Sexual Hunger

by Melissa MacNeal

  Maria smiled. He sounded desperate enough to do anything she wanted. “My brother shared the most fabulous cinnamon-flavored bread with currants—the tastiest food we’ve eaten on board,” she suggested wistfully. “I don’t suppose you could find me a—”

  “We all crave one form of sweetness or another, do we not?” O’Keefe bowed slightly before pounding on the wheelhouse door. “I’ll request a fresh loaf and bring it to your cabin as soon as it comes from the oven.”

  Maria smiled triumphantly. “I think we have indulged each other’s need for something soft and sweet. Thank you so much, sir.”

  “The pleasure is all mine.”

  “And how might I please ye, Miss Palladino? I trust that my chief officer has performed to yer satisfaction?”

  Maria bit back a laugh. Had this bearded, barrel-shaped man overheard their exchange? Could he, too, be convinced to do her bidding? “I’m sure you’ve heard our two mediums sparring over where we should search for Jason, the new Lord Darington? Where do you propose we dock and—”

  “As the Darington partners’re headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, we’s been instructed to meet with ’em before we—”

  “But Rubio Palladino, London’s foremost seer, tells me Jason is hiding farther north! He’s been in contact with Johnny Conn, the pirate who—”

  “Mr. Palladino’s yer brother, is he not?” His tone expressed what his words did not. Moses MacLeod gestured for her to precede him into the noisy wheelhouse. “Lemme be the first to welcome ya to America, dearie. Because the shore ye see ahead is much more real, more tangible than a pirate who might or might not exist.”

  Maria scowled. “Surely you’ve seen the WANTED poster! And heard how Johnny Conn has attacked Darington ships and then buried the booty—”

  “Hearsay, Miss Palladino. Pirates wearin’ bandannas and earrings disappeared shortly after Edward Teach, the notorious Blackbeard, was brought down. Which was nearly two centuries ago.” He smiled indulgently, stroking his white beard. “While I understand the romance of such legendary scoundrels—their appeal to the ladies—I have me orders. I’ll not be pursuin’ a pirate who might exist only in yer pretty imagination.”

  “Even if he’s Phillip, Lord Darington’s son? Surely you know Lady Darington came along expressly to find her oldest—”

  “With all due respect fer the lady in her grief—which seems as fleetin’ as this pirate fella, Johnny Conn—I’ll be followin’ orders issued by real, rational men.” The captain clasped his hands behind his back, smiling beneficently at her. “Good day, Miss Palladino.”

  25

  Real, rational men. What the hell do THEY know?

  Maria gripped the rail, gazing toward the harbor in Charleston, where—from this distance—the stevedores resembled busy ants. Within the hour they would disembark, and then find lodging and organize their search for Jason.

  With each passing moment, her apprehension grew. If they obeyed orders from Darington Shipping partners, who’d been unable to apprehend Johnny Conn, would they be sent home without a chance to follow Rubio’s instincts? Or had Yosef Polinsky persuaded Captain MacLeod—either with his powers or a cash advance—that Charleston was Jason’s hiding place?

  “Your brother and I have been talking.” Jude paused beside her, gazing around the bustling harbor as Captain MacLeod expertly steered the Fortune’s Opportunity toward an empty slip. “No doubt in my mind Rubio’s instincts are right. His triumphant expression as he connected with Jason’s spirit moments ago cannot be denied!”

  “Where does Rubio think we’ll find him?” Maria’s pulse sped up desite her misgivings. “The captain waved me off as an insignificant female with a vivid imagination when I insisted we sail farther north.”

  Jude’s smile suggested he adored imaginative females, and that he’d love to bed one when they found a hotel room. “The captain has no idea about the forces at work in our favor, sweet Maria,” he said in a husky voice. “I say we play along—get our rooms, and then I’ll meet with Father’s partners to plan our strategy. But meanwhile, you and Rubio might explore…other options.”

  “Such as?” Maria braced herself as the ship came within inches of the pier. Crewmen were tossing ropes to the stevedores on the dock, while others prepared to lower the gangplank—for their first steps into America! She couldn’t suppress a grin, despite the captain’s uncooperative attitude. “Where did Rubio say Jason was?”

