Devil of the High Seas, page 8
“I’m sorry I didn’t notice more, my lord. Lady Camden and I were so very excited about your wedding presents. It was to be a surprise . . .” Her voice trailed off into a whisper.
“Please do not cry. I’m certain she is all right. Josephine is a brave lady.”
“Yes, she is,” Vesper agreed. “I should go. Lady Camden may need me.” Vesper practically fled the room, and Griffin stared after her, his heart beating heavily at the loss of this woman he didn’t even know.
“Well, that certainly didn’t give us much,” Dominic muttered. “All we know for certain, Castleton, is that she didn’t leave on her own. I found footprints, hers and those of a man, leading into the woods. From there, I only found one set of hoofprints, so they rode off together on a horse.”
“We must search the countryside,” Griffin said. “We could divide up and ride to the nearest inns and taverns to look for her. She can’t have gotten far.”
At this Adrian snorted, causing everyone to look at him. Griffin had rarely spent time in the young man’s company, but the boy was Josephine’s twin and close to her the way he had once been close to Gavin.
“Did she run away?” Camden asked his younger son. “Tell us what you know, my son.”
Adrian cleared his face of emotion. “Honestly, I don’t know where she’s gone. I only stayed a moment after Mother saw to her last night. But if I was her, I would have run.” He gave a wry look at Griffin. “No offense meant, my lord.”
“Why would she run?” Griffin asked the lad. “I would have given her anything she wanted.” He had been committed to making his marriage to Josephine a sound one, with mutual affection and respect.
“Because even with your title and duties, there was one thing you could never give her, the one thing she needed.” Adrian’s face reddened a little.
“What?” Griffin asked warily.
“Adventure.”
That single word reverberated through Griffin like the tolling of a great bell. Adventure. There was one person who lived only by his drive for adventure and passion. And he and Josephine had met.
“I’ve been a damned fool,” Griffin muttered.
He strode quickly from his study, not caring that the three Greyville men followed on his heels. He headed straight for the tapestry that held the entrance to the hidden chamber open. The passageway was cold and dark. No sounds came from within the room. Had Gavin already left? Griffin moved deeper into the chamber to see that it was empty. As he’d expected, Gavin was gone.
A single lamp was lit on the table, its light running low. Beside it was a piece of paper that had been pinned to the table with a jeweled dagger. Griffin gripped the blade and pulled it free of the paper and read the words written there.
“You took my prize, so now I’ve taken yours.”
“What does that mean? Who wrote that?” Lord Camden demanded.
“My brother wrote this. It seems he has taken Josephine.”
“Your brother?” Dominic growled, and his eyes narrowed. “Last I saw him was . . .” Dominic closed his mouth, realizing too late the mistake he’d made.
“What do you know of my brother, Dominic?” Griffin asked, his tone hard. As boys, the three of them had been friends. Not as close as Dominic had been to Nicholas Flynn, but they’d been close enough that they’d spent a great deal of time together.
Dominic exchanged a glance with his father before continuing. “I suppose you have a right to the truth . . . He was in the West Indies for many years. We met often. When I married Roberta and came home, he had just assumed the role of the Admiral of the Black.”
“The Admiral of the what?” Griffin had never heard of such a thing.
Dominic’s voice lowered to a whisper, even though no one but the four men could hear his words in that private room.
“The pirates in the West Indies are more organized than you might have heard. To keep them in line, one pirate is chosen to rule them. The Admiral of the Black. The previous admiral retired, and votes were taken to put a new man in his place. The last I had heard, that was Gavin. What was he doing here in Cornwall?”
Seeing that Dominic had been truthful with him, Griffin felt it necessary to be truthful with what he knew of Gavin’s situation. “Apparently, my brother was off the coast of Cornwall when his ship suffered a mutiny. He barely escaped with his life. He was injured and came through this passageway into our home. He sought me out, only I wasn’t in my old chambers. Josephine was.”
