by Kitty Margo
Lynna’s Rogue
By
Kitty Margo
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission of Kitty Margo.
Copyright © 2012 Kitty Margo
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0985928026
ISBN-13: 978-0985928025
Published October 30, 2012
Buttercup Publishing
Cover Art by Viola Estrella
violaestrella.com
Edited by Toni Rakestraw
unbridlededitor.com
Chapter One
Paris, France 1850
The amount of money displayed before Joshua was staggering. Even to a man of his considerable wealth, the sum represented no small purse, and it was more coin than his entire cargo of cotton would bring when auctioned to the highest bidder. At least three Atlantic crossings would be required, bringing the white fleecy treasure from the South to the good European people who were willing to pay almost any price to obtain it, to equal the amount now offered.
On the other hand, only a fool would fail to recognize that such an exorbitant amount would not be discussed were a great deal of risk and potential danger not attached to the proposal. Would he be asked to turn marauding pirate, thieving highwayman or bloodthirsty assassin?
The answer to all these questions stood before him in the form of one Nathan Rhodes. A man rumored to be the wealthiest in all of France, and one who appeared most eager to put an end to Joshua's vivid speculations.
“It is quite simple, Captain Jordan. You will be my daughter's protector,” Nathan Rhodes stated as if it were the only pressing matter in the whole of the universe. “A physical protecting presence every moment of every day until my daughter is safely delivered to my sister in America. She must never be out of your sight, not even for the time it takes to bat an eye. On this I must have your solemn oath as a gentleman, sir.”
“Why me?” Joshua wondered aloud.
“Because I have it on good authority that not only are you a man of your word, but that you are also fiercely loyal to those in your care. While I realize that you have never even met my daughter and could therefore feel no sentiment toward her, I also realize that with the proper amount of persuasion you could at least feel obligated to protect her as though she were… say… your very own sister, and see that no harm befalls her.” He paused as if waiting for a reaction. When none was forthcoming he continued undaunted, a man obviously accustomed to having his way in all matters. “Now Captain Jordan, if you will give me your word as an officer and a gentleman that you would be willing to forfeit your own life for the safety of my daughter's, then all that I hold before you will be yours.
“Forfeit my life! Now hold on just a minute, Mr. Rhodes!” At twenty and seven years of age, Joshua was neither ready nor willing to die, especially for a complete stranger. “Perhaps you had better enlighten me as to precisely what it is your daughter needs protecting from, and why, sir?”
Nathan Rhodes motioned to the money, breathed a pained sigh, and sat wearily down in the chair Joshua offered. “Over the years, Captain Jordan, I have amassed a sizable fortune. I was visiting here from the red clay of Georgia, just after completing my education, when I was introduced to my future wife and soon entered into a very profitable partnership with her father. Without even working to achieve it, the wealth seemed to be deposited in my lap. This is but a mere pittance compared to my vast holdings, I assure you. When my wife's parents went to their heavenly reward, I was also bequeathed their rather immense fortune. However, I assure you that wealth is not important at the moment. All my riches mean nothing without my precious daughter to share them.”
Again he paused as if expecting a reaction from Joshua, but got none. “To get to the point, Captain Jordan, I have received numerous threats over the years. There have been two blatant kidnap attempts with the last coming only two days ago. They came too close this time, much too close. If not for a few minor miscalculations on their part, they would have succeeded in kidnapping my daughter and holding her for ransom.”
His voice shook and his eyes clouded over with pain as he added, “Only the Good Lord above knows what harm the miscreants might have done before releasing her…if they released her. Therefore, although it pains me beyond measure, I feel it would be detrimental to my daughter's welfare to remain in France. I must relinquish her until these criminals can be captured and brought to justice. My justice!” He slammed his clenched fist on the table hard enough to make a few of the coins flip.
Joshua noticed a tear slip from the older man's red swollen eyes. This decision clearly weighed heavily on Nathan Rhodes’ mind as expressions of deep anguish flickered across his haggard face. “I have the wherewithal to purchase anything my heart desires, Captain Jordan. Anything in the world I wish for, except happiness. Why, in all my daughter’s seventeen years I have never missed a single breakfast with her or spent a solitary night without her peacefully slumbering in the room juxtaposed to mine. Were I not in fear of losing her forever, this separation would be unfathomable.”
“I can certainly appreciate your concern, sir.” Contemplating his words, Joshua strolled to the window to gaze across the placid ocean waters. “However, I can assure you that your daughter would have no greater need than a female traveling companion. She would come to no harm onboard my ship. As you are aware, the Windjammer is a cargo vessel and we only have accommodations for two passengers. On this particular voyage both passengers have sailed with me previously and I can vouch for their safety, as well as my crew, whom I would trust with my life. But rest easy that they would be alerted to the situation at hand and every possible precautionary measure would be taken to assure your daughter’s safe voyage. I would not think it too difficult a task to keep a vigilant eye on her. ”
“A traveling companion!” Nathan roared, leaping from his chair to stand before a stunned Joshua like a man possessed with hidden demons. “Have you gone completely daft, man?” His hands on Joshua's shoulders jerked as if he were trying to shake some sense into a simpleton. “It is their intention to abduct my daughter and hold her for ransom! Why, they might even resort to murder if their kidnapping plot were to somehow go awry! A hell of a lot of good a traveling companion would do her!”