  “Hiding out among the islands of the Outer Banks, along the North Carolina shore—just like the swashbucklers of old.” Jude smiled with pride, and perhaps envy. “The shallow inlets and miles of uninhabited shoreline allow him to plunder a ship and then dart into hiding. We suspect he has his booty stashed in various locations.”

  “And my brother thinks he can find these caches? And outfox Johnny Conn?”

  “I’d bet the estate on it! After all,” he added in a more subdued voice, “the estate won’t be the same without Jason as its earl. Mum won’t let us forget that, either.”

  Below, the gangplank landed with a loud thunk. The air around them had stilled, and a dense heat had replaced the ocean breeze they’d enjoyed for days. “All ashore what’s goin’ ashore!” a sailor sang out.

  Already Yosef Polinsky stood with Lady Darington on his arm, as though to make a grand entrance. Jemma waited behind them, peering at the muscular longshoremen from beneath her lacy parasol. She carried Willie in his birdcage, now adorned with ribbons that matched her pretty amber gown. Dora had donned a traveling suit of bittersweet silk with a stylish feathered hat. The trio looked downright regal as the medium popped a top hat jauntily onto his head and led the two ladies off the ship.

  “And who might that be?” Maria pointed to a handful of men in suits who seemed extremely interested in the Fortune’s Opportunity. “We’re not the only ship to arrive—”

  “Father’s partners, I’m betting. Shall we introduce ourselves and get this process started?” Jude offered his arm. “May I take you along as my talisman? Your presence will encourage me before I begin my negotiations. And how can they deny Jason’s beautiful fiancée anything she wishes?”

  “It would be my privilege, Jude.” Maria flashed him a confident grin. “Despite the way you doubt your abilities, I believe we’ll find your brother—and that you will lead the way!”

  “I could kiss you for saying that. But too many eyes are upon us.”

  He stepped toward the gangplank then, his hand upon hers. Something made her glance back, to find Rubio watching them from the doorway of his cabin. But why wasn’t he coming ashore with everyone else? Maria almost waved, but thought better of it: her brother almost always behaved as though he knew things. Because he did.

  Ahead of them, the men in dark suits circled Polinsky and Lady Darington, bobbing their heads like polite crows as introductions were made. Then one gentleman, the tallest of the lot, glanced at Maria and Jude as they approached. His monocle flashed in the sun as he squinted to see them more clearly. He reached into his pocket and unfolded a paper, oblivious to the chatter of his partners.

  “I say! I say! Is that not the Jason Darington we’re chasing down?” He pointed excitedly, waving the paper as he looked around the pier. “Police! Police—arrest this man! He’s a thief and a scoundrel! It’s that blasted Johnny Conn, the pirate!”

  A whistle trilled loudly and, from several directions at once, uniformed officers rushed toward them. Maria froze, clutching Jude’s arm. Was this really happening, or was her overactive imagination at work? “Wait! You’ve got the wrong man!” she cried. “This is Jude—”

  “Grab him, MacTavish! Cuff him quick, before—”

  “Might’a knowed he’d sail in on a Darington ship!”

  “And disguised as a regular gentleman, too—the bugger!”

  “What in God’s name are you doing?” Jude demanded, but he was already surrounded by policemen intent on his capture. “I am not Jason Darington—”

  “Oh, call y
ourself whatever you like! You’re the image of the man in the WANTED poster, without the bandanna and earring!” the officer with the handcuffs declared.

  Maria was lifted by a pair of beefy hands and set down a few feet away from the fracas around Jude. “Beggin’ your pardon, miss, but you’d ought not be seen with the likes of this one!” the uniformed lawman said.

  “You’ve got it all wrong! He’s the twin of the man you seek!” she protested. “Jude has come to help you capture Jason Darington! Jason’s now Lord Darington, and we must take him home to London!”

