He said nothing. What was he up to? A woman cried out and a rush of murmurs originated from the house. Davenport darted inside. Abby plucked the vial from her pocket and deposited the entire contents in a glass. Half as much she had planned to give him. Had she been too careless, dosing him with too much of the drug? No. He had arrived too late. When he returned, she held the drugged glass of wine out to him and tilted her head questioningly.
“Mrs. Sawyer swooned. If she leaned against the Solebay it would bend.”
Abby laughed. “A sense of humor?” Hurry. She had sent each of the guards at the fort a basket that included a piece of cake, and a portion of punch with a generous dose of laudanum. Included was a note from Mrs. Sawyer explaining she was sorry they could not attend but could share refreshment. The soldiers should be sleeping.
His eyebrows furrowed then released. He accepted the glass of wine and slid his fingers over hers. Abby gasped and he smiled. “Did I offend you?”
“Not really.” Drink it. All of it. The effect of the drug took thirty minutes. Valuable minutes. She had to get inside the fort. Now.
“Why this sudden interest in me?” He drank the wine.
A servant came upon the terrace and offered more refreshment. Abby declined anything to get rid of the servant. She turned back to Captain Davenport. He had finished his wine.
Abby exhaled. “You are provocative, Captain Davenport.” She ran a finger around her neckline where it chafed. Davenport ogled the movement, his eyes glowed.
“You are an enticing woman. The stars, do they seem brighter?”
Good. The opium in the laudanum aroused euphoria. Faster. By now, Pascale should have the guards on the beach incapacitated, Albury, the pilot kidnapped from his bed, tied and bound in one of the dinghies ready to board the Vengeance.
“You have breasts.” He weaved.
Altered mood. Inability to concentrate. Good. The laudanum was taking affect. “Captain, you’ve had too much to drink.”
He raised his finger at her accusingly. He stumbled. Simeon put Davenport’s arm around his shoulder.
“The carriage. We need to help Captain Davenport to Fort Nassau,” she said. The drug worked quicker than she estimated. Would he collapse before they arrived? Abby supported Davenport on the other side. The carriage bobbed with his weight. Abby scrambled into the back seat and straightened the captain. Simeon climbed onto the driver’s seat and tapped the whip on the horse’s flank. In minutes, they arrived at the fort entrance.
“Who goes there?” The sentry came to her side. Drat. He had not drunk his punch.
“Captain Davenport is not feeling well,” Abby explained. “If you would open the doors.”
The sentry held up a lantern, gauged the state of Captain Davenport’s illness, assumed intoxication. With raised eyebrows, he opened the gate. She heard a thud and looked behind. Pascale dragged the unconscious guard away then sprinted toward the harbor. Abby sagged against the carriage seat.
No sound in the fort. Good. The guards on the parapet were asleep. How perfect her plan worked. Odd? Not even the hum of a cricket−an unnatural quiet. Abby shivered.
A furtive search of the grounds revealed the high walls of the fort, a flag hanging limply, an empty forge and the locked door of the dungeon. A tranquil garrison: nothing to fear.
The carriage stopped in front of the office. They tugged Davenport from his seat. His body shifted. His weight crushed on top of her. Abby splayed to the ground. Simeon yanked him off. Rising, Abby nudged Davenport’s shoulder with her satin slipper. Out cold. Too heavy to drag him into the office. “We’ll leave him here. Simeon, hurry north and light the gunpowder. The explosion will draw the attention away from the harbor, enough so Jacob and his men will have time to escape. I’ll drive the carriage to Sawyer’s before anyone knows I am missing.”
Simeon disappeared through the gates like a phantom.
Heart pounding, she picked up her skirts and hurried into the office. She snatched the key from the highest hook, the key to the dungeon. In two steps, Abby was grabbed by the neck. The back of her head cracked against the wall.
“Captain Davenport!” She bit off the urge to scream. To think he had faked his stupor. “Let me go!”
“I think not. I’ll have a warrant out to arrest your servant, Simeon. Taking gunpowder, helping a slave escape and whatever else I can think of. He will be hanged with the rest.”
