"Hear, hear." Pierce raised his glass, then suddenly thumped it down on the side table next to him before he'd taken a sip. The liquid sloshed up the sides and over his hand. He closed his eyes wearily. Taking out a handkerchief, he wiped his hand and ran a palm over his face.
"Independent women," he muttered, shaking his head in disgust. "I should listen to you and remain single."
Malry studied his glass.
Pierce grimaced. "Some women take independence too far."
"This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain young lady by the name of Isabeau?"
Pierce stood and stretched tired muscles. "Who else? She's a veritable thorn in my side. Stowing away on my ship not once but twice." He turned toward Malry, who quickly wiped the smirk from his face. "Have you ever heard of such a thing?" He gave the other man no time to answer, but went on darkly, "and now, when I propose to the woman -- "
"Propose!" Malry gasped, jumping to his feet. "Good God, man!"
"-- she says it's not possible."
"Well! I'll say that was a close call on your part."
Pierce narrowed his eyes on Malry. "I've played the field. I'm thirty-one years old for God's sakes. I want to marry her."
"Why?" Malry appeared bewildered. "She's a thorn in your side and too independent to boot. She's got a mind of her own, and she'll only order you around so you're nothing more than a doormat for the rest of your life. It's best this way," he finished sagely, nodding his head as he helped himself to more whiskey. "Look at me, I've never succumbed, and I do all right."
The combination of alcohol and weariness had slowed Pierce's thinking process -- but he had come to know Malry, and now he stared hard at the man. With a rueful smile, Pierce conceded defeat. "I hear you."
"Well, it all has to come right, doesn't it?" Malry asked with a hint of concern. "Even for Miss Amelia."
"I can only hope."
Malry grimaced, looking at his pocket watch. "It's getting late. If we're going to get an early start in the morning, I really need to be finding my sleep."
"I've been considering our time schedule, and I think that perhaps the day after tomorrow would be better to leave. We won't have to rush.
"This business with Lila put me behind a day or so, but I should be able to finish the contracts for the ship tomorrow. I'd rather Isabeau was out of the city by the time I take care of the last bit of nastiness with Connors."
Malry eyes narrowed. "Are you expecting trouble?"
Pierce shrugged. "Always expect the unexpected and you'll never be disappointed. I'll meet up with you down the line."
Malry looked doubtful. "How do you think she'll take to the idea?"
Pierce looked at him. "She'll have to go along with it. There won't be a choice."
Malry's brows shot up, his expression saying it all.
"It's the safest way," Pierce rasped.
"You know that and I know that, but --"
"She'll see reason."
Malry got up to leave, a knowing smirk on his face. "You got your work cut out for you, I'll grant you that, lad. Better you than me. I'm too old for such games."
Pierce snorted rudely.
As Malry moved toward the door, Pierce said, "You know, don't you?"
Malry half turned back to him, but he said nothing, waiting.
Pierce narrowed his eyes. "You know when to keep your both closed, Malry, I'll give you that. You know I'm not Hawk."
"Aye, lad, that I do," Malry finally said. He walked back toward Pierce.
"When?"
"Almost two weeks after the attack down on the wharf. I confess I wasn't sure given the state of your mind at the time, but soon it became apparent I was dealing with two men, not one."
Pierce started laughing. "I could level that same charge at you Malry, two men, not one. The irritating, loud seaman or the city-dressed detective. What tipped you, even though I look like Hawk?"
Malry smiled. "Aye, on the outside I'll grant you there are many similarities. No offense meant, but there were too many tell-tale signs. Don't forget I've known Hawk since he was a young lad. He's a good man, but there's a darkness to him due to his experiences." He shook his head. "Be glad you don't carry that same burden."
"And Amelia?"
"She's the light in his life, the one who's helped pull him from that dark pit of memories."
"And I assume you know his whereabouts?"