Camden scowled at this, but Griffin continued. “Josephine tended to his injuries that night, then brought me to see him. He told me he would be gone in a few days. He planned to take his ship back somehow. Perhaps he’s taken her with him.”
Lord Camden let out an aggrieved sigh. “So my only daughter has been abducted by a pirate. And not just any pirate, but one intent on revenge who just so happens to be the current king of pirates of the West Indies?”
Dominic met Griffin’s gaze, but the man’s look was unreadable.
“Can none of my children stay away from trouble?” Camden snapped. He shot Adrian a glare, as if expecting him to confess he’d taken up with a pirate crew too. The lad raised his shoulders in an innocent shrug.
“They can’t have gotten far if they have no ship,” Dominic said. “Why don’t we all sit down and craft a plan to bring Josie back?”
Camden gave his son a hard stare before he nodded at the jeweled dagger in Griffin’s hand.
“Is my child safe with your brother?”
Griffin clenched his fingers around the hilt of his blade. “I honestly don’t know. He wouldn’t harm her, but from what I understand, there may be some passion between them.”
“Passion?” Camden uttered the word in confusion.
“My brother is a charmer, Lord Camden. And your daughter spent the night in his company, tending to his wounds. I believe that it may have resulted in . . . feelings between them, however innocent for Josephine.” Griffin had gleaned enough from his twin’s reaction to Josephine and hers to him in that short time they’d all stood in this room to realize that Josephine was more than curious, if not attracted to Gavin in some way. Of course, she was far too innocent to realize her face and her words had betrayed as much to him.
“If he touches her . . . ,” Camden began, his voice full of quiet fury.
“He will face the wrath of every man in this room,” Griffin promised.
Gavin, you damned fool. What have you done?
As the four men exited the secret passageway, someone called for them in the corridor. A messenger had arrived from Camden’s estate with a note for Dominic. Dominic rushed down to meet the young man holding the message at the bottom of the grand stairs. Dominic took the missive and read it, his face hardening as Griffin and the others joined him at the base of the stairs.
“It’s from my wife. My new ship, the Cornish Pixie, which was anchored in St. Ives Bay, sailed out to sea last night.” He crumpled the note in his palm. “The crew I hired apparently heard they’d been assigned a new master . . .”
“What was that you were saying about them not getting far without a ship?” Adrian asked, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Castleton’s brother will have a decent head start on us.”
“This is no laughing matter, lad,” Griffin said. “Gavin once loved a woman who chose to marry me instead. Now he’s taken my intended bride, your sister. He’ll likely seduce her before we ever catch up to them.”
Adrian’s humor vanished as he returned Griffin’s look. “Yes, the bastard will likely try to seduce her, but he doesn’t know Josie like I do. She’s clever and stubborn. He’ll not find her a rose so easily tamed. If she’s there against her will, he will feel her thorns.”
“I hope you are right,” Griffin said. If anything happened to her because of Gavin, he would never forgive himself.
“So, what’s our plan now that they have a ship?” Adrian asked.
“We must go after them,” Dominic said darkly. “I once counted Gavin as a friend, but now he’s taken my ship and my sister. He will pay for those transgressions.”
“Agreed,” Lord Camden said just as coldly. “No one takes my child without consequences.”
Griffin would try to save his brother’s life, if it came to that, but he hoped these men would be in better spirits if Josie remained unharmed. If only it would be just an innocent adventure and Josephine would come home safe.
“We need a ship,” Camden said.
“Nicholas and Brianna are here. Brianna’s ship is in the bay. I imagine she would be happy to help us, given hers and Gavin’s history,” Dominic suggested.
“What history?” Griffin asked.
Dominic met his gaze reluctantly. “They are old friends . . . and occasionally they have been lovers.”
“Ah . . .” So, his brother hadn’t been a monk all these years. Griffin had been, though. Ever since Charity had died, he’d seen no other woman. Been tempted by no other. Until today . . .
He forced himself to shove aside his thoughts of the lady’s maid or how his world had tilted on its axis when he’d laid eyes on her. He had a betrothed to worry about and a pirate to chase down.
