Fortune's Flames

by Janelle Taylor

  “Anything wrong, Miss Maren?” Dan asked.

  “Just a very persistent suitor, Dan. I tried to convince him I wasn’t interested in him, but he’s too arrogant to pay attention.”

  Dan Myers realized these two had met before and were close, despite their squabble. He replied evocatively, “Jared Morgan usually isn’t like that. Maybe he was upset about something.”

  “You know him?” Maren asked, eagerness brightening her eyes and enlivening her voice.

  The manager nodded. “He’s been to Lady Luck many times during his visits to New Orleans on business. He’s a well-liked man. You sure you want to exclude him? He was a friend of your father’s.”

  That revelation startled her. “Jared Morgan knew my father? I’ve only known him a short time, but why didn’t he tell me that when we met?”

  “I suppose Jared thought you knew. Actually, Jared’s father, Benjamin Morgan, was a good friend of Cameron’s. That’s how Jared met your father. Ben died a few years back; he was a good man, too. I’m surprised you’ve never met him or his son.”

  “So am I, Dan. But I guess Papa had many friends I didn’t know. He was a popular man and did business with a lot of people.”

  It was after midnight and Maren was still sitting on the sofa and thinking about Jared Morgan. She recalled his curious reaction to her identity. Now it made sense to her. But, having known her father and having been his friend, why had he kept taunting her? And why had he not revealed that relationship? Another mystery to solve, she decided.

  Her father might have introduced her to Jared Morgan years ago! If only she could have told him her real name that first day on the ship…Would Jared have behaved differently to the daughter of an old friend? There was something unusual about Jared Morgan, and she intended to discover what it was.

  Jared was having a similar debate with himself. Cameron James’s daughter… his partner in Lady Luck…He chuckled as he wondered how Maren would take that shocking news. Keep him out of the gambling house of which he was half-owner? “No way, my little siren,” he said aloud.

  Jared had not imagined an entanglement like this. He wished he hadn’t mentioned her alleged marriage before learning it had only been a pretense. Could it be she was telling the truth about everything? Was she a pawn in Eric’s schemes? Of course, she could be a willing participant. After all, her grandparents were English, and she had been in England for years. Maybe she had been talked into aiding the other side. Eric might have duped her, or she might be indebted to him in some way.

  “I wonder just where you stand in all of this mess, my little siren. I must uncover the truth before I let you get too close to me. And by damn, I want you real close.”

  Jared jingled the keys to Lady Luck and grinned. “Soon, my lovely one, but not tonight.”

  He stretched out on his bed, and called Maren’s image to mind. She certainly had a sparkle in her eyes when she was mad. He wanted to run his fingers through her silky hair and over her satiny flesh, wanted to see her smile again, hear her laugh, feel her in his arms. And he wanted to kiss her until she breathlessly surrendered to him. He said aloud, “I want you, Maren James, and I’m going to have you.”

  The wine was delivered as promised the next afternoon and Maren paid the man who delivered it with money from the bank box. She recorded the transaction and then left the receipt with the remainder of the money. She was tempted to remove the cash, but decided to wait until the war was over, if there was any left. If no one showed up to make a claim on Lady Luck by then, she would consider the cash hers.

  That night, Maren slipped into one of the matching purplish blue gowns and styled her hair in cascading curls. She had revoked her order for Dan to keep Jared out of the place, for she knew if she was going to learn more about him, she had to see him again. Now her pulse raced wildly as his smiling face loomed before her mind’s eye. His golden brown eyes had danced with mischief last night, and she loved the way his hair had waved playfully, settling into sun-tipped locks. She longed to trail her fingers over his hard, tanned body, to kiss him, embrace him. If only…

  “Stop it, Maren. You have work to do, a devil to unmask,” she said suddenly.

  Jared did not appear until eleven o’clock, an hour before closing time. He saw Maren speaking with people in one room, so he entered the other and found a game to join.

