Bound by Decency

by Claire Ashgrove

  Old Bess’s inn loomed before them, the regal front façade crafted from smooth set stone. Tall pillars added grandiose, thick trees offered a touch of seclusion. Jennings, now the unofficial mayor of Nassau’s pirate colony, often called upon Old Bess herself. Cain had long wondered if her wealth came from his riches, as opposed to the prices of her ladies. Though her women were nothing to turn one’s nose up at either. They commanded high prices, all of them possessed beauty, and to the delight of the men who could afford them, expertise that the common street walker could not claim. They were free of sickness as well.

  “Ooh,” India murmured as she looked up at the two-story spectacle. “I didn’t expect this.”

  Cain pulled in a deep breath to fight the constriction in his chest. An hour or two at the most…

  He closed his eyes against a wave of wistfulness, then led her to the back door, which stood askance, lively music wafting into the warm night air.

  He pushed the door open wide, took her iguana from her hands, and ushered her inside. With a casual sweep of his arm, he indicated the arched doorway to his right. Inside, several polished tables waited. Three held couples, seamen Cain recognized as his own and ladies whose faces he couldn’t recall, but their dress, although rich and lavish, made their status indisputable.

  “Your tavern awaits, my sweet.”

  India flashed him a giddy smile. He led her to a table in the corner and pulled out a leather-backed chair, inviting her to sit. She obliged with a soft sigh.

  “Rum you say?”

  She bobbed her head. “Yes, please.”

  “Very well, I will fetch you a mug.”

  Confident no one would harass her with three of his crewmen nearby, Cain made his way to the long bar and the stunning blonde affectionately known as Old Bess. Too many years had passed since he’d last seen her, and his heart warmed at the prospect of saying hello to an old friend. He leaned on the waxed surface and hollered in his most belligerent voice, “Two rums, hop to!”

  Bess spun around, lips pursed, anger flashing in her eyes. But when her gaze met his, the fury drained away with the widening of her smile. “Cain!” She rounded the corner of the bar, her skirts held in her hands to keep from stumbling over them, and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh it is so good to see you! Drake said you were in port. I’m so happy you stopped by.”

  Cain feathered a brotherly kiss across her cheek as he returned her hug. “It’s good to see you too.”

  She backed away, green eyes bright with delight. A curl tickled at her cheek, and she hastily tucked it into her fashionable coif. “What brought you back to Nassau?”

  “I have some unfinished business that suddenly cropped up.”

  Old Bess eased around the corner of the bar, assuming her place before the long shelves of crystal glasses once more. “I heard about your misfortune. About a week ago, a ship came in from Charles Towne, bearing news of your escape.” She tossed him a sultry wink as she reached for two stoneware mugs. “I’m glad Drake helped you out of that mess. Two you say?” She looked over his shoulder in search of a companion.

  Cain nodded to the table where India sat feeding her new pet. In the dim light, her dark hair glinted with strands of deep blue. The days of sunshine heightened the color of her delicate features, giving her skin a soft sheen of bronze. As if she sensed the weight of his stare, she looked up. Even at this distance, he could still see the color of her eyes. His breath lodged in his throat, and for one frightening moment, his heart forgot how to beat.

  “Oh my,” Old Bess murmured. “She is lovely, Cain.”

  Indeed she was. More beautiful than any woman he had ever laid eyes on. He swallowed through his tightening throat and turned his attention back to Old Bess. “I will need to make arrangements with you when she isn’t present.”

  “Oh.” Old Bess’s expression sobered, and a touch of pink crept into her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I misunderstood. That won’t be a problem. Ella is still here. I believe she’s playing cards with Drake right now. I’m sure she’ll be very glad to see you.”

  At the mention of the buxom blonde he had once preferred, Cain’s stomach twisted with unexplainable revulsion. However, he allowed Old Bess to believe as she would. Soon enough he’d explain his need. Once he spit it out, he didn’t intend to delay his departure and watch India walk away.

