Once Upon a Midnight Sea

by Ava Bradley

  She kept her eyes on Lady Luck but Christian didn't turn around again. She blinked away the hot tears that turned the sea between them to a shimmering blur. How could he be so cold? Didn't he know she was only protecting him?

  Behind her the sounds from Windfall drew nearer. She heard Preston's whiney voice as he barked out orders to the crew.

  Someone threw a rope to her and pulled her the rest of the way to the ship. A rope ladder smacked the hull.

  "You'll have to climb up," a strange deckhand called down. "The davit arm is broken." He was coarse in manner, with tattered clothes and brown teeth. He offered a grimy hand as she climbed on deck, but Adriana refused.

  Preston and his older brother, Charles, approached across the deck. Neither smiled. She looked left and then right, seeking Captain Hollingsworth.

  "Where have you been?" Charles demanded. "You've caused us a serious inconvenience, you little tramp."

  "This running off of yours is most inappropriate," Preston added with an indignant sniff, as though he wanted to prove to his brother it was his right to reprimand her. "You will have to learn it is unacceptable of a wife to do such things."

  Adriana shuddered at the mere suggestion. "Where is my father?"

  Only now did Charles smile, but it was menacing. "Below. He's quite anxious to see you." He flipped his hand with exaggerated politeness.

  "Where does that bloke think he's going with my ship?" Preston demanded in a childish voice. He planted his fists on his hips.

  Adriana glanced across the water to Lady Luck one last time. Her sails billowed as she moved away. High in the rigging, Ollie waved a slow farewell. One figure alone was visible on deck. Henri.

  Goodbye, Christian, my one true love, Adriana whispered to herself.

  "Come along." Charles took her roughly by the arm.

  Adriana jerked away. "Unhand me. What right have you to order me about?"

  "You'll soon find I have all the right I need." He seized her again and dragged her toward the hatch. She noticed a stranger at the wheel. Someone she didn't know was captaining Windfall.

  What bargain had her father arranged to make them come after her? She collected her courage, determined to make him understand her feelings. She still loved him dearly, but her respect had faded such that she now felt herself more principled than him.

  But I stole a prisoner out of jail because I felt my own reasons were valid, she thought as she descended into Windfall's dark belly. Perhaps I am more like him than I'd thought. Still, I will give him no choice but to hear me.

  The ladder squeaked under Preston's weight as he followed them below. "Be sure and make her comfortable," he called in a mocking tone. Someone in the dark shadows near the galley laughed a malicious cackle.

  The lower section stank, and was cluttered with refuse. Whoever was in charge of Windfall was taking poor care of her.

  "In here," Charles said, jerking her to a stop when she started toward the main cabins. He shoved her into a crewman's berth and Adriana stumbled to her knees.

  * * *

  "Adriana." Her father sat in an infirmary chair wedged into one corner of the tiny cabin. The chair twisted and then stuck as he tried to wheel it toward her.

  Adriana jumped to her feet and rushed over. "Father!"

  "Isn't that superb," Charles sneered. He and his pudgy brother filled the doorway.

  Her father was thinner than she'd ever seen him. A scruffy, silvered beard grew in oddly around the scar on his cheek. The clothes hung off him, soiled and wrinkled as though he'd been in them for days, and his hair was oily and unkempt.

  "What have you done to him?" She knelt beside him and rested her hand on his knee. "Father, are you hurt?"

  His bloodshot eyes rose nervously to Charles and Preston, as if he were afraid to answer. He forced a thin smile. "Please, some bread."

  Adriana stood and whirled around. "When has he last eaten?"

  "He won't need to eat. And neither will you." Charles clucked his tongue. "Such a tragedy. You and your father both perished in that awful storm. Thank goodness you and my brother were already married."

  Adriana started forward, fists clenched. Charles shoved her backwards into the room, sending her sprawling. "I've heard about you, you little wildcat. Too bad I can't have you around to tell your tale. I would like to have a taste of you myself." His greasy glance slithered across her body. "Perhaps I shall indulge before you drown."

