To Save a Fallen Angel (The Fallen Angels series Book 2)

by Julianna Hughes

  “I now pronounce you man and wife,” the priest said, bringing Peggy out of her stupor.

  She lifted her eyes to the furious priest and cringed inside a little. The man had a right to his indignation. In all likelihood Joc had accosted him and the nuns while at their morning prayers. And he had been forced to perform the ceremony with his hands still lashed together.

  “Bien,” Joc said, and then nodded at one of the crewmen. A large bag was quickly handed to the priest and a smaller one was also handed to the Superior Reverend Mother. Judging by the amount of jangling coming from the bags, Peggy suspected that Joc had just paid a king’s ransom for the priest’s cooperation. Or the earl’s ransom, as he probably used a part of the gold meant to free her father.

  “Pepe, take them back to their church,” Joc called out.

  “Aye, aye, Mr. Malveaux,” Pepe replied and quickly began ushering the priest and nuns off the ship.

  Once they were clear of the gangplank, Joc turned toward the bosun, and Peggy knew what was about to happen.

  “No,” she snapped at Joc. “Did you order him to bring us on deck, as we were?”

  “No, I did not,” Joc replied and glared at Thibeau.

  “Papa?” she demanded.

  “E was only told to escort ye and Captain Stoughton to the priest,” Joc said defensively.

  “And did you tell him,” she looked around at the rest of the crew still gathered on the three decks, “and the rest of the crew that it was to be a pirate’s wedding?” she asked.

  Joc swallowed, but refused to answer. The guilt on his face being answer enough. “And is not a pirate’s wedding done as the couple is found?” she asked a little less heated.

  Joc glared back but still refused to answer. Peggy did for him. “Then he was just following ye orders,” Peggy insisted.

  Joc turned to glare at her. She nodded. “Then anything else he did is between me and Mr. Thibeau.”

  He looked like he was going to argue, so she added, “I am the captain of this ship, Mr. Malveaux. Therefore, I, and I alone, will decide what is to be done if Mr. Thibeau disobeyed his orders. Or overstepped them.”

  “No,” Luc snarled from beside her. She glanced up and saw his eyes flickering from the bosun, Joc, and then to her. Peggy didn’t have to guess what Luc wanted to do to the man as he had told Thibeau what he would do to him. She elbowed him in the side to get his attention.

  He glanced down at her. “It is my right,” Luc said.

  “I am the captain of this ship,” she said in a loud voice.

  Peggy could tell he wanted to argue with her decision. But before he could, Edgar and two other crewmen clapped him on his shoulder and attempted to drag him away. He threw her one last glare, and then allowed himself to be led toward the fo’c’sle, where tots of grog were being passed out in celebration of their wedding. Although from the looks of the celebrating, the usual tot was turning into a number of draughts of the watered-down run.

  “Ye goin’ pay for that, I think,” Joc said from beside her.

  “No doubt. But after your little stunt, I can’t afford to lose any more respect from the crew.

  “Aye,” Joc agreed. “But I no’ think yer goin’ to be able to manipulate that one, as ye done to Eddie and me.”

  Peggy turned and glared at him. “I don’t think I have ever tried to manipulate you, Papa.”

  He huffed then said, “Tried, oui. More times than I care to count. Managed? Not so many, I think.”

  She smiled at him and felt her heart warm. She had always loved her surrogate parents equally. But Joc had always been special to her in a way that Eddie had never been. Not more loved, but just differently, as he had been the one to step in and become her father when her own had abandoned her to his brother.

  With that in mind, Peggy glanced around the ship, noting all the men laughing and trying to push Luc’s backbone to the front. All but the four who had come to get her and Luc for the wedding.

  “Papa,” she said quietly, as she gazed at the four men that had separated themselves from the rest of the crew and were even now glaring daggers at Luc.

  Always in tune with her, he took a breath, and said, “I see them.”

  She turned to him, “I blame myself for being distracted with Gustav and then with Eddie’s murder. But Thibeau needs to be replaced. He wants the captaincy, and I think he will do anything he can to get it. And now he has enlisted Bird, Pegg, and Shann as allies.”

