by Raven, Sandy
“As you said, you are responsible for the punishment meted out to her this morn.”
Her face burned with shame. She lowered her gaze. “And I would now correct that wrong by offering her a position in my employ. With me, she would never have to worry about being struck again.”
“No.”
Lia always did have a difficult time feigning meekness. “As the wife of a duke, will I not require someone to attend me?”
“You will. Once we arrive in England.”
“All right then. I would request that my ladies’ maid be someone I trust. Someone I can communicate with in my native tongue.”
“She is also someone who has helped you escape me once. How could I ever trust her? Besides, you speak English well enough.” He moved closer and stroked her cheek with his knuckles. “And with a very captivating accent.”
He attempted to distract her, so she turned from his touch, intent on helping the maid. “But....”
“My answer is no.” Ren took her by the arm and led her from the room. “Come, Lia. We sail with the evening tide, and we have a stop to make.”
They crossed the lobby of the inn and she saw the innkeeper’s wife again strike Ghita as the old woman scolded the maid for something. Lia tugged against Ren’s grip, wanting to do something to help the girl.
He tightened his grip on her arm, and pushed her toward the door right as they all heard a scream and a crash. Lia turned to see the maid fall, along with the buckets she carried, spilling water on the inn’s wooden floors. The innkeeper’s wife kicked at her, and the maid cringed, trying to move away from the old woman’s booted foot.
Lia turned to him and pleaded for the girl’s safety one more time. “Please, Ren, please! I promise I’ll never run from you again. Just save the girl from this place. Even if she does not come with me.”
He led her out of the inn and onto the sidewalk, where Cully and Luchino waited. “Go to your brother and stand with him.” He motioned to Captain Cully, and watched her closely as he spoke in low tones with him. When he was done, Ren led Lia to the carriage that waited to carry them to the docks.
“Aren’t my brother and your man coming with us?”
“Cully needs to see to the removal of our belongings before he meets up with us on the pier.”
“But what about...?”
With a look he quieted her. And she turned away from him and kissed her brother, promising to see him later. They made one stop in the business district where she and her new husband visited with the guardian of her trust with proof of their marriage. Ren then gave the man the address in London of the bank in which he wanted the funds transferred. Upon their return to the carriage, the rest of the short ride to the docks was done in complete silence.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ren ushered her into his cabin on Warlock, locking the door behind them. Once in the room, Lia darted to the other side of the table, thinking she was safe from his reach.
“How could you?” she hissed.
“How could I what?”
“Leave that poor girl there and not help her! How cruel can you be? What kind of gentleman are you?”
He turned away from her. “Do not cross me this early into our marriage, wife.” He stripped away his coat and tossed it onto the chair. He sat on the edge of the bed and removed his shiny, black boots, dropping them to the floor. Standing, he began to loosen his cravat and pull his shirt from the waistband of his breeches. “As to my ungentlemanly behavior—well, I’ve never been accused of being a gentleman, so I’d say my behavior was quite the norm.”
She watched him remove his shirt and cravat, letting them fall beside the bed. When he stood and began to unbutton his breeches, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Getting ready for bed,” he told her. “So should you.”
“It’s broad daylight out.” Her knuckles turned white as her grasp on the edge of the table tightened and her breathing got deeper and faster.
“When has that stopped us before?” Then he had a thought, and his heart stopped a moment. “Don’t tell me that now we are wed, you’ve grown cold on me? I’ll not put up with it.”
“You ask if I have changed in the short time since the vows were spoken, but it is not I who is behaving abominably! What has come over you?” She stood her ground behind the table, out of his reach, and refused to undress. “You have become un diavolo. You separate me from my brother, and....”
“There are some who say I have always been evil,” he said, stepping closer. He watched the lump in her throat rise and fall as she gulped and retreated a step.
“Why do you act this way to me now?” Her voice trembled as she spoke. “Is it because of what I did last night?” Her eyes scanned over the room for another safe haven, but there was none.
“Yes, and no. I see it in your eyes Lia.” Ren reached out and stroked her cheek with a feather-light touch, which she knew hid his true emotion. “Even now, you look for a way out. Like a frightened animal. Why? What have I done to you besides give you the safety and comfort that comes with my name? I would think you’d be grateful that I brought you to Genoa to save your brother. But what do I get in return for his spared life? You try to escape me.” His fingers wound their way into the silky hair at her nape, forcing her closer. She was soon in his arms, and he could feel her tremble. “And I cannot think of a reason why. I fulfilled my end of the bargain.”
His lips came down on hers heavily. He wanted to both punish and cherish her at the same time, but she wanted nothing from him. She didn’t move, didn’t respond. Grabbing her head, he slid his fingers into her coiffure, holding her steady while he tried to coax her to passion. One by one, he removed all the pins from her hair, dropping them to the floor, freeing her waist length mahogany waves. When she didn’t return the kiss, he backed away from her passionless stance and said, “Until we arrived here it seemed as though you were amenable to keeping your end of our agreement.”
