nevertheless Emerald sat up in bed and lit the lamp on the bedside table.

“I’m sorry, love, I didn’t want to disturb you.”

Mischievous green eyes tempted him from beneath black lashes. “How different we are, for I certainly want to disturb you, my lord. It’s one of life’s more titillating pleasures.”

Sean removed his leather jack and stripped off his linen shirt. “An evening’s rest seems to have restored your vitality.” He stepped toward the bathroom.

“And my appetite. Don’t wash; I want to smell you and taste you.”

Her husky words stopped him in his tracks. His compulsion to be immaculately spotless melted away for the first time since he had left the hulks.