No Rest for the Wicked, page 17
When Roberta came back in from the garden, Dominic was waiting for her, and he pulled her away from the parlor and into the hall.
“Come with me.”
She lifted her skirts with her free hand as he led her away. “Where are we going?”
He said nothing until they were in her bedchamber. Dominic pointed to a stack of clothes Lucy was laying out on the bed per his earlier instructions. “Dress in these and meet me outside in a few minutes.” The maid’s eyes turned to Dominic.
“How is Mr. Lee?” she asked.
“Grumbling a storm because you aren’t on the Dragon,” Dominic answered with a grin. He had noticed that the little maid had taken to his reluctant cook. Lee, like Reese, had discovered Luke was in fact Lucy only a day into the voyage to Tortuga and had seemed quite captivated by the woman. If there had been more time, there might have been a future between them, one that would have proven beneficial to the bellies of the Dragon’s crew.
“Is he to return here soon?”
“He had to return to the ship to see to the men there. But I could try to have him return tonight for supper.” He’d had Lee and Griffin come up to cook a few meals when they’d first arrived but then he’d worried about the rest of his crew and their lack of decent food while they hid on board his ship awaiting for orders.
Lucy’s smile faltered, but she mastered control of herself. “I hope so. Thank you, Mr. King.”
Roberta lifted up the brown riding trousers, which had been tailored to her size. “Breeches?”
“Yes, we’re taking the horses out this afternoon, and a riding habit would be too stifling. Besides, I had a feeling you would prefer them. I’ll be downstairs.”
Dominic left Roberta to change, and he called for his groom to ready his best stallion and his finest gelding. As he paced the front hall, Nicholas came to join him. His friend cast a glance about to be sure they wouldn’t be overheard.
“The admiral is determined to find the Dragon and its crew. You’re not concerned?”
“The ship is moored offshore in a small cove that the Royal Navy frigates do not sail into because of the reefs.”
Nicholas sighed. “They can’t stay hidden forever.”
“Once I’m able to leave, we will head for Spain, or perhaps north Africa, until Huntington gives up the search.”
“Huntington has arranged for a ship to leave tomorrow for England. He is escorting Roberta back before he returns to his duties aboard a new vessel. The admiral has decided it’s not safe for her to remain here, not when she’s unmarried without a husband to protect her.”
Dominic’s body tightened as panic gripped him. “So soon? I thought he wished to move her here.” He had secretly hoped it would take the admiral a few more days to find a ship headed back to England and to make arrangements. A new sense of urgency drove him to steal what moments he could with Roberta, even if it was but a brief kiss amid the English roses.
“I know—it is far sooner than we’d hoped,” Nicholas said. “But the admiral has changed his mind. He doesn’t feel he can keep her safe here. Your capture of the Fortune has him greatly concerned and he won’t let her stay. I promise to protect her the entire voyage home. He’s asked me to sail with her because he believes I kept her safe aboard a pirate ship. You have my word no harm will come to her.” He touched Dominic’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze before he went in search of the admiral.
Dominic forced a smile upon his lips as Roberta rushed down the stairs with coltish energy.
“You were right—I do prefer breeches. How do I look?” She spun in a circle before him, and he laughed at her open delight.
“You know you look radiant,” he chuckled.
She had pulled her hair back into an elegant queue bound up with a green ribbon. A few stray wisps of hair had curled against her neck. Dominic took in the sight of her, the afternoon sunlight from the windows lighting up her face. She was the single most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Better than a thousand moonlit bays or Caribbean sunsets, better than the colorful array of coral and fish beneath cerulean blue waters. She was the answer to every question that had ever mattered to him. And he was about to lose her forever for a second time.
“Ready to go?” He choked out the words past the lump in his throat. She nodded eagerly.
Dominic took her arm, and they walked down the front steps to the pair of waiting horses. He would not miss one more minute of his time with her. And then, he would do the right thing and allow her to leave. She would be safe in England.