“All suppositions.” Sweat slicked her body. His strength for the high dose she had given him, unbelievable. When would the drug kick in?
“I heard everything. And to think you could drug me? I did not drink the wine. I tasted the laudanum, knew what you were up to and dumped the contents. The rest was an act.”
But she had seen him drink…no…of course, the servant had distracted her. How stupid she had been.
He twisted her hand, lifting the key to her face. “Your arrest looms, Lady Rutland. Treason in assisting enemies of the Crown to escape does not bode well…unless…you yield a concession.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” An edge of hysteria rose in her voice.
“I have the power.”
“This is blackmail.”
“I know. A wonderful institution. I will have unfettered promotion.”
“Through me. Through the power of the Rutland family.” The greedy, vulgar weasel of a man would use a woman to gain wealth and privilege.
“You’re a smart girl. The choice is yours.” He smiled indulgently.
She raised her chin. “Simeon must be released at once. The crew of the Vengeance will not be hanged and sent to England as prisoners of war.”
Davenport licked the corner of his mouth. “Regardless we marry tomorrow. With discretion, we will say you were victimized during your captivity and as a gentleman I am preserving your honor and reputation by marrying you in a precipitous way.”
“There will be no nuptials unless the crew’s status is changed. This I guarantee.”
“The latter, I’ll consider. You don’t have room for negotiation.” He picked up a stray curl and ran his finger down her breast. She slapped his crude hand away. “I expect a good wedding night. The same you gave that traitorous Colonial.”
She sucked air in her lungs. “A man like you would only earn his stripes this way.”
“It is the way of the world. Why not start now?” He slipped his hand into her bodice and pinched her nipple. He covered her mouth, wet and nauseating.
A sick knot twisted in the pit of her stomach, the reality of a life time commitment to this lecher. He forced her fingers to let go of the key and moved her hand to massage the bulging organ beneath his breeches.
“No!” She pushed him away. Davenport shoved her onto the desk in the office. Grunting brutally, he heaved her onto her back and climbed on top of her, his eyes lit wildly. Saliva dribbled from the corner of his mouth. She pounded his chest.
“So you like it rough?” He was upon her in a tangle of arms and legs. She thrashed and sobbed beneath him. His thick lips sucked at the flesh of her throat while his hands squeezed her breasts with awful ruthlessness. He panted obscenities in her ear, his heavy breathing, hot on her neck, while she struggled frantically to free herself. He reached beneath her skirts and groped between her legs, the pain agonizing.
An explosion splintered the air.
Davenport jerked his head. Simeon had lit the cask of gunpowder. Now the town’s people would run north to the other fort to see what had transpired. She had failed to free Thorne. Several more explosions tore through the air. Where did Simeon get the extra gunpowder? No time to ponder that fact. She brought her knee up against Davenport. Crack. Like wood hitting bone? Davenport’s weight collapsed upon her. She pushed him off and he thumped to the floor. Abby scrambled off the desk and to her feet, adjusting her skirts.
A lantern was lit. Two cobalt eyes scorched her. “Jacob?”
“In the flesh, Lady Rutland.”
Abby blinked, her mind reeling with his sudden
appearance. She didn’t care. She was so happy he was free and had come to save her. But the edge of his voice held a chilling menace that limped up her spine and entered her skin with pinprick accuracy, congealing her blood to ice. “How did you−” Men crowded. Blackened faces gawked. Enos, Ben, Lawton with ugly twists to their mouths.
Jacob waved a hand to his companions. “How fortunate, Captain John Trevett and his Colonial Marines chose to make a precipitous landing this evening. We control the fort. You and your lover are my prisoner.”
“Prisoner?” Abby’s jaw dropped. She stepped over Davenport and moved to Jacob but something in his implacable expression stopped her. She glanced to a blue-eyed man in a naval uniform, obviously, Captain Trevett. “He is not my lover.”
Jacob snorted. “Enough of your lies, your insatiable lust with Davenport is evident to every man present.”
Of course, her charade with Davenport, playing the spoiled aristocrat then Jacob mistaking her presence in the fort…seeing Davenport’s near rape and how he had assumed a carnal assignation. “I was attempting to help you escape.”
Jacob smirked. “On your back with Davenport, rutting between your legs? The disadvantage of having your tryst tonight is a trip to Boston.”
“I was attacked. Davenport nearly−” A dry sob burned in her throat. “I have to go—go home to my family.” Abby appealed to Captain Trevett with her eyes. Do something, save me. Uncertainty shadowed his face.
Captain Trevett cleared his throat. “You will take the woman?” He sounded as though he didn’t want to know the answer.
Jacob pointed his sword right at her heart. “She is the Duke of Rutland’s daughter. I’m sure the Duke will do anything to get his daughter back, ensuring, my cousin, Ethan to be freed. I picked her up during my capture of the Civis and she will remain under my authority.”
“Jacob, please listen to me−”
“You would do anything to get home, Lady Rutland. We’ve heard the sob story about your family while we waited for our death on the gallows.” Jacob planted his sword next to Davenport’s head. How he wanted to kill him for touching Abby. To think she was the prey of such a monster. Jacob fought the urge to take Abby in his arms; to reassure her but the rage screaming in him from being duped was branded on his brain. Abby. Lady Rutland. His vision clouded unable to separate the two. No doubt she spoke the truth but the bastard inside him wanted vengeance. She was a member of the aristocracy he disdained and he could not forgive her for that sin.
“In terms of her lover, Captain Davenport, he surpasses the vilest work of God’s creation. A wonder we survived his brutality. I’ll take pleasure in running the bastard through.”
Captain Trevett interjected. “I will take the British captain. Washington needs a trade. For now, Captain Thorne we need to secure the fort. I have only twenty-six marines and twenty-four freed privateers up against a town of one thousand loyalists. So far we have exercised fait accompli without firing a shot.”
“There are significant stores of gunpowder and small arms. Getting past the colony’s militia to load the cargo aboard the ships will be another matter. Five ships are anchored in the harbor, one is the Vengeance and the other is the Solebay. They are mine,” Jacob said in a carefully controlled tone, his eyes never leaving Davenport’s body. Keep your head, Jacob. How he’d like to flay every inch of the British captain’s skin from his body and hang him from a mast for the crows to feast.
“Men get a move on and take what you can, including the British captain,” ordered Trevett who must have read the violence on Jacob’s mind. They lifted Davenport from the room.
Abby sprang past him. He snapped his hand out, grabbed her and spun her around.
“I will not be your prisoner.” With the fury of a lioness she lashed out, struggling to break free of him. One fist found its mark. “Get away from me! Don’t touch me!”
He grabbed her wrists to hold her writhing body still. “What’s the matter, Abby? Angry because I interrupted your rendezvous?”
“I have done everything in my power to help you escape. Committing treason and…near defilement. Ask Simeon. Ask Pascale, they will tell you. And you, Captain Thorne are the most loathsome creature of them all.”
“Enos, Lawton,” Jacob stopped their departure. “Get rope. Lady Rutland will be our guest on the Vengeance.”
Enos hesitated. “Perhaps we should hear the lass out.”
“Do you dare to defy my orders?” Jacob snapped and the flat of her hand hit the side of his face. “Rip your shirt if you can’t find any rope, or would you prefer I hit her with the hilt of my sword as I did to Davenport?”
“But, Captain, do we need to take her along?”
“I gave you a command, Enos and I’m not about to repeat it. Unless you want to be left behind and swing from the gallows, move. Now!”
Enos looked away, shrugged out of his ragged, grimy shirt and tore off wide strips, handed them to Jacob, and then left with Lawton in silence.
“You will regret this, Jacob,” Abby bit out.
“I’ve had enough regrets to last a thousand lifetimes, Lady Rutland. From the bowels of a filthy dungeon, my men have been chained, starved, beaten and worked beyond human endurance. Suffocated by the heat, many suffered wounds, undressed and festering, caused by continuous floggings and savage insects while you cavorted as the fine Lady Rutland.” He shook his head, glaring at his fingers, now turning white from his grip on the bindings as he wound tighter and tighter the bonds about her ankles and hands. To trust her was like putting a knife in Delilah’s hands.