  Preston gave a snort. "She is to be my wife, if anyone is to taste her treats, it shall be me."

  She shuddered again, then a deeper terror set in as she grasped the full meaning of what Charles had said. He planned to murder her and her father! "You will never get away with this." She pointed her finger accusingly. "People know I survived the storm."

  "Ha. Who will believe a salty old sea captain, that drunken Bromley Ranklin or his laughing-stock of a son?" Charles crossed his arms and leaned against the doorjamb as if he had not a care in the world. "With your money, I shall be so rich no one will ever question me."

  "We shall be so rich," Preston corrected him.

  Charles cast an indifferent gaze at his brother. "Of course. Go prepare for your wedding. Get the papers and we shall finish this immediately." Charles turned, giving a last order to someone lurking in the shadows of the hall. "Stand watch. We wouldn't want her to give you the slip again, now, would we?"

  Preston scurried off and in his place, the hulking figure of John Locke crowded the doorway.

  * * *

  Mrs. Bailey had become uncharacteristically quiet. She sat in one of the built-in padded benches near the galley with a book in her hand, but her gaze was on Christian, watching him through narrowed eyes as he paced back and forth.

  "This is insane." He threw up his hands and turned back across the narrow galley. "She didn't want to go. They can't make her!"

  "You know she had no choice," Henri argued. "You've come so far, got everything you set out for. You want to risk your father's freedom now?"

  Christian paced away, hiding the anguish seizing his features. He had set out to steal Lady Luck and Starry Night, using the necklace to buy his father's freedom and the ship to sail to a new life. He'd gotten all those things, yet now he wanted something more.

  Adriana. He wanted her more ferociously than he'd ever wanted anything before. His desire for revenge was forgotten. He'd hardly given Edmund Montague a thought in weeks; not since that fateful day when he'd laid eyes on her for the first time.

  "Turn this ship around. We're going after her. She risked her own life to save me, and now I turn my back on her? I cannot leave her to a fate she dreads."

  Mrs. Bailey set down the book she'd been holding and clutched the reticule hanging at her waist.

  "You cannot do that." Henri no longer sounded fraught, but resolved.

  Mrs. Bailey released her reticule. Her hand drifted back to her book again.

  "Why not?" Christian demanded angrily. As if anyone had ever stopped him from doing exactly what he wanted before. No one ever had, and no one ever would.

  "If you do, Adriana will lose everything."

  * * *

  John Locke sat on his bunk with his legs crossed. He pretended to read his bible, but his nervous gaze kept straying to Adriana. She sat quietly beside her father, glaring at him.

  "I don't know why you bother with that," she said, steely cold. "Nothing can save your soul now."

  He stood and paced to the small table by the door, then to the round portal. She held him under an icy gaze the entire time, her expression emotionless. It was working. The man was on edge. Good. He should fear an eternity in hell for what he'd done.

  He glanced at her and grimaced as though her anger stung him, then stalked across the cabin and pounded on the door. "Let me out. I want some air."

  The bolt slid free from the outside. John Locke cast one uncomfortable glance behind before slipping out of the tiny cabin.

  Adriana jumped up from her chair and knelt beside he
r father.

  "Adriana, 'ell me what happened." he whispered.

  "A grand adventure." She managed a brief smile. "But it is over now."

  "Gilbert?"

  Now her smile came easier. "He is safe."

  Her father's eyes drifted shut. "'hank the Lord."

  "Tell me about him. About you."

  "Oh Adriana, I suspec' you already know." His gaze drifted to the floor. "I was so ashamed. I wanted so much for you 'o have all you could in life, without tha' burden following you. Can you ever forgive me?"

  To hear him say as much, to erase the mystery and admit the deception, lifted an invisible weight off her shoulders. He was still her father, still the man she loved with all her heart, still the man she'd always known.

  "There is nothing to forgive."

  He squeezed her hand. "Yes, Adriana. My arrogance. My greed. If only I had lis-ened 'o you..."

  She tried to quiet him with a whisper, but her father was agitated.

  "I am so sorry I have brought this horrible misfor-une upon you."

