However, when St. Augustine’s wooden watchtower came into view, his heart grew heavy with dread, for now he must face Dinah. And he found the prospect far more daunting than his interview with Admiral George Rodney.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I am afraid you do not understand, Mr. Richland.” Dinah leaned away from the middle-aged plantation owner, whose odors of tobacco smoke and rum nearly overpowered her. “I am betrothed, as Mr. Hussey should have told you. Therefore, I cannot marry you.” She scooted off of the settee and moved to a chair several feet away. Only one lamp lit the darkened parlor, and she shivered in spite of the warm room’s stifling atmosphere.
Mr. Richland chortled, an unpleasant sound that grated on Dinah’s nerves. “And I am afraid you do not understand, Miss Templeton. Mr. Hussey has told me about your, eh, betrothal, but where is the proof of it? My spies, if you will permit that term, have informed me of no gentleman callers here at the Hussey residence.” He inspected his fingernails and brushed them across his sleeve.
Spies? Dinah pulled in a deep breath to stave off her threatening dizziness. Had Artemis told this man about Jamie? She swallowed hard before trying to speak again.
“You are correct, sir.” Having failed to repair the fan Thomas had given her, she waved her old one before her heated face. This hot August weather had caused many St. Augustine citizens to become ill and she did not wish to join their ranks. “I do not understand. But my confusion comes from wondering why you would wish to marry someone who so clearly does not wish to marry you.” Who clearly has come to despise you. How could she explain herself more plainly?
Mr. Richland’s eyes narrowed and his leering grin sent a sick feeling into her stomach. “Oh, you will soon warm to me, my dear. And you will find that being the lady of a fine plantation will be more than ample reward for your, eh, pleasant company at my side.” He chuckled, as if he’d told a joke.
A violent shudder swept through her. This man reminded her of the snake that had almost bitten her before Thomas killed it. How could this vile man have such a pleasant son?
“You may find that my fiancé, Captain Moberly, objects to your assumptions and insinuations—”
“Ha!” His grin grew into a sneer. “Captain Moberly, indeed. Do you think I am a fool, madam? The good captain has been in St. Augustine for close to a week and has not once set foot on your street, much less into your house. Is he then your adoring suitor? Your fiancé? I think not. As I said, I have spies. Why else do you think I came here today? I was waiting to see if your assertion was true. Clearly, it is not.”
Dinah grew cold inside and out. Her throat constricted and her mind went blank. Thomas here? For a week? What madness was this? Why had he not come? Please, Lord, help me. Again, she pulled in a long, calming breath. “Your persistence amazes me, as do your wild reports. I will not discuss my fiancé with you further.” She rose and swept from the room.
At the back hallway, Artemis met her and seized her wrist. “Very good, Miss Templeton. Your arrogance befits the aristocratic lady you soon will be. But you have aimed your haughtiness in the wrong direction.”
“You were listening.” Dinah tried to pull away, but his bony fingers held her in a death grip. “Of course. You’ve as much as sold me to him like a slave. But why?”
Artemis shrugged. “Political advantage. And as my friend Mr. Richland so gallantly stated, you will find being the wife of a wealthy plantation owner has inherent rewards. That is, as long as you please him.”
She had been wrong. Mr. Richland might be a boor, but Artemis was the snake. “What could you possibly gain from this, Artemis? My paltry inheritance?”
“As I said, political advantage.” He pulled her toward her bedchamber. “I will deliver to him a wife of superior beauty, grace and innocence, a combination of qualities absent in most marriageable young women in this area. He, in turn, will grant me the five hundred acres required of an assemblyman.”
He kicked the smooth wooden door open and shoved her inside. She would have fallen if she had not caught herself on the bedpost.
“You will stay here until you decide to cooperate.” Artemis turned to leave.
Dinah regained her footing and chased after him into the hall. “You cannot force me to marry that man.”
