His lips pulled back in a smile promising retribution for all the times she'd teased him in his cabin and he thrust himself into her in one smooth motion, wrenching a gasp from the back of her throat, a sound that trailed off to a moan as he filled her, stretching her, and she raised her legs and twined them about his hips to ease the fullness that was almost more than she could bear.
"So tight," he gritted out and then he began moving inside her, pulling back and filling her again, making her arch her back and grip his muscled shoulders, trying to find her own rhythm in his increasingly frenzied thrusts.
She could hear a voice she scarcely recognized as her own ordering Jack to go faster, deeper. He responded until she felt her toes curl and her muscles tighten around him, and her body let go of its grip on reality. Every nerve flared in a release that brought a cry to her lips. Jack thrust twice, three more times, and with his own oath pulled himself out to convulse against her belly, spreading a warmth that pooled between them.
It had been so long since she'd felt like this.
She had never felt like this.
That last thought, along with the air cooling her overheated body, brought Sophia back to her senses as Jack reached down to pull the linens up over their sweating bodies.
She made to leave the bed, but Jack simply put his arm around her and pulled her close to his side.
"Stay a moment, Sophia. Are you...well?"
Sophia smiled to herself. Such a diffident question.
"Yes, I am well." She wanted to add a thank-you for him not spending inside her and risking a pregnancy, but she was certain he'd find that awkward. He had to be wondering though...
"Were you surprised to find I was not a virgin?"
She could tell from the long pause Jack was picking his words as carefully as he would have picked up a hedgehog.
"I was momentarily startled, I admit, but then the thought flashed through my head, 'It's Sophia being Sophia.' Not that I think you are a loose woman, only, you always do what suits you, regardless of what others may think. This was just one more example."
Sophia felt muscles she wasn't aware were tense relax as she rested her head on his broad chest. The whorls of golden hair tickled her nose, but she didn't want to move.
"When I was seventeen, Tom, the squire's son, began coming to our house for Mr. Deford's card parties. Tom was twenty-four, and while we'd grown up in the same area, we had never had much social interaction. I saw him in town now and then, and thought he was a good looking boy, but that was all, until he came to the house parties. Now, with his veneer of town bronze, he took on an entirely new aspect in my eyes.
"And he was nice to me. He talked to me like I was a person, and took walks with me, and told me some of his dreams and goals. I fancied we were in love, and nature took its course."
She didn't say anything else for a few moments as Jack stroked the damp curls off her forehead. It was hard to keep talking, but she wanted to tell him the rest.
"The scales fell from my eyes when after some months as lovers Tom told me he was leaving for London. His parents wanted him to meet a young lady there who they thought would make him a good wife. They made it clear to him a gambler's daughter, the hostess of dissolute house parties, was not who they had in mind for him to marry. And Tom was a dutiful son. He was regretful, and he would miss me, and perhaps on his visits home we would have the opportunity to sneak out to the abandoned mill again. He assured me his being betrothed didn't need to stop our fun and games."
Jack paused from stroking her hair, then cleared his throat.
"Where did you hide the body?"
Her mouth quirked up and she laughed low in her throat. "You know me too well, Lucky Jack. Up until that point, I was easy on him when we played cards. But before he left for London, I relieved him of every shilling in his possession, his gold watch, and his new hunter."
"That's my girl," Jack said softly, giving her a squeeze.
The words froze Sophia's blood. She couldn't be Jack's girl. She couldn't be anyone's girl. Not when there was a treasure to be found.
A treasure she had no intention of sharing.
"This was a pleasant interlude," she said briskly, sitting up and looking for her shirt. "However, we have more important things to do today, Captain. I suggest you put your trousers on and we go examine the box."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees when she turned from fastening the remaining buttons on her shirt and looked over her shoulder. Jack was sitting up in bed, one hand propped behind him. The only way he would have looked more like he'd just been slapped was if her handprint was on his cheek.