  "Do not blame yourself for the evils of others, Father."

  He tried to smile, an effort so pitiful it made a piece of her die inside.

  "We shall prevail. Christian will come for me, I know it."

  His expression crumbled then, and his gaze again fell to the floor. "No, he won'."

  "He loves me, Father. And I love him."

  He covered his eyes as a great sob wracked his frail shoulders. "I have robbed you of the chance to be 'ruly happy."

  She gently took her father's wrist. "You have done no such thing. This is not your fault."

  "I left a letter for Christian in the safe in my cabin. If he hasn't found it yet, Henri will tell him of it if he 'ries 'o come after you."

  * * *

  Christian stopped pacing. "What are you talking about, old man?"

  "Didn't you read the letter?" Henri demanded. "You opened the safe in Adriana's cabin, that is how you knew the necklace wasn't there."

  Christian glanced over to find his father watching him with worried eyes. "Oui," he answered. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

  "Didn't you open Edmund's safe, as well?"

  "You are speaking nonsense."

  "Edmund agreed to let you take the ship, and even the necklace, but he would never let you have Adriana."

  The words hit him like a bucketful of icy water. Christian turned and stalked down the narrow hall to the cabin he'd called home for nearly four weeks. He threw the portrait of Anne Marie aside and spun the tumblers. He gambled right; Adriana's birth date opened this safe too.

  Lying flat on the bottom was a single envelope. His name was scrawled neatly across the front. Christian De la Croix.

  He turned to find Henri standing behind him. "You knew about this?"

  The old man nodded.

  "You told him I wanted to harm him."

  Regret melded into Henri's grizzled face. "You left me no choice."

  "Does he think I am the assailant who shot him?"

  "No."

  His father appeared in the cabin doorway behind them. "Edmund was shot?"

  "It is a long story," Henri said. "Better left for another time."

  Christian tore open the letter and skimmed over Edmund's exquisite handwriting. The first two paragraphs equaled nothing but feeble apologies and paltry excuses.

  ...whatever funding necessary to carry out the rescue of Gilbert De la Croix. Additionally, Lady Luck will be listed in Lloyd's registry with changed ownership...

  He skimmed further, not interested in any of this unimportant waffle.

  ...but my generosity ceases at my daughter. Do what you will to me, my reputation, or my standing, but I refuse to let harm come to Adriana. Should you marry her by force, or by some miracle convince her to marry you willingly, I will disown her as my child and cut her out of my will. She will receive none of her dowry, her trust fund, nor will she inherit one American cent of my properties, holdings, or a single share of Montague Shipping. Perhaps it sounds cruel of me, but I will take whatever steps necessary to protect that which I hold dearest.

  His hand drifted to his side and he stared off at nothing. Renewed hatred flash boiled in his gut. "That bastard."

  "He loves his daughter."

  "So do I!" Christian roared.

  "You would do that to her?" Henri demanded. "Leave her with nothing?"

  His father pushed into the cabin and stood beside him. "It is for the best, son."

  Mrs. Bailey stepped into the cabin's doorway. "You should have known there was never any chance for you. She is simply above you." She stared down her nose at him as people had all his life, one plump hand gripping that reticule.

  Christian balled up the letter and threw it to the floor. "She doesn't want any of that. She told you so herself. She just wants to be free. With me, she can be."

  The chaperone sniffed. "What have you to offer her? A life spent continuously on the run from the authorities? Scraping for sustenance through the wastelands of the west? Adriana is accustomed to the finest in life. She would tire of you and your lawless ways in mere months."

  "She wouldn't. She loves me."

  "Perhaps. But one cannot live on love alone."

  "We have the ship, and the remaining sapphire." He straightened his shoulders. "And I am not completely without resources."

  "Ha! Your thieving ways will earn you your own sentence to Devil's Island." She snorted. "Where conveniently there is already a domicile marked De la Croix."

  Christian had heard enough. His patience with this meddling old marm had reached its end. "She despises Preston Weiss. Adriana is miserable at the thought of marrying him."

