by Meg Hennessy
“Remove your mask, s’il vous plaît, I wish to see you.”
“That would not be in your best interest, mon chérie.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead before lowering his body over hers.
“For the best.” She agreed too easily and he awaited her next move. Spreading her hair out around her head, she slowly stretched in invitation. He tried for a calm breath but knew it came out ragged, wanting.
“Indeed, mon chérie, for the best.” He kissed her lightly within the deep hollow of her throat, in spite of her victorious smile. “I please you that much to bring such a smile?”
“Oui, monsieur, you do.”
“More than your plaçage husband?”
“Oh, oui, monsieur, so much more.”
He chuckled lightly. “I am enjoying your humor, Madame.”
“As I have yours but…I now tire of it.” She closed her legs beneath him.
He rose up and looked at her. “You have games of your own, n’est pas?”
“Oui.” She reached behind his head, placing her fingers over the knot of his mask. “But I wish them to end. I must know the man who becomes my amant.”
“You have such powers, Madame, you thwart my every turn.” He ran his lips across the hollow of her throat as he spoke with his American voice. “But be fair warned of what you wish for, you might be disappointed.”
She smiled as her fingers worked the knot of his mask. “I believe not so, Jourdain.”
“Perhaps not.” He waited as she slowly lowered the black satin to gaze on his face. “But thwart me, you do.”
“You cannot disguise the goodness I see in your eyes.”
“I wish that were true, for I am no longer a good man,” he whispered, “but you are good for me, Aurèlie.”
She wrapped her arms around his massive shoulders. “And you for me.”
“Really? I have you captive on a ship—”
“You will tell me why you do this. Only the truth, ne vous fera pas?”
“I’ll answer one question. I am not a privateer, but I am a man who takes what I want. Right now, ma belle femme, I want you. I promised this would be at your request. You have grown accustomed to me?”
“Oui, much so.” Her breathing deepened, her breasts rising to brush his chin. He kissed the heaving mounds, then swung his hand down to explore her readiness, pleased to feel how moist and eager her body felt.
He groaned as he pulled his weight over her. “I want you, Aurèlie.”
“I am yours,” she whispered. “Be gentle, my husband. My first time, oui?”
Those words should have stopped him, but he couldn’t.
“I will be most gentle,” Jordan whispered as he slid inside of her, tenderly, with reverence for a terrain never once transgressed by a man. Her body gloved his, melting their two hearts together. She moved with his rhythm as he sank deep inside of her. Her body warm, moist, received him with the nurturing touch of a loving heart.
She thought to love him but how would those feelings change when she learned what ship she was on and who he really was? But that would be tomorrow’s dilemma. Tonight, he allowed his heart to reach out to hers, knowing it could not take another beat without her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jordan lowered his Galilean binoculars. They had sailed beyond the barrier islands before dawn. Aurèlie still slept as the ship plowed through the open waters of the gulf with no sign of the British. But they had a ship, a warship.
Loul showed up beside him. Taking a deep breath, he scanned the ocean. “We have lost them.”
Jordan nodded. “It appears so, for the time being. I’m watching for a large black plume. They may be burning the plantation as we speak. Aurèlie told me they ransacked it.”
“Why?”
“I wish I knew. We’ll change flags after we round the three islands of Barataria. If we look clear, we’ll head into New Orleans. I’ve got to bring Aurèlie back.” Jordan handed off the binoculars to Loul. “I’ll be in my cabin.”
“We might be bound to the sea.” His brother took the binoculars but nodded toward the cabin. “But you have some beauty for your eyes.”
Beautiful, indeed, but Jordan had done the unthinkable, broken his pledge, and had taken her for his own. He thought he’d never allow his heart to reach out and take a risk but when she had lain beneath him with her glistening body, he had wanted nothing more than to sink inside of her and allow her innocence to flood his body with the touch of a healer. Her powers had lit a small lantern of remembrance, a flicker of light, until the need and want for love had driven away his sense of honor. Legally, he had every right to take her as his lover. Morally he did not.
His marriage to Judith had been prearranged, in some ways like this one to Aurèlie, except it was a union of aristocratic families in Boston, and he and Judith had been legally married. Judith had loved Boston but he, like Aurèlie, loved Louisiana.
He halted his step. His reeling thoughts froze, hanging on that one tiny hint of insight. I love Louisiana.
Jordan ordered a morning meal to the cabin, then returned to find Aurèlie just beginning to stir. He tripped the slats to open the stern window, shards of light charged through the small cabin.
“Are we back yet?” Aurèlie rose to her elbows and peered at him through sleepy, sexy eyes. Her hair hung disheveled down her back and over one shoulder.
“No, we are in the gulf.”
“In the gulf.” Aurèlie threw off the light blanket and scampered to the stern windows. “No, Jordan, we are to return. Maisie was left with my mother. They will worry.”
“I received word last night that she is safe. Hattie is with her and, ah…I had left two guards.” Jordan enjoyed the wonderfully uninhibited naked woman who stood before him until she realized her state. She grabbed her chemise and slipped it on.