  351

  Bound By Decency

  25

  India sighted down her nose and inspected the swell of cleavage that peeked through the gaping collar of her shirt. Her breasts were small in comparison to those that nearly popped out of the neckline each time the serving woman delivered a mug of rum. And yet, she felt certain that no matter how she tried, she would never accomplish shoving her décolletage into a bodice that tight.

  “Princess, what are you doing?” Seated at her left, one ankle crossed over his knee, Drake lounged in the chair as if he owned the place.

  His remark drew Cain’s immediate attention, who fixed India with another frown. She’d grown so tired of his frowns tonight. Each time she opened her mouth, she seemed to spur his sour temper. Her answer, no doubt, would send those dark eyebrows right down his nose. But there was nothing for it—she was finished with hiding her mind behind polite responses and the things people expected her to say.

  She grinned in the same cocky manner Drake himself assumed. “I’m trying to discover how it is possible to stuff one’s bosom into a bodice that is four sizes too small. I’m quite sure mine would never suffer such abuse, and they are half as ample as…What was her name?”

  Even Drake spluttered his drink into his glass. He sat forward at the same time Cain thumped his mug onto the table. But where laughter possessed the rouge upon recovering from his surprise, Cain’s expression remained dark and gloomy.

  “Her name is Ella,” Cain answered before he took a long swig.

  “An’ she tightened her laces when she heard Cain was in the tavern,” Drake supplied.

  India grinned, but she didn’t feel the humor. So it wasn’t her imagination that each time the woman appeared at their table she fair put Cain’s nose against her sizeable breasts.

  “Leave off, Drake. Haven’t you other things to do? Pay a visit to Alex?” Cain snapped, relieving India from the weight of his scowl to turn the dark look on his friend.

  Drake lifted his mug in salute. “At the moment I have nothin’ better to do than sit with my good friend and watch fair India send him into fits.”

  Fits? Cain’s mood was her doing? India cocked her head and curiously peered at Cain. What in the heavens had she said or done? She hadn’t left the table. Hadn’t even uttered a single word of complaint that he would not take her to the gaming tables and teach her cards.

  Before she could form the words to ask Cain if Drake’s remark was correct, Cain shoved away from the table and rose to his feet. “I have some business to attend to.”

  “I certainly hope it isn’t with that Ella woman.” The words slipped off India’s tongue before she could stop them. She snapped her mouth shut and sank into her chair, trying to make herself as small as possible.

  Cain froze. His head slowly turned her way. But his scowl had vanished, and something she couldn’t describe burned behind his gaze. Something that intensified the rum’s warmth in her bloodstream to uncomfortable limits.

  “Pardon?” he asked in a low voice.

  “I-I mean…” What did she mean? That the idea Cain would find the whore compelling did strange, unexplainable things to her stomach? She snatched at the first excuse that came to mind. “Her perfume is so strong it would stay on you for weeks. I have no desire to smell it in my sleep.”

  The gleam behind his eyes grew brighter. He held her gaze, conveying words that might have made sense if she’d only had one mug, not three. She grasped at the possibilities, narrowed her eyes in a vain attempt to prod the explanation from him.

  It was no use. Cain looked to Drake. “See if you can keep her out of trouble.” Without a
nother word, he stalked out of the room toward the narrow stair off the door they’d entered through. Ella followed on his heels.

  India had never before had cause to hate a woman. Richard came the closest to provoking that emotion. But as she watched the sway of the prostitute’s hips and heard her sing-song voice call out to Cain, she knew she hated that one. She also knew she shouldn’t. Although Ella threw herself at Cain, he hadn’t encouraged her. Not outwardly at least. On occasion, his eyes held hers a bit longer than necessary, and their hands brushed in a familiar manner, but Cain hadn’t even looked upon the cleavage that loomed before his face each time Ella appeared.

  Drake’s rough hand patted her arm. “He’ll not keep company with Ella.”

  She blinked. Were her emotions so very transparent? She masked her discomfort over Drake’s observance with a dig at him. “I’m surprised you aren’t.”