Far from him. Far from La Roux.
Roberta could feel the tension coming from Dominic. His rigid posture astride his black stallion made her certain something was amiss. She steered her mount closer to his, hoping to examine his face more clearly. The road they were on was thickly forested, and the horses’ hooves created a steady thumping on the moist brown dirt. Exotic birds flitted in the trees above, and sunlight intermittently cut through the shelter of the foliage. Roberta felt like she had stumbled into an enchanted wood, ruled by some ancient wood god. At any other moment she would have embraced the magical feel of this place, but right now she was too worried about Dominic’s silence.
She reached across the space between them and touched his hand. “Dominic, what’s wrong?” It was too warm for gloves, and the skin-to-skin contact gave her some small reassurance as he gently squeezed her palm.
“Nicholas said you are to leave tomorrow.” His words were gruff, but she didn’t feel he was upset with her, but rather regretful that they would soon be parted. She was doing her best to forget it herself.
“I don’t wish to leave. I could stay…I would…if you asked me to.” And she would, without hesitation. She would risk ruination and live with him, even if he would not marry her.
Dominic led them off the main road and deeper into the woods down a narrow path. After a while, the woods gave way to a white sandy beach. Waves crashed into the shore, and the pure blue water kissed a soft blue sky.
Roberta followed him as he dismounted and tied his horse to a nearby tree. He caught her in his arms as she slid out of her saddle and held her close, his lips touching her forehead in a faint kiss before he stepped back. She placed her hand in his, and they walked to the pale sand, which shimmered in the sunlight. Dominic knelt, removing his boots and stockings. Roberta smiled a little as she did the same. They splashed in the shallows together, playing like children for what felt like hours, until she was exhausted and collapsed back onto the sand. He joined her, stretching his lean body alongside hers, and folded his arms behind his head.
“Dom, please, can we discuss this?” she asked.
He pulled a small but beautiful oyster shell out of his pocket and brushed the pad of his thumb over it before giving it to her.
“For you,” he said. “I found this when I first visited this stretch of beach ten years ago. I keep it in my study at King’s Landing as a way to remind me of my chance to build a life here in this paradise. I want you to take it back with you to England.”
Roberta could almost hear his unspoken words that he wished for her to take what little of him that she could. It was an infinitesimal comfort in a vast landscape of pain.
She accepted the shell, and her lips suddenly quivered. “Dom, we have to talk.”
He abruptly got to his feet and started walking down the beach. She chased after him and grabbed his arm, jerking him to a halt.
“Please…speak to me,” she begged, her voice catching.
Dominic faced her, and she saw the emotions he had been so desperate to hide. Pain and grief etched his handsome features, making him look years older than he was.
“I would give anything to keep you, Robbie, anything to make you mine, but it isn’t possible.”
“Why not?” she demanded and furiously wiped tears from her cheeks.
“Because La Roux won’t stop until either he or I am dead, and he will find you and kill you first to make me suffer. I won’t risk your life for any reason. He’s too smart to pursue you on the water when you’re heavily guarded, but he might try here on the island. I don’t trust that you’ll be safe if you stay. You will sail to England tomorrow. Once you’re there, you will live a safe and happy life and never look back. You must.”
A few days ago Roberta might have believed that was possible, but she had tasted true happiness with Dominic and refused to believe she could abandon it simply for her safety.
“La Roux wouldn’t dare come here. Not with the navy looking for pirates.”
“He might,” Dominic replied darkly. “If he felt the prize was worth the risk.”
Dominic walked back up the beach and sat down on the sand beneath the shade of some palm trees. He bent his legs and rested his forearms on his knees. Roberta joined him after a long moment. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and he placed his cheek against her head. Ahead of them, the waves crashed in a ceaseless rhythm. Roberta drew some comfort from it, but not enough. Her heart was sore with a bone-deep ache as she faced the truth. Dominic wouldn’t let her stay.
