REGENCY: Loved by the Duke (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Short Stories)

by Tencia Winters

  He looked down sadly at the table where much of the food had gone uneaten. “You must understand that the Snags are very similar to bloodhounds. They never forget a scent and if you were to be on the water at all they would sense you. That is their way.” He looked at her, almost pitifully. “You’ve been thrust into a world that you know nothing about… and for better or worse, you’re here for the duration.” He sighed somberly. “I am so very sorry to have to say so, but I’m afraid that now, you’ll be a permanent guest of my home.” His look and his words were both sad and Tris could only stare at him, wondering if she was perhaps still dreaming and wondering too if she would ever wake up from… this.

  “Luke…” she began.

  “I’m sorry, my dear,” he said, his voice heavy with genuine remorse. “If we had the means to fly you out of here I would happily have concocted some story to help you believe that what you’d seen never actually happened. I would do all in my power to see you returned to the mainland safely and you could go on with your life. But it’s not meant to be. Not anymore. My island is too small – and too rocky – for a runway so a plane could never land here. A helicopter might, but there is no landing pad here and even if there was, no helicopter in the world has the fuel capacity to fly you to the nearest island with an airport. The only way to leave my island is by boat. And those poor souls that you witnessed being slaughtered… well, the Sea Snags would not have attacked unless they were certain that someone on that boat had seen them first hand. It’s one of their only defenses really.

  “You say you were watching dolphins? Well, likely the Snags were feasting on them when one of your fellow passengers saw them. Their only defense then would have been to bring down the sightseeing boat that you were aboard. And if they know you are aboard my supply boat, they will inevitably sink the whole vessel just as they did yours. I cannot ask my people to take that risk, I’m sorry.”

  He turned as if to go but before he left the shade of the tent he turned to look at her. “The room where you showered is yours now. I’d advise you to please not try to escape. My supply boat really is the only way off the island and my staff will be alerted to your presence and they’ll know to watch you.” He looked sadly at the stony ground. “Also, there are worse creatures out there than the Snags, Tris. Here in my home, is the safest place you could ever be.”

  She could see that he still wasn’t lying. And for a man who was wealthy enough to own an island she imagined that perhaps he was a gifted liar. Yet somehow she was perfectly aware that every word he had said was true. This seemed a bit far to go for a practical joke and there was no sign of humor in anything he said.

  “I’ll do everything that I can to make you comfortable, Tris,” he promised.

  She shook her head. “No… I won’t believe it. You can’t keep me here!” She took a hasty step forward, intent on throttling he man.

  Before she got within reach, however, a loud howling sound drew her attention, freezing her in her tracks.

  She turned and a scream built up inside of her lungs that failed to leave her mouth. Her terror was so vast at what she saw that to even make a sound as necessary as a scream would surely have meant death.

  There were monsters standing in behind her. Three of them… each of them easily as large as a man, though one was slightly smaller. Each of them poised to block her escape.

  At first she thought they were some kind of a lizard. There were three of them and they were impossibly large lizards, like Komodo dragons. But they weren’t Komodo dragons. These looked far fiercer than that. And lizards, she knew, did not walk upright like people.

  They were indeed standing erect like a man would, but on two short and stubby legs, balancing the remainder of their weight on their long tails. But from the short legs that hung on their bodies where on a man arms would be, she guessed that the creatures could crawl around on all fours like a genuine lizard if they wanted. And on any surface, as each of the creature’s limbs was capped with five fishhook shaped claws. Their skin looked as smooth as glass, almost like a snake’s. And the pattern of its scales looked just like the strange image she had seen on…

  The realization washed over her in less than a heartbeat. No. No! It wasn’t possible… it couldn’t be…

  The creatures hissed at her and she got a closer look at the rest of their features. Each creature had a spear-shaped mouth filled with two dozen tiny daggers. In their mouths were forked tongues that flitted from one side to the other like a snake’s.

  Protruding from their lower jaws were several small hair-like extensions, almost as though the creatures had a beard that had not yet grown in. Their eyes were yellow and catlike, the top of their head lined in small horns that extended from the tip of their snouts all the way down their backs. Their bodies were colored almost as dark as blackened glass.

  And from the hiss that issued over their lips, she would have thought they sounded hungry.

  She reached back into her senses, thinking that she had truly gone mad. That maybe she was in the throes of death and drowning in the ocean right now… that she’d never actually made it to shore… and that her mind was just conjuring up some image that helped her cling to life only to make her long for death.

  If that were so, she did not feel it. Part of her was hoping that Luke would scream for her, calling for his armed security and that those men would gun down these animals right where they were.

  But no outcry came. Not from anyone.

  “Tris, there’s no need to worry,” Luke said calmly and she felt his hand on her shoulder and he stepped by her and fearlessly approached the creatures. Much to her shock, he embraced the smallest of the three, as if it were a lover, encircling its midsection with his arms.

  She felt bile rise in her mouth.

  “This is my wife,” he said familiarly. “And these are my two sons.”