  In contrast to the usual good humor that Drake exuded, he let out a heavy sigh, and a slight frown tugged at his arched brow. “I’m a lot of things, but unfaithful isn’t one.”

  The far away look in his eyes told India more than his simple words. In the brief passing of time before his smile once again returned to light his face, she witnessed longing. “You miss her, don’t you?”

  He chuckled as he turned his glass between his hands. “I was to meet her here on our arrival.”

  “Here? She lives in Nassau then?”

  Drake answered with a thoughtful nod.

  “Have you tried her home?”

  “It’s dark.” Lifting his glass, he tossed back the contents, then set it stoutly on the table. The devilish twinkle returned to his dark eyes. “Never mind all that. Come. While Cain’s away, I’ll teach you cards.” Standing, he extended his hand.

  a

  As Cain rounded the staircase on his way to discuss India with Old Bess, Ella’s voice drifted after him.

  “Cain, Bess said you had arrangements to make?”

  He stiffened, having had more than enough of her aggressive pursuit. He couldn’t decide which aggravated him more—that she made her interest so obvious, or that his body failed to respond. On the contrary, he’d lit up bright and burning when India’s leg brushed against his beneath the table. When she made an outlandish remark. When her hand fell atop his arm. Damnation, India had ruined him for all other women.

  Ella sidled up to him and trailed a manicured nail down the front of his shirt. “What did you need, handsome?”

  He caught her fingers as they tugged at his waistband and removed her hand from his person. “I do, Ella, but not with you. The past is the past. We’ll leave it there.”

  Dismay turned her full lips into a comely pout. “I didn’t think you were the marrying kind, Cain. But I see two years of honest work changed your mind.”

  “Marriage?” He nearly choked on the word. “I’m not the marrying kind.”

  Suspiciously she glanced over her shoulder. Cain followed the trajectory of her gaze. It landed on India as she followed Drake toward a game of cards. Ever so slightly, Ella’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth pursed into an unpleasant line.

  A deep foreboding crawled down his spine. He had known Ella to be nothing but kind and sweet. But he’d heard rumors of fierceness amongst Old Bess’s charges. Ladies who had taken up knives to protect territorial claims on clients. Several years back, Old Bess had even removed her finest consort for reasons she wouldn’t elaborate upon, but rumor linked the woman with dead prostitute found in the alley behind the inn.

  Cain hurried to distract Ella. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her away from the tavern room. “I need to speak with Old Bess. You needn’t reserve yourself for me, but perhaps when I finish we can reminisce.”

  At once, her expression brightened. “Indeed, I would like that very much. Come, she’s retired to her rooms. I’ll let her know you wish a moment of her time.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Old Bess said from the stairwell. Silk skirts in one hand, she carried a basket of linens beneath her free arm. “I am here. Leave us, Ella.”

  With a respectful courtesy, Ella backed out of the hall.

  Old Bess descended with grace that befit her station as Nassau’s elite madam. Although Cain knew she kept a knife strapped to her thigh, outwardly she was every inch a picture of respectability. Despite her forty years, age had yet to make a presence on her face. Her dress was as fashionable as the attire he’d witnessed in the Colony, and her hands, though they knew the chores of labor, were as soft as satin as she reached the last stair and set her fingers on his arm.

  “I apologize, Cain. I assumed you would still desire Ella. I have a few new faces—tell me your preference, and I will make a suitable match.”

  He laughed inwardly. She might as well ask him which ship he preferred, for there was only one answer to her question—India. As the thought came, he glimpsed the way his curious captive seated herself beside a full-bearded sailor at the rich mahogany gaming table. Leaning to her left, she peered over the man’s shoulder to examine his cards.

  Drake jerked her sideways before the seaman could take notice.

  In that moment, that infinitesimal space of time where India blushed and her long hair tumbled over her shoulder to obscure his view of her pretty face, Cain witnessed every charming antic that had endeared her to him. She had defied him with her stubbornness. Intrigued him with her curiosity. Bewitched him with her kiss.

  You’ll keep me safe.