He whirled around and gripped her shoulders. “You will do as I say.” His words blasted over her face like a dragon’s fiery breath. “If you do not, I will have you declared a madwoman and I will confiscate your inheritance. And lest you think Governor Tonyn will rescue you—” his self-satisfied sneer matched Mr. Richland’s “—he will have nothing to do with a woman whose brother is the infamous pirate Nighthawk.” He smirked. “And do you really think anyone will believe Captain Moberly does not know of Templeton’s activities? Why else has this brilliant, heroic captain failed to catch the pirate? Shall I point that out to our esteemed governor?”
Dinah gasped. She had never considered the possibility that Thomas might have been letting Jamie escape.
“Then again,” Artemis said, “perhaps the governor will decide to imprison you. That would be another option for getting you off my hands.” He pushed her back toward her shadowed room and once again shoved her inside, then pulled the door closed.
She heard the click of iron on iron as the lock latched into place. Only then did she notice that her interior bolt had been ripped from the wood.
For a moment, tears welled up within her, and she longed to throw herself on her bed and weep, just as she had when Jamie came to bid her goodbye two weeks ago. But something inside her held on, like a ship’s anchor in a storm. She would not submit to this blackmail. God would help her.
Indeed, He would help her climb through the window. She rushed to the narrow glass opening, pinned aside the mosquito netting, and studied the ten wood-framed panes, built securely to withstand hurricane winds. Only the bottom two rows could be opened, and the gap would be hard for her to climb through. But she must try.
Yet, if she left, where would she go? To find Thomas? Or perhaps she should again call him “Captain Moberly.” Her heart ached to think of losing him through no fault of her own. But then, if he had been using her to learn about Jamie and perhaps even Frederick, he’d never loved her in the first place.
After these many weeks of not seeing him, she found it distressingly easy to believe the worst. All her life, she had been alone. Her dear foster mothers and Anne had loved her in their own ways, but she had never felt the deep bond of sisterhood they all enjoyed. Perhaps it was due to her restless spirit. They had been content with their lives, while she had always wanted to be someplace else doing something different. Well, this situation certainly was different, but hardly what she’d longed for.
She slumped into her chair by the window. Night was falling over St. Augustine. After twilight, no decent woman walked the city’s streets for fear of the drunken soldiers who found their amusements where they could. The very men to whom she ministered when they were ill could not be trusted to recognize her, much less to guard her virtue, if she should be so foolish as to venture out.
Hearing sounds within the house, she went to the door to listen. Identifying the voices, she realized Anne had come in from the kitchen house after her nightly meeting with Cook to decide on the next day’s meals. Perhaps Anne could make Artemis see reason. Dinah pounded on the door.
“Anne, help me,” she cried. “Help me.” Pain shot up her arm from hammering on the hard wood.
“What has thou done, husband?” Anne’s voice sounded from the back of the house. Hope stirred within Dinah. Never before had she heard her foster sister speak in anger.
Footsteps padded across the tabby floor. “Why has thou imprisoned my sister? Dinah, are thee well? Ouch! Artemis, let go of me.”
“Dinah is well, my dear.”
His growling voice made Dinah shudder. She had never known him to be cruel to Anne. How could anyone be unkind to such a dear Christian lady? Had his ambition driven him
so far that he would harm his own wife? Fear for her foster sister coursed through Dinah.
“I am not hurt, Anne,” she called through the door. “Never mind. We can sort this out in the morning.”
“There, you see.” Artemis’s tone had softened. “Now, turn in, wife. I have a guest in the parlor who requires my courtesy. And do not think to open this door. I have the only key to the lock.”
“Yes, Artemis,” Anne murmured. Then their footsteps scuffed away, and silence reigned in the hallway.
Dinah glanced again at the window. At first light, she would find a way to crawl through it and seek help. But from whom? If Thomas no longer cared for her, she had no one to turn to.