“To guard from whom? The British? Why would they look for her?” Aurèlie secured her breasts beneath the lace of her corset. Jordan longed to reach out, tear it from her hands, push her back on that bed, and have his way with her. He sucked in a calming breath.
“I tried to guard both of you from the British.” He watched as she pulled on her riding dress. “But not to my surprise, you escaped the men who I sent to protect you.”
A knock at the door interrupted their discussion. Jordan waited as the cook set out a delicious morning meal complete with fresh fruit, cold meats, guava jelly, bread, griddled cakes, and hot café au lait. After a quick bow to Jordan, he left the room.
Jordan indicated a chair for Aurèlie. “Join me for breakfast.”
“I see pirates eat well.” Aurèlie slid into the small wooden chair.
“Easy, concentrate on the cakes and ginger.”
“Non. I do not like.”
“You will.”
She sipped the café au lait, and had ventured into the bread and fruit before her face became serious. “I am confused, Jourdain, what are we doing?”
“We are heading out to sea—escaping the British.”
“They were at Liberty Oak.”
“I know. That’s why I took you with me.”
“You fired the shots, oui?”
He nodded, trying not to allow his mind to examine that brief moment of doubt when he had seen her talking to British soldiers or had suspected she had searched his desk. But after last night’s lovemaking, he had no desire to doubt Aurèlie, though a hint or two lingered toward the dark side of his mind. “If they had taken you aboard, I would not have been able to get you back.”
Aurèlie slowly lowered her coffee cup. “Is that what happened to the other woman? The one you seek?”
“I seek a woman?”
“You do.”
“What woman do I seek?”
Aurèlie shrugged. “Your wife, I think. I saw her spirit in Maisie’s room one night.”
Jordan felt his jaw drop, and he snapped it closed. “So she does exist. Why did you not tell me about it?”
“I was not sure how you would
accept it. But she is a spirit, not a ghost, I spoke with her. She says you do not see her.” Aurèlie shook her head, her long dark hair shimmered in the dawn light flooding through the stern window. “She wants for you to find peace.”
“That’s odd, she did much to make my life anything but peaceful when we were married.”
“She did not explain, but fears for Maisie’s safety. I stayed with Maisie that night.”
“I do not seek my deceased wife, Aurèlie.” Jordan poured himself a cup of coffee and refilled Aurèlie’s cup. “I have a question for you.”
Aurèlie pulled herself to the edge of the chair giving him her attention. “That is good place to start, non, for I have many for you.”
“I lead the questions, Aurèlie,” Jordan directed, not wanting to share too much. “I had sent word you were to stay at your mother’s. What were you doing at the house?”
“Looking for you. Hours go by much fast, and no word from you, yet you were against my going to my parents. I knew trouble was around you. How long do you think to fool me with a disguise?”
“Five minutes, five hours, five days.” He shrugged, having known she’d know him. “How ever long, was how ever long. I didn’t mean to frighten you but had no time to debate anything in the backwaters. As often as you rarely do as I ask, I knew you’d dispute the idea of leaving shore. I had to take you. But with your powers, why is it you did not know that?”
“I have no powers, Jourdain, only intuition.”
“You seem to absorb things around you.”
“Absorb? That’s good, that’s a way to describe, oui.”
“How much do you know about me?”
Her eyes widened slightly before she shook her head. “I know…you are in trouble…seek a woman…and face much danger, non?”
He wanted to ask her about rifling through his desk. She had seen her father that same day, had she told him about the letter of marque, had he informed the British? Regardless, he had never robbed a British ship, having never involved himself with America’s war. Why would the Brits even care?
Jordan swallowed a large gulp of hot coffee, trying to wash away the doubts. Either way, she was now his captive aboard his ship. For the moment, she could not communicate with anyone.
The British had approached the house at least a dozen strong with flintlocks drawn. He and Hattie had barely escaped without drawing fire. He had managed to get word to Loul. Hattie had hidden out along the bayous with friends and planned to retrieve Maisie when the British left. He received word last night Hattie was on her way to do so and he had sent a message in return that Aurèlie was with him.
Rumors were that the British were trying to get some of the plantation owners along the bayous to assist them into navigating the waters, to find the back door to New Orleans to trap the American army. If that had been their purpose, why had they ransacked the house?
Jordan rose to his feet and strode across the room. He opened a locked drawer where he had last stashed Colette’s piece after bringing it on board. He held it out as he walked back to stand in front of Aurèlie. He wanted to believe in her powers, that she could give him insight where his had failed. Would she know it belonged to his sister? A test, perhaps, but he had to know if her readings were reliable enough for him to act upon them. “Will you help me?”
Aurèlie looked surprised. “What is it you wish of me?”
“Will you hold it, try to see something?” He shrugged. “Anything, anything at all.”
“Jourdain, I don’t always see—”
“I ask for you to try. It is most important.” Jordan dropped the medallion to hang by the gold chain.
“So many jewels.” Aurèlie’s eyes rounded with surprise as she examined the piece. “It is just like yours but gold, non?”
Slowly, she curled her long, elegant fingers around it. Closing her eyes, she drew in a deep breath.
Slowly Jordan sank into the chair to watch her.
A slight gasp escaped her lips.