  Chapter 4

  Tris was barely maintaining control of her finer senses as the day wore on. She had been escorted back to her room, though she had taken the pitcher of wine from lunch with her and had drank all of it in the hope of passing out and waking up aboard the cruise ship, surrounded by the familiar comforts of her stateroom and hoping for the comfort of realizing that everything she had experienced was just a dream… or a nightmare.

  But the alcohol had not helped. It seemed that her adrenaline – or maybe it was just sheer madness – kept her awake. She felt as wide awake as a priest on Sunday. There would be no sleep for her… not from this. Not until she could either confirm her sanity or be certain that she had slipped to lunacy.

  She leaned against the frame of a door that overlooked a private balcony to her room. Beyond was a portion of the compound that she noted had been overturned by Luke into this, his private villa. Some of the old Spanish guns that rested on the walls were still being cleaned by the staff and every once in a while she saw armed guards walk by on the walls and below in the yards. Each of them stopped to acknowledge her with a nod, crushing any hope she had of remaining anonymous to these people until she could find a way to escape.

  They know who I am, she thought, feeling mortified.

  She had thought to find some alternative methods of communication. She had searched her entire room and found no telephone… no computer… nothing that would help her reach the outside world.

  There has to be something, she decided. Luke had said there was a boat. Boats needed radios… and the radio that could do that was probably… Down at the docks… where they’ll know an outsider, even if Luke hasn’t told them about me.

  Shit!

  Okay… so getting a hold of a radio was out. But so were a good many other things… including a psychiatrist. She knew that the island had electricity, she had determined as much by the lights in her bathroom and from the security cameras that she had seen outside in the courtyard. Obviously they weren’t cut off from the rest of the world, especially if Luke said that there was a boat to bring in supplies.

  So… the boat is th
e only way out of here.

  Shit!

  All of her thoughts had been on wondering if she had gone insane or not for the first fifteen minutes when she had returned to her room. After that she resolved that she would rather not find out and decided that if she was still in control of her psyche that getting away from this place was the best way to preserve it.

  But deeper contemplations of trying to find another way off the island were drowned out by everything that Luke had told her at lunch… and by what she had seen. Though she had seen it – or thought she had – she was unwilling to believe it. Monsters… the Bermuda Triangle… monsters… she was marked for death… monsters… she was a prisoner here…

  It’s not true, she told herself repeatedly and with gulp of wine. It’s not true… it can’t be true. This isn’t happening… Luke… Mr. Silva… whatever the hell his name is… it’s all fake! He’s just fucking with me! I didn’t see that shit!

  There came a knock on her door that almost made her jump from her skin. She turned towards the door and gripped the edge of the door frame she had been leaning against. “Go away!” she shouted, feeling tears form in her eyes.

  The door was lightly pushed open and standing there in the arch of the door were two figures that would have, under normal circumstances, caught her interest entirely.

  They were men. Each of them built handsomely enough for her liking. Broad shoulders, well-toned if not overdeveloped muscles, a light sheen of sweat covered their bodies where they were visible. They wore no clothes that she could detect, their modesty protected only by towels that were wrapped around their waists.

  One of them had lightly colored blonde hair that was parted down the middle and wore deep brown eyes, and he looked to be about thirty or so. The other had a head of lighter brown hair and piercing green eyes, though he was slightly shorter than his counterpart, looking about forty or so in age. He carried a metal flask in his hand.

  “I told you to go away,” Tris warned.

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that,” the blond one said, taking two steps into the room. “But, our father thought it would be best if we talked to you. He knows you’re upset… and believe me, we understand perfectly how you feel.”

  She caught the word like an outfielder catching a long-drive. “Your father?”

  “Yes,” said the brunette man. “Luke… he’s our father.” He blushed a little. “I’m Jon… and this is my brother, Jacob,” he said, gesturing to the blond man beside him. “We met earlier today… though, you wouldn’t know us if you saw us.”

  Fear began to tremble inside of her legs. She couldn’t have run even if she wanted to. “You’re… his sons?”

  Jacob and Jon both shared an amused look. “Well… no, at least we’re not his sons biologically. Uh… it’s kind of hard to explain,” Jacob said. “That’s why we’re here.”

  Tris held her ground, thinking that if things came to the worst of it, she could just throw herself from the balcony of her room and hope that the fall killed her. Death seemed preferable to wasting away here as a captive.

  Wait… am I a prisoner here? Could this all just be some kind of cruel joke?

  She licked her lips nervously, hoping that the answer to her question would be a resounding ‘no’. “Am I a prisoner here?”

  The two men looked at each other uncertainly before looking back to her. “Uh… it’s not that simple, I’m afraid. You’re here for your own protection… and for others too, I suppose,” Jon said.

  “The Sea Snags can’t find you if you’re too far inland… you just happened to land on the only island that they won’t try and cross. They die if they’re out of the water too long. Most other places, if you’d washed up on shore and that drink you spilled on you had washed off enough, they’d have plucked you right off that beach,” Jacob added.