“Let’s make ready to leave at once,” Griffin said to the others. He still held the jeweled dagger, vowing he’d return it to his brother in exchange for Josephine’s freedom.
A prize for a prize indeed . . .
Josephine stretched, then groaned in discomfort. Heavy blankets covered her legs, and something tightened around her chest as she tried to breathe. She kicked fussily, trying to dislodge whatever kept her legs unbearably warm and trapped.
“Ow!” a deep voice grunted close to her ear. Her eyes flew open, and she found herself staring at a man’s jaw. A beautiful, chiseled jaw. Her eyes traced up the line of that jaw to the ear and nose and finally the eyes. Gavin was staring at her in amusement. As she got her bearings, she realized they were lying facing each other in a bed that rocked slightly.
Oh God . . . She hadn’t dreamt last night, then? Gavin had kidnapped her on the eve of her wedding to Griffin and taken her out to sea? She glanced down the length of her body, seeing that she was still in the exquisite wedding gown she’d worn last night. It was her voluminous skirts tangled around her legs and her corset pulled tight around her chest that had caused her such discomfort. She raised her eyes back to Gavin’s face, still in disbelief that she was here with him. She was supposed to be on the way to her wedding, not waking up in a pirate’s bed.
“Did you sleep here too?” she blurted out.
“Yes, and you, darling creature, stretch out like a starfish in your sleep . . . and kick too,” he said with a low chuckle. “I’ll have bruises on my shins from your violence.”
Josephine blushed in mortification. She knew she did stretch out a bit in her sleep, the evidence was in the state of her sheets each morning, but she’d never had anyone complain about it before because she’d always slept alone.
“Oh . . .” She inwardly cursed at the flood of heat in her face. She slowly sat up, and he rolled onto his back, folding his arms above his head, only to wince and put them back down. She glanced at his wound, but the stitched area looked clean.
She tried to comb her hands through her hair. “I see you’re feeling better.”
“Yes, I am.” His eyes tracked the movement of her hands. “I rather like it when you do that,” he mused softly.
“Do what?”
“Comb your hair with your fingers. It reminds me of a mermaid sunning upon the rocks.” He settled his uninjured arm behind his head as he lay back again on the bed. She tried and failed to avoid looking at his chest. His skin was a light gold, and his pectoral muscles were well developed. The ropes of muscle in his abdomen made her throat strangely dry. Lord . . . He was a specimen of a man, wasn’t he? Not that she’d seen many half-dressed men, but a woman knew deep in her womb what an attractive male looked like. Some things were too ingrained into the mind to be erased by the dictates of polite society.
“A mermaid?” she asked in an attempt to distract herself. “You’ve seen one?”
“Aye, of course. They are crafty creatures. They hide in the shallows at night and sing, but on fine sunny days when they expect no ships to come near them, they like to sun on the rocks within view of the beaches. I’ve hidden there and glimpsed them as they combed their hair.”
He was teasing her. Mermaids didn’t exist, nor did sea monsters. But she liked to imagine it all the same.
She climbed out of the bed and explored the cabin as he looked on in amusement. There was a chest full of fine gowns, as well as men’s clothing. A large copper tub was in a corner of the room with a discreet sheet draped within the inside, which meant a lady could bathe in the tub and retain some of her modesty.
“This isn’t your ship, is it?” she asked. He’d said he’d lost his ship, and she wondered if he’d managed to find it again. How did one lose a ship, anyway?
“It is now. I stole it,” he said with a chuckle.
“You stole it?” Josephine bent over the trunk again as she examined some of the gowns more closely, then she froze. She knew these dresses. She’d seen them before . . . on her sister-in-law.
“What’s the name of this ship?” she asked quietly.
“The Cornish Pixie.”
She whirled to face him. “You stole my brother’s ship?”
“Oh? Is this your brother’s ship? How amusing. I imagine he will be quite furious once he finds out.” Gavin yawned dramatically, as if he was not the least bit worried about an angry pirate coming after them.