  “Oui, little one. He has to go,” Joc said then turned to her. He shook his head. “But he eez not yer fault. He eez mine. I hired ‘em. And as first mate, it was my job to watch ‘em.”

  Peggy shook her head. “One of the first things Eddie and Lady Peri ever taught me, is that the captain is ultimately responsible for everyone on board their ship. So, the fault is mine. So is the decision on what is to be done with him.”

  Joc turned and gazed into her eyes, then nodded. “And what do ye want me to do with zee mon?” he asked.

  Peggy took a breath and let it out. “We can’t leave him here.”

  Joc grimaced. “Ye think he’s the one that got word to those pirates that attacked us zee other day?”

  “Without proof? Aye, I do. But it’s just a feeling I have about him,” she said.

  Joc nodded. “Aye. I’m getting the same feelings.”

  Peggy exhaled again. “So we can’t leave ‘em here. We wouldn’t make it twenty leagues before we were attacked again. And we can’t throw him in the brig. The crew will see it as retaliation for his part in the pirate’s wedding that you, yourself, instigated.”

  “Aye,” Joc said. “And that be on me as well. There needed to be an officer who breached yer cabin. And young Jenkins eez too young and too inexperienced to be sneaking into yer cabin.”

  “So you sent Thibeau.”

  “Oui,” he replied, even though it had been a statement and not a question.

  Peggy nodded. “So for now, we make no changes to the crew. We’ll just keep a wayward eye on him and those he’s befriended. And when he does something else inappropriate, then we’ll lock him in the brig and get rid of him once we’ve finished our mission.”

  “Oui,” Joc said.

  Peggy took a breath and let it out. She now needed to broach the subject that had been roiling inside of her for weeks now.

  “There is one change I think needs to be made, however,” she said.

  He turned to her. “And that eez?” he asked.

  She took another breath. “I think it is time to take another vote.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Papa, these men follow me because I am your ward, and Uncle Eddie’s niece.”

  He grunted. “That eez not zee only reason they follow you.”

  She snorted. “I’m a thief, Papa. The best there is. And I’ve made them rich. But we have not taken a prize since Eddie’s death. And the men are growing restless. They will follow you because they are as loyal to you as they were to Eddie.” She took a breath. “Take a vote, Papa. My marriage to an English nobleman is the perfect excuse to do so. And it will mean that we can continue with our mission.”

  He stared at her as her heart pounded beneath her breasts. Finally, he nodded. “Oui, ma fille chérie. I will take zee vote.”

  Chapter 27

  The back of Luc’s neck itched in a way that had always warned him of impending trouble. The feeling had begun just before the storm that nearly sank them. And it had intensified since reaching port.

  At first he wrote it off as the tension between him, Peggy, and her papa. When Thibeau had dragged them from their bed, he was sure he knew what the premonition was about. But Joc had surprised him by giving Luc and Peggy the wedding she had always wanted. Although from the look on her face when Joc had explained his bizarre behavior, Luc had a feeling that the pirate wedding had been Joc’s or her uncle’s idea, and not Peggy’s. But in the end she had seemed happy to go through with it. Luc just prayed she was also happy to be
married to him.

  Unfortunately, that nagging feeling of impending doom had not dissipated with the secession of tension between Peggy and her papa. If anything, it had increased. Especially, when he glanced over and saw the way they were staring at Thibeau and his cohorts. Something was not right. And he needed to find out what.

  Luc turned back to Peggy and his chest expanded on the realization that she was now his wife. And whether she liked it or not, he was going to protect her. And at the moment that meant getting her back to their cabin.

  He quickly shook a couple more hands and then excused himself from the celebrations. From the looks of it, the crew would not miss him in the least as they had broken out another keg of the watered-down rum that they were serving. Strolling over to his wife (God, he loved saying that even in his head) and her papa.

  “Husband,” she greeted him, and his chest puffed out a little more.

