Devil of the High Seas, page 10
“What sort of man is he?”
She was confused by the question. “What do you mean, what sort of man?”
“Er, he looks . . . Well, let’s just say I’ve seen men with his look before,” the old sailor said seriously.
“I’m afraid I still don’t understand what you mean.”
The sailor sighed. “He attracts danger, that one. I’d bet my life on it.”
Josephine couldn’t disagree with that.
“Should we be worried, lassie?” the man asked in a softer voice. “Does he have a temper?”
“I . . . well, he doesn’t . . . I don’t think so.”
“What I mean is, will he flog a man to death for disobeying orders?”
“Oh, heavens, no, I would hope not.” Josephine couldn’t picture Gavin whipping a man or even ordering that. But the truth was, she’d only known him a handful of days and she couldn’t swear to anything when it came to his behavior. He was certainly mercurial in his moods, but that wasn’t the same thing as having a temper.
Before she could speak further, her “husband” emerged from belowdecks, his gaze dark and foreboding. It seemed someone had finally freed him.
“I think we’re about to find out about that temper,” she muttered to herself.
The sailor looked between her and the captain and put two and two together. “Can you climb?”
“Yes,” she replied at once.
“Then head for the lookout on the topsail. There’s a large bucket of sorts at the middle of the crossbeams. He may not catch sight of you if you move fast.”
Josephine ducked down behind the guns along the deck and headed straight for the mainmast while doing her best to keep out of sight. She gripped the ropes and darted up the rigging with a speed that surprised even herself. She passed a few men on the way up as they worked to adjust the sails. She nodded at them and continued up without stopping.
When she finally reached the lookout spot and climbed over the wooden sides, she kept out of sight. Her heart pounded as she waited a long while before chancing a peek over the side. Gavin was standing on the quarterdeck, talking to his first mate. She blew out a breath of relief. He didn’t appear to be searching for her. They both knew she was on the ship and couldn’t escape. Not that she wanted to.
Down below, the men began to sing sea shanties while they worked. Josephine smiled as she hummed along. The warmth of the sun soon put her to sleep, and as so often of late, she fell headlong into exciting dreams that made her smile.
“There’s no sign of her anywhere, Cap’n,” Ronnie said in a low voice on the quarterdeck. Only fifteen minutes ago, Ronnie had released him from confinement in the captain’s cabin. They had searched the ship discreetly, not wanting to alarm the crew. If the men on board discovered that Gavin was not in fact the man hired to captain the Cornish Pixie, he and Ronnie could be overpowered and manacled in the hold.
When they had no luck finding the girl belowdecks, they moved upward. The moment Gavin set foot on the deck, he took note of the men currently at work. One old sailor stood by the mainmast and was clearly avoiding making eye contact with him.
Gavin subtly roved his gaze up the mast and glimpsed a figure darting over the top of the wooden bucket built large enough to hold a man in a lookout position. She vanished from view. There was no mistaking that attractive backside.
“Don’t worry, Ronnie. I’ve found my wayward captive.” Gavin had to work hard to keep from grinning. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“Oh, aye? Where’s the lassie got to?” his first mate asked.
He gave the faintest nod toward the lookout point.
“Will you be fetching her down, then?”
“Not yet. The important thing is she’s out of everyone’s way. I’ll let her have her fun.” It wasn’t as though the woman could escape the ship, or him.
Gavin stayed on deck for the next few hours with the men and took a turn at the helm before deciding to scale the rigging to see what Josephine was up to. Once up there, he peered over the top and found Josephine fast asleep beneath the partial shade of a billowing sail. The sun had passed its zenith a few hours previous, and now most of the lookout point was in a decent shade.
He took a moment to watch her sleep. She had donned Dominic’s clothing and rolled the pant legs up to uncover her boots and strapped a belt around her waist to keep the large white shirt tucked into the trousers. The shirt cuffs had been rolled up to allow her hands to be unencumbered by the long sleeves. She’d pulled her hair back into glossy waves at the nape of her neck and secured it with a ribbon. Her long dark lashes lay across her cheeks, and her warm skin held a hint of her mother’s Spanish heritage.