“Oh dear . . .” She began to pace the cabin, her silky blue skirts whispering over the polished wooden deck. Dominic and Roberta had been planning to sail to the West Indies in a few weeks to check on his landholdings there. He’d planned to command the ship himself until he found a suitable captain.
Gavin finally stood and caught her arm as she paced about. He pulled her into his embrace, their gazes locking.
“We have a decent head start. Your brother won’t be able to catch us.” Griffin rubbed his hands slowly up and down her arms, making her shiver with an excitement she should not be feeling.
“You don’t know him, Gavin. He’s a . . .” She halted before she betrayed her brother.
“He’s a what?” Gavin turned her face toward his when she tried to look away. “A pirate?” he supplied, his honey-brown eyes hot. “You need not keep that secret, not with me. I know your brother well.”
“Yes, as boys you knew him—”
“No, as pirates. He and I often crossed paths upon the sea and shared ale and voted on matters together with the Brethren of the Coast. I know how dangerous he is, my darling.”
Her eyes widened at Gavin’s confession and the way he’d called her darling. He knew about Dominic? Then she realized how very silly she’d been. Of course they must’ve known each other. Pirates always seemed to know, or at least know of, each other. Then her mind caught upon his words.
“What’s the Brethren of the Coast?”
“Think of it as a pirate parliament,” Gavin explained, but he was still staring at her mouth, and she was finding it rather distracting herself to look at his lips.
“A pirate parliament?” she echoed. She started to lean into him, her eyes drifting closed as she waited for a kiss.
“I should go check on my men,” he said reluctantly and stepped back. “Shall I bring you food when I return?”
She recovered herself quickly and smoothed her skirts in an attempt to regain her composure.
“What? Oh yes, please. I am rather famished.” She watched him leave, and once she was alone, she examined the clothing in the sea chest again. One could not run about a pirate ship in a wedding gown. She needed to change her clothes. She suddenly wished Vesper was here. Her lady’s maid was always prepared for such things. She would have had a light day gown and a clean chemise and stockings ready for her before she even woke.
“I shall have to make do without you, Vesper,” she murmured to herself and began to dig through the gowns.
Roberta was a few inches shorter than her, but the gowns would still fit in all of the places that mattered. What did she care if she exposed an ankle every now and then? However, she didn’t want to wear gowns, at least not right at the moment. If this was to be her adventure, she wanted more freedom to move about the ship.
She retrieved a pair of her brother’s trousers and a shirt and waistcoat, much like what Gavin wore, and laid them upon the bed. The wedding gown did not come off without a fight, however. Thankfully, Vesper always tied her laces at the bottom of her dresses and tucked the loose laces into the skirts at the base of Josephine’s spine. With some clever reaching from behind, she was able to free herself of the bodice and shimmy out of it before doing the same with her corset.
She probably ought to have kept the corset on, but once she was free of the undergarment, she didn’t want to put it on again anytime soon. Instead, she donned the shirt and trousers and then buttoned up the burgundy waistcoat. Glancing at herself in the mirror, Josephine thought that she looked like a female pirate ready to storm a ship and seize treasure. She nearly giggled at the reckless daydream.
She pulled on a pair of her brother’s boots next, only they were far too big for her, so she switched to Roberta’s pair of black boots. Satisfied with her new clothing, she marched to the door and turned the handle. It didn’t move. Gavin had locked her in. Why would he do such a foolish thing? It wasn’t as if she could escape him or the ship, even if she wanted to.
Blast him! She kicked the door with one booted foot and marched angrily over to the bed and flung herself back down. When Gavin returned, they were going to discuss this foolish behavior.
Gavin stood on the quarterdeck and stared at the row of sailors in front of him. Most looked to be hearty men of a young age. There were a few seasoned men among them. Ronnie coughed politely, catching his attention, and the quartermaster nodded at the men, indicating that Gavin should address them.