  She’d been so convinced of the notion. So absolutely trusting that he would keep her from harm, when all along he’d been planning to abandon her. And he had foolishly tried to convince himself that he could walk away without a single regret.

  Ella’s hateful glare surfaced in his memory. Even if he paid Old Bess every coin he owned to insure India’s safe-keeping, he couldn’t guarantee India would stay out of harm’s way. If not from the women, she’d bring trouble to herself with her insatiable need to see and discover everything. If it hadn’t been for Drake just now, God only knew what the bearded stranger might have done had he caught her staring at his cards. He’d never believe she innocently peeked. That it was just part of the way she comprehended things, by witnessing and touching everything.

  The way she had touched him…He blocked the thought before it could take root.

  Cain didn’t know what he’d do with her, but he couldn’t leave India here. Not when she trusted him to protect her.

  Not when everything inside him screamed in violent protest.

  At his silence, Old Bess turned her head toward the room and let out a soft laugh. “I must confess, Cain, when I saw her, I wondered why you would want Ella at all. What is her name?”

  “India,” he murmured.

  Old Bess shifted her basket to the other arm. “Come, we can speak in my room. Tell me what you need from me?”

  Cain’s gaze swept back to the lizard on the table they had occupied. India out-bartered The Genie. Even Drake, with his silver tongue, couldn’t claim that victory. Nor could Cain, and he’d negotiated with sheikhs.

  He shook his head. “That won’t be necessary.”

  Leaving Old Bess in the hall, he walked toward India. Time moved in slow motion as he wove through the tables. The noise in the room drowned out, the only audible sound, India’s musical laughter. He stopped behind her, his courage faltering for a terrifying heartbeat. What if she despised him for not leaving her behind in this place of comfort?

  He swallowed the rising lump in his throat and set his hands on her dainty shoulders. The warmth of her skin seeped into his hands, erasing the irrational fear. She wouldn’t despise him. She thrived on the ship. Bending low to her ear, he whispered, “Do you wish the bath, or do you wish to return to the cabin?”

  She turned her head, her sweet mouth inches from his. The fruitiness of rum clung to the light breath that washed across his cheek. It took every bit of willpower he possessed to not ease forward and press his lips to hers. To resist the urge to drag h
er out of the chair and haul her to a room upstairs.

  “Take me back,” she murmured. Her lips feathered against his cheek. “I want to be alone with you.”

  Fire ignited in Cain’s blood. It poured through his veins and stiffened his shaft. God’s teeth, he had damned himself to a worse hell than parting would have created. But Lord help him, he couldn’t refuse. With effort, he forced himself to back away and pull her chair aside.

  As she accepted his offered hand and stood, the bearded man spoke. “Cain! How long has it been? Three years?”

  Yanked from his heady awareness of India, Cain squinted at the sailor. He wore a thick brace of guns. No less than three pistols hung off his thin frame, their silver muzzles sharp against his black attire. A scar bounced across his right cheek, tugging tight where it blended into his temple. The long black beard had thrown Cain, but he’d never forget that scar—he’d put it there when a childhood game of marbles ended in fisticuffs.

  Cain thrust out his hand. “By God, Edward, I thought you’d be dead by now.”

  Edward clasped his hand, drew him in for a brotherly hug, and pounded a fist on Cain’s back. Releasing him, he let out a snort. “Can’t kill me. Though Drake be tellin’ me how they tried t’string ye up.” His beady eyes narrowed beneath bushy eyebrows. “Can’t say that be a right frien’ly thing fer Richard t’do.”

  “Aye,” Cain agreed as he cast a sideways glance at India. This was not the subject he wanted to close the night with.

  “I came down here knowin’ ye’d be showin’ yer face. Crossed paths wit’ a lot in Bermuda, few weeks back. One o’ them be boastin’ bout dupin’ that Lieutenant Jacobs inta thinkin’ ye’d caught yerself a ship off th’ coast.”

  Cain stiffened as did India, understanding hitting them both at the same time. Someone who’d been part of Richard’s plot. Alive. Nearby.