“What if you kill La Roux? I could come back. I”
“Even if it were easy to find him and kill him, that isn’t the only reason you should return to England. Roberta, you deserve a full life. Even if I stopped pirating tomorrow, there are men out there whose lives I spared who could identify me or my men. Someone someday will learn that I am also Captain Grey. I am a man of numbered days.”
“We all have numbered days,” she answered in a whisper.
“But if I’m hung for piracy, the Crown would take everything—my home, my fortune, even the things I have lawfully earned. It would leave you penniless and without a home. I cannot do that to you, or any children we might have.”
She wanted to tell him she didn’t care, but in truth she did. Not for herself. She could survive somehow, but their child, if she was carrying one, would depend on her for protection. She could not let her selfish thoughts take over.
“We should return soon,” Dominic murmured.
“If we must,” she sighed and cupped his face. “You will come to me tonight, won’t you?”
“Nothing could keep me away.” He bent his head to kiss her, stealing the last bit of her heart that she’d tried to keep safe.
The Red Lady sailed into a distant dock on the opposite side of the island of Jamaica from Port Royal just as midnight passed. The crew were quiet and cautious as they secured the boat to the dock. Andre La Roux left his men and descended the gangplank, walking down the wooden walkways that led from his ship back to the shore. The moon’s glow was so white that it almost burned his eyes as he stared up at it.
Now he had to wait. Patience was one of his many gifts. Tonight he sensed he would be lucky. Fifteen minutes later, one of his men met him at the dock.
“What news do you bring me?” Andre asked the man.
“When the India’s Pride docked, the cabin boy and the navy officer were met by an admiral. He called the lad Roberta.”
“So I was correct, the boy is the admiral’s daughter.”
“Yes. It was as you suspected when you glimpsed her listed on the Fortune’s passenger manifest. They were escorted to a tea merchant’s home. A man called Aaron King. I got as close as I could, and it was as you suspected. Dominic Grey makes his home here under a different name. Word on the island is that he makes money on a legitimate tea trade, separate from his pirate prizes.”
Andre considered this. What a fool Dominic was to keep a life here, one that could be ripped away by someone like him. It provided so many opportunities to hurt him. Take the woman, take the plantation, take his tea trade. What would cause him the most pain?
“He took the woman out riding today, alone. They were embracing on the shore when I last saw them.”
“Embracing?” Andre turned the word over and over. He had seen Dominic’s affection for the girl back in Tortuga and had played with Dominic, challenging him over his fear of losing her, but he knew Dominic well. Any woman was safe with that fool because Dominic had a soft heart for the fairer sex. What Andre wished to know was whether Dominic loved this admiral’s daughter.
“Yes,” the man replied. “I know little of love, but I would hazard that Grey may in fact be in love with this woman. I overheard a bit of their conversation as it carried on the wind. They were speaking of marriage and a life together.”
“And you’re sure she’s the admiral’s daughter?” It would make her a difficult bird to catch, but all the more powerful when caught. Leaving her dead and laying the blame at Dominic’s feet could see Dominic facing the noose. What a sweet turn of events that would be indeed if he could set things in motion.
The man nodded. “I was able to discern that they leave for England tomorrow. The admiral has decided it’s too dangerous for her to remain here. He plans to escort her home tomorrow aboard the Majesty’s Falcon.”
Andre grinned. The tide of war between him and Dominic had finally turned. He held out a leather pouch with coins and tossed it to the man, who slipped back into the shadows of the small dockside port. Andre returned to his ship, issuing orders to make sail again by dawn.
“Blaise!” he snapped at his quartermaster. The young man came over to him, a wary look in his eyes.
“Yes, Captain?”
“I have a special task for you.”
Andre had decided what would cause Dominic the most pain, and he would soon take his revenge.
