by Lois Greiman
"Clancy Bodine. And he tried to kill me."
Fields's blue eyes turned to Raven again. "Was that indeed your intent, sir?"
"He's a madman," said Clancy, apparently appealing to the appalled crowd. "You'd best throw him off."
"And your story?" the English captain asked Raven.
"He seduced my sister," Raven lied smoothly. Perhaps Clancy's mere proximity brought out the liar in him. But whatever the reason, he hardly had time to launch into a litany of all the crimes Clancy had perpetrated against him in the past. And saying he had abducted the woman whom Raven had abducted first didn't seem to be the perfect plan. Besides, he couldn't say exactly why Clancy was there, although he could easily assume it was for no good. So Raven puffed out his substantial chest, looking affronted. "And now he hopes to steal the affections of my beautiful wife." He glanced about the crowd. Beautiful women were a rare and precious commodity in this part of the world. Rare, precious, and carefully guarded. "I suggest you ask your captain to refuse passage to this scandalous womanizer," he said, remembering the captain's stunning companions from the past.
"Womanizer!" Clancy's tone was amazingly sincere, considering he'd never spoken an honest word in his life. "Ask Joseph here how he come to marry the gal."
Raven squeezed his fists and remained still. "That's none of your affair, or anyone else's."
"The hell it ain't," argued Clancy. "He screwed—"
Raven's fist hit Clancy squarely in the jaw. There were gasps and shrieks of dismay but no one was more surprised than Raven. He'd always thrown his punches carefully, not like an undisciplined schoolboy.
"Use that word in reference to her again and I'll kill you, Bodine," he said softly. "I swear I will."
Clancy remained upon the floor, his jaw slightly ajar and his expression astonished. "You're in love with her!"
Every muscle in Raven's body vibrated with need. It would feel good to hit him again. "Get the hell out of here."
"You are!" Clancy said and throwing back his head, laughed aloud. "Who would have thought ten years ago that the bitter little Raven boy would fall for a—"
Raven lunged, but in that moment his arms were caught by burly men with dangerous intent.
"Cool down, boy," the larger of the two giants warned, "or we'll cool y' down."
The crowd milled nervously.
"Now folks, the show is over," said Captain Fields seriously. "Go about your business, and we'll be underway in a short while."
There was the shuffling sound of regretfully departing feet. Raven, however, barely noticed, for his attention was riveted hard and fast on Clancy's surprised features.
"Now gentlemen," said the captain softly. "It's like this, either you learn to get along during this little journey, or you both disembark here. You understand me?"
Raven gritted his teeth but forced his fists to loosen and his muscles to relax. Clancy, on the other hand, scrambled to his feet with his usual easy grin.
"Of course we do, Captain. Me and Joseph, we're just havin' us a little fun. We're pals really. Go way back."
They were surrounded by silence, and then, "Good, then I trust you will do more talking and less swinging. Yes?"
"Of course," Clancy said with a shrug, but Raven remained mute, still feeling the bitter burn in his gut.
"Yes?" the captain asked again.
"Yes," replied Raven finally, not taking his gaze from his adversary.
"Good," said Fields. "Then I'll buy you each a drink and give you one last warning. Disturb the peace on the Yankee Belle again and you'll find the journey back much more tiresome and damp than the journey out."
"Yes sir," said Clancy with an effusive smile.
Raven only managed a nod.
The table between them was too narrow for Raven's peace of mind. Clancy sat across from him, placing his whiskey glass against the bruise on his jaw and shaking his head. "Tell me the truth."
Raven swished the amber liquid, which he'd not yet tasted. "Why?"
"For old time's sake." Clancy fingered his jaw then winced.
"That's what I did for old time's sake," retorted Raven, impassively nodding toward the other's bruised chin. His temper had cooled, though the tension was still there, lying just beneath his skin, waiting, contained, but not controlled.
"Do you love her or is it just the money?"
The tension increased a half-turn, though Raven was hardly surprised by the other's knowledge regarding Charm's true identity. Clancy was a lot of things; stupid wasn't amongst them. Still, it wouldn't hurt to pretend he didn't understand the other's meaning. "What money?"