Then he shook his head as he realized her game, and gave a disgusted half laugh when he understood he’d once again been duped. “Unless, of course, it was all an act.” She flinched and looked away. “That’s it, isn’t it? You were pretending to enjoy my touch. You were pretending so that I would agree to save your brother.” He walked away from her, stepping to the bank of windows and staring out into the Genoan harbor. “Seems I’ve been played a fool yet again. This time all the way to the altar.” He turned to her and saluted her. “Congratulations, Your Grace, the whoremaster trained you well,” was all he said.
“No” she whispered, shaking her head slowly. He saw a tear, then two, then more trickle down her face, falling unchecked. “I never....”
He went back to her. “Oh, I think so. And you know who is the biggest fool, Lia?” Again she shook her head. He stood directly in front of her now, and he reached for her, grabbing her about the waist and drawing her close. “I am. Because I felt something—an attraction maybe, the day you ran from the guard in the souk.” He stroked the hair at her temple, fighting the urge to kiss her, because to do so would only make him a boor. “The night we met in the palace garden, I wanted you to be different. From that night I wanted you to enjoy sharing my bed.” Lia pulled away from him, and opened her mouth, but he cut her off instantly. “Don’t bother. I will never again believe a word you say.”
She straightened, and wiped her face, saying “You accuse me of using you to get my brother back, but can you honestly tell me, that you did not plan to use me as well?” He quirked a brow wondering what she spoke about, when she added, “I heard you say as much.” He looked at her curiously. “Yesterday afternoon, when you spoke with your men in the room across from mine. You told them you would send me back to Italy after I presented you with your much-needed heir.
“I entered the agreement in good faith, Your Grace. I never intended deception. You did. All along you intended deception. Because it wasn’t a partner you wanted in this marriage. It was a ‘broodmare’ on which to beget your h
eir. When I think back to the sincere gratitude with which I agreed to the bargain, I feel ill. Because all along you were the one who intended to unload me as some insignificant baggage after you got what you wanted. I have to ask, Your Grace, were you going to have me killed, too? Because you must know how much I love my brother. Did you think I would so easily walk away from my own child?”
“Lia, you tread dangerous water. Careful what you say.” He reached out for her, but she jerked her arm from him.
“No. I never asked to be abducted. I never asked for you to purchase me. I never asked for any of this. All I ever wanted was to live in peace, raising my brother as my parents would have wished. I had dreams of someday marrying a man who loved me as my father loved my mother.
“But fate had other plans for me, Your Grace. What you see as my attempt to escape you, was me doing everything in my power to get back to that place in my life where I could control my destiny. For that I am to be punished for the rest of my life?”
She wiped her tears, and Ren reached for her again, and she backed further away from him, wanting nothing to do with him.
“I never asked for you to purchase me. If I had been unsuccessful in rescuing Luchino, it would have been because I had died trying. Then he and I would have been together, along with with our parents, in heaven.”
She turned away from him. Guilt overcame him as he realized what he’d done. Because if he had done as he originally intended, he would have returned her to her family untouched. But the attraction to her, the intense need he felt to possess and keep her, cherish her and protect her, took over and he’d been unable to let her go. He stood silent for several long moments before finally speaking again. And when he did, she seemed surprised at what he said.
“I am sorry.”
Her eyes grew wide and hopeful. “If you truly are, then tear up the marriage certificate and allow my brother and me to remain here. I have friends in Naples, and my mother’s family in Rome. We will make a new life for ourselves. I can find work....”
“That is impossible,” he interjected.
“Why?”
“Because, as I told the priest earlier, you could already carry my child.”
“I will never allow you to take my child from me,” Lia said.
“Regardless of what transpired in the past twenty-four hours, the bargain remains in effect.”
“Why are you doing this? Can you not see the futility of such a scheme? We would never suit. You want a wife to beget heirs upon. I wish to be my husband’s equal, con pari dignita.” She took a deep, slow breath and shook her head. “Will you swear to me that you will never separate me from my child? I warn you now, if I suspect you think to take my child away from me, I would leave you first, taking my child with me.”
“Lia, you are in no position to make demands. We entered into an agreement, and now a marriage. In any court of law, as your husband I am now the legal guardian of your brother, and the father of any babe you conceive. You would never get custody of either should you try to leave.”
His voice grew more and more deadly with each word he spoke. “And know this, if you ever attempt to flee, I will hunt you down.”
She slapped him. “Bastardo!”
With a lightning quickness, he grabbed her, pulling her closer. Leaning back, he glared down at her. “I hate to disappoint you, but I look just like my father.”
Cursing him, Lia called him every foul name in English and Italian that she could think of. “I don’t care if your conception had witnesses. You’re still a....”
He jerked her closer, and kissed her. A hard, punishing kiss that was not meant to arouse, but to stop her from hurling those poisonous barbs at him as though she were the only one in the room with feelings. “You ran away. You would have left, probably carrying my child, to live on the street somewhere?” He stroked the column of her neck, then cupped the back of her head. “My child,” he growled. “You would have kept my child from me. And that would make you no better than her.”
