The Dream

by Jaycee Clark

  As if shocked, he moved. “Where?” he whispered.

  “A little place you might have heard of. The Cuckold Inn.”

  For the first time that evening, he could think straight. “The Cuckold Inn?” He looked at Nick and Rayne in turn.

  Nick only said, “I’ll go pay a visit to Hobbs, I believe. I think he’ll be interested.”

  Jason grabbed Nick’s arm. “He’s mine.”

  Nick looked at the hand on his arm, then back at Jason. “No one is disputing that.”

  Jason nodded. “I need to let Aunt Elsie know.”

  He took the stairs two at a time, strode passed Emily’s grandparents sitting in the hallway, and raced to his room. “Aunt Elsie?”

  The woman wiped her eyes and stood from her kneeling position by the bed.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s something I must do.” He took a deep breath. “You’ll watch her?”

  His aunt nodded. “Have you heard something?”

  He leaned over and kissed Joy.

  “Never mind,” his aunt continued. “Just go. Yes, I’ll stay. Go. Go. Bring that darling girl back home.”

  He turned and strode from the room, gave a terse reply to her grandparents and hurried down the stairs. “Sheldon?”

  Rayne was already pulling his Garrick on. Summerton held his. As Jason shoved his arms through the sleeves, he said, “Make certain Dr. Blaine is around.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  He wanted to take horses from the stables, but stopped, worried about Emily. She didn’t need to be gallivanting around.

  “I’ve my carriage,” Sheldon offered.

  Taber’s only input was, “I’ll hold the fort. The excitement I miss…”

  They all, save Nick, piled in.

  “Hobbs,” Jason told his friend.

  “Yes, I’m going to Hobbs. I’ll leave the Cuckold Inn to you.”

  Nick better the hell leave it to him.

  “Send word to the ship. I want to know what’s going on, and if you haven’t, I’ll come looking for you again,” Nick warned, clicking his horse.

  “You’re sailing with the morning tide,” Rayne reminded him.

  Nick ignored them both and rode off into the night.

  Jason thumped his fingers on his thigh. “What else did you find out?” he asked Sheldon.

  “Nothing. Why?” The other man settled back into the cushions. His calm demeanor grated on Jason’s nerves. He caught enough of what Taber said earlier and realized Sheldon was not new at this game.

  “Are you the new man?”

  Sheldon only smiled. “We were to meet tomorrow morning was what I was told.”

  Jason ignored him and tried to ease the panic inside him. He had to hurry. He could feel it.

  It would take them at least half an hour, if not longer, to get over to the docks and the inn. He prayed and kept praying. Hoping he would not be too late to help Emily.

  * * * * *

  Theodore searched at the dock. This was it. There had been few ships sailing this morning. But he’d found one to take on a willing hand for the passage to France. Then he’d find a way to get them to America.

  He figured if the lofty and mighty marquis wanted to follow them, he’d think they sailed immediately for America. This would give them some time.

  Some time for him to teach his errant wife her place since she’d obviously forgotten it.

  The woman made the rage roar to life inside him, made the blackness breathe hot, made him want to send her straight to hell.

  “You will stay in our cabin the entire voyage,” he dictated, tightening his grip on her wrist. She stumbled and he yanked her onward. “Move it. There is still much to teach you before we sail. I was interrupted before, but on the ship, I shouldn’t be.” He knew he would have to leave her for a bit. After all, he’d offered to work to pay their passage across the Channel. He’d originally meant for her to work as well, but seeing how she flirted, how she looked at other men, like the innkeeper, he would make her stay in the cabin.

  If the shipmates had a problem with it, he would tell them she was expecting and that she shouldn’t do anything. Lord knew she’d lost enough of his babes, he knew that to be likely in her case. Even if it had been punishment for her sins. All those babes. All his babes.

  The black-red haze clouded his vision and he realized where they were. He stopped, and breathed deep. In only a few hours they’d be sailing.

