The man seemed quite interested in helping, so it was frustrating to spend the better part of an hour on social niceties, gossip, and a discussion about their local horse-racing track, which the official assured him would be up and running in a week. Two at most.
“Very interesting, thank you for sharing information about Dominica, sir. I wonder if we can work on my tax issue. I’d like to go around to the shops before they close to purchase a few necessary items.”
“Of course, of course.” The man hefted himself out of his chair with the help of both hands on the armrests, then went to a large bookshelf and extracted three leather-bound tomes. “Let’s see here, these should have the information we need.” He dumped the books on the substantial desk and started flipping through the pages. Several “Oh, I sees” and many “hmms” later, the man closed the last book and looked directly at Rhain.
“I think I can see a place or two where your tax rate may have been a tad miscalculated. I will write a short report for the governor for his consideration and will let you know the decision as soon as I hear more.”
“What excellent news.” Rhain knew things would start to go their way. It just took perseverance and good manners. Feeling better than he had since they floated into this harbor, he left the office and went to find someone to dig a deep well for his property.
He was standing outside the last of three shops, gritting his teeth, when he heard the loveliest sound this cursed island could generate.
“There you are, Mr. Morgan,” Alastair shouted from down the street.
They hurried to meet each other, shook hands, and slapped backs as if they were long-lost brothers seeing each other after years of separation. Rhain smiled so wide his sunburned lower lip split open, but he didn’t care. Still shaking Alastair’s hand, his tongue took over before his brain even knew he was going to speak. “Damn, but I missed you last night.”
Alastair sported an unsteady smile. “Did you? I had thought… Never mind. I am very glad you missed me. I missed you as well.” His next words were smooth as silk and promised passion. “Come to the ship. I have something to discuss with you.”
Although he hadn’t time to spend in his captain’s arms, that was exactly what Rhain desired more than anything. But he still needed to purchase provisions and return to the plantation before dark. It was already close to four. He could not linger in Roseau, even for such a sweet offer as another evening with his beloved Alastair.
“With regret, I must decline. I still have things to buy before the shops close. Can you believe the price of everything on this muddy, godforsaken rock?”
“I know. Everything about this damn island is wrong. Rhain, I’ve been looking for you for over an hour; we really must talk. Come to the ship with me?”
Rhain’s heart stuttered at the thought of just what passion they would unleash if he went back to the ship. He struggled with temptation.
“I wish I could, but…” He shook his head.
Alastair stopped and looked at him. His expression closed off, so Rhain couldn’t begin to determine what the man thought. “What if I give you enough provisions for a week and have one of my men find you a ride? Then will you come?”
He smiled at that. Alastair really was very persuasive. “Well, that does solve the problem nicely. Thank you, I will come with you. But I can only stay for a short while so I can say good night to Lydia before it is too dark to maneuverer a wagon to my plantation. Lydia is staying with a family named Hancock. They are a respectable household with three daughters and room to spare. We were fortunate to find them by word of mouth. She will stay there until things are settled.” The comment was only partially true, and he felt guilty about lying.
With his lips pressed into a flat line and eyes half closed, Alastair looked like he would say something Rhain did not want to hear. Instead the man said, “Come then, I will explain when we are there.”
They hurried through town, shoved their way through the raucous crowd on the dock, and were on the ship within a quarter of the clock. A sudden release of tension and a feeling of contentment washed over him as soon as he stepped off the gangplank. It felt like coming home after a year abroad. How strange, that.
The air was clear here. At least for the moment. The ocean breeze blew the damn soot onto his property but left the air around the dock sea-salt fresh. He was enjoying a deep lungful when Lydia appeared from the belowdeck hatch and walked over to him. She kept one hand on the rail and one hand on her chest, breathing shallowly; still, she looked healthier than she had since setting foot on Dominica.
“Oh, good, the captain found you.” Her voice sounded quiet and raspy. “I worried he would miss you and you’d learn of my decision from the letter I left in my room.”
Now if that statement didn’t leave his heart lurching from fear, then nothing ever would. “Lydia?”
She grabbed both of his hands and squeezed harder than he thought she could. “Rhain, this island is not safe. The captain and Conall talked to just about everyone in Roseau, and it is common knowledge there have been many slave uprisings in the past six months.”
“That may be, dear. However, the port authority and the lieutenant governor assured me everything has been resolved and this disturbance will be over soon. I think it is simply a result of the storm.”
“Yes, well, that must be what the governor is telling them to say so they can keep everyone on the island. Conall told me that people, especially estate owners and business men, are leaving as fast as they can book passage. In fact, something close to thirty people have asked for passage on the Hurricane. It is madness down there.” She waved her hand at the teeming wharf, where just then a man with his arm around a young woman holding a baby yelled up at them, asking if they had room for additional passengers. “You see,” she exclaimed breathily. She coughed then, but sounded better than when he’d left her that morning.
“Lydia, no matter where you live, there is always someone grumbling about possible uprisings. It is the way people are. They always—”
“Be silent and listen to me.”
His sister was a sweet girl; she never talked to anyone that way, especially not to him. “My…dear?”