Jordan stood up, the energy flooding his body like a lit fuse. Could she really see something that would help? “What do you see?”
“A woman. This is the woman you seek?”
“Quickly, who else do you see?” Her answer amazed him but he needed more.
“It does not happen quickly. I must decipher what I see and what I feel.”
Jordan started to pace. “Feel? I want to know who has—”
“Jourdain, S’il vous plaît, you disturb the visions.”
He sighed sinking into the chair, stifling his impatience.
“I see a woman, standing on a rock, waves of water crash beneath her.”
“That could have been the night she was taken. No, Aurèlie, start with the necklace. Who had it? My father bought it in Barataria—”
“No, you seek her.”
Jordan felt the heat rise across his forehead as confusion flooded his mind, unable to think he could find Colette through any means other than through the man who had Colette’s necklace. “I am close to finding him, feel the medallion. What does it tell you?”
“That she awaits.” Aurèlie looked up at Jordan and whispered, “The woman you seek waits.”
Jordan felt a hard lump fill his throat. His mind spinning with possibilities, all too painful to dare hope. He had to take a deep breath as the emotions he tried to hold at bay, clawed to the surface. Was it possible that Colette was alive and awaited rescue?
Jordan rose from the chair and strode toward the large stern window to the rear of the cabin, inhaling a breath of salt air, trying to quell the snarling beast inside. “Who is this woman waiting for?”
“She is confused but waits for her father, she is sad over her brother’s death.” Aurèlie gasped. “She’s your sister. You’re her brother, oui?”
Hearing the term sister nearly buckled Jordan’s knees. He braced himself against the wall until his legs were once again steady upon the rolling waves. “Can you describe her?”
“I cannot. I see a dark image against the water.”
“Are there any landmarks around her?”
Aurèlie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Can you see the shoreline?”
“I only see the rock on which she stands.”
“Why is she standing there?”
“I know not.” Aurèlie shook her head. “She is waiting for something—someone. She is much sad and wishes to see her father. There is much confusion in her mind, her memory vague.”
“Mine’s clear as a bell.” Jordan could hardly manage the adrenaline that suddenly rushed his body, every muscle quivered with a need for action. His mind sank into memories of long ago. The man who had taken his sister had left him adrift. Colette would have assumed he had died that night.
Jordan pressed Aurèlie’s hand around the medallion. “I have to know if she still lives. Tell me that, Aurèlie, does she live? Is it possible?”
“I wish to tell but do not know. I only see the past.” She placed her hand on Jordan’s chest over his heart. “What does your heart tell you?”
Jordan held Aurèlie’s hand close to his chest, feeling her power, her energy wash through him, warm and soothing. For the first time since his sister’s disappearance, he allowed the slowly churning emotions to the surface. A slight burn spread within his chest, taking possession of his tired muscles with a sense of hope.
“I don’t know. I’m not like you, Aurèlie, I depend on old-fashioned gut feelings.”
“Is she the reason you have turned to piracy?”
“I didn’t turn to piracy. It found us. Until I get the answers I seek, the revenge I crave, I won’t make the same mistake my father made by allowing the pirates to know my true identity and getting killed before I find her. This ship, it is Le Vengeur. I am her captain.”
Aurèlie sucked in her breath, unable to close her mouth.
“You have robbed ships?” she whispered, shock widening her eyes.
“I’ve selectively pri
zed ships. And for clarity…I was not discharged by a British warship when nearing Le Bodine.”
“My ship.”
He nodded with her understanding. “I don’t prize passenger ships and remembered that was the ship your father told me you were on. Not a good practice to rob a ship carrying your future bride.”
“I think not.” Aurèlie reached out to him with a gentle touch to his forearm. “You’re the man in the water. You lived.”
“What do you mean the man in the water?”
“I saw you in my mind, when I was young. I had a vision and saw them pull you from the water. I remembered that when I recognized the medallion you wear.”
“Then you do see the future as well, Aurèlie.” Her powers amazed him. “That happened three years ago, not when you were little. It is possible that Colette still waits.”
Aurèlie’s hand rose to her heart with a slight intake of air. Seeing the future, a new discovery for her as well. “But I have yet to know which is which, if that is true. How did this happen, Jourdain?”
“My sister and I were on our way to America from France. I was escorting her. Our ship was taken prize near Havana. The last thing I remember were gunshots and my sister’s scream before she disappeared into the foggy night. Something hit me on the back of my head, and I went overboard. I was rescued by an American merchant.”
“From the water.”
“Yes, from the water. For the next three years, my father searched for her. I don’t know what he discovered, but it cost him his life. Loul and I arrived at Port au Prince right after it happened. In Father’s things, he had hidden Colette’s medallion in the lining of his valise. I created a new identity and took to the high seas as one of them. That was the only way for me to find the man who had taken her and killed my father, if they are one and the same. If Colette is alive and we were to get close to her, will her medallion tell us that?”
“It might, I think. How is it, if raised in France, you do not speak English with an accent, like me?”
“My father was English, second-generation American. He believed in speaking proper English. Colette and I were raised speaking two languages. He taught Loul as well.”
“How did your mère and père meet?”