  “Come, wench. We don’t have all night.” When she stumbled yet another time, he cuffed her again upside the head.

  Their footfalls dulled over the damp wood of the plank as they made their way onto the Black Feather. Crates were being loaded, lighted lanterns swung from their hooks as the ship rocked in its moor. Men shouted.

  The first mate, Damon—Theodore remembered his name, sounded like demon. The man was probably as evil as the rest in this pagan land—walked up to them. Yet, even as he watched, the man shifted, rolled with the deck, seemed to grow even larger. Theodore blinked, and rubbed at the pain in his temple.

  Damn monsters were everywhere. Perhaps the gates of Hell had opened and spewed the demons out into the world. He looked to the sky wondering if he’d hear the trumpets, see the horses winging their way down, bearing their messages from God.

  “You here already?” the man said. He was tall and lithe, yet his muscled arms flexed as he crossed to them. “Thought you said you’d be here right before we sailed.”

  The man looked to Rebeckah and smiled. “Welcome aboard.”

  She didn’t raise her head, thank the Almighty, otherwise it would go worse for her.

  “My wife is not feeling well.” He stepped in front of her, keeping her hand locked in his.

  Damon kept staring at her, his gaze narrowing. Theodore cleared his throat. The man’s eyes jerked back to him, and an easy smile flashed across his face.

  Theodore was not fooled. He’d seen the look, wondered if the man wanted Rebeckah. Probably—all men seemed to lust after her.

  “You’ll need to come up and help us as soon as you get settled,” Damon replied. “Captain Nightingale’s not here at present, but he will be shortly.”

  Theodore nodded.

  “I’ll let him know you’ve arrived on board, so he knows we won’t have to be waiting on you. Follow me, I’ll show you to your cabin.”

  Theodore listened to Damon rattle on about this and that. He needed to teach Rebeckah a lesson but didn’t want to arouse suspicion. He was hardly a stupid man. Some did not respect the privacy between a husband and wife. He wanted no interruptions for what he had planned.

  They went down a hallway and Damon stopped by one door, opening it. “This is your cabin.”

  Theodore promised to hurry and get settled so that he could help on deck.

  He shut the door behind him and flicked the lock.

  The lock echoed through her. Emily flinched at the sound. Damon. She’d met Damon. Think, she had to think, but her head hurt so bad and her other bruises were starting to ache. Her ribs were a constant pull and her entire face pulsed with pain.

  All she had to do was scream. One long and loud scream. But what if no one heard her? What if, for whatever reason, no one came? Then what?

  She knew what. Theodore would show her no mercy. The baby. Under the cloak, she put her hands on her lower abdomen and hoped, hoped with all that was in her to keep the baby safe.

  “I don’t like that man. If he is truly a man,” Theodore muttered.

  She startled at his voice.

  “Take off the cloak.”

  Gladly. The smell of it churned her stomach. She undid the clasp and tried to think, tried to figure out what to do.

  She removed the garment and held it out to him.

  His hand snatched it from her. “Now the gown.”

  She looked at him. “The-the gown?”

  His face tightened. She quickly tried to undo the back, but her fingers fumbled with the buttons. The front was ripped already
and if it ripped further, she’d have no way to wear it.

  “Turn around.”

  Emily took a deep breath and gave Theodore her back, hardly breathing as she felt his fingers angrily slipping the buttons free. Several popped and scattered on the floor.

  The gown pooled at her feet.

  “Now the petticoat.”

  Was he going to force her? Not that he would consider it so. After all, he was her husband, but the thought of him forcing himself on her was as sickening as simply lying there and passively submitting. The idea of his hand touching her crawled and prickled her skin.

  Emily licked her lips, not moving.

  His hands jerked at the waistband and she heard more material rip.

  “I should make you take off that slip of material you’re wearing. Indecent. But then I don’t think you’ll go up on deck like that will you?” He turned her around, leaned down into her face. “And if you are naked, I know you’ll try to tempt me with your womanly charms, your wicked ways.” His eyes blazed with an unholy fire. She shuddered.

