Curses learned from a life at sea, but rarely used, cascaded from his lips.
For once, he was glad Laura had made a quick decision to leave on the Calliope. If she had taken the time to write to her brother first, whoever was spying on them would have known her itinerary. Laura was abducted from a ship on her first passage home. The thought of it happening again turned his stomach to acid.
Think! Think!
“Is this person – the one who is paying – expecting to see you again?”
Donato nodded. “Si, tonight just on dark near the forest outside the village.”
Laura’s ship was scheduled to leave in less than three hours. She would be at sea before the rendezvous tonight. And once the Calliope was at sea, no one would catch her.
And, for the first time, Elias would not be there when the ship set sail.
*
“Well, we can’t wait for him any longer and still make this tide.”
Laura heard the displeasure in Jonathan Afua’s voice. The navigator looked at his pocket watch, the same gold color of the sun overhead. “Your call, Captain.”
“He knows the time we leave.” Kit Hardacre slapped his hand on the rail and turned away. “Cast off, Mr. Afua.”
Jonathan cupped his hands and yelled, “Up gangway! Release the lines!” And to the sailors at the capstan he called, “Prepare to ‘weigh anchor!”
Laura stood at the rail and searched the teeming dock for Elias. Her vision blurred with the noon day glare and burgeoning tears of disappointment.
Did he hate her that much? Laura worried the inside of her lip with her teeth, just to keep control over her tears.
What did she expect? She’d asked for it. She’d even wished for it. Now she had it.
Will you come back?
I don’t know.
Oh, the look in his tawny eyes when he asked. She had always believed eyes were the mirror of the soul and Elias’ told her his was in torment.
The Calliope started to move off the dock as the lines slackened. The stiff breeze also shifted, and she heard part of a conversation behind her between Kit and Sophia.
“It’s not like him to miss this,” said Kit. “Elias is the most conscientious man I know.”
“What do you think is wrong?”
“I can take an educated guess. I’ll speak to him when we get back. Now he’s a father, perhaps it’s time he rethought his commitment to the Calliope.”
Laura swallowed a lump in her throat. Perhaps she was making a mistake.
“Calliope! Calliope!” A young man ran toward them, furiously waving his cap to draw attention to himself.
Slam!
Laura jumped at the sound of the gangway dropping back onto the dock. It made a high grinding noise as it dragged and shifted across the stone with the movement of the ship, slack on its hawsers. The messenger didn’t miss a stride, running up and thrusting an envelope into Kit’s outstretched hand, then leaping back across to the dock even as two burly crewmen began to haul in the gangplank again.
Laura drew closer and watched Kit scan the hastily opened document for a second before he raised his head and yelled. “Aweigh anchor!”
Jonathan approached.
“Captain?”
“Mr. Nash sends his regrets.”
Laura turned away from the rail and headed toward her cabin, ignoring Sophia who called out to her. She needed to re-read her brother’s letters and remind herself, once more, of all the good reasons why she was heading back to England.
*
From across the deck, Kit Hardacre watched Laura reach the quarterdeck, well out of earshot. He whistled to catch Jonathan’s attention and waved him back over.
Sophia approached, too. “What was in the note?” she asked. “What didn’t you want Laura to know?”
“That she’s not unhinged after all. Elias caught an intruder in Laura’s cottage.”
“What? When was this?” Jonathan asked urgently.
“Just as he was about to leave for Palermo. Apparently, someone’s been spying on Laura at Villagrazia for several weeks.”
“That’s awful. Who? And why?”
Kit shook his head in answer to Sophia’s question.
“He doesn’t know, but he’s staying to find out.”
“I’ll go tell her,” said Sophia. “She’ll be relieved to know at least she wasn’t losing her mind.”
Kit snagged his wife’s elbow before she moved away. “You know your cousin best, but before you tell her, consider whether she would be more frightened to learn someone was stalking her.”
Sophia nodded, squeezed his hand and left.
“It doesn’t seem right, leaving a man behind,” said Kit, more to himself than to Jonathan who remained beside him.
Jonathan slapped his captain on the back. “Elias is the most capable and sensible man among us. How much trouble can he get himself into?”
*
Laura heard the sound of the cabin door open and close behind her but she didn’t turn. She hadn’t the energy.
“I owe you an apology.”
Of all the words she imagined Sophia saying to her, those had not been among them.
“It’s a red letter day, indeed, then,” she said, immediately regretting her waspish tone.
“I, that is, we thought… we’re sorry we didn’t believe you when you said someone had been coming into your room and moving things.”
Laura frowned, trying to assemble the meaning of her cousin’s words, and why a woman normally so articulate and smarter than she was stumbling over herself. Then it dawned on her. She turned over on the bed and looked at Sophia.
“This has something to do with Elias’ note.”
Sophia nodded and sat down on the cabin stool.
“He caught someone shortly before he was about to leave.”
Laura sat up and squeezed her eyes shut a moment. When she reopened them, relief flooded her being. Elias didn’t hate her after all! Another thought struck her: She wasn’t going mad!