  As Maren strolled through that room to see how things were going, she noticed Jared Morgan. She halted and watched him until he looked up and smiled at her. It was hard not to return the smile, but she merely nodded in response. She talked with a few people and tried to keep her mind off the enticing man who kept glancing at her.

  When Jared’s table cleared of the other players, she boldly went to sit across from him. “Dan told me you knew my father.”

  Jared counted his winnings and pushed them aside before meeting her probing gaze. “For many years. Too bad he didn’t think me worthy of an introduction to his beautiful daughter.”

  “If you were anything like you are now, Mr. Morgan, I can easily understand why he didn’t.”

  “Then that is why, because the only thing that’s changed about me is my age. I suppose your being Cameron’s daughter made you seem vaguely familiar to me that day on the ship. You favor your mother, but you have traces of Cam in you.”

  “You knew my mother, too?” she inquired, more intrigued.

  “I had the honor and pleasure of meeting her on several occasions. As best I can recall, you were usually visiting your grandparents in London when I was around. Too bad. We could have started our private war years ago. I’ll bet if your father had known how daring you are, he wouldn’t have allowed you to go away alone so many times.”

  “I’m only daring when I’m around devils like you, Captain Hawk. Besides, my parents trusted me, and with good reason.”

  Jared’s twinkling eyes drifted over her. He liked the way she looked with her curls cascading—older, romantic, sensual, but also very feminine and spirited. “Thank goodness there aren’t many of us infamous devils around to lure nice little girls like you into trouble.”

  “I’m not a little girl; I’m twenty years old.”

  “And still single. That amazes me, Miss James. Can’t you find a man to suit you? Or is it that you’ve been waiting for me all these years?”

  Maren reacted guiltily to his last jest, but her reply was delivered in a decisive tone. “I’m single because my betrothed was killed when this bloody war began. I went to London to be married. That was my wedding gown you saw on the ship.”

  “You were going to wed a Brit? And in that exquisite gown! Shame on you, Maren. You certainly have a bad habit of lying artfully.”

  “Well, I’m certainly glad you don’t have any bad habits that need correcting,” she taunted.

  “Oh, I have plenty of them, but you’re just the woman to change them. Want to give it a try?”

  “Perhaps,” she replied with a compelling smile. “Frankly, you are a man of contradictions, and they intrigue me.”

  “What contradictions?” he asked, propping his elbows on the table and leaning forward.

  “I think I prefer to keep them a secret for now. I wouldn’t want you changing on me before I can figure you out.”

  “Don’t you keep enough secrets from me without adding a new one?”

  “Me, keep secrets from you, Captain Hawk? You appear to be a man who knows everything, a man who gathers every ‘tiny piece of information’ that can save your life.”

  “Is my life in danger here, Maren, or only my freedom?”

  Maren watched his eyes glow with desire, and she warmed to the flames that burned in his tawny gaze. Her eyes drifted appreciatively over as much of him as she could see. “There’s freedom, Jared, and then there’s… freedom.”

  “I believe you once told me you would like to become my willing captive. Is that offer still open?”

  “It was a silly jest made by a terrified woman during a pirate attack.”
r />   “But I’m not a pirate and you weren’t under attack.”

  “Wasn’t I?” she playfully retorted, enjoying their word game.

  “I would never attack you, Maren, but I would love to…get to know you better,” he said, his eyes darkening as his hunger increased.

  It was as if they had suddenly forgotten they were in a room full of people. Jared came around the table and sat down beside her, their gazes remaining locked as he did so. As he covered her hands with his and bent forward to dispel most of the remaining distance between them, Maren did nothing to discourage him. For some moments they watched each other, his thumbs absently stroking her hands.

  “Will you, Maren?” He finally broke the seductive silence between them when he posed the question. He wanted to yank her into his arms, to whisk her away to his room. As always, something in her eyes called out to him. It revealed her yearning for him, bound her to him whether she realized it or not.

  “Will I what, Jared?” she responded, lost in his gaze.

