by Unknown
He heard her give a shriek and turned just in time to catch her full against his chest, uttered a startled oath, and went down. He came up coughing and choking, the salt water stinging his eyes, her delighted laughter ringing in his ears. He wiped his face with his hands and gazed at her in some bemusement.
"Now we're even," she chuckled, her eyes dancing with merriment.
Chapter Seventeen
They'd been trudging along the beach for perhaps an hour when they spotted their fellow survivors. There were only a scant handful of fortunates, or unfortunates, depending upon how one looked at it. They were a miserable looking lot, and Adrian wondered, as he and Danielle approached them, if he and Danielle looked as disreputable. Like as not, they did. On the other hand, they could scarcely look worse.
Surveying them, he soon realized that the little knot of people he'd observed were actually only three men, the captain and two of his crew. He wondered at the absence of the others, for there had, to his recollection, been at least three others with the captain the night before, but finally decided that they'd undoubtedly been sent in search of food and fresh water. Lavinia, he discovered with an odd mixture of relief, dismay, and discomfort, had settled herself in the shade of a palm tree, several yards away from the others.
They weren't greeted with great rejoicing. Lavinia's greeting was the only one that was actively hostile however. "So," she said, rising and coming forward to join the others. "I see you found your slut."
Adrian eyed her pointedly. "Indeed. And how are you, Madam?"
Lavinia turned beet red as the two sailors guffawed loudly at Adrian's remark. His jaw tightened, and he sent them a chilling look. Their laughter faded, and he turned his attention to the captain.
"Where are the others?"
The captain looked at him glumly. "So far as I am aware, there are no others. We lost four men on the way in last night. Blasted long boat overturned. Nearly drown us all."
"Have you any notion at all of where we are?" Adrian asked next.
The captain turned to survey his surroundings as if for the first time. "It's my guess we're in Spanish Florida, but that's only a guess. We could be anywhere, what with that damned storm . But, Florida, I think, though I couldn't hazard a guess as to just where. Perhaps midway the peninsula, more or less. I don't see any coconut palms."
Adrian eyed the captain in silence for several moments. "In that case, might I suggest the beach isn't the healthiest place for us? We should move inland a bit before heading north. Do you think you can lead us to the nearest English settlement?"
The captain shook his head. "'Fraid not . . . ."
"But we have to stay here!" Lavinia broke in to object. "How will the next ship find us if we move away from the beach?"
"The only ship likely to find us, Madam, would be Spanish. And I doubt very much that you'd care to become their guest," Adrian retorted, then returned his attention to the captain. "No?"
"I'm a sailing man, my lord. I know the waters in these parts fairly well, but . . . ," he shrugged.
"The nearest settlement?" Adrian prodded.
Again the captain shrugged. "If we're in the New World, and I suppose we must be, and this is Spanish Florida, then the Trustee's colony of Georgia's to the north of us." He paused for several moments, scratching his long nose in thought. "There's a settlement of Highlanders at Darien near the mouth of the Altamaha River if I rightly recall. Fort Frederica's a bit south of that on St. Simon's Island." He wrinkled his brow in thought. "There is, or were, a couple of small forts south of that. Don't know if they're still occupied."
"Georgia it is, then. And it seems the quicker we start, the sooner we'll reach our destination. If there's civilization there, if only of a sort, then there'll be transportation of some kind."
"But, we've no provisions of any kind!" one of the sailors, a barrel-chested man who went by the sobriquet of 'Bull', objected.
Old Tom, Danielle's 'friend' from aboard ship, spat and spoke up for the first time as well. "No weapons neither." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the forest behind them. "There's beasts of every kind there, two legged and four legged."
Lavinia voiced objections as well. "We'd be no better off if we reached Georgia! With murderers and every sort of cut-throat running loose! I'll go to no penal colony, I tell you!"
"By George!" the captain exclaimed. "Do you say it's a penal colony now! I hadn't heard."
"Not to my knowledge," Adrian replied dryly. "It would seem illogical in the extreme, don't you think, to place felons in charge of the first line of defense of the colonies? Which is the main purpose Georgia serves."
"Say what you like," Lavinia snapped, "I know very well I heard Lord Oglethorpe founded the colony with prisoners!"
"You amaze me, Madam. I hadn't thought you were so public spirited as to keep abreast of such things. However, they were debtors, scarcely hardened felons, and only a handful at that. Georgia was founded largely as a philanthropic gesture, to help honest, hardworking, moral people who just happened to have the misfortune of being born poor. The Trustees interviewed their prospective colonists with great care. No one was allowed to come without a letter from their creditors forgiving their debts and a reference from their pastor attesting them to be of good moral fiber." His gaze swept the group and came to rest upon Danielle. He lifted a brow questioningly.
It was obvious she was no more happy with the situation than any of the rest. However, she summoned a plucky grin. "Lead on, my lord."
"You're certain?" He had no intention of leaving her behind in any case, but he thought it would be better if she went willingly.