Her eyes glistened, and he hesitated. Yet an unfamiliar, twisted weed of jealousy leapt in his heart, towering over all other emotions and stinging like nettles. “No amount of tears will affect me. You made a fool of me in front of my men. To contemplate your laughter when I asked you to marry me. The devil I’d be anywhere the sight of you exists.” Surely her soul was blacker than a witch’s bottom.
“I need to consult with you, Captain Thorne,” said Captain Trevett. “I have sent three marines to Fort Montagu at the other end of the island, claiming I have two hundred and thirty marines at my disposal. A bluff that I hope will work. We approached Nassau, our ship, the Providence disguised as a trading sloop and anchored in another cove offshore in darkness. We traveled overland, slipped over the walls and knocked out the guards. I’m having the Providence come around Hog Island and into the harbor. It will be midday before all this comes about.”
Time. Getting into the fort was one concern, getting out was another matter. “I assume you are short of provisions.”
“That would be correct,” said Trevett.
“Captain Thorne, a man is at the gate. He says his name is Simeon and demands to see you. But there is a mob coming up the road right behind him,” said a marine.
“Let him in,” ordered Jacob. He looked at Abby. She would have nothing to do with him.
When Simeon arrived, his eyes grew as big as shillings. “Why is Lady Rutland tied like this?” He knelt by Abby and glared at Thorne. “She has done everything to free you. How dare you treat her like a criminal? Lady Rutland and I worked tirelessly at night, watching the fort, planning and scheming, she drugged Davenport’s drink, helped free Pascale...” On and on he went, casting her just short of sainthood. Enos and Lawton grunted her praises.
For Thorne, what she had accomplished smarted like lemon juice on an open cut. Jacob rolled his shoulders in a defensive gesture, produced a knife and cut her bonds. He held his hand out. A protracted silence fell between them. She refused and allowed Simeon to help her stand.
Jacob rubbed his chin, his whiskers rasping under his fingers. “I owe you an apology, Lady Rutland.”
She massaged her wrists. Chin held high, she swept past, disregarding him as a flea stamped under an elephant’s foot. “Captain Trevett, I will help you with your departure, but in return I need a favor. You must keep Captain Davenport as long as possible, at least until I can make it back to Engla
nd and my father can ward off any damage he might create for me. Captain Thorne has another individual he can trade for his cousin. I must travel to England. I ask that you release me when this is over.”
“Done.”
“No,” said Jacob.
Trevett held up his hand. “I’m in command here. Let the lady speak. Why would you help the Americans?”
In her mind, Abby replayed Jacob’s accusation. All she had risked for him. Of course, he apologized. To err is human, to forgive, divine? She was not divine. Spine straight as sugarcane, she stared into Captain Trevett’s face. “This is not my war. My war is a private war with the enemies of my family. I need to assist my father and make these faceless cowards pay for their crimes. The Americans aboard the Vengeance treated me well and rescued me from certain death. I cannot forget that fact. Their judgement and punishment was wrong. I could not allow it.”
“I appreciate your sincerity. We have done a disservice to you,” said Captain Trevett.
Abby tapped a finger on her lips. “With certainty, the militia will storm the gates.”
“No doubt,” said Trevett.
“You may use me, Captain Trevett as a hostage to negotiate terms and use Davenport. I believe the governor can be persuaded.”
Captain Trevett nodded his head thoughtfully.
“You need provisions. Send a note to the governor to have provisions and conveyances made available. With the number of ships you are taking, you will require additional pilots to negotiate the harbor. The shoals and reefs make it impossible to depart without guidance. Simeon, did Pascale get Albury, the pilot?”
“And none too happily,” said Simeon. “Pascale disabled the guards on the Vengeance like you ordered and put Albury aboard. When I heard the added explosions, I ran back to the fort to see if you were all right.”
“As you can see I am quite fine.” She brushed the dirt off her silk gown, keeping her back to Jacob. He deserved it. He’d been a buffoon where she was concerned. “I know the identities of the two other pilots. Make this in your demands to the governor as well,” she said to Captain Trevett.
Sweet Vengeance Page 24