  “Will you let me get to know you better?”

  “Should I?” She was asking the wrong person, the right person. He was so overwhelming that he made her feel weak with need for him. He caused her body to sing with joy, to tense with anticipation, to blossom.

  Jared felt comfortable with Maren, even when they quarreled or misunderstood each other. A bond was growing between them, one he could not resist. Jared knew so much about raiding ships and stealing supplies, but did he know how to steal a heart, this woman’s heart? “If you refuse, Maren, we’ll miss something special. Can’t you feel the pull between us? Can you resist it?”

  Maren trembled. He had a powerful effect on her, but his behavior on the preceding night kept flashing into her mind like destructive lightning. Hoarsely, she said, “I have to resist it, Jared. I don’t know you anymore, and I’m afraid to trust you.”

  “You weren’t afraid on the ship or in Jamaica. Don’t fear me now.”

  “That was different. You were different,” she told him, then hurriedly left him. She was unprepared for this romantic siege, and she had to put distance between them to think clearly.

  Jared watched her leave in a panic, and wanted to pursue her. But he couldn’t. He would not compromise her. Later, he promised himself. Noting that Dan Myers was observing him, Jared decided that he had to win Maren’s confidence, but without jeopardizing his investigation of Eric James. He sighed heavily and left.

  Dan Myers glanced at the front door, then at the stairs. He knew something was going on between those two, and he wondered how it would affect him….

  Jared went to Lady Luck on Saturday to invite Maren to lunch, but she wasn’t in, or so he was told. When he asked to speak with Dan Myers, he learned that the manager no longer lived there. The housekeeper, Mary Malone, would tell him nothing more.

  That night at ten-thirty, Jared showed up again to play cards. He joined Maren and three men at a table. They played poker for over an hour, with Maren or Jared winning nearly every hand. The talk centered on the war and Jared shared what news he could. The main topics they discussed were Andrew Jackson’s battle at Horseshoe Bend in Mississippi and the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte, which would allow the British to concentrate on the war with America. Jared told the men that the blockade had been extended up the eastern coastline to Maine and that there was a great deal of fighting along the Canadian border.

  Maren nearly choked on her wine when one of the men asked, “Is it really as bad as they say at sea, Captain Hawk?”

  Jared grinned at Maren before replying, “Worse, sir. The Royal Navy had the advantage by over a thousand ships when this war began, and I’m afraid things haven’t improved much. Our nine frigates and three sloops can hardly battle four hundred of theirs, and that doesn’t include their nearly two hundred warships. About a hundred to one odds, gentlemen, but we do our best to destroy as many British ships as possible.”

  “You’re mighty brave to go against such odds, Captain Hawk.”

  Jared played his hand, then replied, “Brave, or reckless, I don’t know which. We need money and supplies to fend off our determined foe. New England has plenty of both, but she’s stingy with them. Talk is those Easterners are whispering about secession, about rejoining the British Empire. Too bad we can’t toss them out like rancid meat. Many of their businesses still deal with the British, shipping them goods that help defeat their own country. Worst of all, the New Englanders make the rest of America pay heavily for supplies. Until the Brits bottled them up last May, they controlled most of the commerce and manufacturing. Somebody needs to break their control.”

  “Damn traitors, if you ask me,” one man declared angrily.

  “Yep, this country is full of them,” Jared said. “Most describe themselves as loyal Americans while they sell us out to the Brits.”

  “It’s up to you, Miss James,” one of the players said.

  Maren pulled her gaze from Jared’s handsome face, glanced at the hand spread before him—a royal flush—and frowned. Only five of a kind could beat him and they were not playing any wild cards. “I’m afraid Captain Hawk is the winner tonight, gentlemen.”

  Jared smiled and stood. “It’s closing time, so I’ll collect later. I can trust you to hold the money for me, can’t I, Miss James?”

  “She runs an honest house, Captain Hawk, the best one.”

