"Please join me for breakfast. We are quite informal when we dine en famille." She rose and motioned to the sideboard fairly groaning under the weight of food sitting upon it.
"Thank you, milady." He approached the food slowly, his dark eyes moving from one end of the display to the other. "So much food."
She thought he sounded a bit chiding, as though the waste offended him. Picking up a plate, he smiled rather shyly and made his way to a platter at the end farthest from her.
"Kippers." A soft chuckle followed the word. "I haven't had kippers for a long time."
He took a single fish from the platter. A spoonful of eggs. Two grilled tomatoes. One sausage. All of this done in a manner which gave Elspeth the distinct impression he felt guilty.
Dudley came in on his usual silent feet, carrying a silver coffeepot, which he set on the sideboard. "Coffee or tea, sir?"
"What?" Mr. Merritt looked around for the voice, finally locating Dudley behind him. "Oh, coffee, please."
Dudley served their guest, then turned to her. "Is everything to your liking, milady?"
"Yes, Dudley. Thank you." Elspeth noticed her guest hadn't yet touched his breakfast, but sat staring at it. "Mr. Merritt, is something wrong with the food? Would you like something else?"
"No, milady," he answered quickly. His gaze went back to his plate. "It's quite... quite."
Picking up his knife and fork, he ate in silence, his manners appropriate for any dining room in the realm.
Elspeth studied him covertly, her eyes flicking from the paper she was supposed to be reading to his face. He appeared to be unaware of her close perusal.
"Good morning, Elspeth, my dear." Alex entered the room and rubbed his hands together as he considered the sideboard. "Ah, kippers. And those wonderful sausages Smith put up this year." He loaded a plate and sat opposite her at the other end of the table. "So, Merritt. I trust you rested well?"
"Yes, sir. Thank you."
"I say, you present a more civilized mien this morning." Alex shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth, as his gaze ran over Mr. Merritt. After swallowing, he asked, "Where are your people from?"
"Scotland, sir, and the Carolinas." Mr. Merritt pushed his plate away and turned to Elspeth. "My Lady, I don't wish to impose on your hospitality, but we need to discuss our arrangement."
"Certainly, Mr. Merritt. I have already sent my man to York for the necessary funds."
"York?"
"Yes. As I explained last evening, I don't keep such an amount in the house. I wrote a draft this morning and my man will return tomorrow. Until then, I hope you will continue to accept my hospitality."
"Tomorrow?" He leaned forward. "My Lady, please don't misunderstand me, but I am in something of a hurry."
"Why the hurry?" Alex asked, his eyes narrowing, clearly suspicious.
Sudden tension hung over the table. Elspeth felt with certainty Mr. Merritt hid something of import. Still she quite probably owed him her life. She could spare him her trust until he proved undeserving.
"Why, sir?" she prompted him to answer Alex's question.
"As I told you, my lady, my crew awaits provisioning so we can set sail home."
Alex's cup clattered as he dropped it to the saucer. "I thought I had heard your name before. Black Hal!"
He leaped up and dashed to the wall where a pair of ceremonial swords hung. Jerking one down, he stalked toward the table again, the blade pointed toward Mr. Merritt's head.
"Admit it, then. You are Black Hal Merritt."
"Alex, please-"
"Quiet, girl. I have things in hand."
Her champion rose slowly, his eyes locked with Alex's. He made a pretty leg in the old style. "Your servant, sir. I am indeed Black Hal Merritt."
"Who is Black Hal Merritt?" Elspeth turned to Alex in confusion. "Alex, what are you talking about."
"This man is a brigand, Elspeth. A villain. A pirate."
Laughter broke from her throat as she digested this information.
"That's absurd. Her Majesty's Navy rules the seas. Pirates," she scoffed, smiling at her stepfather. "Really, Alex."
"You may take this lightly, Elspeth, but I doubt your husband will be equally amused."
The mention of her husband, so happily forgotten, drenched her in cold fear. "What has this to do with Richard?"
"Tell her, Merritt. Tell your benefactress who and what you are." Alex moved around the table, sword at the ready, toward Mr. Merritt, who stood motionless by his chair.