  “Wife,” he replied and winked at her. “Captain or not, don’t you think it is time you returned to our cabin and got dressed?”

  She startled as she glanced down. Her cheeks turned a delightful shade of pink, even as she raised her head and met his gaze. “I thought I looked rather fetching in my toga. Don’t you?”

  God how he loved this woman. Her brashness was refreshing and incredibly enticing. “Oh, definitely. But somehow I just don’t see a toga is a practical uniform for a ship’s captain. Do you?”

  She smiled back at him as she twirled the makeshift toga back and forth as if it was a ball gown. “Oh, I don’t know. It is almost as freeing as a good pair of knee-breeches.”

  They both laughed. And then they looked at Joc, who was now scowling. “Married or no, ye need to go put on ye clothes, afore I disobey yer orders and gut that mon for bringin’ ye up ‘ere like that.”

  She laughed, but Luc could tell if was forced this time. “Don’t do that, Papa. I’m going.”

  Luc offered her his arm, and they promenaded across the deck to the companionway. But once they were safely back inside the cabin, he bolted the door and turned to face her.

  She was toying with her lower lip in a way he knew meant she was anxious. But otherwise, she stood regally in front of him. His eyes flickered up to the hatchway that the men had dropped through earlier, and he wondered if there was any way to secure it so that it can no longer be used in such a way.

  “It’s a sword that cuts both ways,” she said, drawing his attention back to her. “If it is barred to keep people out, then it can no longer be used as an escape route in an emergency.”

  He was not surprised she had followed the direction of his thoughts. Since meeting her, she had always seemed to be able to read him in a way that no one else ever had. And she wasn’t fooling him either. She was putting off the discussion that they needed to have about the morning’s activities.

  Luc decided asked the most crucial question that needed to be answered. “Peggy, are you really all right with this marriage?”

  She let out a breath and her shoulders slumped a little. “Yes, Luc. I am very happy to be married to you.”

  His own shoulders relaxed a little. So he moved onto the next question. “Why don’t you want me touching Thibeau? What he did was unacceptable. And you can’t tell me your papa ordered it. I saw the way he looked at the man. If he could, I suspect he would have gutted Thibeau right then and there.”

  Peggy’s face lost most of the emotions she had shown before. Even her eyes seemed to dilate and turn to blue sapphires.

  “A pirate’s wedding is not a common occurrence on a pirate ship,” she said. “But it is also not unheard of. And it is usually a wild and raucous celebration that the entire crew takes part in, as you just witnessed. To have punished Thibeau for what he did would have caused dissension amongst the crew. And that, Captain Stoughton, is something that we cannot afford at this point in our mission.”

  He thought about it, then nodded. What she said made sense. But he had not missed the way she and Joc had been looking at Thibeau and the men around him. There was more going on here than she was telling him. And he needed to know what it was.

  “I’m not the captain of the ship,” he said. “I’m not even a real member of the crew. But my mission, our mission, depends on the success of this voyage. So I need to know what is going on, on board this ship.”

  She laughed humorlessly, then said, “By morn, I doubt I will be the captain either.”

  His eyes narrowed at her, so she elaborated. “I told Joc to take a vote. With our marriage, it would be better if he were the captain and not I.”

  “And that’s all it takes for Joc to become captain?” he asked.

  “On a pirate ship like this one, aye,” she said.

  He frowned at her. “There is more going on here than a change of who is at the helm of this ship. And I need to know what it is,” he said.

  She scowled at him and then shook her head. “I would think, even for a landlubber, you could figure that out. I believe someone on board my ship is trying to keep us from reaching Tripoli.”

  “Why?” he asked then looked away and added, “Who?”

  She snorted, bringing his attention back to her. She walked to the bed and dropped down on it. “The why is easy,” she said. “There’s fifty thousand reasons why in the hold of my ship.”

  She took a breath and then shook her head. “As to the who, that could be anyone on board the Coral Sea. Even you, Captain Stoughton.”

  He glared and she grinned back. “I don’t think it is any of the men who have sailed with us for the last several years. They were loyal to my uncle and are loyal to me and Joc. And I don’t think it is you.”