The girl was exquisite, whether she wore a satin wedding gown or sailor’s togs. All the frustration he’d had at her childish antics earlier faded away. She was so innocent of the ways of the world, and yet her eagerness to live reminded him so much of Charity.
But he was not a fool. The two were far more different than they were alike. Charity had been raised in London and had seen the ways of the world there. She’d known things of life that this young lady had not. Charity hadn’t been jaded, but she hadn’t had the innocence of heart in her that Josephine did. Of course that innocence would fade as the years passed, but the curiosity, and courage, would remain within her. It was a part of her adventurous soul, and it called to his own.
“Where were you when I was seventeen?” he whispered to the sleeping woman. He knew she would have only been a child nine years ago, but he wished in that moment she was the same age as he was and that he had met her as a younger man. Had he met Josephine first instead of Charity, he knew he would have fallen in love with her. The thought bothered him more sharply than he expected. Charity could have married Griffin, and Gavin could have married Josephine. Then the break between him and his brother never would have happened and—
He stopped before his thoughts could deepen into melancholy. It was no good to dwell upon what might have been and to forget to live with the reality of the here and now.
“You weren’t there then, but you’re here now, and I shall cherish what time I have with you.”
He was surprised at the wealth of tenderness he already felt for Josephine. His plan had been to take the woman who was to be his brother’s, but deep down, he knew it was more than that. They were still strangers, yet his soul seemed somehow to call to hers as if they’d been seeking each other for centuries. He hadn’t wanted to admit it before now, but there it was, like the tolling of church bells on a fine spring morning.
The wind changed slightly, and the ship angled a little in the water. Gavin held on to the mast, riding the waves with the ship as the air rippled against his clothing. This was the closest a person could come to flying, feeling like a storm petrel riding the air currents while the sun warmed his skin and the world before him seemed endless. For the first time in days, that dreadful feeling of the slipping sands in an hourglass ceased.
He watched Josephine, who slept on, and his wolfish smile softened. He would leave her to rest. However, just to keep her safe, he took one of the loose ropes that was partially tied to the crossbeams and wrapped it around her chest in a harness of sorts. That would keep her from rolling off the side of the lookout point. She’d been through much, and there was nothing like a true, deep rest when one found oneself at sea. And while she was supposed to be his captive, he had given her a freedom no one else ever would.
“Sleep on,” he murmured. “And dream of me.” He wondered if this wild creature would dream of him, if she would want him. It caused a deep and surprising ache in his chest, one that only deepened the longer he looked at her.
He knew what it meant to love someone with all of his soul only to be found wanting. He’d been turned away by Charity, then by Brianna. Would Josephine see nothing in him to crave other than a quick dalliance into danger and excitement?
It shouldn’t matter. He didn’t need to be loved. He’d learned long ago how to survive without it. But she hadn’t simply fired a warning shot at his heart—she was unloading her guns on his broadside and preparing to board. What happened when she stormed his heart and claimed it?
A sudden shout of a sail being sighted jerked his attention back to the men on the deck below. Ronnie was on the forecastle, pointing portside. Gavin followed the man’s direction and spotted the approaching ship. He studied the ship from his position on the crossbeams, noting it was a large ship and gaining on them. They could likely outrun it, but he sensed this was one ship they shouldn’t flee. He quickly descended the rigging and joined Ronnie at the forecastle, who had a spyglass pressed to his eye.
“What do you see?” he asked.
“A naval frigate. It’s gaining on us.”
Gavin’s attention turned to the Union Jack flag proudly flapping in the wind on the Cornish Pixie. They had no colors other than that, and for that he was grateful. The Pixie was not a pirate ship, and it should be safe for a naval frigate to sniff around. They wouldn’t find anything wrong. Only he and Ronnie were outlaws. All they had to do was maintain course, do nothing suspicious, and they could fool the navy into believing all was well.