  “Are you scared, Rebeckah? You should be. Remember what I told you to think on?” His voice so well modulated, sounded like he was instructing a wayward student.

  His fingers squeezed her back, and Emily stiffened, tried to keep distance between them. “Think of the penance you must pay, wife.”

  With that, he stepped abruptly away and brought her hands up. From his bag, around his shoulder, he withdrew out a length of rope and wrapped it around her hands. He jerked her to the bed and tied the end to the bedpost.

  “You won’t go anywhere, will you?”

  The ropes bit into her wrists, and her insides trembled. Why did he tie her to the bed? She would not beg him, but nor would she sit meekly and let him do whatever he wanted. She would never be able to do that again. Never, ever again!

  His fist nudged her chin up higher. “Look at the anger and impertinence in those eyes.” He tsked and shook his head. “The hell fiends have turned you, Rebeckah.” He took another strip of material out and quickly gagged her. “Wouldn’t want you calling out for help. Who knows what these people would do. Heathens might try to keep you from me, and I could never have that, could I?”

  The material tasted of the pipe he favored. Emily’s stomach pitched and she took several breaths through her nose, hoping, praying she would not be sick.

  Think of something else, anything else. Ravenscrest. The garden. Jason. Joy.

  She closed her eyes.

  Something clunked on the table. She opened her eyes. Theodore laid two guns side by side on the table. Jason’s pistols! Oh God, he’d had Joy’s locket. What if…

  She must have made some noise because he looked at her.

  “I had to use them,” he said shaking his head. “The demons came after me.”

  Good Lord, the man had gone completely crazy.

  Demons? He’d always gone on about the wickedness of women, but never had he mentioned demons coming after him.

  The sight of the guns should have scared her. They were, literally, in the hands of a madman.

  But they were Jason’s guns. And for some unknown reason, they calmed her.

  “I’ll be back, wife. I must go help prepare for our journey.” His voice was calm now, devoid of emotion and he smiled at her as he took the next object out of his bag.

  He laid the strip of leather beside the guns. “While I’m gone, decide if you want to be purged,” he laid his hand on the leather she knew he could wield like a fencer his rapier. “Or if you want to pay the full price for your sins.” He tapped the pistols.

  For the first time, real fear, horror of what he just said, coated through her.

  A beating? Or death?

  And with him, the line between was so small he could cross it with ease. She knew, had the scars to prove it.

  Oh God. Please, please help her.

  He smiled and her blood iced.

  * * * * *

  Jason stormed out of the inn, Rayne and Sheldon close on his heels.

  The innkeeper had told him all he needed to know. The beaten woman—God, the words still rumbled fury through him—had whispered Jason’s title. Luckily the bastard with her had been kind enough to tell the innkeeper’s wife the name of the ship he was sailing on. And she’d had on a bloody cloak. Dark stained cloak. Jason knew, knew it was blood.

  As they jumped back into the carriage, Rayne said. “Everything is going to work out, Jase. It will.”

  Jason whirled on him in the small confines of the carriage. “How the bloody hell do you know that? He has her. Didn’t you hear the man? Beaten. She’d been beaten, the whole damn side of her face was swollen.” Jason had never wanted to hit Rayne as he did at that moment. But he knew it would accomplish nothing and Rayne wasn’t the man he wanted to pound into the ground anyway.

  “Yes, but she was lucid enough to give the man your name,” Sheldon offered.

  Considering Jason currently had his best friend locked to the side of the carriage by his forearm, Jason thought Sheldon was being rather brave. Or maybe stupid, given his current mood.

  “And she could walk,” Rayne added.

  Jason took a deep breath and sat back, jerking his coat straight.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rayne and Sheldon exchange a glance.

  Rayne said, “What are you going to do when we find them?”

  “What do you think I’m going to do?” Jason asked, glad his calm voice cloaked the rage pouring through him.