“This place is headed toward civil war before end of the year, mark my words. The dispossessed are going to take what they feel belongs to them, and the government is too weak to do anything about it. In fact, the captain learned that the official port ship is prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. The government is afraid; the people are afraid. You noticed it. So let us leave. We can stay on the Hurricane until things settle here; then you can come back.”
His blood froze in his veins despite the unbearable temperature. “What. Do. You. Mean. I can come back?”
Just then Dunn stepped up beside Lydia and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ve asked your sister for her hand in marriage.”
Alastair held him back before his forward momentum launched him at the goddamn first mate. “No. You bloody damn will not marry my sister.”
He almost slipped from Alastair’s grasp and lunged again, and they both ended up on the oak planking. He refused to punch Alastair, and that was likely the only way he would pull free. Realizing they would progress nowhere if he didn’t stop trying to kill scum water First Mate Conall Dunn, he snarled, “Let me up. I am almost certain I will not try to kill him. Not yet anyway.”
Alastair didn’t look convinced, but he did let Rhain up.
“Take a walk with me, Lyd.”
They left the two men, but he could feel their eyes burning into his back as they toured the perimeter of the ship, with Tim following them not two steps behind the whole time.
“I have accepted Conall’s offer. I find I quite love the man. I like sailing, and I feel good on the ship. Feel better than I have since my illness started. If I tire of sailing, then he has a home in the country, and he assures me the air there is as sweet as I am.” She giggled and blushed, despite the dreadful situation.
“Rhain, can you not support my decision and be happy for me?”
“No, Lydia. You are a gently bred woman; he was born in the stews. For the love of God, don’t you see how many ways this is ridiculous?”
She stopped and turned to him. Tim stood behind her, hand on the hilt of a wicked-looking dagger. Lydia’s expression was pinched and stubborn as she said, “His mother was not a whore; she washed clothes to feed her children. He is a good man and deserves respect. You have seen that.”
He couldn’t argue her point. “That is not enough for a successful marriage. What will you do if you swell with pregnancy? He will leave you in a port, and you’ll see him every other year for a week or two. You will be poor, probably with a dozen children that he will forget the names of. Who will take care of you when you’re sick, Lyd? No, I cannot accept this. It is wrong for you, and I will not allow it.”
Her words were wrapped in steel when she told him, “I hoped to have your approval, but I will do this with or without it. We are not in England anymore.
“Now go and collect our crates; we will sail this evening, as it is unsafe for you to be here. If you do not want to stay on ship, Alastair said he knows of a few towns that will be more to your liking until this island settles down and is safe again.”
“Lydia, I am not leaving, and I will not let you leave either. You must realize this is madness, and as your brother I cannot let this happen.”
“Good-bye, brother. Stay safe.” She turned on her heel and stomped off to go belowdeck.
“Lydia, pack your things; I am taking you off this damnable boat.”
Her white-topped head disappeared, and he had a feeling he would have to drag her off with an armed escort.
Alastair took that moment to walk over and talk to him, but he was not in an accommodating mood.
“Rhain, I would love nothing more than to have you stay with me on this ship, in whatever capacity you’d like.” He cupped Rhain’s cheek. “I have fallen in love with you, and I ask that you go with us.” He swallowed hard, but Rhain refused to look at him. “I can’t leave you here. I can’t bear the thought of you getting hurt, or worse. Stay with me. For a little while at least. Until this unrest is over.”
He looked at Alastair, then. The man was so beautiful, it hurt to see him. And for a few foolish heartbeats, he allowed himself to dream.
Leaving him for the second time was the hardest thing he would ever do. “I’m going to help Lydia pack, and then I am taking her back to her rented room where she belongs, and I am going to my plantation where I belong.”
“She wants to stay. I will not let you force her to leave.” He gripped Rhain’s arm lightly.
Rhain brushed it off and headed for the belowdeck hatch. Before he knew what was going on, eight sailors stood between him and his goal. He tried to step past them, but they refused to budge.
He spun around and glared at Alastair.
Dunn now stood beside the captain, face set and unyielding.
“I will bring the army and take her off this damn ship if you don’t let me take her now.”
His voice dead and flat, Alastair said, “We will be gone as soon as your feet hit the wharf.”
And he knew that would be true. There was nothing he could do.
Rhain left the ship, jumped onto the provision-laden horse cart Alastair arranged, and then rode off the wharf, never looking back at the sister and pirate who held his heart.
Chapter Fourteen
One month later. November.
Rhain sat on one of his unpacked crates, head in hands, and experienced the fear he’d fought for so long creep over him. The dark tendrils drilled into his brain and soul, waking nightmares he’d suppressed for years.
Yelling for control, he stood, trembling.
The island was at war, the slaves in revolt. Many people were dead; many more had left the island. He’d traveled to the capital to see if he could help care for the injured that continued to flood into the city from the countryside, but there was chaos and fighting and no medical supplies, so nothing was achieved. Finally, he’d gone back to his plantation, where he housed some children who seemed abandoned. And then one night, the foreman and the children simply disappeared, leaving him completely alone.