Sophia shook her head. "Really, Jack, that was a great deal of fun, but you and I both know it was brought on by the excitement of finding the clue. Perhaps now we have that behind us, we can focus on what is really important here."
Sophia left, not looking to see if Jack followed behind her.
***
Trying to understand Sophia Deford Burrell was about as simple as trying to understand the kitchen cat. Jack paced angrily in the parlor. No, the cat was easy to understand. It wanted a dry place to sleep. It wanted to hunt. It wanted to be fed.
That last thought brought him up short. He'd never had to climb to the top of a tree to be sure of a meal. Certainly there were times he missed a meal or two, or had to have shorter rations than he'd like while cruising, but he'd never been worried about starving. He never worried growing up about having a roof over his head, or food on the table, or wondered if his parents would take care of him.
And his life to this point, his interaction with other women, never prepared him for the likes of Sophia Deford. She'd used that to her advantage in the cave in England, and was still keeping him off-guard.
Was that why she said what she said earlier? About their lovemaking being a pleasant interlude and "a great deal of fun"?
It certainly had been all of that, but if all he'd wanted was anonymous and fast "fun" he could have that with any number of dockside whores. Sophia was holding herself back from him. Not her body, not now, but her inner core. He had yet to breach those walls she erected to keep herself safe from the outside world, the smooth gambler's mask she wore to hide her inner feelings.
He heard the door open and Sophia peeked around the edge, now dressed in her own clothing. Her eyes shot from his face to the box on the table, highlighted by the midday sun. It was wrapped in oilskin and tied with faded but still red silk cords. Sophia walked all the way into the room and looked down at it.
"It's extravagant, but the silk was a good choice. Strong, and less likely to rot than cotton."
"Mmm..." Sophia made a noise of assent, but Jack suspected she wasn't really listening. He walked over to the table and stood beside her.
He was tempted to suggest they get some luncheon and then open the box, just to see her reaction, but figured she had been teased enough.
"Do you wish to do the honors, Mrs. Burrell?"
Jack reached down into his boot and pulled out his knife, passing it to her hilt first. She took the blade from him and with steady fingers cut the cords. She set the knife aside and undid the cords, then unwrapped the stiff cover from around the cypress wood box.
Sophia lifted the lid, Jack looking over her shoulder. Inside the box was a piece of paper, also wrapped against the damp, a rusting key, and a leather pouch. She opened the pouch first and held it over the table. Five gold coins fell out, ringing merrily as they hit one another on the polished surface.
"Dear heavens," Jack said. "Those are doubloons!"
"It is real," Sophia whispered. "The treasure is real."
King Charles of Spain smiled up at them from the coins and Sophia picked one up reverently. She turned the coin over and Jack saw that the heraldic symbols and Latin lettering looked as clear as the day the coins were minted.
"The clue is written on here, Sophia."
Jack unfolded the paper and spread it on the table, and they studied the
fading ink as Sophia read it aloud:
"Take what you now have and go on the backward water to where the dons' twins guard the broad bluff. St. James's Place holds the key to what you seek."
"Can you figure out where it is from the clue? Why did he have to make it so confusing?"
This last was said on a rising note, and Jack reached out without
thinking to put his hand on her arm, stroking her.
"Patience, kitten. I refuse to believe Captains Tanner and Garvey can outwit us. Let's look at this logically. Now we have a key, so it must unlock something. And the backward water is the St. Johns, here in Florida. It's a river that flows south to north, backward from most rivers. So this clue is somewhere in the vicinity of the St. Johns. Go fetch the map, and show me if there are any circles near the river."
She hurried out of the room, returning a few minutes later with Jack's map of East Florida.
"There is a circle near the river, here," she said, drawing a circle on the map.
"West and south," Jack said, studying the area. "Gives us an area to start from."
She relaxed at that information, then her brow furrowed.
"But what does the key unlock? A door? A box? A gate?"
"Guess we'll find out when we get to where the 'dons' twins guard the broad bluff.'"