  “Oh, he’ll not be leaving anytime soon, miss! Not on my shift!” The man with the monocle had rushed over to supervise the policemen: he appeared ecstatic when Jude stood surrounded by blue uniforms with his hands cuffed in front of him. “Justice prevails! You’ll be answering to my partners—and to the judge!—for the ships you’ve destroyed and the cargo you’ve stolen!”

  Jude tried to shove away from all those officers holding him hostage, but he was outnumbered. “I have your telegrams in my pocket! I am the Jude Darington who requested this meeting so we could apprehend my brother—”

  “We’ll not be falling for that trick again!” A shorter partner approached Jude, looking ready to spit at him. “You might have telegrams in your pocket, but I’ll wager they’re fakes and forgeries, like before!”

  It was all happening so fast, yet it felt like a nightmare from which she couldn’t awaken. Maria saw the bittersweet feathers on Lady Darington’s hat trembling as she rushed into the fray, joined by Jemma, who squealed and gesticulated with her parasol. Polinsky stepped in, too, raising his arms for silence. “Gentlemen!” he declared in his rolling baritone. “Gentlemen, you indeed have the wrong man! Please—listen to me!”

  The policemen stopped nattering, as did the partners of Darington Shipping. They watched the medium warily, as though they doubted his motives, too.

  “Did I not just introduce you to Lady Darington, wife of the late Phillip, Lord Darington, the head of your shipping empire?” Polinsky looked urgently at each man, sensing he didn’t have much time. “Lady Darington is the mother of the man you seek, here to find her lost son! We believe Jason Darington was shanghaied from London weeks ago! And that he has since been out of his head—”

  “Who do you take us for? Imbeciles and idiots?” another of the partners exclaimed. “Three ships we’ve lost to this man! And he’s obviously hoodwinked you, or you’d not be taking his side! Away to jail with him!”

  Maria gaped. Dora and Jemma sidestepped to avoid being knocked aside by the policemen who held Jude captive. Polinsky followed them, his tone more strident.

  “This is an outrage! An obvious miscarriage of justice, and I demand my right to be—”

  The monocled man turned to sneer at him. “You are on American soil now, sir. And as you’ve been aiding and abetting this criminal, I don’t believe this is Lord Darington’s widow—don’t believe a word you’ve said! Tell it to the judge!”

  “This can’t be happening!” Dora muttered. Then she, too, trotted after the quick-stepping posse. “Jude, dear—we will find a lawyer! Or Captain MacLeod! And we will have you freed immediately, son!”

  Captain MacLeod! Maria pivoted and ran back to the ship. How had this coming ashore gone so wrong, so fast? She must find that man who resembled Saint Nicholas and hope his goodwill—or his reason—would convince these misinformed managers of their identities. These men had probably never met Lady Darington or Jemma, but were they not aware of Lord Darington’s two identical sons, who would succeed him in his shipping business? Up the gangplank she scurried, frantically looking for that round man in the bushy white beard.

  But the Fortune’s Opportunity appeared abandoned. Not a sailor was to be seen.

  A sob escaped her. She stood staring down the long rail, at a loss for what to do, as the harbor breeze blew tendrils of hair around her face. Their adventure could not end this way!

  “The captain and crew went ashore while you and Jude were making your introductions, sister.” Rubio leaned on the rail outside his room, just as he had before she and Jude met with that unspeakable mess on the pier.

  “What the hell’s going on here?” Maria demanded. “If you knew those policemen were waiting to pounce on Jude—”

  “I knew nothing of the sort. Although I sensed Captain MacLeod was withholding information, just as he was holding his temper after dealing with Dora, Jemma, and Polinsky during our voyage.”

  Inhaling to quiet her pulse, Maria gazed up at him. “Is that why he insisted we dock in Charleston? Because he knew the partners here were out for blood?” she asked. “Maybe MacLeod betrayed us…sent telegrams ahead, saying we had Jason aboard, without his Johnny Conn attire.”

  Rubio shrugged. By the time he joined her on the main deck, Maria had plopped on a wooden bench, flummoxed. Were things always this chaotic in America? So damn confrontational? Those men in the dark suits had barely acknowledged Lady Darington, much less the loss of her husband—the owner of the enterprise that kept them all employed! And they hadn’t given her a second glance, except to bodily move her out of the way! How rude!