  Okay, they’re nuts too, Tris decided, but stayed on point. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  Jon pursed her lips together contemplatively. “Yes… I suppose it would be simpler just to say that you’re a prisoner here. But… it doesn’t have to feel that way. That’s another reason that we’ve come here.”

  “You can’t hold me here,” she warned. “That’s kidnapping.”

  “Not in the eyes of the local law,” Jon said delicately. “You see, our father – when he bought this island – the government recognized his right to set the laws for this place as he saw fit. They didn’t care if he did or not, the island is so small and nobody but us lives on it. So, according to local law, your life as a U.S. Citizen is null and void here. You’re a resident of this island now.”

  Tris’ jaw dropped. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” Jacob confirmed. “Money can accomplish a lot in this part of the world. It would be best if you just accept it. This isn’t a terrible place to live. Not in the least. We have all of the comforts you could possibly imagine here. And if it’s not here, we can import it. Well… everything except cars. There’re no roads here.”

  Tris looked around for some kind of weapon as drastic thoughts crossed her mind. Maybe throwing herself off the edge of the balcony wasn’t a sure-fire way to protect her from falling into madness. But an alternate thought also sailed across the front part of her brain and she felt she had the spine to attempt it.

  Here she had the sons of the man who owned the island. Much as she hated to do anything violent the idea of taking either of these men as a hostage and demanding to be returned to… well… anywhere but here, suddenly held great appeal. If she could get down to the docks while holding a knife or something to either man’s throat… they would have to take her anywhere she wanted.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Jon said.

  Tris froze, fear overcoming her malevolence. “Excuse me?”

  “You’re thinking that there’s no way out… that you feel like someone is standing on your chest… that you can’t breathe. It’s like suddenly the world should be a much bigger place but all you have is… this,” he said as he swept his arm across the room, encompassing the entire island.

  Tris tried to gather her fortitude and stepped away from the balcony door and deeper into the room. She could not see anything that she could use as a weapon, not even an improvised one. Even though her mind was still pressed with desires of escape, there was something to this man’s words that had caught her attention. There was a note of sympathy inside of them. And despite her thoughts she had the strange feeling that these two posed no threat.

  Not really.

  Jacob held up a hand to keep her calm as he took one cautious step deeper into the room. “How much did he tell you?”

  Tris, again, looked curiously at the pair of men. She was confused but thought it best to answer with the only truth she knew. “That monsters are real… they ate the people on a sightseeing barge… and I’m stuck here.” She felt herself leaning against a wall. “And I’m starting to think that I’ve gone bat-shit crazy.”

  Jon smiled at the remark, Jacob chuckled.

  “What?”

  “There was a time when I thought the exact same thing,” Jacob said. “Both of us had at one point, I’m sure.”

  Jon licked his bottom lip contemplatively. “He told us what he told you, Tris. And while he told you the truth about why you have to stay, he didn’t tell you everything. He left some of it up to us because… well, because we’ve been through it before. And believe me, you’re lucky. When I first came here I didn’t have anyone to help me adjust. I had to come to it naturally and it was harder for me. I didn’t have Jacob here to help me out until years later. But now… there’s something that can help you through it. You’ll understand everything a lot easier if you’ll just hear us out.”

  “Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Tris said, holding up her hands and hoping that the crazy flying around the room would keep away from her. “Wait… just… wait!” She took a breath and worried that the last of her sanity might be leaving her even now. “Just, tell it to me straight no
w. No more subtleties… no more half-truths… none of that shit. Just tell me what the hell is going on.”

  Jacob nodded. “If you like… although, you might want to sit down.”

  Tris didn’t move.

  “Suit yourself,” he said indifferently, “you say you want the truth?”

  “I’m all ears.”

  Jon settled on the bed, the towel he wore hiking up a little and exposing a little more of his leg. “The truth is… I’m one hundred and seventy one years old. Jacob here is just a little over seventy. I came to this place just after the Confederacy fired on Fort Sumter. My father was a wealthy merchant in St. Louis and when the war broke out he was afraid for me. He didn’t want me to get inducted into the army so he packed up me and everything that he had and decided to make a quick run for the Bahamas on his private yacht… though we never made it that far. We saw the Sea Snags and we ran aground here on this island trying to get away from them.” He pointed at Jacob. “Jake here was a pilot… crashed here just before the Korean War got started. Snags tried to get him too, but they didn’t know he was a champion swimmer… he made it ashore before they got him.”

  “Luke found us both, took us in, and eventually he made us into what we are. We’ve been here ever since,” Jacob said fondly.

  Tris had seen enough bad television in her time to know a false story when she heard done. And there was nothing false about this tale. It sounded like something out of one of those corny soap operas, but she had seen evidence to the contrary that her mind was still trying to make sense out of.

  “Bullshit,” she said simply. No other resolution came to her mind but that.

  “It’s not,” Jon replied. “It’s a hard truth, Tris. But it is the truth.”

  Tris shook her head. “Sea monsters… no way off this island… and you’re a hundred and seventy one years old? And you, you’re seventy?”