  “Thank you,” he said sarcastically and felt a twinge of disappointment that she had even considered him.

  “But there are fifteen crewmen on the ship. Ten have sailed with us for years. Three joined about a year ago. Two came onboard the month before my uncle was murdered.”

  Luc straighten up and glared at her. “Who?” he demanded.

  “Blasé Thibeau and Luther Shann,” Peggy replied.

  He absorbed that, then asked, “Why not just throw this Thibeau and Shann off the ship? Or let yer papa deal with them?”

  “Oh, he would like to,” she replied. “But his little surprise just made that nearly impossible.”

  Despite the seriousness of the discussion, Peggy sitting on their bed in nothing but a blanket was too hard to ignore. He walked over and settled down beside her.

  “How did our wedding make that nearly impossible?” he asked.

  “Grey Bird, Dixon Pegg, and Curtis Burkly are the other three men who joined the crew recently. Burkly was the man in the crow’s nest when the storm hit.”

  Luc nodded. He had been the man blown overboard, probably already dead from the lighting strike.

  “Bird and Pegg were the other two men who escorted us to our wedding,” she finished.

  “Bloody ‘ell,” he said.

  She nodded. “We can’t throw any of them off the ship. Because if one of them did get word to those pirates before we left Rochester, then they could do so again. And we can’t lock them in the brig because the rest of the crew would see that as retaliation for their part in the wedding.”

  “Bloody ‘ell,” he said again.

  She leaned into him and laid her hand on is thigh. A bolt of fire raced to his groin. “So for now we’ll just keep a close eye on them and make sure they don’t cause any problems.”

  He pulled her closer and only then realized she was trembling slightly. She wasn’t as in control as she pretended to be.

  “This isn’t the first time you’ve had dealings with spies on board yer ship. Is it?” he asked.

  She snorted. “This is a pirate ship, Lord . . . Luc. Spies are a way of life for pirates.” She turned to him. “And we weren’t just the run of the mill pirate ship. Part of the time we worked for your government. So, yes, we’ve had spies on board before. I suspect even your Sir Walter has had one or two slipped o
n board over the years to keep him updated on what we was a doin’ in the name of King and Country.”

  This time Luc snorted. He was all too familiar with Sir Walter and his bloody spies. Luc had had to deal with one or two over the years. Hell, he had been one of the man’s bloody spies.

  “So what happens if they do something else?”

  Without looking at him, she began to slowly trail her fingers up his naked arm. Gooseflesh rose in their wake, and hunger for her began to grow in his groin.

  “I intend to find out if they are doing this for themselves, or if they are doing this for someone they work for. And I want to know why they are on my ship,” she said.

  He took a breath and blew it out. “And then?” he got out between clenched teeth.

  “And then I intend to let Joc have them for fish bait.”

  “Bloodthirsty wench,” he hissed as he turned and enfolded her in his arms.

  “Heartless landlubber,” she cooed.

  With that, he tugged the part of the blanket over her shoulder and if fell away. He still couldn’t believe this beautiful woman was his. Last night he had fantasized about making her his wife. But as a child, passed from one family to the next, he had become accustom to not having anything of his own.

  He now knew it had been for his own safety. His cousin had wanted him dead, so he could inherit his brother’s English title. But as a child, all Luc knew was that every time he began to care about someone, they would ship him off to the next Scottish relative. So he had learned to never give his heart to anyone. And to never get attached to any place, or anything.

  But when he had seen Peggy that first night, something had snapped in him. He wanted her in a way he had never allowed himself to want before. That night at the Wellington’s ball, it had scared him. Angered him. Unreasonably so, as he knew she was just one more thing he could never have as his own.

  Yet here she was. His wife. And in his arms.

  He searched her face and wanted to crow like an untried youth with his first sweetheart. As usual, he became transfixed by her unusual eyes. Up close the darker, cerulean blue ring around the iris of her eyes was hypnotic. Ensnared by the desire he saw in them, Luc leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers.