‘Oh, indeed, Captain Alexander and the whole of the Royal Navy are very well acquainted. He is a frigate captain of wide renown since his shore leave in New York a month ago when he decided he no longer wished to serve good King George and deserted.’
Daniel gave a low laugh at the words he had known were coming and shook his head.
‘There is no point denying it. Everyone knows. There is a warrant out for your arrest.’
Higgs was nothing but thorough.
‘Good God!’ he heard Davies exclaim.
‘Daniel?’ Sarah’s voice was barely more than a whisper. She came to stand close, staring up into his face with disbelief, waiting for him to deny it.
Oh, lass... His stomach sank and he closed his eyes, knowing what she had just revealed to Higgs and the only way that he could counteract it. He had been prepared to put a distance between them, a coolness, been prepared to be held up as a traitor. But not this. Not with such deliberate bare-faced cruelty. To look into her eyes while he slid a blade into her heart and his own. He thought of Netta and the babe. And he thought of Sarah Ellison’s fragile trust. And it seemed to Daniel that sometimes life asked too much of one man.
Higgs’s gaze moved to Sarah before coming back to rest on him again with a knowing expression. The bastard smiled.
‘I see he has tricked his way into your friendship, Mrs Ellison.’
‘I have no friends, Captain Higgs, but you were aware of that long before me,’ Daniel said. ‘And as for Mrs Ellison...’ He shot a dissolute glance in Sarah’s direction. ‘Look at her. Can you honestly blame me for trying?’
Higgs gave a laugh. ‘I am afraid, Mrs Ellison, that Captain Alexander has something of a reputation when it comes to beautiful women.’
‘You lied to me,’ she said, the accusation in those soft words more cutting than if she had screamed or shouted or raged. ‘You lied to us all.’ He could feel her stare even though he did not let himself look at her, could feel the weight of it crushing his heart.
Imelda came towards him, ‘I don’t understand, Captain Alexander. What are they saying?’ But Sarah caught a firm hold of the wee lassie’s hand and hauled her back.
‘Stay away from him, Imelda.’
‘Why?’
‘Because...’ Higgs bent down to look into Imelda’s face. ‘He is a very dangerous gentleman, young miss.’
‘He is a pirate, sir.’
‘I am afraid he is a deal worse than that, my dear.’ Higgs gestured to the two marines who accompanied him. ‘He is a traitor.’
Daniel watched Higgs standing there with Sarah on one side and Imelda on the other and knew he could risk nothing.
He let the marines tie his hands behind his back, let them take him away, to Viper, and all that awaited him there. And all the while he kept his gaze fixed steadfastly ahead.
And as he left he heard Higgs command his lieutenant, ‘Transfer all bodies to Viper and make ready to tow the Angel. Time is of the essence. We must reach Plymouth with this villain as soon as possible.’
‘Aye, sir,’ said the lieutenant.
Daniel knew he would not make Plymouth alive, Higgs would ensure that. He could only trust that, despite everything Sarah believed him to be, she would keep the oath she had sworn.
* * *
Two young lieutenants had given up their cabins for HMS Viper’s new female passengers. The frigate might have dwarfed the Angel but the cabins which housed the women were still cramped.
Imelda, sitting on her cot, looked as dazed as Sarah felt.
Sarah kept her face to the porthole, looking out of the passing ocean. She had wept in the night, but not now. And she would not let herself weep again, not over him.
All those little details made sense in the light of the truth. No wonder he had been through many storms and knew to tie people to the mast. No wonder he sailed so often and knew his way about a ship so well. And knew that crystalline ginger eased seasickness. How he must have laughed at her naivety!
She had trusted him. And he had lied. As they all did. How many men would it take before she learned? It felt like her heart had been ripped out and ground beneath the heel of his boot. Her whole body ached from the betrayal. And she knew why it hurt so much more this time. Even if he was a stranger. Even if she had known him only a matter of weeks. Because Daniel Alexander was the only man to have reached in and touched her soul. Because he was the only man she had ever truly loved. She closed her eyes against the realisation.
God in heaven, one man in the whole of the Atlantic Ocean and he had to be a deserter, a liar, a cheat. He had known exactly how to make her dance to his tune. When she thought of how she had gone to him, given herself to him... The humiliation was scorching, rendering that to which Robert had subjected her, before all of New York’s high society, trivial in comparison. Had not Imelda been here to care for, Sarah dreaded to think what she might do. She was so angry, so hurt. But Imelda was here and so Sarah had no choice but to be calm and unemotional—and keep, as her brother Thomas said, a stiff upper lip.
She would not make the same mistake again. Ever.
Sarah sealed off her emotions and got on with the task in hand.
* * *
‘Please come in and sit down, Mrs Ellison.’ Captain Higgs stood while she took her seat in the leather chair set before his desk.
His cabin was vast in comparison with any other she had seen and furnished better than many a ton drawing room. The rectangular windows of the ship’s stern ran the length of the back wall. The desk was in one corner of the room, with a small sofa and bookcase nearby. In the centre was a long mahogany dining table, its surface polished until its gleam rivalled that of a looking glass, its edge lipped. Two weighted flat-bottomed crystal decanters sat in the middle of the table—one filled with liquid that sparkled ruby red in the winter sunshine flooding though the huge windows, the other, tawny. Overhead hung an ornate gold-and-crystal chandelier.
‘I am sorry that you have to be involved in any of this, Mrs Ellison. It is a nasty business.’ He resumed his seat only once she was sitting down.
‘It is.’
‘And one into which I must conduct a full investigation. Which is why I am forced to ask you a few questions regarding Captain Alexander. I hope you do not mind.’
‘Not at all, sir.’ She showed not one sign of how just the mention of his name made her feel.
‘I have already spoken to Captain Davies and his crew.’
‘So I understand. Where is Captain Alexander now?’
‘You need not worry, Mrs Ellison, he is safely imprisoned down on the orlop deck.’
‘I am glad to hear it.’ She truly was. He deserved every punishment they heaped upon his villainous head.
‘We all are,’ said Captain Higgs. ‘He is not only dishonourable, but dishonest too. I need to know what lies he told you.’
I love you, lass—the cruellest lie of all.
‘The same as he told everyone aboard the Angel. That he was a businessman returning to London from New York. That he fell overboard in an accident from a merchant ship named Miss Lively.’
‘I do not know quite how to phrase this delicately, Mrs Ellison.’ Captain Higgs paused. ‘But as a lady, and a very attractive one at that, it is possible that Daniel Alexander may have sought to impress you with stories of his own importance, of treachery and imagined derring-do.’
‘He made no such claims.’
‘Not even to win your...affection?’
She faced him levelly, refusing to be cowed with embarrassment. ‘What are you implying, Captain Higgs?’
‘You called him by his given name aboard the Angel.’
She closed her eyes, knowing just how much that one small slip had revealed. ‘He saved us in the storm. My niece developed a fondness for him.�
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Not just her niece. The words whispered unspoken in the cabin between them.
‘What did he tell you of himself?’
That he had lost a wife and a babe. That she was beautiful. That he loved her. Was anything of it true?
‘He told me nothing of himself.’
She saw the scepticism in his eyes. ‘Come now, Mrs Ellison, do you expect me to believe that you were on Christian-name terms with a man, a stranger plucked from the sea, of whom you knew nothing?’
‘I am afraid I have a history of poor judgement in men, sir.’ She glanced past him to the large stern windows and the rose-tinged sky.
‘He did not tell you, for example, that he is the second son of the Earl of Glen Affric? And the younger brother of Viscount Cannich?’
‘He is an earl’s son?’ He was a stranger indeed. A man she did not know at all. She felt the wound she was struggling so hard to hide begin to gape.
Something of the truth must have shown in her face because Captain Higgs said softly, ‘He really did not tell you.’