  "But marry him she will," Mrs. Bailey said. She plunged her fat hand into the tiny pouch she'd been clutching.

  "Not if I have anything to say about it. Henri, turn this ship around," Christian demanded. "I'm going after the woman I love."

  Mrs. Bailey withdrew her hand from her reticule. In it, she held a pearl handled derringer. She pointed it at him. "You will do no such thing."

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Adriana felt as though she were waking from a nightmare only to discover it was real. She rocked back on her heels. "What did it say?"

  "I would disown you if you wen' with him."

  She stood and turned away. Coherence began drifting away and her entire body turned cold. Was Christian just like everyone else? Did he only want her legacy?

  "Dear Daugh-er, I am so sorry."

  "Christian is better than that. He will sense something is wrong and come for me."

  She glanced down at her hands as she squeezed them together, forcing the blood back to her fingertips. She'd told him to leave. Demanded it. He'd achieved what he's set out for, he had no reason to come after her.

  Perhaps he'd meant what he said. If he truly did love her, he would let her go to protect her. She squeezed her eyes shut. The irony was laughable.

  * * *

  "You really are an arrogant fool. To think you could interfere in the marriage of two of society's highest standing patrons." Mrs. Bailey swept the derringer's aim over each of them, as if she couldn't decide which she wanted to shoot first.

  "Edwina, why?" Henri asked, his voice raw with disbelief.

  "For the same reason anyone does anything. Money, of course."

  "Not I," Christian growled.

  Gilbert let out a pitiful moan. "Good heavens, I don't understand any of this."

  "Well, dear man, do not trouble yourself. Soon you shall be back in your little hut on Île du Diable, suffering your wretchedly simple existence, and none of this will matter."

  Christian's fear bristled. "I won't allow you to do this."

  Mrs. Bailey turned a mocking scowl his way. "I have already done it! You cannot stop me, you foul, thieving gutter scum!" She swung the aim of the derringer at Henri. "Turn this ship toward the mainland. I am quite certain the French authorities will be grateful to pay a
generous reward for the return of their prisoner, and the men responsible for his escape."

  Henri remained rooted. "Not without an explanation first."

  "I am surprised you did not figure it out, Mr. Dupree, as it seems you knew more about Edmund's personal affairs than anyone." She pinched her fat face into a malicious smile. "I will provide you with your explanation, because I am certain it will make your imprisonment all the more bitter."

  Christian started for her. "You can only shoot one of us."

  "Christian, no!" Gilbert leapt to his feet.

  Mrs. Bailey swung the derringer his way. "Your knowledge of firearms is disappointing, given your chosen profession. This is a Gem thirty-two caliber five-shot pocket revolver. My late husband kept an extensive collection of dueling pistols. I assure you, I am an excellent shot. I would like to shoot you simply for this terrible inconvenience you have inflicted upon me. I do so hate to sail."

  "Easy with that pea shooter, Edwina." Henri chuckled nervously. "I'll wager this trip was a surprise to you."

  Christian could see the old man was trying to distract her. He did not doubt she would love to shoot him. He glanced at Gilbert. His father looked like he was about to crawl out of his skin.

  "You are correct, this voyage has been a rather sour inconvenience." She backed toward the door, thankfully relaxing her aim with the gun. "As for your explanation, it is very simple, really. Edmund showed reservations about marrying Adriana off to Preston. For a sizeable recompense from the Weisses, I convinced him he was wrong. A few deliberately placed papers, some creatively conjured rumors, and his suspicions about R.L.W. Steel's financial troubles were invalidated."

  "All for greed." Henri spat the words as if they made him sick. "How could you?"

  "Easily enough!" she snapped. "I spent twelve years of my life chiseling that tomboy into a halfway decent lady. I am owed my due. For my troubles, Charles Weiss has promised me Edmund's townhouse in Baltimore and a sizeable payment from his newfound fortune. She was the last little brat I shall ever have to coddle."

  Christian ground his teeth. Was no one a true friend to Adriana if there wasn't some amount of gain in it for them? No wonder she found trust so hard to come by.