She nodded. "The way I see it, we ain't got any provisions, stay or go. An' I don't' see that there's anything to stop the beasties from coming right here to get us if they're a mind to."
Adrian favored Danielle with an approving smile and turned to the others. "We'll say our adieux then." He nodded and turned northward, Danielle at his heels.
"You could at least leave us one of your pistols!" Bull bellowed after them when they'd gone no more than a few yards.
Adrian halted and turned to survey the group, who were on their feet now. "I could," he returned agreeably, "but I'm afraid it would be of little use to you."
Bull's stance became more belligerent. "How's that?"
"I've no ammunition," Adrian said bluntly and signaled for Danielle to follow him once more.
Danielle eyed him in trepidation for several minutes. "None?"
Adrian sent her a rueful smile. "Very little, I'm afraid. Not enough, at any rate, to share. If they wish to come, I'll endeavor to protect all. Otherwise, we may well need what I have for ourselves."
"They're arguing," Danielle volunteered after several moments.
"I'm not surprised," Adrian replied, stopping to scan the almost impenetrable forest for some sign of a path, natural or otherwise. He saw nothing and continued on, hopeful of finding a natural break of lower, less dense growth at the very least.
"They're following," Danielle said quietly. "Do you think there will be trouble?"
"Possibly," Adrian replied as he removed his pistols to check their load. The powder, he saw, was still damp. He replaced them, his look grim as he knelt in the sand and felt around in his boot.
Danielle eyed him curiously. "What're you doin'?"
He pulled a knife from his boot and stood. Pulling one of the pistols from his waistband, he handed it to Danielle and slid the knife in it's place.
She took it but stared at him dubiously. "I don't know how to shoot, my lord."
"It doesn't matter. It won't fire."
Danielle gulped but slid the pistol into the waistband of her own breeches. "It's a shame, it is, that you didn't think to bring your sword as well."
Adrian slid her a crooked grin. "We nearly drowned as it was, infant. And we wouldn't have these if I'd used the sense God gave me and tossed them before I dove in."
Sh
e sent him a look of surprise. She found it difficult to believe he'd behaved as impulsively as he now claimed. It wasn't like him, not at all. "It's just as well you didn't consider it, then," she said finally.
"My sentiments exactly. Though I thought it a damned fool thing at the time."
"I didn't much care for the way they was lookin' at me," Danielle muttered after taking another glance over her shoulder.
Adrian slid her a speculative look. "I didn't care for it myself. Can you tell direction by the sun?" he asked idly.
Danielle gaped at him, shaking her head slowly.
"The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It would be on your right in the morning, if you were headed north, and to your left in the afternoon. Do you think you could remember that?"
"You ain't plannin' on leavin' me, are you?"
Adrian's smile was grim. "Not if I can help it, infant. But you will remember, in case you should need it? You would want to stay close to the coast, as close as possible. You could always tell that you were fairly close by the sound of the sea and those rather loud white birds, even if you couldn't actually see the water."
"You're really startin' to scare hell out of me, you know," Danielle said accusingly. "I wouldn't leave you anyway, so you might as well keep your lessons to yourself!"
They had come upon a narrow trail that led up from the beach, and Adrian halted abruptly, taking Danielle's chin in a painful grip. "If I tell you to go, you will go. Do I make myself clear?"
Danielle stared up at him, fighting a sudden urge to cry. But she could see that he was determined to have an answer out of her and determined upon just what that answer would be. She nodded.
He smiled. "Good girl," he said briskly, stroking her soft cheek in a brief caress before he released her and turned to face the group that was approaching them. He lifted a dark brow coolly. "You decided to join us?"
The group halted several yards away, and Lavinia and the captain continued forward. "I thought it best if we stayed together," the captain said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Safety in numbers and all that."
Adrian smiled, a faint, humorless smile. "Indeed?" He looked beyond the captain, studying the two sailors. They returned his regard sullenly for several moments before their eyes slid to Danielle.
There was that in their gazes, by and of itself, that would have been sufficient to provoke a challenge under any other circumstances. However, these were singular circumstances, and Adrian was no hotheaded fool. One did not 'challenge' men of this caliber in the manner of gentlemen, in the first place. In the second, the stakes were too high should he fail, for he could not risk leaving Danielle completely without protection only to assuage their implied insult. It would be far better, he realized with a fierce sense of disappointment, to concentrate on Danielle's protection at this juncture. He could avenge the unspoken insult when he had her safe.
"We thought we would have the best chance if we all shared what we had, for the good of all," Lavinia spoke up challengingly.
"It might work," Adrian said cooly. "If all are in agreement."
"Thing is," Bull challenged. "We ain't, are we?"
"Meaning?" Adrian asked, tensing slightly as he felt Danielle move closer to him, for he sensed without even looking at her, that the furtive movement denoted her fear of the men, and it brought his anger dangerously near the loss of reason. Lavinia, he saw without any real surprise, looked on with avid interest. The captain only looked miserably uncomfortable, for he'd lost his sense of authority the moment his feet had left the deck of his ship.