Jack picked the box up, examined it from all angles, and then passed it to Sophia who felt for hidden catches or unusual weight. But it appeared to be what it was, a simple wooden box. She also acquiesced to Jack's demand that everything that was in the box be returned to the box. Including the five doubloons.
"We don't know yet if we will need these when we get to our next stop. And I will take charge of this for now," he said, wrapping the box back up, taking the silk ribbons as well.
"We can mull over these puzzles tonight, and maybe one of our dinner companions can answer some of our questions. Tomorrow we'll
plan our trip inland to the river."
* * *
Invitations had arrived in the wake of the governor's assembly, and Sophia and Jack spent the evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. MacArthur, a Scots couple who settled in St. Augustine during the British period and stayed on, trading with the growing numbers of settlers to the north and west of the town. The other guests were Zephaniah Kingsley and the widowed innkeeper Elena Gomez, who told Sophia without a shred of bashfulness that she knew she'd been picked solely to round out the numbers, but conversation at the MacArthurs was lively and the food good, so why not attend? Sophia agreed with such a practical attitude, and discussed life in St. Augustine with the buxom widow.
"It is a congenial city, and I enjoy the liveliness of it, especially now that Spain is back in control. Those British officials were too cold. They did not know how to enjoy life like a Spaniard does!"
Sophia didn't feel compelled to defend her countrymen and nodded to Senora Gomez's comments while she watched her husband. Jack was talking with Kingsley about the crops being shipped north. Tonight the planter was wearing silver trimmed boots that added a good two inches to his heels, but he still had to tilt his head back to talk to Jack.
It's odd, Sophia thought to herself. She had always been more comfortable around men closer to her own size, like Kingsley, but there was something about Jack Burrell that made her think how well they fit together.
That last thought brought back a remembrance of exactly how well they fit together, and she lowered her eyes and sipped at her sherry.
Jack was a regular customer of the MacArthurs and when he mentioned a wedding trip inland over supper, the couple approved.
"Some good land for farming back there, Captain," MacArthur said, "if you're thinking of settling in Florida. "
"I have considered it, Mr. MacArthur, and thought I would show Mrs. Burrell some of the areas around the river while we're visiting here."
"This must be exciting for you, Mrs. Burrell, moving to America!" Mrs. MacArthur said to Sophia. "How did you meet our Captain Burrell?"
Janet MacArthur was a relentlessly cheerful lady with gray curls corkscrewing from beneath her purple turban. Sophia discovered early in the evening if you wanted to get Mrs. MacArthur talking, all you had to do was ask about her grown children—a daughter living in New Orleans with three healthy little ones, a son back in England, another son up in Georgia.
However, Mrs. MacArthur's question did demand an answer.
"I never expected to settle in America, Mrs. MacArthur. Captain Burrell made my acquaintance some years back, before his country was drawn into the war with Britain. The war separated us, but then luck— and happy circumstance—reunited us, and here we are. Now that we are married I will, of course, follow my husband," she said with a shy smile at said spouse.
"How utterly romantic!" Mrs. MacArthur gushed. She leaned over and tapped Sophia lightly on the arm with her fan, then lowered her voice. "If there is anything I can do to help you adjust to married life, my dear, please do not hesitate to call on me. Mr. MacArthur and I have had years together of wedded bliss. Sometimes gentlemen do not understand the sensibilities of young brides, so if there is anything you need explained, please let me be of assistance."
Sophia eyed her host, whose gleaming pate and thick lips bristling with whiskers reminded her of one of the sea cows Jack had pointed out to her in the inlet. Mrs. MacArthur's offer of marital advice combined with Sophia's view of Mrs. MacArthur's husband to give her a most uncomfortable mental image, but fortunately, the arrival of the Spanish custard for dessert drove the thought away.
"I think of the United States as my country, too, Mrs. Burrell," Kingsley said. "I love Florida, and I'm bound and determined it will be part of the United States. It's the only way we will ever keep order here."
"Yes," Jack said dryly, "I had the pleasure of dining with Luis Aury and his cohorts in Feraandina. I suspect the United States will not look kindly on having the Republic of Mexico established south of Georgia's border."
Kingsley shook his head sadly. "Florida has become a haven for scoundrels following the war. Georgia in particular considers East Florida its dumping ground for every eye-gouging, nose-biting desperado who can stay one jump ahead of the magistrate."
"You are from Georgia, are you not, Jack?"
"Yes, he is, Mrs. Burrell, but Jack Burrell's an upstanding businessman. All of East Florida will bear that out. Except for maybe a British captain or two."
"Or the occasional Spaniard," Sophia said under her breath.
"One thing I've learned in business is that you never know what you will find if you cast your net wide," Jack said with a glance at his wife. "Now I want to show my latest 'British acquisition' some of Florida before heading up to Georgia to see my family."
"Most of the plantations along the river are still burnt-out shells, Captain," Kingsley said. "Between the Indian raids and the fighting from the war you won't find as much hospitality as usual along the St. Johns."
"Maybe so, but now is the right time for us to take this wedding journey."
Sophia had been thinking about the clues to Garvey's Gold during the day, and as the final course of fruit, cheese, and nuts was brought to table she thought this was as good a time as any to see if they could uncover some answers.
"I was at a dinner in Fernandina recently, and heard a riddle based on East Florida. I have not been able to figure it out, nor has Captain Burrell, but perhaps this assembly might be able to assist me. I confess, I love guessing games and this one has been keeping me from finding any peace."
"Tell us the riddle, Mrs. Burrell," Mrs. MacArthur said.
Sophia repeated Captain Tanner's clue. They all thought about it, then Senora Gomez's face lit up and she talked excitedly in Spanish.
"I am sorry, Mrs. Gomez, I do not speak Spanish," Sophia said, as Jack said, "Ah! So that's it!"
"The riddle is not difficult, if you know the land," Senora Gomez said in English. "The 'twins who guard the broad bluff are the old forts—Pupo and Picolata."
&nbs
p; "That sounds right," Jack said thoughtfully. "I have sailed that stretch of river, and there is a bluff there. There you have it, Mrs. Burrell," he said turning to Sophia. "No more restless nights as you try to puzzle this riddle out."
Sophia felt her own pulse race faster at the thought of having an answer and a destination in mind. Instead of blindly traveling inland, they had a goal now. Within a few days they could have their hands on Garvey's Gold.
* * *
"Do you think one clue will find us the treasure, Jack? What if the treasure is at the bluffs? Is it possible the other circles on the map are a ruse?"
Jack watched Sophia washing herself for bed, and was so caught up in the sight of a trickle of water beading its way down the edge of her gown toward one of those nipples he now knew was larger than he would have anticipated and worth further exploration...
"What did you say?"
She looked at him and said, "The treasure, Jack. Do you think it is at these bluffs?"
"It will not be that easy, Sophia. Garvey would not leave the treasure where it could be discovered by someone with just one clue. No, a bigger concern is whether Whitfield has any of the clues and will
get there ahead of us. We need to be on guard, always, in case he tries
to ambush us again."
"Mmmm..." Sophia said, not really answering Jack's concern. At the moment the treasure might have been uppermost on her mind, but it wasn't on his. He was still angry over her callous dismissal of their lovemaking earlier in the day.
Pleasant? Never had he been damned with such faint praise. It was like her terming him nice. Lucky Jack, scourge of the British and the enemies of Cartagena reduced to the quality of a young lady's sketches or a lapdog of no great personality!
"Sophia, come to bed."
She looked at him and opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and walked over to blow out the lamp on the chest of drawers.
"No, leave it lit," he said. She jumped, but when she turned to him she had her gambler face on, masking what she was feeling.
And that gave him ideas. Ideas that weren't nice at all.
The Bride and the Buccaneer Page 18