Taking a deep breath in an apparent attempt to settle his nerves Nathan continued. “Captain Jordan, please allow me to impress upon you the seriousness of this situation. My daughter must have a bodyguard, someone to protect her from any and all adversaries encountered along the way. Someone who will be by her side by day, and especially at night, when these brigands are most likely to strike.” Nathan sighed. “Understand this is not a pleasure cruise, sir. If it were I would build her the most opulent and lavishly bedecked vessel to ever navigate the seas. I would see it equipped with every convenience and have every extravagance known, or even considered, in the shipping industry at her disposal to take her to any destination her heart desired. But the thieves would expect my daughter to travel in such a manner. Concealing her on a cargo vessel will be the safest and least conspicuous means for my daughter to reach her destination unnoticed.”
Turning to face Joshua, Nathan’s eyes swept his muscular frame. “I put complete trust in you Captain Jordan to be the gentleman and defender my daughter needs. Nonetheless, should she come to any harm while in your care…” he paused and glanced out the window at the calm, sparkling water, and Joshua noticed his knuckles whiten under the press
ure of his clenched fist. “May the Good Lord be with you.”
Nathan's meaning was all too fully understood as their eyes locked. Should any harm come to his cherished daughter while under Joshua's protection, he would be signing his own death notice. And Joshua knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nathan Rhodes would search heaven and hell until the deed was accomplished.
“Do we have a deal, Captain? If you can agree to my terms, may I suggest preparations get underway to sail at your earliest convenience? I wish for my daughter to be out of this Godforsaken country on the next high tide.”
“We have a deal, and you have my word as a gentleman that I will do everything in my power to see your daughter reaches her destination unharmed.” It had been some time since Joshua had bestowed upon his crew a hefty bonus for their years of faithful service. After but a moments thought, the decision was made to accept the man’s challenge and split half the bounty among his crew.
“Before I go there are a few things I feel obliged to tell you about Lynna’s unique and decidedly unorthodox upbringing, Captain Jordan. If you are to understand my daughter, you must first understand her rather exceptional background.” Nathan massaged his temples. “She has lived a sheltered life of relative seclusion due to the abduction attempts. She has no close friends and only a few acquaintances other than the very select household staff. Whenever she left home, which was not often I must admit, she was always heavily chaperoned.”
“The consequences of this sequestered life are that Lynna knows very little of what goes on in the world around her. The Chateau is her world. A world filled with every available luxury. A world in which every indulgence is at her beck and call, except friends, children to play with, and young ladies her own age with whom to share intimate secrets. I could not risk allowing outsiders into our private world. We never knew who could be plotting against us.”
He shook himself as if to rid his mind of a painful memory. “I will tell you this, Captain Jordan. If you find my daughter lacking in worldly ways, and I am confident that you will, you must bear in mind that it was through no fault of her on. It was forced on her through necessity and my constant fear for her well-being.”
“It may be none of my concern, but I am curious,” Joshua queried. “Why did your wife not journey to the docks to bid her daughter farewell?”
“My wife was abducted before our daughter's third birthday. I paid the ransom within days after receiving it, to no avail. We scoured the countryside, leaving no stone unturned, but her body was never recovered.”
Joshua witnessed the pain and grief that momentarily flickered across Nathan's face. The man had lost his wife to kidnappers, and now his only child was facing the same fate and being forced to sail into the horizon. Joshua was now able to fully understand the father's irrational fear for his daughter's safety. As he watched Nathan Rhodes melancholy departure from his cabin Joshua was reminded of what his own mother had so often told him as a child. Money makes life easier, Joshua, to be sure. But you cannot purchase happiness with it.
Joshua went on deck to inform his crew of the bonus each of them would receive after the safe delivery of their precious cargo. His mother’s words were true indeed, but he had not a doubt in his mind that the thought of the extra coins at the end of this voyage would be the next best thing to happiness for his crew.
Lynna Rhodes was hard pressed not to skip up the gangplank in her eagerness to experience her first sea voyage, yet she remained the embodiment of a grieving daughter leaving both her father and her homeland behind. She glanced sideways at her father as he clutched her arm the same way a drowning man would the nearest floating object. She dropped her gaze as sudden guilt almost overwhelmed her. How could she be so elated when he was obviously miserable and looking so forlorn? He reminded her of a man in mourning or one on the way to the gallows, while her own excitement was almost impossible to subdue.
Due to her father’s almost irrational fear for her safety she had never been onboard a ship or even allowed to venture to the docks, for that matter. She had often watched the ships entering the harbor from her daydreaming perch on her upstairs window seat and longed to sail into the horizon to one of the intriguing far distant countries that until now had only been visited in books. Now that dream was about to become a reality.