“I was right,” she whispered. “I was right all along.”
Laura put trembling fingers to her lips and closed her eyes again. She felt the mattress dip beside her as Sophia sat down and slipped an arm around her.
“You were right, and I’m sorry we didn’t believe you.”
“Who was it? Do we know?”
Sophia shook her head. “The note was short and hastily written, I believe. I’m sure it was just some villager playing a cruel prank.”
“I can’t imagine why someone would do anything like that. Everyone in Villagrazia was so kind.”
“Well, whoever it was, you can be sure Elias will deal with them.”
Laura opened her eyes and turned in to Sophia’s embrace. “Thank you. You can’t know what a relief it is.”
Laura buried her face in Sophia’s shoulder. After months of feeling like she was suffocating, Elias had freed her again with his discovery.
I’m not mad, I’m not mad…
She didn’t remember falling into an exhausted sleep in her cousin’s arms but when she awoke hours later, she was tucked in bed and the Calliope was under full sail for England.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Tell me everything from the beginning.”
Elias leaned against the door jamb, pleased with the way he kept his anger under control. He was an even-tempered man generally, but even his forbearance had its limits. The idea someone was spying on them, spying on Laura, put that particular virtue in short supply.
Donato sat with his arms stretched before him on the kitchen table. A supplicant. No, just a youth who found himself caught up in a conspiracy far beyond his reckoning.
“After Gina was…” the young man cast a sidelong glance at his sweetheart.
“Gina,” Elias commanded. “Go look after Benjamin.”
The girl rose from the table and cast a glance at Donato before disappearing through the house. Both he and Elias waited until the footsteps faded.
“I was unloading the ships one day when a man asked if anyone came from Villagrazia. I told him I did, and he asked if I knew of an Englishman who had a villa in that area.”
Elias listened as Donato related his tale. The stranger told him he was once a shipmate and wished to surprise him with a visit. The man mentioned the Calliope as well as Elias’ friends by name.
Elias closed his eyes, recalling every name and every face that had served on the Calliope and the Terpsichore before her. There were very few who did not stay on. Kit had been very choosy in accepting crew – and he could afford to be. Unlike larger ships, they only needed a crew of fifteen or so.
“Did this sailor have a name?”
“Tito. He didn’t give me a family name.”
Elias rattled through the index in his head a second time. The name Tito didn’t ring a bell.
“What did this man look like?”
Donato shrugged and Elias began to suspect the boy wasn’t that bright. “Just like a regular man. Tall…”
Elias was at the ragged end of his patience.
“Dark skin? Light skin? Fat? Thin? Bald? Grey hair? Dark hair? Answer me!”
Donato stammered out a response and Elias felt tension leave his shoulders. For one horrible moment there, he feared Ahmed Sharrouf had returned from the dead and the nightmare of the past three years continued.
And if he was one of Sharrouf’s men, this Tito was not one Elias recognized. “When you went through Miss Laura’s studio and her bedroom, what things did the man ask you to look for?”
“Letters. Tito told me it was all right. He and Miss Laura were friends, he said, and were in secret correspondence to plan a surprise for you. I was to take a letter from her desk and the next night I would return with the reply.”
And it hadn’t occurred to Donato it was the same letter he took and returned? Elias closed his eyes and counted to ten. The boy really wasn’t that bright. Even if he couldn’t read, he could at least notice…
“Can you read, Donato?”
The young man shook his head. Elias let out a long sigh. No, of course he couldn’t…
Who was this man looking at Laura’s letters? He had made no overtures himself. He just kept to the shadows. A spy. What information was in the letters that could interest this man – or his employer?
Laura kept all correspondence from her brother. What could someone learn from that? That Laura had a son. Why would that be important to someone? And if not Ahmed Sharrouf, then who?
The realization hit him swiftly and sickeningly.
What if Sophia had been wrong? What if Selim Omar was not dead? What if he wanted to retake Laura and her son?
His son…
For the first time in a very long time, Elias felt the icy fingers of fear grip his spine. And for the first time since joining Kit Hardacre’s ragtag band, he was completely on his own.
He hauled himself upright. The first thing to do is find out who this Tito worked for and why Laura’s letters held such interest for his employer.
“What time are you supposed to meet this man, Donato?”
“Soon after dark.”
“Show me where.”
On the far side of the village, Elias picked his way along a half-overgrown goat track at the edge of the forest, following Donato.
“This is the spot.”
Elias looked about. It seemed like the middle of nowhere with only a charred and blackened tree stump to mark this particular location. He spent the next half-hour walking in every increasing circles outward from the stump looking for any sign of an encampment. There was none.
Donato had trudged behind him silently.
“Does Tito usually meet you here?”
“No. We meet in lots of places. I told him about this place because I used to come here with Gina.”
“Where else did you meet?”
Donato recited a list – all were out of the way places, unlikely to be seen from the road or stumbled upon by a farmer or a goatherd.