“I’ll never allow you to take my child,” she repeated, pushing away from him and ducking under his arm, putting some needed distance between them. “I do not know who she was, and I don’t care. But, unless you threatened to take her child from her against her wishes, she and I have nothing in common.”
Ren straightened and strode to the door of the cabin. Turning back, he gave her a frozen glare and left the room, locking the door behind him.
Her husband didn’t return to their cabin that night. The next morning she waited for his arrival, which never came. Not that it mattered, unless he promised he would never separate her from her children, she would have nothing to do with him ever again.
If she were to leave him, it would be easier with the inheritance as a means of supporting herself and her brother. But the man could have it. Before marrying the Englishman she stood little chance of getting it from her aunt anyway. Lia had resigned herself long ago to surviving without the money. She just needed to go find her mother’s family in Rome.
His second, Angus, appeared carrying a breakfast tray, behind him was a lad with a pitcher of fresh water for washing, and behind them two more men carrying a trunk she’d never seen before.
“These are the clothes from the Italian seamstress,” the older man said.
She thanked the men, and listened as the door was again locked from the outside.
Lifting the lid to the tray, she saw fish, fruit and bread, and dove into the meal with gusto. The Englishman who was her husband hadn’t seen fit to send her a dinner tray the night before and she was famished. Once done with the meal, she washed and changed clothes from the dress she married in to another, less embellished, frock. She paced the perimeter of the cabin, unsure of what to do. She wanted to go above deck, but the door was locked. Glancing at the limited selection of books in his bookcase, she drew one down, taking the bench seat beneath the windows and began to read.
This was how her husband found her several hours later. Upon entering the room, he stood between the door and table staring at her. Lia could have sworn he wanted to say something. But he didn’t. Instead, he turned and stalked from the cabin after he took a chart from the bench and tucked it under his arm. This time, she didn’t hear the key turn the lock as he left.
Leaning back in the chair, she thought about this man she was now to call husband. It seemed his emotions changed each time she saw him. Yesterday he hated her. Today he was seemingly remorseful. Why? All night long, she thought about his accusations.
He said she used him.
Admittedly, it had been wrong of her to run away the other night when she should have confronted him with what she’d heard, so she could see where he might come to that conclusion. But he was using her as well, to bear him an heir. Which was worse?
He planned to use her body and discard her once he got what he wanted. His intentions toward her were more despicable. His was the more grievous wrong committed. Except to his convoluted male mind, he probably didn’t think of it that way. She didn’t see any common ground with which to begin discussion.
Her eyes fell to the thin gold band on her finger. The symbol of the sacrament and vows taken yesterday afternoon was the only thing they shared.
Suddenly a vision of the young priest, with his straight, dark hair and soft, brown eyes stood before her saying “Repeat after me...from this day forward. For better or for worse...”
Surely this wasn’t what God intended a marriage should be. Her father never treated her mother roughly or spoke to her with the venomous tongue Ren used with her last night.
“...from this day forward.” There was no pleasant future in sight for her, that much was sure. So was she now to live out her days in a loveless relationship with nothing to look forward to? Living in fear of her husband sending her away?
Another vision appeared, and she closed her eyes tight so she would not have to look at it, but still it was there. She saw Maysun cradling an infant, her face radiant with mate
rnal bliss. In this vision her friend repeated the words she’d told her when she woke up in the harem. “You can be as happy as you allow yourself to be. Your fate lies in your own hands.”
“...from this day forward,” echoed the vision of the young priest.
Her happiness was within her own control, as Maysun had told her. She had to talk with her new husband. If she could make peace with him, it might make living with him more bearable. He might never love her, and she might never love him, but she could not continue with the way things were.
When the cabin was near dark, she heard a knock at the door. Lia stood, faced the door, and called out for whomever it was to enter.
“It’s Angus, Yer Grace, come to bring ye a dinner tray.” The door opened slowly and the stout, gray-haired Scotsman entered carrying a tray. Angus placed the fresh tray on the table, and lit the room’s only lantern, then picked up the remains from her previous meal.
“The weather might get a bit choppy tonight, so ye might want to eat now as there’ll be no meal cooked after this one.”
She nodded at him, and the old salt left the cabin. Peeking under the cover of her meal she set it aside and settled in with a book as the weather began to worsen.
Bracing his legs, Ren guided the ship’s bow into a wave, cutting it in half. He wanted to go below to speak with Lia, but the weather had taken a turn. The storm he thought he might skirt became something he had to face directly. His new wife had to wait. The approaching squall line needed his attention. He had three ships full of cargo and ninety-six men he wanted to bring home to England alive.
For the next six hours, he held a steady westerly course through the Mediterranean, fighting a hard north wind and waves that crashed against the starboard side of his lead ship. The stinging drops pelted his exposed flesh, feeling much like the lash of the cat. He deserved every strike for the pain he caused her because the entire predicament they were in was his fault. No one else’s but his, and he owed her an apology.