Bodine grinned. "It's not like you to underestimate me, Joseph. If you'd been thinkin' clear you would have at least disguised the girl."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Once I knew you'd left the room, it was easy to figure where you was headin'. All I had to do was ask around about a young beauty and her baggy-legged escort." He chuckled. "When you was workin' fer me, you wouldn't a made such a mistake." He shifted the whiskey glass to his jaw again. "She's sure distracted you. Must be a hell of a—"
Raven rose without thought, without time for intent, but Clancy lifted a hand and stifled his grin. "God, I love to see you riled. You this coolheaded during poker now too?"
There were few things he could have said that would have been more sure to settle Raven back into his seat, for coolheaded thinking was something Raven valued above most everything else. Something he seemed to have lost and needed to retrieve.
"I know she's Chantilly Grady, Joseph," Clancy said now. "Suspected it soon as I saw your interest in her, of course. But once I started talkin' to Jude..." He grinned. "The old man can't hold his liquor worth a damn. You'd be surprised at the stories he'll tell when he's drunk." He paused, studying Raven intently before continuing. "'Course... he didn't touch nary a drop once we was on yer trail. Sober as a toothache. Just like you when the stakes is high. Yep." Clancy leaned back in his chair, drawing a deep breath and grinning. "The things he told me would make yer head spin."
Though Raven wanted nothing more than to learn all he could of Charm, though he felt like shaking the stories from Clancy, control was of the utmost importance now. He swirled his liquor again and tried to pretend he didn't care. "The money's mine, Bodine."
Clancy cocked his head and grinned. "Not if I get her there first."
The grin Raven offered was less congenial and far more predatory. "You think they'd pay you for returning my wife?" He laughed, thinking Clancy would understand only one thing. Greed. "Not likely, old man. She's mine—lock, stock, and inheritance."
Clancy remained silent for a full three seconds and then, "Damn! You're even slimier than I thought. God damn! I've always admired that about you, Joseph. Now me, I'm slimy, but you know I'm slimy, while you, you've got just enough clean to make a body wonder. Goddamn! So what's she worth?"
Raven smiled, slowly, calculatingly. "It's none of your affair."
"Damn! That much! Damn!" He smacked the table with the flat of his hand. "And you played it so damned close t' the vest. I was honestly believin' you cared fer her."
"Of course I care for her." Raven carefully raised a brow, keeping his expression very solemn, just as he would have if he were lying. "I adore her. Who wouldn't? Tender little thing that she is."
Clancy's gaze fell to Raven's chest. He knew a wound was hidden there. He laughed. "Damn me, if I didn't raise you right. Well, Joseph..." He lifted and drained his glass in a sort of toast. "You win."
*
On the deck above, Charm lurched away from the rail. She'd regretted her behavior in their room, but the old terror had tormented her for a time, gripping her in its terrible grasp and forcing her to say what she had said.
But another fear had driven her from her haven. Fear of loneliness, of failure, of losing the one person whom she could trust, if she but dared take the chance. And so she had flown across the deck in search of him. She'd reached the rail on
ly moments before, just long enough to hear his words. Tender little thing that she is. He lied of course, easily telling Clancy and herself that he did not care for her. She was, after all, only a means to an end.
The words of tenderness. The gentle hands. They were all a ploy, nothing more than a trick to gain the trust of the bloodthirsty killer woman. She felt sick to her stomach. She had to get off, get away!
"Hey!" She could hear Clancy's voice clearly, then the scrape of his chair as he rose to his feet. "Wasn't that your blushing bride now?"
Raven's curse was just as clear, but already she was running, racing toward freedom. Faces blurred as she fled, down the steps, toward the exit. But the ramp had been lifted and the steamer was moving.
No! She glanced frantically toward land, but already she heard the thunder of feet behind her. There was no time to lose! She scrambled up the railing, ready to jump, but suddenly she was plucked down and swung away in Raven's tight grip.