"That I do, and it's best if it remains a secret for now. He was near killed that night, but my lad's getting stronger by the day," Malry said with satisfaction. "It's getting harder to keep him confined. When I last saw him, he was cussing me out." He lifted a brow. "Tell me your name, lad, so I can give it to Hawk. He'll want to know who to thank."
"Pierce Morgan. And as outlandish as this is going to sound, I'm a descendant dropped here from the future." He lifted a brow. "I know that must sound incredible."
"Aye."
"And yet you look pretty unimpressed. So tell me what you know."
Malry scratched his head. "For the best part of a month I wasn't sure about you." He wrinkled a dark eyebrow. "You know I listen, yes, I know they call it eavesdropping, but I listen to everything. Didn't take me long to figure out something was going on with those sweet old ladies in your -- ahem -- Hawk's household."
"Belva and Maize."
"Aye. Now I'm a man with his feet firmly planted, but I will tell you I've been all over the world and I've drawn the conclusion there's nothing that's impossible in this world or the next. It takes a different kind of belief to just walk away when something is telling you your eyes aren't fooling you. If I hadn't seen men disappear before my eyes, I might have had a difficult time accepting this moving through worlds."
"You could have given me a hint or something."
Malry grinned. "And would you have been believing me when you didn't believe Isabeau?"
Pierce grunted. "Point taken. Well I am hoping we can get to the bottom of this entire mystery so Hawk can get on with his life." He looked suddenly a Malry. "When did you know about Isabeau?"
"On that first carriage ride to Hawk's Den." He gave a bark of a laugh. "Not that I let on. She mentioned it, watching me to see my reaction no doubt. I think she was figuring it out herself." He narrowed his eyes. "And then if you think back, how else would she have been aboard the ship?"
Pierce snorted. "Yes, but I don't subscribe to crystal balls either. Is it possible for Belva to get us back to where we belong?"
Malry offered no answer.
"Isabeau knows you are not Hawk?"
"I told her, although she was beginning to figure out something was up. The more I was with her, the more I kept getting glimpses of memory."
Malry clapped his shoulder and extended his hand. "About this whole charade -- I'm sorry for the toll it's taken on you, lad." A look of discomfort crossed his features. "In the very beginning, I honestly thought you were Hawk, you two being the spitting image of each other. After I started to figure out you might not be him, I found him. He'd been taken in down on the wharf, but he'd been beaten pretty badly and hadn't gained consciousness. It's when I started nosing around that he turned up. I moved him to a safe location, but I do admit to taking advantage of the circumstances. Even though you had amnesia, you were healthy. I'm sorry I had to do that to you."
Pierce smiled. "I wouldn't have missed it. I just wish I could have met him."
Malry shook his head. "Not an idea that sits well with me. It's too strange, this moving through time anyway, and to have you meet him in the same time, no, doesn't sit well with me at all."
"I guess you're right," Pierce conceded.
"Look at it this way: you're his descendant and he now owes you his life."
"Maybe," Pierce conceded, "but at this point, he's been given no choice."
#
Isabeau knocked at Pierce's suite early the next morning. As he opened the door, she thought he looked a little rough around the edges. Malry, she noticed, was also there,
going through paperwork piled on the desk.
Pierce opened the door wide. "Come in. We're just going over plans for the return journey to Hawk's Den." He did a double take at the velvet cape covering her head to toe. "I hope you're not planning on going out alone."
She smiled. "No."
Malry nodded, gathering the papers together as he threw her a wide grin. "Cap'n is anxious to get back home."
"I'm sure whoever is watching is expecting me to return by train, so I'm going to the train station, but in actuality I'm going to give them the slip and travel part of the way by horse. The remainder will be by train. Isabeau, you and Malry will be taking the train."
"What?" Brows knit, she turned from watching Malry adjust his tie in the mirror to confront Pierce. "Why can't we all go together?"
"It's safer if we split up. Whoever's dogging my steps might be here waiting. It'll be safer for you to go with Malry, then in --"
"Forget it." She shook her head, her jaw set. "I'm not going. If you think you're foisting me off on Malry, I'll take care of myself and see to my own transportation."