  Her brother sat down beside her and patted her hand. His smile had that faraway look. “No matter how it may appear on the surface, Maria, things are working out quite nicely!”

  “Nicely? Is that what you call it when those overbearing, underhanded blackbirds have stuck Jude in jail?”

  Rubio chuckled. “He’ll keep them occupied and out of our way while we go after the real Jason Darington. I know where he is. I just have to figure out how to get us there.”

  Something about his playful tone irritated her…yet she’d seldom known her brother to be wrong. “What sort of trip are we talking about? I can’t say I’m eager to go ashore again, among those irrational—”

  “Bear with me, sister. I sense the solution to our problem will soon come to us. Perhaps in uniform.”

  Maria frowned. Her brother was in one of his moods, perhaps letting his mind shift as he sent out vibrations to his guides. And if the captain and his crew had disembarked for shore leave, she and Rubio might be sitting here for days! What kind of a solution was that?

  She heard a measured tread on the steel steps…saw a man’s head rise up from the hold below. And damned if he wasn’t wearing a uniform! “It’s O’Keefe!” she blurted.

  “You know him, I take it?”

  And how did she answer that question? Very carefully, hoping Jemma’s lover plays along…perhaps repays the favor we discussed earlier. “He took me to see Captain MacLeod when you and Polinsky were sparring over our destination. I…found him and Jemma together.”

  “Excellent! His smile reinforces the idea that you know too much, and he’s beholden to you.” Rubio helped her up from the bench, snickering. “See there? We’re in the right places at the right times! Accidents and coincidence play no part in the turning of the Universal wheel.”

  “Mr. and Miss Palladino!” O’Keefe extended his hand to Rubio as he closed the gap between them. He smiled brightly at Maria. “I thought you’d be ashore, assisting Mr. Darington with his mission.”

  “Lord Darington’s partners handcuffed Jude and hauled him off to jail! They claimed he was Johnny Conn, the pirate who’s been attacking our own ships!” Maria exclaimed.

  Eric O’Keefe’s expression was priceless. “After their exchange of telegrams—both with Jude and the captain? How very odd.”

  “But it gives us the opportunity we need,” Rubio interjected. He spoke in an urgent tone and focused intently on the chief officer’s eyes. “If you, sir, could sail us north along the coast, into the islands of the Outer Banks, you may take credit for the capture of Johnny Conn!”

  Maria’s jaw dropped, and so did O’Keefe’s. “You have no idea—I would need the captain’s permission—”

  “Why? You would be sailing a Darington ship on its original mission,” the medium insisted in a low, penetrating voice. “I know precisely
where to go, sir. We’d be away no more than a day or two.”

  O’Keefe’s ebony hair was the only thing that moved in the breeze. Was he stunned speechless by Rubio’s relentless gaze? Or was he pondering his options? “Mr. Palladino, sir, if the captain returns to find the Fortune’s Opportunity missing—”

  “We can be back in this slip before they miss us. But we must act now!”

  “I—it would require charts and crewmen to safely navigate—”

  “You’ll need neither, if you’ll trust me to guide you, Officer O’Keefe.”

  Maria followed this exchange with clenched hands. Why did Rubio believe he could take charge of this steamship? And return it before anyone knew it was missing?

  O’Keefe blinked but he didn’t drop his gaze. Perhaps he couldn’t, caught up in Rubio’s trancelike spell. “It’s my responsibility to see that—”

  “And what can anyone do if the ship pulls away? Chase after us?” her brother queried softly. “I doubt that happens. MacLeod knows you stayed aboard, does he not?”

  The chief officer nodded, still doubtful.

  “And you are his chief officer. In command, in the event your captain cannot sail.”

  Again O’Keefe nodded. He licked his lips, wanting to comply but still hesitant.

  “With any luck at all, we shall return with Johnny Conn and the booty he stole,” Rubio continued exuberantly. “Will Captain MacLeod or the Darington partners be angry that you took such an initiative? I’m thinking you’ll be up for a promotion very soon, sir!”