17
“Mr. King. A word, if you please,” the admiral said to Dominic after the servants cleared away dinner. Roberta and Flynn had gathered near the pianoforte, speaking softly and smiling. Dominic felt comforted that Roberta liked Nicholas. In another life, he would have been overjoyed to see his woman and the man he once called his brother getting along so well.
“Yes?” He brought his attention back to the admiral as they stepped into the hall.
“I know I may seem to be a preoccupied man, but when it comes to my daughter, I’m quite observant. You have tried to hide your intentions, but I’m no fool.”
Dominic tensed as he met the man’s gaze. The admiral was in his late fifties, but Dominic suspected the man could put up quite a fight, if properly motivated.
“I’m not sure I follow,” he answered carefully. What exactly did the man know? That he was bedding Roberta, or that he was the pirate who had taken the Fortune?
The admiral’s face softened. “You are attentive to Roberta, and dare I say you are forming an attachment.”
Dominic relaxed ever so slightly. “I may indeed,” he admitted carefully.
“As you know, I’m sailing to England tomorrow to escort her home, but if I was given a reason to feel that it would be safe to leave her here…say under the protection of a new husband…”
It took everything in Dominic’s power not to say that he would like nothing more, that he wanted Roberta as his wife. But as long as Andre La Roux drew breath, Roberta would never be safe in the West Indies.
“As much as I wish to, I cannot provide a reason. Pirates are an ever-present threat. Not just in the water, but also on shore. As the daughter of an admiral, she would be a prize to any number of seafaring rogues to take and use to hurt you. It would be best if she returned to England.” The words crushed him like a boulder.
“Then I was mistaken? You are not overly attached to her?” Disappointment in the older man’s face was so evident that Dominic’s stomach knotted in answering sorrow.
“On the contrary. I’m too attached, and it is taking all of my strength to remind myself that her safety should come first. I feel as though I’ve known her for years, possibly in another life, and it is because of that depth of feeling I must insist she is returned to England where no harm can come to her.” He was surprised at himself for sharing his feelings with this man, but he felt that after everything that had happened he owed him the truth.
Charles’s face lit with understanding. “She is capable, as capable as any man in most ways. Despite her small size, she is fierce. I know perhaps a father ought not to discuss his daughter like this, but she is no wilting lily. She is as stalwart as a tree, hardy and clever and unafraid. Does that make a difference?”
Dominic’s hands clenched as he struggled to keep his emotions in check.
“I am all too aware of those attributes in her. They have only strengthened my esteem and affection for her, but consequently, it puts her in even more danger. She would not hesitate to put herself in danger to save someone she loves, including myself.”
The admiral smiled ruefully. “Ah. I was so hoping you and she might…” He trailed off. “I could not bear to see her marry a man like Huntington. I thought at first he was a good match, but now that I’ve seen him for who he truly is, I cannot. Roberta deserves to be with a man who values her, one who wishes to partner his life with hers, not to cage and display her like a pretty toy and only free her when the mood suits him.”
“Any man who truly values her should always put her safety before his own.”
Charles clasped his hands behind his back and sighed. “Right you are.” It was a weary sound that reminded Dominic so much of his own father, but this was a sound of defeat rather than frustration.
“After her mother died, I was at a loss as to how to raise her. But I couldn’t leave her with a governess, not when I was always at sea. It didn’t feel right to be apart from her. It felt like I had left a part of myself in England—one I couldn’t live without. So I chose to break with tradition and bring her with me on all my voyages. It has given her a taste of the world most ladies will never have, but I do not regret it, even if it has made it harder for her to settle down.”
“I believe you did the right thing. She is the finest woman I have ever known.” Dominic meant it. He would never find a woman to equal Roberta.
“Well, I shouldn’t trouble you further with talk of marriage.” The look of defeat on the man’s face threatened to break down Dominic’s defenses. He wished more than anything that he could tell the admiral who he really was and that he was madly in love with the man’s daughter, but he’d only end up getting hanged.