"I'm highly offended," Malry said mockingly.
Isabeau turned to stare at him.
"I won't have you traveling by yourself," Pierce said. "This is the safest way."
"I disagree." She folded her arms. "It seems to me the safest bet would be three pair of eyes watching out, not just one. I think we should all go together." She narrowed a glance at him. "Unless of course you have another reason for getting us out of town earlier?"
Malry stifled a laugh.
"By the way, you look very nice," she told him. "Why are you in a suit?
Malry rubbed his neatly trimmed side whiskers. "I'm not out to sea now. A man can wear a respectable suit here and there without arousing suspicion."
Pierce made an impatient sound. "Look, I've already decided the best way to do this. You and Malry will be leaving tomorrow on the coach. It will take you as far as Washington, where I'll try to meet up with you. From there, we'll take the train home."
Isabeau put her hand on the doorknob. "No, thanks." She pulled the door open. She didn't understand why, but something inside told her it was vitally important she remain obstinate on this point.
"Told you she wouldn't go for it," Malry murmured in an aside.
Isabeau was sure he had meant for her to hear that.
Pierce threw him a killing glance. It earned him a grin. Malry was on her side in this.
Pierce grabbed her elbow through the cape, pulling her back into the room and kicking the door shut with his foot. "What are you going to do?"
"If you won't take me, I'll find my own way -- wherever I decide to go."
She didn't look at him as she shrugged, hoping he wouldn't call her bluff.
"I want you to come with me," he gritted out, releasing her arm.
She smiled up at him. "I'd be glad to. When would you like me ready to leave?"
Malry started laughing.
Pierce looked angry, then rasped, "No, I meant --"
"You've lost, lad, know when to admit it," Malry chortled, greatly amused watching the two of them.
Pierce ignored him. Dammit, he was a lawyer! How could this woman twist his words around? "If you go off on your own, what are you going to do about money for fares, food --"
Isabeau turned innocent eyes on him. "I will figure it out as I go along. I have been on my own before. It's not all that terrible." She crossed her fingers behind her back. "I can take care of myself."
The poor man looked as if he was about to explode. Isabeau was ready to take pity on him, when he said abruptly, "It'll be a hard ride -- all on horseback."
"I won't complain."
"I'll only stop to rest the horses."
"I can handle it."
"Have you ever --"
"I can do it," she reassured him calmly.
Malry smirked.
"Don't you have something else to do?" Pierce snapped.
"Certainly. I'll take care of it right now." Malry strolled over to the doorway, sending Isabeau a wink. "Nice bluff," he commented, closing the door.
Red-faced, Isabeau looked up at Pierce.
"Don't think you've got me twisted around your finger. I've still got some surprises in store for you." He towered over her.
Isabeau smiled, tension releasing inside her chest. She simply walked forward and melted into his arms. His arms closed tightly around her. She stood on tiptoe and kissed his firm mouth. Immediately Pierce began to kiss her back. "I have a surprise for you, too," she said throatily, lacing her fingers across the back of his neck, closing her eyes as she caressed the silky hair there. "I'm not a manipulative person, Pierce, I'm just doing what I think is right."
"Would you have left?" he asked, lips teasing the taut cord along her neck.
"What?" she asked breathlessly, having totally lost the thread of their conversation.
"Left for parts unknown?"
Isabeau pulled his mouth to hers, fingers twining greedily in his silky dark hair.
"What do you think?" she murmured.
Isabeau rocked her slimness against him, letting him take her weight. Pierce backed her up against the closed door, capturing her two wrists in one hand.
"Isn't it hot in here?" she murmured, pulling at the fastened neckline of the deep blue velvet cape she wore.
Pierce nodded but didn't stop his mouth from trailing across her throat and down.
"I need to take off this cape," she said.