She stared down at her hands, determined not to weep.
‘And he gave nothing into your keeping, no letter, no document?’
Swear it, Sarah. For the sake of all that is between us. The words of a deserter, a liar and a scoundrel.
I swear. Her own oath taken in such foolhardy ignorance.
‘Mrs Ellison,’ Captain Higgs pressed.
‘Nothing.’ The lie slipped from her lips.
‘Then I will take up no more of your time, ma’am. I am sorry to have troubled you. Please allow me to show you out.’
The captain’s cabin doors opened out on to the main deck, revealing the sun setting in the west—a glorious blaze in the white-grey winter sky, so vivid and beautiful amidst all the misery dragging at Sarah’s heart. She stopped where she was and stared at it, remembering all the times she had stood watching the sun set by Daniel Alexander’s side.
‘May I ask you a question, Captain Higgs?’ She did not look round at him.
‘Of course.’
‘Why did Captain Alexander desert?’
‘He found himself a woman in New York that he was reticent to leave.’
She closed her eyes to control the pain.
‘It bodes well for fine weather tomorrow.’ Higgs glanced at the sunset. ‘We shall make good speed for Plymouth.’
‘I hope so,’ she said and meant it.
‘Thank you again for your help, Mrs Ellison.’
‘You are welcome, sir.’ She turned to leave, but what she saw coming down the deck stopped her dead. Daniel, flanked by two armed red-jacketed marines, his hands bound behind his back, his ankles shackled together with irons, was being manhandled towards her. A third marine walked behind, the muzzle of his musket pressed against Daniel’s back.
Daniel’s face was scraped and bleeding. One eye was dark bruised and there was a cut on his lower lip. The borrowed brown coat was gone and the white of his shirt was crimson-speckled with blood. As she stared in shock and horror his eyes met hers and she saw the man she had known aboard the Angel, the man who had saved her, the man who had loved her. She saw trust and love and a plea for understanding. There for a flash, then gone, as quickly as it had appeared. His eyes were cold and hard as he turned them to Captain Higgs.
Sarah could not move, could not tear her stare from Daniel.
‘You are early,’ snapped Captain Higgs at his men, before barking at the blue-uniformed officer who accompanied the marines and Daniel. ‘Get Mrs Ellison out of here, Lieutenant Peyton. She should not have to witness this.’
‘At once, sir.’ The lieutenant took her arm and began to guide her away.
She glanced back and saw them take Daniel into Captain Higgs’s cabin.
The door slammed shut.
* * *
Sarah sat that night alone at the tiny desk in her cabin. All was quiet save for the roar of the wind and ocean that was always there in the background. She barely noticed it any more. From up on deck she heard the faint chime of six bells. An hour before midnight and still she had not slept a wink, nor even pretended it could be so.
Her mind could not forget that image of Daniel Alexander. It had haunted her for every minute of every hour since. That they had beaten him made her heart bleed. But it was that look in his eyes that she kept coming back to again and again.
Inside her pocket the letter lay snug. She was so conscious of its presence she could feel it burning through the layers of clothing like a touch from Daniel’s fingers. She fished it out, laid it on the table before her.
It was addressed to Lord Mulgrave of Admiralty House in Westminster, London, written in a hand that was surprisingly artistic for so physical a man. But then he was an earl’s son, and a Royal Navy captain!
He found himself a woman in New York that he was reticent to leave.
She rubbed a hand against her forehead, feeling bitter at how much of a fool she had been, and was still being. She should have given the letter to Higgs and been done with it; should have chalked Daniel down to just one more mistake and moved on with her life.
She closed her eyes and saw again Daniel with his eye blackened and his lip cut and that look in his eyes, and knew she could do none of those things. And if Daniel had deserted for a woman in New York, what was he doing sailing back to England aboard a ship on which no one noticed him missing?