Tom cackled nervously. "Meaning you ain't seen fit to share your bawd, an' me an' Bull's wonderin' if you mean to."
Adrian's expression turned more stony, if possible, than it had been before. "If I had one," he said with cold emphasis, "and she was agreeable, why then, I might consider it. As I haven't, the question is moot, is it not?"
Tom glanced at Bull uneasily. "Wot's he mean by that?"
Bull eyed Adrian , allowing his gaze to flicker to the knife and pistol at his waist, slid a speculative glance at Danielle, and then looked away. "I reckon we was mistaken," he muttered finally.
"Almost fatally," Adrian said agreeably and gestured towards the trail. "Shall we?"
Bull studied him for several moments more but finally took to the path with Tom, Captain Tyler, and Lavinia following. Danielle, after casting an apprehensive glance at Adrian, stepped onto the trail behind Lavinia without comment, and Adrian brought up the rear.
It was noticeably cooler once they stepped beneath the trees, and darker, so that it took several moments for their eyes to adjust from the blinding brightness of the beach to the gloom of the forest. Above them, the spreading limbs created a canopy so dense that, for the most part, sunlight filtered through only in bright little splashes of color here and there, creating puddles of glowing gold on the dense carpet of leaves that seemed to cover nearly every square inch of earth. The trail itself was well cushioned with leaves, the land virtually flat, so that walking was no great hardship, except when they came upon the occasional shrubs, briars, or drooping tree limbs that crowded the narrow path. For it was narrow, only wide enough for them to walk comfortably single file most of the time, though it widened slightly for short stretches here and there.
Danielle gazed about her with a mixture of awe, interest, and trepidation. She'd never been outside the city in her life until that fateful night she'd chosen the Lady Dorinda's long boat as a refuge, and the place she now found herself in was so different from what she was accustomed to as to seem totally alien.
It was a frighteningly majestic sort of place, as crowded with raw nature as London's thoroughfares were with people. But even the flora was disturbingly unfamiliar.
There were enormous oaks everywhere she looked, some so huge four men could not have spanned their circumference standing hand to hand, but even those didn't look quite the same as the stout English oaks she was accustomed to seeing. And strange, exotic trees and shrubs nestled next to them and crowded about their trunks. Palms, those peculiar looking trees the captain had noted along the beach, were almost as much in evidence as the oaks. And they were indeed odd looking things, limbless, except at their bushy tops, without bark, but with odd, knobby spikes projecting like spines along the upper portions of their trunks, while below, the trunks had the fibrous look almost of burlap.
Below them were what she took to be young palms. Trunkless, there was nothing to them but the strange looking, spiky, fan-like leaves. Or she supposed they were leaves. It was hard to be sure when they looked nothing like leaves she was familiar with.
These carpeted much of the forest floor, but drooping ferns of several distinctive varieties filled in the expanses they missed, along with tangles of briars that looked vaguely familiar, and low growing or tall shrubs that looked totally unfamiliar.
There were berries, her stomach noted with a leap of resounding joy, amongst the briars. Plump, juicy black and red berries. Adrian apparently noticed them as well. He moved off the path to pluck several and examine them. After studying them for several moments, he discarded the red and popped the black into his mouth, tasting it experimentally. "Tart, but not bitter. I shouldn't think they're poisonous," he pronounced and proceeded to gather a double handful.
Danielle watched him with a mixture of longing and apprehension. She did dearly wish he hadn't mentioned the possibility of them being poisonous. It hadn't occurred to her before. Now, not only was she reluctant to assuage her hunger with them, but she didn't care to see Adrian eating them either.
He noticed her worried frown and gave her a reassuring smile, extending a handful. "Your breakfast, my lady," he said teasingly.
Danielle flushed with a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment, fully expecting the others to comment on his chosen form of address. She saw to her relief, however, that they were far more interested in collecting their own breakfast. "Thank you, my lord," she responded in care
ful accents, taking the berries and settling herself cross-legged on the path.
Adrian dropped down beside her, munching his own berries while he studied his surroundings with interest. "I've read of this place," he said to no one in particular, then his eyes fell upon Danielle in rueful amusement. "I thought it best to familiarize myself with it when I was 'invited' to become a colonist. But I see that it beggars the imagination to describe it. I can also see why it has drawn so many. There's enormous potential for wealth here. Particularly for growers. Are all the Colonies like this?" he asked, directing the question at Captain Tyler.
Captain Tyler shrugged. "Haven't been about much in the colonies. Not beyond the ports, at any rate. The climate, in the norther colonies is rather more like England than it is down here. Not so hot come summer, a good bit colder come winter. It's pretty much one great wilderness though, except in those places where they've hacked out a bit of civilization. And even there it don't compare to England. It's a crude, uncivilized place."
Adrian nodded and tossed the last of his berries up, catching them with his mouth, or three of them. Two rolled down his chest.
Chuckling, Danielle reached to pluck them from his lap and poked them in his mouth. He bit down on the tip of her finger, gently, his gray eyes gleaming with sudden desire as he sucked the tip before releasing it.