"Let me go!" she screamed, thrashing wildly.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Let me go," she said, her voice huskier now.
"Settle down," Raven ordered, his arms tight bands around her, pinning her arms to her chest and her back to his torso. "I'm not going to hurt you. Let's go to the cabin. Discuss things."
"Go to hell!" she spat, flailing.
"Not right now."
"Let me go or I'll scream."
"You already did that. Do it again and you'll have men crawling all over you, Charm. Asking you questions, closing you in. But in the end they'll learn the truth. I'm your husband." His voice was little more than a whisper in her ear, but it seemed to boom like a death knell. "I've got my rights. So we might just as well go to the cabin and talk." He paused, loosening his grip marginally. "I won't touch you, I promise."
She fought to control her breathing, to push down the panic and bitter bile of betrayal. "All right." Her tone was steady. Her feet were lowered to the floor. She turned stiffly.
His face looked strained and she wondered if their fight had wounded him more than she knew. She hoped so and concentrated now on remembering exactly where the rattler had bitten him.
"Are you all right?" he asked, his voice deceptively soft. The bastard!
"Damn you," she said evenly.
"I think I am damned." His tone was cooler now, more controlled. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, I'm ready,” she said. Drawing back her foot, she slammed the sharp toe of her shoe directly into his snakebite.
Chapter 28
Pain shot through Raven's leg in flaming tendrils, streaking upward and outward. He gasped, and for a moment thought he might pass out. But gradually the truth of the situation came home to him.
She was getting away! In fact, she had thrown herself at the railing like a harried cat with claws outstretched, and was just about to fling herself overboard.
"Good God!" he cried, and jolting himself painfully into action, grasped her about the waist to drag her down again. She fought like a sacked bobcat, but he held on, feeling the blood drain from his face as her heels and fists found tender areas.
"Are you finished?" he asked finally when her thrashing subsided.
"No!" She swore, and kicked him again.
"So this is your blushing bride?" asked a carefully cultured voice.
Raven winced mentally. Charm slowed her agitated movements, pushing wild strands of hair aside to peer through the disheveled curtain at Captain Fields's impassive features.
His grey hair and beard were neatly trimmed, and his blue eyes showed a spark of sharp intelligent interest as he watched them. "She has a fondness for the water, does she, Mr. Scott?"
"I'm afraid there's been a small misunderstanding," Raven said, squeezing her middle as an unobtrusive warning for her to cease and desist. "Mrs. Scott has a bit of a temper."
"Truly?" Fields asked, somehow managing to act as if such a fact came as an utter surprise. "And what has she taken exception to? Nothing I've done I hope."
"No, sir," said Raven, and tentatively set Charm's feet to the gently shifting floor of the steamer. "It's just a spat. You know." He tried a careful smile, but everything from his ears on down ached. His greatest desire was to throttle the girl. If she got them tossed off the boat after everything he'd done to get them this far, he would. "A lovers' quarrel."
"I see."
Raven desperately hoped the good captain would leave now, for Charm hadn't hit him for several seconds. It was a record not likely to be outdone in the near future.
"Perhaps if you tell me what has caused this disagreement, I could help find a satisfactory solution." Fields paused, templing his fingers, and perhaps noticing the peculiar stiffness with which Raven stood, suggesting an ache in areas better left unmentioned. "Before she does you further bodily harm."
"It's nothing. Nothing to concern—" began Raven, but Charm interrupted with a sharp jab to his ribs.
"Devil's spawn!"
"I beg your pardon?" said Fields, not even raising his brows.
"She said, endless fun," Raven lied. "Endless fun, that's what we have together. She loves to—"
"He's the devil's spawn," she hissed. With the uncanny accuracy of a sidekicking mule, she jabbed her elbow into his still-healing chest wound. Pain again, sparkling outward in slicing shards. Raven gritted his teeth and held on.
"Perhaps you should release her," suggested Fields.
Raven smiled through his aching teeth. "What's that?"
"I think she's airing a bit of her temper now, Mr. Scott. Please release her."