With great care she turned the letter over. The red wax seal bore the indent of no signet or seal, only the mark of a man’s thumbprint with a distinctive scar in the shape of a crescent moon. She swallowed and touched her fingers against it, resting her thumb where his had been.
I love you, lass.
It was what men like him said. He had lied. Just like Robert and Brandon Taverner. And yet, sitting here, she knew he was nothing like either of those twin imposters. She thought of that night on Angel’s deck when he had held her as she was sick. She thought of the storm and how he had saved them. She thought of how he had stayed with her at her lowest ebb through Imelda’s fever. And of the tenderness of his lovemaking.
I love you, lass—for all that it will appear otherwise.
She looked again at the red wax seal.
What is between us is no lie. In that at least I have been honest, I swear.
There was one way to know for sure.
Sarah hesitated no longer, but broke the wax seal.
And the words that Daniel had penned on that sheet of paper made her heart turn over. For a few moments she just sat there letting the truth sink in before resealing the letter and replacing it in her pocket. She understood now why Daniel had lied and why he had behaved so abominably towards her before Higgs. Protection. She closed her eyes. Amidst all the lies he was the only man who had shown her the truth of himself.
Sarah prepared very carefully. And when she was finally done she fastened her cloak around her shoulders, fitted her bonnet to her head. Lifting up her basket and her lantern, she went to find the orlop deck.
Chapter Seven
From the gloom and silence of his dank prison down in the bowels of the ship Daniel heard the light tread of a woman’s footsteps and looked up to see Sarah—the angel who appeared when darkness threatened and all hope seemed lost.
He uttered not one word, made no move other than to fix his eyes upon her, unsure of what she could be doing here.
Sarah did not so much as look at him. She smiled at the two marines who stood, muskets in hand, guarding the locked bars of his cell.
‘Forgive my intrusion, gentlemen. Captain Higgs told me that rogue who has so dishonoured the King’s uniform was imprisoned down here.’ She flicked a glance of utter contempt at Daniel.
‘As you see, ma’am.’ The tallest marine gave her a small bow.
‘You are sure he cannot escape?’ There was an edge to her voice that sounded like fear.
The marine smirked. ‘We are very sure.’
‘Do not laugh at me, sir. I have seen that of which he is capable. He is dangerous in the extreme.’
‘Begging your pardon, ma’am.’ The marine looked contrite. ‘But he is shackled and locked behind iron bars.’
‘And the keys are safe from his reach?’
The marine glanced at the second bunch of keys that hung on the wall opposite Daniel’s cell. ‘Rest assured they are, ma’am.’
‘You will be here to guard him in person? All night?’
‘Indeed. Corporal Clarke and I have that honour. Captain Alexander is locked up safe. He won’t be leaving his cell before we anchor in Plymouth.’
Her relief was visible even from where he sat so still within the gloom. ‘Thank you for your reassurance, Lieutenant.’ He saw her smile.
The marine smiled, too, and glanced away, pleased but embarrassed. ‘It’s just plain Corporal Brown, ma’am.’
‘Well, Corporal Brown, I will sleep easier tonight for having spoken to you.’
Brown gave a nod.
‘I will leave you to your guarding, sir.’ She turned to leave, then stopped as if a sudden thought had occurred. ‘I have spent the night delivering some small gifts to the officers of HMS Viper who so valiantly rescued my niece and myself.’ She pulled back the cover of the basket hooked over her arm. Daniel could not see what was within, only the way the lantern light glinted on something dark.
‘I made a whole batch before leaving New York, to give as Christmas gifts when I reached England. But it is almost Christmas, and if any two gentlemen deserve something warming on this cold December night it is most certainly Corporals Brown and Clarke.’ She handed Brown a bottle of mulled wine. ‘Goodnight, gentlemen.’
Not a look. Not a glance. Only hostility that bristled.
But with the scent of cloves and cinnamon and rich red wine strong as Brown and Clarke shared the wine Sarah had left, Daniel smiled and felt his heart blossom.
A Magical Regency Christmas Page 25