“What’s our plan, Cap’n?” Ronnie asked as he handed Gavin the spyglass so he could get a look at the ship on their tail.
“We play our roles, keep sailing unless they stop us. Griffin said the navy was prowling the coast. Most likely, this is just another ship making its rounds.”
“We barely made it a day away from the coast,” Ronnie grumbled.
“We knew we’d be risking this,” Gavin reminded his friend. “But at least this time we have a proper crew and a legal ship. They won’t know what we’re about—not even our own crew does.”
“Aye. But it still makes me nervous.”
“You’d be mad if it didn’t,” said Ronnie.
Gavin drew in a steadying breath and prayed the frigate would leave them be, but luck was not with him today. Within the hour, the frigate caught up to them, and they were hailed to allow a group of men from the naval vessel to board for an inspection. Grim-faced, Gavin and Ronnie braced themselves for the meeting with the boarding crew. He’d kept watch on the lookout spot and still hadn’t seen Josephine wake up. The woman could sleep through the excitement on the deck below, and that both worried and amused him at the same time. He’d learned long ago never to sleep too deeply. A man could get his throat slit on his own ship if he wasn’t careful.
“Whatever you do, stick to the story,” Gavin advised his friend. “We were hired by Dominic Greyville to sail this ship to the West Indies.”
“Aye,” Ronnie replied as they went to meet the officers approaching the ship.
Griffin stared around the cabin he had been given aboard Brianna Flynn’s ship, the Sea Serpent. She and her husband had graciously agreed to escort him, Lord Camden, Adrian, and Dominic to the West Indies in pursuit of his brother.
Lady Camden, Roberta, and the lovely maid Vesper had come along as well, assisting Brianna and Nicholas by helping take care of their son, Asa, who was but three months old.
Griffin had been stunned to see the baby being carried about by Brianna in a special wrapping that kept the child secure against her back. He’d only seen a woman do that a few times before with women who worked in fields near the crofters’ cottages on his lands. Dominic had noticed Griffin’s startled expression and explained that Brianna was more of a sailor than a lady at heart, and she refused to sail without her son at this tender age.
Griffin had raised the question of the possible dangers for the child, as well as the women aboard, but Dominic had shrugged and replied that no one had ever been able to tell his wife or his mother what to do. The maid Vesper was so anxious about Josephine that he simply couldn’t refuse her when she’d begged to come along.
In just one day of sailing, Griffin had learned far more about his neighbors and their piratical connections than he had ever wished to know. Between his brother and his betrothed’s family, it turned out he was surrounded by pirates.
“Have you settled in, Castleton?” Dominic asked from the doorway of Griffin’s cabin. Griffin hadn’t noticed him arrive.
“Yes. Are you certain Gavin is bound for the West Indies? I don’t want to chase false trails halfway around the world.”
Dominic stood with his arms crossed as he studied Griffin. “Quite certain. You said his own ship was taken, and I know what the Siren means to him. He’ll go after her and the pirates who stole her. Those men will return to waters they know, which means the West Indies. Moreover, he has my hired crew, who in all likelihood do not know he is a pirate. If he’s wise, he’ll keep the crew loyal to him by sailing along the route I had originally planned, which will take him to my home at King’s Landing.”
“Ah, yes, that would make sense,” Griffin replied. His brother was cunning and likely would keep the merchant crew on his side by playing the role of a hired captain. The question was, how would he explain Josephine’s presence to those men?
“Dinner will be ready soon. Come to the captain’s cabin in an hour.”
“Thank you.” Griffin nodded as Dominic left the room.