There was no one to plant, which was good really because there would be no one to harvest either. The island was in anarchy, and he had absolutely no idea what to do.
Roseau was governed by gangs, and no ships were allowed to dock since the Navy stationed a warship at the mouth of the harbor, warning other ships away. The only good thing that came from all this was the damn cane refinery stopped pumping smoke into the air.
But these were all trivial matters. His worst fear was coming true as he slowly rotted in this godforsaken hut; he would never be able to tell Alastair that he was worthy of love. That someone, he, loved Alastair with all his being.
He scratched at his sunburned and insect-bitten forearm. If he hadn’t been so arrogant and had listened to Lydia, he could be having supper with the irresistible man right now, getting ready for a night of lovemaking.
Sighing, he stood and took count of his remaining food stock. He would have enough for one more week if he started half rations tomorrow.
Then what would he do? Eat grass. He snorted. There was certainly plenty of that commodity around.
He had nothing of real value, had no one, no future, and he feared he slowly slipped into madness.
Lydia, he hoped, would do well and was happy. God, what he wouldn’t do to see her smiling face again, and to see Alastair.
“What a stupid arse I am.” How could he have left the man he was so thoroughly in love with? Why hadn’t he returned the wonderful words to his pirate before leaving the ship?
If he lived through this damn civil war, he would find them, and if either of them would have him after he’d acted like a tyrant, then he would never let them go again.
Of course, Alastair probably hated him now, since he’d refused the gift so freely given. He walked out of the hut, hoping to catch a cool breeze as he continued to castigate himself. “I am such a stupid arse,” he said out loud just to hear something other than the ever-present insects.
“I don’t know. You do have some intelligent moments.”
Rhain stumbled to a halt and watched Alastair stroll up to his shack, about ten sailors with hand carts and another twenty with wicked-looking weapons following behind.
“Alastair!” He launched himself toward the swaggering man and nearly toppled him. The pirate laughed until Rhain silenced him with a healthy, smacking kiss. He laughed and then went in for another, this one long and slow.
“Well, now that is almost worth the damn trip through this hellhole swamp. However, I’ll expect more later.” He held Rhain’s shoulders and pushed him at arm’s length. “Have you had enough of this place yet? Ready to come away with me?”
Rhain smiled.
“That looks like a yes; please tell me that is a yes. If I return to the ship without you, I’m afraid Mrs. Dunn will toss me overboard.”
“So they are married now.”
Alastair nodded and watched him as if expecting a blow.
He sighed, figuring that was an inevitable outcome and probably not as tragic a consequence as he’d once thought. “Is she well…and content?”
“Come see for yourself, but I think you will be happy with what you see.”
He decided not to make a decision just yet. His brain felt stuffed with cotton. “How are you here? The Roseau harbor is closed.”
“Never fear; when pirates want something, they find a way to take it. I’ll tell you as my men load up your stuff, hmm?”
In the end, it was easier to let Alastair make the decision for him. They went into the shack, and he showed them what to take and what to leave as Alastair told him that they anchored close to shore about two miles away.
“Cutting through the ever-present damn grass was the hardest part, until we reached the road we could s
ee through our spyglasses. The two old seamen I sent to the plantation with you have very good senses of direction and led us here with ease.”
With everything loaded, Rhain took one long last look at his land, not certain he would ever see it again. Not even certain if he ever wished to see it again. Then he turned his back and started down the dusty trail, Alastair walking right alongside him.
“You should not have come for me. You are already so far behind in your route and losing money because of your delays.”
Alastair looked at him sideways. “Such is the way with shipping. What we lose one year we make up another. Besides, I ferried some cargo back and forth between islands that I had not expected to gain. It will help us. Lydia believes we will break even this year. She is turning out to be a fine purser and indeed found some funds I did not realize I still had.”
“She is a marvel, is she not?” He smiled. He would see Lydia again soon. Alastair and Lydia, all in one day. His heart flipped.
“Rhain,” Alastair said, and his next words slipped out slow and hesitant, “I find myself in need of a sturdy yardman. Thought you might know of someone in need of work.”
“That depends; what does the position pay?”
“Nightly buggering.”
That shook a sharp, quick laugh out of him, and he realized he hadn’t laughed since the day Alastair left Roseau without him. “Well, then, we might be able to work something out. Although that will mean I have to become used to that infernal constant noise again.”
He stopped and let the seamen with hand carts catch up to them. When the largest crate rolled by on a sturdy cart pushed by two of the burliest men, he patted the side. He had lugged that crate halfway around the world but hadn’t seen its contents for months. “Is it possible to fit a pianoforte in the galley, do you think?”
His pirate smiled, showing about one hundred, beautiful, white teeth. “For you, love, anything.”
Chapter Fifteen
The pianoforte did in fact fit in the galley, as did Lydia’s harp. They were both somewhat battered now, as they’d bolted them to the floor to keep them from moving during rough seas, but Rhain didn’t care. Tonight, one week after leaving Dominica, they played for more than an hour, entertaining as much of the crew as could squeeze into the galley and hallway.
His Pirate (Second Chance Book 2) Page 14