And let her drown herself in the muddy waters below? Not likely. When she died, Raven fully intended to orchestrate the act himself. "I think it best to keep my hands on her for a moment, Captain."
"Were you aware that I'm the sole owner of the Yankee Belle?"
"Really?" Raven asked, wondering irritably what the hell that had to do with any of his myriad pains and grunting softly as Charm's heel found his instep. "How... interesting."
"Yes. And therefore, while on this vessel I give the orders." Fields paused, settling his blue eyes on Raven's face. "Let the girl go."
There was nothing Raven could do but release her. He loosened his arms slowly, waiting for her to run. But she did not. Instead Charm straightened to push a few strands of hair back into her failing knot.
"Thank you, Captain." Her voice, Raven noticed, had taken on that husky tone it sometimes did when pressured
"You' re quite welcome, madam." Even though he stood absolutely straight, with his shoulders drawn sharply back and his hands clasped behind his hips, Captain Fields barely equaled Charm's height. Still, Raven got the distinct impression that Fields was the kind of man who did not need great physical stature to make him irresistible to women.
He turned now, his steely gaze sweeping the crowd that had gathered. A few of the faces Raven had noticed during his earlier fight, Clancy's irritating visage included.
"It seems Mr. Scott has again gifted us with a diversion," said the captain evenly. "But the entertainment is over now. Please disperse."
Every man, woman, and child remained exactly in place, as if certain war would break out again, and loath to miss a single blow.
"Please disperse," Fields repeated more coldly. The people finally snapped their jaws back into their proper positions and began to wander off, while throwing hungry glances back over their shoulders. Clancy, of course, didn't budge.
"Have you got a stake in this, Mr. Bodine?"
"Yes."
"No!" Raven exclaimed in unison with Clancy's affirmative.
"Yes, indeed I do," argued the other stoutly. "The lass is the daughter of a very dear friend of mine."
The captain turned slowly toward Charm. "Is that true, Madam?"
She raised her chin a notch further. "Between the two of them, sir, they've not spoken an honest word since infancy, I'm certain."
"I'm wounded," declared Clancy. Raven only glowered.
"I see. Then you are not wed to Mr. Scott?"
Here she paused and scowled. "Against my wishes, I assure you."
"I can see this is a tale not easily unwound," said Fields, still looking at Charm. "Perhaps we should retire to my quarters and discuss this."
"I really don't think that's necessary," began Raven, but Fields fixed him with a steady stare.
"It wasn't a request, Mr. Scott. Madam..." He lifted a hand, and to Raven's surprise, Charm quietly acquiesced, letting the man touch her back as he escorted her away.
They stepped into a sitting room of sorts, uniquely decorated with mismatched items from a hundred different lands. An intricately woven rug. A basket made from a strange manner of dyed reeds.
"Sit down, please," said Captain Fields.
Good God, how had it come to this? Raven wondered. "I'm sure you have more important things to do," he said. "We really shouldn't bother you."
"No, you shouldn't," agreed the captain, "but you have." He settled his gaze on Raven, who held it easily. "Let us not forget that you are, essentially, my guest, Mr. Scott."
Raven sat finally, knowing a threat when he heard one.
"Now." Fields paced the length of the room once before turning to look at each of them in turn. "Where do we begin?"
"I wish to obtain an annulment." Charm's voice was the first to enter the fray. Raven swore in silence. "Can you help me achieve that end, sir?"
"An annulment?" Though his expression showed little change, Fields's tone evidenced his surprise. "Forgive me for seeming indelicate, but, an annulment implies the absence of certain... rituals." He paused. "Have those... rituals been neglected?"
"No!"
"Yes!" Charm snapped, and glared at Raven.
Double goddamn! If he could just get her alone. Explain things. "I fear my wife is understandably angry," said Raven. "It seems she overheard my conversation with Mr. Bodine here and misunderstood..."
"I'll have an annulment, Mr. Fields," Charm said evenly.
"Perhaps we should start at the beginning," suggested Fields.
"Let's do," said Clancy, settling back in his chair.