After an agonizing night of little sleep, she decided to go to Mr. Leslie and ask for some of her money. Although she had seldom ridden, she would hire a horse and go to Bennington Plantation. Even if Frederick was a traitor to the Crown, he and Rachel would not deny her a place of refuge from a forced marriage. She prayed she would be able to make her way to King’s Road before Artemis realized she’d escaped.
Before dawn, she dressed in her oldest gown, then bundled up a second dress in a small satchel and glanced around the dark bedchamber to be sure she had everything she would need. Her drawing supplies would have to stay. Her extra pair of shoes. Her straw hat. No, she would need the hat once the sun rose. And of course, she packed her broken fan. Perhaps that would be all she had left to remind her of Thomas’s love.
Her room was on the shadowed west side of the house so little morning light reached the grassy yard between her window and the lavender field. She wiggled the lower panels of the narrow window and found the hinges rusty. Answered prayer! She kept at the task as quietly as possible and finally bent the section far enough inward to give her space to climb through.
Hope blossomed like the purple blooms still dotting the field. She shoved her leather satchel out and dropped it to the ground, then tossed out the hat. She glanced back at her dark room one last time, took a deep breath, and lifted one foot to begin her escape. Before it reached the window’s casement, her satchel flew back inside, nearly knocking her down.
Dinah’s heart jumped to her throat, and a sick feeling filled her stomach.
A dark form stood just beyond the glass. “Sorry, miss, so sorry.” The soft, deep voice of the male slave was filled with sympathy. “Mr. Richland says you must not go out.” In the shadows, she could see him turn to the right and then to the left, as if checking for something…or someone. “I won’t tell him you tried.” He shoved her hat back inside. “So sorry.” He dropped down, disappearing from view.
Dinah forced the bent window panels back into place and latched them. Again the urge to weep roared up within her, but she stamped it down, replacing despair with anger. Unlike Anne, she would not submit to Artemis and his ambitions. She would resist at every turn, no matter what they did to her. Even if they dragged her before a minister, she would refuse to speak the words that would bind her forever to that uncouth slave owner.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Mrs. Hussey, how may I serve you?” Thomas buttoned his coat as he entered the common room of the barracks. Hinton had wakened him only moments before and had hastily helped him dress. But Thomas’s apprehensions over the lady’s astonishing visit left no time for the finer points of grooming, nor even opening courtesies. Ladies did not come to the officers’ quarters, even women of ill repute. And no one came here before sunrise unless the matter was most serious.
Dark half circles underscored the weariness in her eyes, and her rich auburn hair was as tousled as his. The mere fact that this Quaker lady had emerged from her house without wearing her customary bonnet struck alarm into Thomas’s chest.
“Captain Moberly.” Her voice caught, and she bit her lip and stared down, apparently trying to regain her composure. “I fear m-my husband has let his ambitions overthrow his good judgment.”
Thomas swallowed his rising anger. This good woman was not at fault for her wretched husband’s misdeeds, whatever they might be. “Please sit down.” He touched her arm to escort her to an overstuffed chair and sat across from her. “What has happened?”
For the first time in their brief acquaintance, Mrs. Hussey glared at him. At least it seemed like a glare in the dim morning light. “Where has thee been, sir? My Dinah has almost wasted away in grief over thy cruel abandonment.” Tears appeared in her dark eyes, but her lips formed a rigid line.
Thomas opened his mouth to speak, but in truth, he had no answer. The instant Mrs. Hussey said “my Dinah,” he knew all his suppositions about his betrothed had been wrong. “Please tell me what has happened to bring you here, madam.” And what did “wasted away” mean? His alarm increased.
She withdrew a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed her cheeks. “Thee met Mr. Richland at the governor’s ball. He has long pursued Dinah, but she will not have him.”