Pierce stepped back, helping her unfasten the cape and pull it off her shoulders. He stepped back, astonished. Damned if his hands didn't shake. "Jesus, Isabeau, you walked out in the hallway like that?"
She stood naked before him. "Yes, and do you know what? I love the feel of velvet against my skin."
With a groan, Pierce placed his hands on her hips, up her ribcage and cupped her breasts. Roughly he pulled her slender but sturdy body into his arms, then he gentled. She wasn't very big. She gripped him tightly around the waist and he stopped worrying about hurting her. She was strong in her own way.
He loved the feel of her warm skin. He felt on fire as their mouths devoured each other.
Isabeau pushed her hips up against him, wanting him closer, tighter. She could feel the hardness of him pressed tightly against her lower body. It felt deliciously wicked with her naked and he still fully clothed.
Pierce's tongue thrust between her lips, in and out, hot and wild. She clung to him, her hands gripping his shoulders. Pierce swung her up in his arms and carried her across the room.
She felt the cool fabric of the settee on her back, and she arched upward, pulling the shirt from Pierce's shoulders, running her fingers through the dark arrowing of hair on his chest. Her fingers reached his waistband and she ran her palms up the sides of his ribs, feeling the ripple of hard muscle. Her legs entwined with his as the world fell apart.
Electricity shuddered through Pierce, winding hot coils all around them, sparks hissing and flying in every direction.
Isabeau came to him as if she were dying of thirst, her response to him echoing his own desperate need to have her. He took her, again and again, and she came to him for more, giving him everything, her soft cries affecting him more deeply than an impassioned plea.
Pierce. Isabeau stretched deliciously. "I never knew making love could be like this," she said, looking into his deep blue eyes. Just making that eye connection made her shiver.
Pierce touched his beautifully molded mouth to hers, and she felt him smile. "It will only get better, sweetheart."
Content, she lay back in his arms. How could she survive leaving him if they became separated by time?
Chapter Seventeen
They left New York the way they found it, raining and damp.
When she was a child she used to ride horseback all the time, all over the place -- her mother had been insistent she learn, but that had been some time ago. It would be an adventure, if nothing else, one that wou
ld endure in her memory for the rest of her life -- if she survived it. She needed to savor each moment she could with Pierce. It might be their last.
Luckily, the sun came out sometime after noon, and Isabeau had a chance to steam dry before the chill air of night was on them. She had her camera in her saddle pack, and had managed to take some pictures of the city before they left it behind. As they rode through the steaming streets, men and women lined the narrow alleys, hawking their wares, selling stale and discolored bread. As they got nearer to the city's edge, she took pictures of children playing in the garbage heaps as men sifted carefully for metal and items to be salvaged in the heaping garbage.
True to his word, Pierce made no unnecessary stops. The horses were watered and allowed to rest a certain amount of time and then they were once more underway.
By the end of the first day, Isabeau was afraid to dismount. Already she could feel the protest in her limbs, her unused muscles crying in agony, blisters forming where she hadn't known she had skin.
Resolutely, she ignored it all as she slid to the ground, holding onto the saddle horn a moment longer, then stepping back jerkily from the horse.
Turning, she met Malry's speculative glance. Throwing him a careless smile, she forced aching arms up and began to uncinch the horse.
"Leave it." Pierce was behind her, his hand at her waist. "I'll take care of him. There's a creek on the other side of that bank if you want to wash off some of the dust."
She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything.
As casually as she could manage, she walked over to the top of the bank, then began the painful walk down the steep little hill, each step a new twinge of pain jabbing at her.
She kept her eyes resolutely on the water at the bottom of the slope, then carefully sank down to the grassy edge of the creek.
Sitting cross-legged, Isabeau wearily pulled one leg up to pull her boot off, then set to work on the second boot.
She lay back on the slight incline, staring at the darkening sky, her mind going kind of hazy as she relaxed.
If she lay perfectly still and took shallow breaths, it didn't hurt quite so badly.
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