Elspeth turned toward her champion. Finally he met her gaze and nodded.
"It is as he says. I am Black Hal Merritt. His expressive mouth pulled at one corner. "Scourge of the Seven Seas."
"Tell her all."
"Alex, put that silly thing down." Elspeth's mother entered the room. "We owe this man a debt and, quite frankly, we owe Richard nothing." She approached the table. "Sit down, Mr. Merritt, please." Dudley rushed up to hold her chair for her. "Just a cup of tea, please, Dudley."
"Doesn't milady wish some-"
Adelpha waved the butler away. "Get my tea, Dudley, and do cease hovering." Turning her attention to Elspeth, she asked, "Does it matter what Mr. Merritt has to do with Richard, Elspeth?"
"No." The reply came easily.
Her mother patted her hand. "Good. Alex, you will send for our solicitor from London as soon as you finish your breakfast, won't you? Elspeth must petition for an annulment as soon as possible."
"Mother, I don't think..."
"Don't think what, dear? Alex, do put that silly sword back on the wall." Adelpha sipped the tea Dudley had placed before her. "Ah, excellent, Dudley. Now, Mr. Merritt, you were going to tell us of your adventures." She set her cup down and raised her gaze to Mr. Merritt expectantly.
"Ma'am?"
"Tell us what a modern day pirate does. Are you a bloodthirsty brigand as my husband insists? Or the gallant champion my daughter casts you?
"I am a man, milady. Nothing more. Certainly no champion. The Countess was doing quite well saving herself before I came along."
"Well, tell us, do. How did you happen into piracy?"
"Yes, tell us, Merritt, while I send for the sheriff."
"I think not, Alex." Elspeth's words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. "He saved my life."
"Why? For money? He is no brave champion, Elspeth. He is a killer."
"Were he a killer, Alex, I would be dead. I fancy I am worth more to him dead than I am paying him for bringing me home."
"What?"
Elspeth realized she had allowed herself to be drawn into revealing Mr. Merritt's real reason for seeking her out.
"Never mind, it is nothing."
"Did he threaten you?"
"No, of course not."
"Sir, I can explain." Black Hal's voice rose above the din of her and Alex's argument and brought silence. "A man, whose identity I do not know, hired me to abduct the Countess and kill her."
"You see what he is?" Alex frothed.
"Who is the villain?" Elspeth retorted. "The man who hires a murderer or the murderer who does not carry out the crime?"
"Elspeth, this man contracted a killing. Yours."
"Yet, here I am, Alex."
"Mr. March, I am no murderer, whatever you may have heard from your brother. A pirate, yes. Murderer, no."
"Yet, you have killed. Men serving on March Shipping vessels have given their lives on your blade."
"Three. And all of them because they would not yield."
"They did their duty."
"Granted, they died bravely doing their duty. As I do mine."
"What?" Alex expelled a disbelieving laugh. "You dare compare piracy to the service of honest British seamen?"
"I do indeed. Though my duty is not to a queen or an employer."
"Who holds your honor so surely, Mr. Merritt?" Adelpha asked.
"I cannot say, milady."
"Can not or will not?" Alex stormed toward Merritt, the ceremonial blade
he still held aimed for the man's throat. "Give us the truth, blackguard. Your perfidy is practiced only against vessels of March Shipping. Your quarrel is with our family."
"True. More specifically, with your brother."
"Why?" Alex demanded.
"My reasons are my own. And not for the delicate ears of ladies."
Alex traced the tip of the sword against Merritt's tanned neck. "Talk, cur."
Dark, alien eyes cut toward Alex, anger blazing. Elspeth gasped as Merritt wrapped his blunt fingers around the blade. Alex pulled and she could see crimson seep from between the pirate's fingers. Yet his face showed no sign of pain. On the contrary, squeezing his fingers tighter, he jerked the sword from Alex's grasp. He tossed it on the floor behind Elspeth's chair before turning his gaze to her. Wrapping his napkin around his bloody hand, he said, "I apologize for ruining your linen, Countess."
"'Tis only cloth, sir," she replied breathlessly. With a reproachful glance at her stepfather, she asked, "Can you not tell me why you prey on my husband's ships?"
"I will only say he hurt one dearer to me than my own life."
Not knowing why, Elspeth understood the one he spoke of with such pain was a woman. The knowledge pinched her heart. That, too, was disturbing.
"Does she yet live?"
"After a fashion."
"Will she recover?"
"No. There is no splint for her injury. No medicine to restore her or remove her pain." He turned to Elspeth. "My lady, it isn't that I am ungrateful for your hospitality, but I must return to my crew."
"Yes, Elspeth. A March ship carrying goods to America leaves Lancaster on the tide two days hence." Alex stood at the far end of the table, his face mottled red. "Obviously that is his goal. To impoverish my family, to destroy the March name."
"Enough, Alex. I made an agreement with Mr. Merritt which I intend to keep."
"Lady Greymere, I can not wait for even a day. I must return today. My crew, like myself, are savages." He smiled at the self-description. "They will fend for themselves if I don't appear with the funds to provision the ship and get us underway."
"How would they fend for themselves?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Nothing too terrible. Likely they would hunt in Her Majesty's forests for food."
"They have no food?"
"That is the most pressing need, yes." His gaze wouldn't meet hers, so clearly was he shamed by his predicament.
"Piracy isn't the money maker it used to be, Merritt?"
He didn't answer Alex's jibe. Another mystery, a pirate who couldn't feed his own crew. Then the answer to meeting her obligation to the man occurred to her. So simple she almost thumped her head with her injured hand.
"Of course. There is no need to wait, sir. Greymere can provide whatever you need." She shoved a scrap of paper and a pen and inkwell over to him. "Make a list of the provisions you need." With a start at her assumption, she asked, "Or would you like me to write it for you?"
"Thank you for the offer, my lady. I can write," he said answering her clumsy question.
"Will this be sufficient to settle our arrangement?"
"More than sufficient. Thank you." He dipped the pen and gazed into the air for a moment before putting it to paper. His handwriting was small, precise, quite legible. This surprised her, for she would have assumed his blunt fingers to be incapable of such fine work.
She raised her chocolate and sipped to hide the blush creeping up her face as, quite unexpectedly, she remembered her dreams of the previous night, inspired no doubt by Patsy's wicked suggestion. In her dreams his fingers possessed extraordinary dexterity. She wondered where such fancies had come from. She was, after all, a virgin, though Richard had ensured she would pass no examination.
Her mother's assumption to the contrary made for a difficult situation.
"I think this will suffice, my lady."
He passed her the paper and she ran down the listing: barrels of flour, salted meat, limes and apples, fourteen dozen live chickens, vegetables and potatoes. He paused a moment before adding fodder for a milk goat. For some reason that made Elspeth smile.
"Are you certain this is all you need?"
"Yes. We can barter some of it to pay our bills in Lancaster, then once we're out to sea, we can catch our food."
"Steal it, you mean." Alex leaned on the table, his eyes focused on Elspeth. "I still say we should turn the blackguard over to the sheriff. Him and his whole crew."
"Alex, dear, Elspeth has made herself quite clear. We must remember we are guests here at Greymere-"
"Mother, no!" Elspeth jumped from her seat and knelt by her mother's side. "Do not say such things. Greymere is your home for as long as you wish it to be."
Suddenly aware of the dark eyes watching her family's private business, she rose.
"Dudley, please take Mr. Merritt to the steward. He is to have whatever he needs packed for travel as soon as is possible." She turned to Merritt. "I must beg your leave, sir. I have private business to discuss with my parents."
Merritt rose and made a courtly bow. "Certainly, my lady. My thanks for your generosity."
"My thanks for your help, sir. Whatever else you may be called, to me you will always be champion." She offered her hand, which he took, his rough, callused fingers tender against hers.
He bowed over her hand, his lips barely passing over the surface of her skin, yet the contact was sufficient to send a shiver of delight coursing through her body.
"I am your servant, my lady. If you ever have need of me, send word to the Lancaster docks. I will hear. I will come."
Again, he bowed, but this time, his eyes never left hers. Millions of promises seemed to pass between them, though she couldn't have spoken a single one aloud.
Then he turned and was gone.
Chapter Six
Still shaking from his touch, Elspeth settled on a sofa in the parlor to have the dreaded talk with her mother and Alex. The latter was still in a fuming over the escape of Black Hal Merritt from his clutches.
"By God, Elspeth-"
"It is done. I need to speak to you both about my own situation."
"Yes," he replied. "You must return. We'll send for Richard-"
"You will not. I will not have that man in my house."
"Elspeth, he is your husband. He has the right-"
"I will not return to him, Alex." Elspeth raised her left arm. "This is the latest sign of his affection. Am I to allow him to kill me? Do his husbandly rights extend so far?"
"He did not mean to hurt you."
"Did he not?" She rose and paced the room. Fear, though only a memory, sharpened her senses and gave her excess energy she had to burn. "He broke down the door with that awful shoe of his. He struck me, threw me to the floor. He stripped me naked and forced me to remain so when he called his man in to help him with his boots."
"Oh, God!" Alex closed his eyes and sank into a chair. After a long time, he whispered, "Elspeth, I am so sorry."
"I don't blame you, Alex."
"But-"
Elspeth walked to him and lay her hand on his. "Your crime, dear Alex, is loving him too well. I cannot fault you for that." Rising, she stood straight. "However, I shall not be tied to such a man."
"An annulment will be difficult," her mother whispered.
"More than difficult, I fear." Turning to her mother, she said, "He has made an annulment impossible."
"Are you no longer a virgin, then? From what you had told me, I thought..." her mother's voice trailed off.
Elspeth blushed before the indelicate words left her mouth. "No, Mother, he was not able to consummate the marriage, however, he ensured I will not pass an examination." She raised her hand to cut off Alex's query. "Please, Alex, simply accept my word."
"Then what do you plan to do?" he asked.
"Divorce him."
"That means petitioning the House of Lords, Elspeth. They are unlikely to hear, much less grant, such a petition." Alex took her hand. "It means remarr
iage will be impossible. You will not produce an heir for Greymere."
"What choice do I have?"
"Let me talk to him. Let me reason with him."
Elspeth shook her head. "Reason with a madman?"
"He will listen to me. I can make him see he must treat you with respect."
Suddenly she was so tired. "My wrist hurts," she said, hoping to remind Alex of Richard's idea of how to treat a wife. "I'm going to the kitchen to get some tea."
* * * *
Great Spirit! This place was rich. Hal gaped at the horses, the finely kept stables and outbuildings, the stores of grain, the cellars full of root vegetables, the greenhouses providing whatever delicacies the Countess could want at whatever time of year. A gentleman farmer could live on Greymere and never want for more.
The steward, FitzWilliam, supervised the loading of the wagon, referring to the list Hal had made at the Countess's bidding.
"There you are, sir. Let us get a team harnessed up and ye'll be on yer way. Here, Tommy." He waved over a stable boy. "Get Loki and Thor hitched to this wagon."
"Thank you." Hal offered his hand.
FitzWilliam shook. "Just doing as the lady bid." He glanced over to make sure the boy was doing his job. "I take it she was on her way home and had a bit o'trouble."
Hal wasn't sure how to reply. FitzWilliam's next words saved him the trouble. "'Course we're happy to have her home."
"You've been here a long time?" Hal said, only meaning to make conversation.
FitzWilliam smiled. "Indeed. My folk were the barons here before the Countess's people crossed the Channel."
A sudden chill ran over Hal's skin, though there was no breeze. There was no threat in FitzWilliam's words, but there was something in the tone that made him decidedly uneasy. He made the best reply he could come up with.
"I can sympathize, I believe. My people found themselves in the same boat."
"I don't believe it's the same thing at all, sir. There's a shade of difference between savages and landowning gentry." The man's smile had faded. "No offense meant, o'course."
"None taken." Hal watched the steward check the traces as the boy finished harnessing the team.
The Ladys Pirate Page 5