  “You’ll kill the bastard,” Sheldon muttered. “Though God knows he deserves it. Think of the scandal.”

  Jason turned slowly to look at the other man. “I owe you a debt I cannot ever repay for what you found out for me. And without a doubt, you know what you’re about or you wouldn’t be one of Taber’s men. However, I don’t give a bloody damn about a scandal. This man will never harm mine or me again. Nor will you question what I can or cannot do. And if you think I can’t make a body disappear, observe and learn.”

  Sheldon’s eyes never wavered. “And here I thought my biggest worry this eve would be my uncle’s party. I’ve heard things about you, Ravensworth. Glad you owe me. I would not want to be on your black list.”

  “No,” Jason told him, “you wouldn’t.”

  Rayne shifted. “What would you have us do, Sheldon? Let the man walk after the blood he’s spilled tonight?”

  Sheldon shrugged. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. The blond man shifted and looked out the window. “The Black Feather is one of yours?”

  Jason didn’t see any reason to answer the man.

  Rayne mumbled something. “If you don’t end this,” he said to Jason, “I will.”

  Jason looked into Rayne’s dark eyes and said, “She’s mine. Joy is mine. What makes you think I won’t ‘end’ this?”

  Rayne shrugged. “Again, what do you plan to do?”

  Jason thought for moment, then smiled. “Give as good as he has, of course, then feed the bugger to the sharks.”

  The carriage sped through the night and toward the harbor.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Emily worked furiously on her wrists. The ropes were not as tight as she thought they were and after wiggling and twisting her wrists first this way and then that, she’d managed to get one coil off, but they were still tied.

  If she could just get a little more slack, she could get her hands free.

  The ticking clock within her beat against her brain as powerfully as Theodore’s fists had.

  She wished the gag were out of her mouth, she could work on the ropes with her teeth. Voices from above muffled through the floors. Things thumped above her and feet moved back and forth. So many people and how did she get a one of them to help her?

  She could have screamed for help if he hadn’t thought of the gag. And it was smart he’d tied her because she would have gone straight up to the deck and demand Damon to take her home to Jason.

  Still she kept at it. Her
wrists were raw when she heard footsteps in the hallway just outside the door.

  “What are you doing down here?” a voice asked.

  Emily stopped, jerked on her wrists, again and again, ignoring the fire along the abraded skin.

  “I’m just checking on my wife. She’s ill.”

  The voices were muffled.

  “Don’t be long. Cap’an’s on board now.”

  “I won’t.”

  Emily jerked and tugged, another inch. Just a little more. Please.

  The door opened and she stilled, her insides quivering. He would know. He would know.

  Theodore, shut and locked the door. “What are you doing?” he hissed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  His eyes narrowed and his lips tightened. Stupid. So stupid.

  A chair tumbled to the floor in his haste to reach her. Emily tried, she scooted as far from the edge of the bed as she could, but still he struck. He hit her on the shoulder.

  “I should have known you would try to escape. Try to cheat what consequences you have coming.” She looked under her arm and saw him straighten, reach over and grab the coil of leather.

  No! She jerked and pulled against her bonds, yelling behind the gag, even as she heard the first blow whistle through the air.

  The whip stung across her back, grabbing her breath.

  “Whore!”

  Again it bit across her. She huddled down, jerking and pulling against the ropes. Please, please, please.

  The leather snaked over her bare arm and she moaned at the bite.

  “Slut!”

  They kept falling, sapping her strength. She could feel welts growing where he struck.

  She knew from experience he’d already rent her chemise.

  Still the blows fell as she tugged and jerked, blood slicking her wrists.

  The rope slid off.

  * * * * *

  Jason jumped from the carriage, running down the boardwalk.

  Nick stood on deck talking to Damon. Jason raced to the ship. His boots thundered up the gangplank, the ends of his Garrick flapping around his knees. He had to get to her, he had to.

  “Where is she?” he yelled.