She was destined for an exciting new land, a new home, and a new way of life. Best of all, she was setting sail without the hovering bodyguards that had ever been a perpetual thorn in her side. Just this morning her father had informed her she would be traveling without them or even her maid, Gertrude, since they would only draw unwelcome attention to her. Instead of the ever present bodyguards, she was to rely on Captain Joshua Jordan for her every need. She eagerly anticipated hearing his captivating tales of thrilling adventures around the world. There should be plenty of time for storytelling, since the Captain was to assume total responsibility for her safety and they would be spending a surplus of time together.
But sea captains were, according to the numerous books she had read, an old and dowdy lot. And this one would, no doubt, pay little attention to her whereabouts. Probably busy with steering the ship or whatever captains did, leaving her to explore the sailing vessel and its passengers at her leisure.
She heard her father’s heartfelt sigh and once again glanced into his miserable countenance. Lynna had never felt more torn in all her life as excitement and sadness waged a heated battle within. She consoled herself with the fact that his sorrow would be short-lived. She was convinced that he would soon see the villains captured and hanged and would then send for her to return home. With that thought she forced herself to ignore her father’s sad visage and instead counted the billowing sails above her.
Oh, but she was so excited to be meeting new people! Yet, that presented a quandary. She would be meeting strangers for the very first time in her life. Would she know how to conduct herself properly? What to say? When to say it? She was all too aware that if put to the test she would be found sorely lacking in the fine art of conversation. However all the blame could not be placed solely on her slim shoulders, since she had never been allowed to hone those fine skills. Her daily routine met with very few unfamiliar faces.
Lynna’s father escorted her to her cabin , and with tear-filled eyes, hugged her close. “My beloved daughter, you will never know the agony this decision has stirred inside me. You must realize why I am sending you away and the heartache I feel in doing so. Please, assure me that you understand!”
“But of course I do, Father.” Lynna’s happiness at her newfound freedom rapidly dissolved as she gazed into her father's red-rimmed eyes. “And we will be together again soon, you shall see. Your men will have those awful criminals caught in no time and I will be awaiting word that I may return home.”
“Godspeed, my darling child. Rest assured that I shall send for you as soon as the danger has passed. Now I must depart before I am recognized. Look to the Captain for your every need until you reach Georgia, where Aunt Judith will be waiting with open arms.”
“I shall be waiting for your missive, Father,” she cried around the tight knot that had suddenly formed in her throat. “Au revoir, Father. Je t’aime!”
Brushing a betraying tear from his cheek, her father opened the door, and over his shoulder Lynna noticed a man leaning casually against the doorjamb, patiently waiting. As her father closed the door and she heard the lock click behind him, she felt a moment of panic, wondering if she had traded one prison for another.
Alone in the cabin, she removed the whalebone hoops from beneath the thirteen yards of ruffled, cornflower blue silk material that made up the skirt of her gown, and perched on the edge of the bed, removing kid slippers. Feeling gloriously unencumbered (her father never forced her to wear those two foolish contraptions, hoops and corsets, at home), she listened to the muffled voices coming from the opposite side of the portal. As she fidgeted nervously with the hem of her flounced petticoat, her enthusiasm was almost impossible to
contain. Was this really happening? Was this ship about to set sail? With her in it? She would not believe it was truly happening until she heard the wind billowing in the sixteen canvas sails of the Windjammer.
Taking a moment to survey her new surroundings, she found it to be a room much like her father’s study, with the addition of an intricately carved four-poster and a massive sea trunk. Along the walls were shelves lined with delicately shaped trinkets of ivory, glass and metal. A large desk took up one corner of the room, cluttered with maps, a compass, a sextant and a hand carved model of the ship. This must be the Captain’s cabin. She smiled, wondering how much it had cost her beloved father to persuade the Captain to give up the comfort of his bed for her convenience.
Wiping the perspiration that dotted her brow and trickled into her cleavage, she considered taking leave of her traveling outfit and choosing a more appropriate day dress. It was stifling hot even though the four large windows in the cabin were open. Hopefully, the ship would soon be underway and she prayed she might benefit from a cool ocean breeze on this sweltering day. Retrieving a fan from her reticule and fanning herself vigorously, she plopped down in the middle of the bed and gazed out across the gently rolling swells.
After having assured Nathan for the umpteenth time that he would care for his daughter as though she were his very own sibling, and escorting him off the ship, Joshua strode toward his cabin to console the poor, sheltered recluse. He had put off his duty as long as he could, now he must see to his charge. No doubt she would cower in the corner when he entered and scream bloody murder if he so much as looked at her sideways. Were there any female passengers onboard who could be persuaded to befriend the child and perhaps share sleeping quarters with her? He would make a few inquiries on the morrow. No, that wouldn’t work. Nathan would have his head if he allowed the youngster out of his sight.