Griffin directed his energy toward putting away the last of his travel cases and setting up the desk in the corner of his cabin with a few books he’d brought. It was rather silly, he knew, to want to take a few books with him, but reading always settled him when he worried. And knowing his twin, this journey would cause a fair bit of worry. When he finally left his cabin and moved down the corridor, he heard a soft curse in the cabin beside his own. The door to the neighboring cabin was slightly ajar, and he saw Vesper fretfully examining the gowns she’d packed for when they rescued Josephine.
Vesper’s blonde hair tumbled around her shoulders in gleaming waves, and her bottom swayed as she bent over the chest full of dresses.
A sudden, unexpected surge of lust hit Griffin out of nowhere. He hadn’t felt like this since Charity had been alive. Vesper looked exquisite in a pale-green gown with cream underskirts and a gold bodice. It was far prettier than what a lady’s maid would usually wear, but given what he had learned of her background and what Dominic had told him about Josephine treating her more like a companion than a maid, it was less than surprising to see her dressed like the lady she was rather than a maid.
He cleared his throat, causing Vesper to jump and twirl around.
She gasped, her green eyes flashing with surprise. “My lord! I’m sorry to have disturbed you. I didn’t think anyone would hear me.”
“You didn’t, Vesper,” he assured her. “You . . . you don’t mind if I call you Vesper, do you?” He prayed she would agree to let him call her Vesper. He wanted so desperately to call her by her given name.
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No, my lord.”
“Good, good. Have you settled into your quarters?”
She nodded, her face a little pale. “I’m afraid I’ve never been on a ship before. It’s a little frightening to be surrounded by so much water. I’m trying to stay busy and not think about the fact that I don’t know how to swim. My father thought it wasn’t necessary for his daughter to learn such things, only his son.”
“Your father? He was Squire Trenton, wasn’t he?”
She blushed and stared down at her slippered feet. “Did you know him?”
“Not personally, no. But I heard about what happened.”
Griffin had made discreet inquiries about Vesper’s family shortly after first meeting her. He had learned that she was a country gentleman’s daughter, and from what he’d gathered, her father had suffered some financial disgrace that had put the family in a dire situation, which was why Vesper had gone into service as a lady’s maid.
None of this had deterred Griffin’s interest. He felt strangely more comfortable around Vesper than he had Josephine. It was in his nature to protect women, to care for them above his own needs, and something about Josephine warned him that he would never manage to give her what she needed to make her truly happy. He had a dreadful feeling that perhaps he would only ever make her content.
But Vesper . . . The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn’t watching, he saw that she wanted him. It wasn’t a simple desire of the flesh, although that was certainly there, but it was also something deeper, something that made him afraid and excited all at once. It had been too long since such feelings had flashed through his heart.
He shouldn’t have any feelings toward his betrothed’s maid, but he simply couldn’t stay away from this woman. She pulled him in with a quiet but intense gravity that was unique to her, like the way the earth pulled at the moon.
“If you’ve heard what happened to my father, then you shouldn’t be speaking to me, my lord.” She suddenly sniffled and returned her focus to Josephine’s gowns.
Unwilling to see Vesper upset because of something he had said, Griffin came over and gently placed a hand on her arm. The moment his fingers touched her, it seemed to send a whisper of lightning up his skin. She straightened and looked up into his eyes.
“Your father’s actions hurt you, but they are not yours to carry. You must leave such burdens behind you,” he said.
A flash of fury lit her green eyes, which startled him. “How can I leave them behind? He’s forced my entire family to work, to be brought low among those we once called friends. I am not ashamed of working, but I am ashamed that others have judged me for it.”
Griffin caught her chin, gently turning her face to look at him. “You will find no judgment here.”
She bit her bottom lip in frustration, and that proved too much for him to resist. He leaned down, pressing his lips to hers. The kiss was soft and sweet, but an instant later, a fire sparked to life between them. He cupped the back of her neck and deepened the kiss, savoring her mouth as he plunged his tongue between her lips. For the first time since he’d lost his wife and son, he felt like he could breathe, and Vesper was the very air his lungs needed.