Thomas shifted uncomfortably as guilt slammed into his conscience. “The boy is hardly a danger—”
“I refer to the senior Mr. Richland, and he is indeed a danger. He and Artemis have awaited thy return and watched to see if thee visited Dinah. When thou did not come, my husband made a pact with the man to trade her for a plot of land…as if she were his property, his slave.” She spat out the word. “Artemis has imprisoned her in her bedchamber and will not release her until she agrees to marry that man.” Mrs. Hussey shook her head and shuddered, as if her own words made her ill.
His beloved Dinah held captive by that jackanapes? Rage roared up within Thomas. To keep from saying something he would regret, he jumped to his feet, paced the wooden floor and ran a hand through his hair. But then guilt cut into his anger. He could have prevented this.
“If thou will not honor thy betrothal vows, at least take my dear friend to her cousin’s plantation. If thou dost not wish to be in her company, then assign the duty to some other—”
“Please, madam, I beg you to stop.” Condemnation heaped itself upon Thomas at her every word. “I am devoted to Dinah.” At least I was until—
“Then go to her and keep her from being forced into marrying that man.” Mrs. Hussey stood and walked toward the door.
Thomas followed close behind. “Madam, you must permit me to finish dressing so that I may see you safely home.”
The face she turned toward him was a study in serenity. “I thank thee, Captain, but my God will take me home in safety as surely as He brought me here.”
The instant she stepped out through the double front doors, Thomas located a sober soldier on duty. “You there, would you be so good as to follow Mrs. Hussey at a discreet distance and make certain she arrives home unharmed?” With no authority over anyone in the army garrison, Thomas could only hope the man would not refuse his request.
“Aye, sir.” The slender, middle-aged man lifted his musket with scarred hands. “For that good lady, I’d fight a pack of wolves. Now, that husband o’ hers—”
“I implore you, my good man, do not waste words. Make haste.”
To his relief, the affable soldier saluted and hurried off to do the task.
Thomas released a deep, weary sigh, then inhaled another galling dose of guilt. He had never hesitated before going into battle, and yet he had postponed confronting Dinah about her brother. There was no reasoning in it. He had returned to St. Augustine fully intending to deal with the matter immediately.
But resigning his commission had taken time. First there was the required paperwork, and then the letter Admiral Rodney had requested. But Thomas had agonized over divulging the truth about Nighthawk and in the end had been unable to expose his brother-in-law. Instead of an accusation, he wrote a vague letter requesting support for another of his father’s favorites, making no mention of Templeton. Not one person in the world knew what Thomas knew, and if someone discovered it, he would simply have to pay the price.
But even with that decision made, Thomas could not go to Dinah. Instead, he spent hours writing le
tters of explanation to his friends in the admiralty. After that, his lengthy visit with the governor. Then the tailor measured Thomas for his new civilian wardrobe and came back later for fittings. Poor excuses, all of them, and he’d known it at the time. But the days slipped by, and it grew easier not to see Dinah at all, although his heart still ached with the pain of her perceived betrayal…and his lost love.
Now this. Mrs. Hussey clearly had no idea how her words had affected him, yet the good woman’s affirmation of Dinah’s innocence made his indecision nothing short of evil. He should have trusted his first instincts. Should have trusted Dinah.
He hurried up the staircase three steps at a time and returned to his quarters. With Hinton’s help, he finished dressing and made his plans for setting things to right. At least he had no concerns about anyone in the city being suspicious of Templeton. During his visit with Governor Tonyn, he had reported his encounter with the pirate. From Tonyn’s reactions and responses, Thomas concluded without doubt that no one suspected a thing. He could walk away, or rather, sail away from St. Augustine with a clear conscience and let history sort out the details regarding whose side God fought on in this war.
And whether or not Dinah would forgive him for his negligence and sail away with him was a question he hoped to answer before the end of the day.
Overnight, Dinah’s bedchamber had become stifling without the benefit of the cool night air breezing in. She was confident the kindly slave who guarded the window would not try to enter and harm her, but nonetheless, she felt safer with the panes locked in place. Somehow it gave her a sense of controlling a small part of her life.
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