  “You should take your winnings with you, sir. You can’t ever tell when you’ll be called to sea to battle our enemy.” The moment Maren had said that, she winced inwardly, for she knew he would leave some day soon.

  “Better it be in your lovely hands than those of the British if I’m captured,” he replied, provoking laughter from the men who were rising to leave. “What if I collect it tomorrow when I take you to lunch?”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but I do not see my patrons socially.”

  “But I’m an old friend of your father’s and a sailor soon off to war.”

  “So you are, Captain Hawk, but that doesn’t prevent gossip.”

  Maren sighed heavily as she turned onto her left side. Then she screamed as her sleepy eyes touched on the man leaning neligently against her bedpost. The night candle revealed his face as he sat down beside her. “What are you doing here? How did you get in?” she asked quickly.

  Jared smiled. “I’m a soldier at war; we have our ways of getting into the enemy’s camp. I came to collect my winnings.”

  There was a loud knock at the door of Maren’s suite, and Mary Malone called out, “Miss Maren, are you all right? Miss Maren?”

  Maren flung the bedcovers aside and rushed to the door. Opening it, she said, “I’m sorry for disturbing you, Mary. It was only a bad dream. I’m fine now, but thanks for checking on me.”

  When Maren returned, Jared was stretched out on the warm spot she had so swiftly vacated. “I need to work on your bad habit of lying,” he stated coolly.

  “You devilish rake, what did you expect me to tell her?” Maren whispered as she stood beside her bed in a thin nightgown, her tousled hair tumbling about her shoulders. “How did you get in here? If you can enter at will, so can thieves. Tell me so I can correct it.”

  “I’d like to think I have talents they don’t, Miss James. Relax, you’re in no danger from thieves or from me. I only wanted to talk privately with you. I tried at lunch, but I was told you were out.”

  “I went to visit my cousin Marc, Eric’s brother.”

  “Did you have a nice time?” he inquired casually.

  “No, I couldn’t find him,”

  “Is he that blond lad I met on my first day here?”

  “At James Shipping?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then it must have been Marc. He isn’t too bright, and I worry about him. I can’t imagine where he is.”

  “What about at home on a Saturday?”

  “I tried there, but no one answered the door. He lives with Eric in the townhouse we used to own.”

  “Used
to own?”

  “Yes, Eric had to…You’re mighty nosy, Jared Morgan.”

  “I know; it’s one of those bad habits you’ll have to break.”

  “I’m going to break your neck if you don’t get out of here, after you tell me how you got in. What if someone saw you?”

  “No one did, Maren. I can move like the mist.”

  “In case you don’t know it, Captain Hawk, mist isn’t invisible.”

  “Heavens, woman, haven’t you heard my legend? Captain Hawk and the Sea Mist can’t be seen or heard until they’re down your throat.”

  “Very amusing, Jared. Are you going to answer me?”

  “And give away my best secret?”

  “You’re impossible!”

  “No, my fetching siren, I’m not, at least where you’re concerned.”

  “What do you want, Jared? It’s late and I’m tired.”

  “Tomorrow’s Sunday; you can sleep all day.”

  “No, I can’t. I have books to do. I work, remember?”

  “Why don’t you hire someone to do them for you so you can relax?”

  “I can’t afford any more employees,” she said, then quickly added, “There is a war going on and business is not at its peak.”

  “It doesn’t look to me as if it could get much better. People around here are carrying on as usual. The war is some distant nightmare to them, and I hope it stays that way,” Jared murmured. He wondered why Maren was handling the books instead of letting Dan do them. Had she changed that procedure?

  “You must leave, Jared. I can’t afford idle gossip. It’s hard enough to be a woman in business without having more trouble.”

  “More trouble?”

  “Must you pounce on every word I utter?” she asked, exasperated.

  “You said it, so it must be important.”

  “Why must it be important, especially to you?”

  “Because everything you say or do or think means something to me,” he replied tenderly, sitting up and pulling her down beside him.