Whoever Tito was, he was obviously familiar with the area – no one had mentioned a man lurking about the village and no news spread faster than a stranger in their midst.
“Have you eaten?” he asked Donato. The young man shook his head. “Then come on back to the house.”
Elias picked up a fallen branch, long enough and sturdy enough to use as a makeshift quarterstaff if needed. There were still a number of hours to go in the afternoon, let alone nightfall, so there was little point in waiting, particularly since he was not as prepared as he wished.
If the crew of the Calliope were here, Elias would have them fan out ahead of time to prepare an ambush. The faces of Matteo and Serafina’s nephews, Angelo and Pasquale, drifted across his mind. He shouldn’t involve them, they were not fighting men – they were youths not much older than Donato. But what choice did he have?
They reached the edge of the woods and Elias followed the gentle undulations of the emerald green grass to Laura’s studio that gleamed like a pearl in the sunlight. Further up was the villa itself and beyond, the olive trees standing in regimental order. He loved his little Eden but, unlike Adam, he would deal with the snake.
A bell rang out, its merry peal tumbling down toward them. That was Serafina calling everyone for the noon meal.
“What is it that Tito expects you to bring him?”
Donato shrugged. “More letters.”
“And he does not read them in front of you?”
“No. It’s too dark.”
“And then in a day or two, he gives you the letter to return?”
“Yes, sir.”
They walked through the rear door into the kitchen and saw an extra place setting. It seemed Serafina had already anticipated Donato.
Serafina put a dish in front of Elias, but his appetite had gone. He sat at the end of the table and bowed his head. One by one Matteo, Angelo, Pasquale and Gina put down their spoons. Out of deference to their hunger, Elias did not linger over saying grace.
He was also mindful of the how carefully the young men watched him. Apart from Donato, they all knew how he felt about Laura. And now she was gone.
He waited until the household had eaten before he pushed his own half-finished dish away.
“I think you already know Donato from the village. He will now be working with us. Angelo, Pasquale, show him around. Serafina, please prepare a bunk for him with the rest of the boys. Matteo, I want to have a word with you before you go.”
He watched the young men look at one another before one rose, and then the others. He turned to Gina who had been uncharacteristically quiet.
“It seems we know the truth about Miss Laura’s missing objects and I want to acknowledge you are not to blame. If Miss Laura were here, I’m sure she would offer an apology for her accusations. As she is not here, I am giving you my apology instead. Now go and help Serafina and then you can tell Donato about what happened to your baby.”
The young girl’s eyes filled with tears. She gave a brief nod and a curtsy before hurrying off. That left Matteo in the kitchen with him.
“You found out who was taking Miss Laura’s possessions? Who was it?”
“It was Donato, but in his defense, he was borrowing them on behalf of someone else. This person told Donato a tale and he believed it.”
The puzzled expression on Matteo’s face remained.
“In the course of my time at sea with Captain Hardacre, we made a number of enemies. I believe one of those enemies wants to harm Miss Laura.”
Matteo’s eyes widened in understanding. “Then it is as well that she has left for England.”
Elias nodded.
“I’m concerned that when he learns Laura is gone, he will turn his atten
tion to Benjamin instead.”
Matteo’s expression became resolute. “I will kill anyone who hurts our bambino.”
“You’re a good man, Matteo, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But I do need you and the lads to be vigilant. At this stage, this fellow has been content to lurk at our borders. He doesn’t know yet we have the truth from Donato. We need to keep that to ourselves until he shows his hand and we know who he is working for.
“Then what would you have me do?”
Now there was a question.
Elias wasn’t sure he had an answer. He needed time to think – just as Kit had before every battle. The captain would lock himself away and puzzle through every possible outcome until he came up with one that delivered hell to their enemies but put his crew to the least amount of risk.
It was a fine balancing act, a walk of a knife’s edge that Kit seemed to instinctively perform. And it was a skill that Elias owned only in a half-measure. His only thought was to keep Laura’s son – his son – safe.
“Just be vigilant – that’s all we can do. The man has arranged to meet with Donato tonight. I plan to lay in wait. Perhaps I can persuade him to tell me why he is spying on my family.”
Elias felt sweat bead between his shoulder blades and trickle down the back of his shirt. He waited.
Waiting was so much easier when you knew what you were supposed to be waiting for. And if you had a plan. He had neither.
Matteo, Pasquale and Angelo had insisted on accompanying him, which was another reason he sweated. The men aboard the Calliope were seasoned, accustomed to violent fighting; these young men were not. However, Matteo’s argument that he needed extra pairs of eyes to follow Tito was unassailable.
“You are not to get close enough for him to take a swing at you or take a shot at you, do you understand?” Elias had given orders and saw their eyes widen at the possibility their quarry might be armed. He prayed they had enough sense to follow his direction.
From his hiding place behind a boulder, Elias could see part of the blackened stump and the thin, pale path, turned gold in the afternoon sunlight that crossed below him.
Revenge of the Corsairs Page 23