Tides of Passion

by Sara Orwig

  “You want to catch Armando and Quita,” she whispered. And of all the disasters in their venture, this seemed the worst—the cold-blooded culmination of Josh’s hatred.

  “Yes. They haven’t sailed. They can’t be far ahead, because they expected Francisco. Come on, Lianna. At last I’ll confront the Count of Marcheno.” He took her arm and they left. Outside, they found the carriage ready, Simms and Fletcher waiting.

  “As far as we can find out, your other men have gone to Valparaiso to the ship,” Fletcher said.

  “Good. Fletcher, let me have your sword.”

  While Fletcher unbuckled the belt and Josh fastened it around his hips, he said, “Lianna, you may have the carriage. I’ll ride ahead.”

  She knew the unspoken words. He wanted to be free to look for the Marcheno coach, to find Don Armando. Lianna climbed inside and sank down on the seat, sitting stiffly, her mind refusing to think about what lay ahead.

  The day had darkened, with storm clouds boiling overhead, hiding the sun, yet the air was cloying and hot. In spite of the heat, Lianna was chilled, shocked at the death of Francisco, dreading what might happen in the next hours, and wondering where Edwin was. She gazed out the window and remembered their arrival so long ago, recalling Josh picking sunflowers and his teasing words. She prayed that the count and Quita would be on the coast, on board a Spanish ship, out of Josh’s reach.

  She was stunned by events. The victory of the patriots had been overshadowed by other happenings that were more personal: Rinaldo’s death, Edwin so close at hand, Josh’s private war.

  Hours later the coach speeded up and Lianna leaned out to see a cloud of dust on the road, a black coach lumbering ahead, and Josh galloping after it.

  Her fears became reality as she watched, bouncing with each jolt of the carriage. She heard the pistol shot and saw Josh fire into the air. The coach lurched to a halt and he leaned forward to yank the door open, then backed his horse away with his gun drawn. Leaning out the window with wind and dust whipping her face, Lianna watched him jump from the saddle and draw a sword.

  The distance between them narrowed; then her carriage halted. The moment it stopped, she flung open the door. Fletcher barred her way. “Don’t try to stop him!” he snapped.

  “Get out of my way, Fletcher.”

  “He’s waited years for this moment. You can’t imagine what they did to twenty-four people.”

  Lianna stepped back, slammed the door shut in his face, and rushed out the opposite door. She ran toward the Marcheno coach while Fletcher rushed around the front of the carriage to stop her.

  Josh held a sword pointed at Count Armando’s throat. Quita had stepped out, and Francisco’s wife, Salina, stood beside the carriage. Dressed in a blue silk dress with diamonds and rubies around her neck, Quita was pale as she glanced at Lianna. “Por Dios!”

  Armando called Josh a foul name. He moved his hand slightly and his heavy ruby ring glinted. Lianna glanced at it and saw the serpent’s head. When Armando moved, Josh pressed harder with his sword, pricking the skin and drawing blood.

  Armando shouted, “Cabrón! My brother will avenge us—”

  “Your brother is dead.”

  Armando gasped, and Salina slumped to the ground in a faint. Quita closed her eyes, then opened them, looking at Lianna. “Por favor, Quita, Madre de Dios, por favor…”

  “Get out of my way, Fletcher,” Lianna demanded flatly, looking into angry gray eyes that narrowed. Suddenly his expression changed. He stepped aside, and she rushed to Josh. “Let them go, Josh!”

  “How did my brother die?” Marcheno asked.

  “By a sword thrust,” Josh said, ignoring Lianna. Josh’s sword tip moved higher on Marcheno’s throat. “Get away, Lianna.”

  “Lianna!” Armando snapped, and Quita paled, dropping to her knees to raise her hands. “Por favor, please, captain, let us go…let us go.”

  Lianna clutched Josh’s arm. “Stop it!” she cried.

  Quita sobbed, a high, wailing sound as she rocked back and forth, her skirts lying in the dust, her hands over her face. Marcheno’s face blanched.

  “Por Dios, por favor…” he said, “leave my wife—”

  “How much mercy did you show Phillip?” Josh thundered. “Get back,” he said to Lianna.

  “You can’t do this!” she cried. “You can’t murder them coldly, willfully!”

  “They’ve done worse! He would have had you arrested, tortured, handed over to Farjado—”

  “That’s their burden. Don’t become like them!” Hot tears streaked her face as she pulled at an arm like iron. She felt desperate to stop him. Josh’s body was straight as a ramrod as he held the sword pressed against the count.

  “Get away, Lianna. You won’t want to watch.” Josh ground out the words with an ominous softness.

  “No! Let them go! All my childhood I lived without love. You’ve given your life to hate, Josh. Don’t throw away love. Don’t become a murderer! It will be on your conscience forever!”

  “I’ve murdered before.”

  “You’ve only killed in self-defense,” Lianna argued. “As you did in the fight with Farjado. It would have been your life otherwise. This is different. This is hate.”

  “Dammit!” Josh’s hand shook. “When I remember Phillip and what this beast did—”

  “Stop clinging to that memory,” she begged. “It’s on his conscience. Don’t have his death, hers, their unborn child’s, on yours! None of it will bring back your brother.” She shook with sobs. “There has been so little love in our lives…so little. Please…”

  “Fletcher!” Josh bellowed. “Get her out of here!”

  Fletcher’s arms wound around her, picking her up. As Lianna screamed, Fletcher’s hold tightened. Everything swam, and she couldn’t get her breath.

  Fletcher called to Simms to start the carriage as he held Lianna tightly pressed to him.

  Suddenly she knew it was useless to fight. She went limp with sobs. As the carriage lumbered along, Fletcher eased her onto the seat and sat facing her quietly while she cried. He stared at her while the wind whistled around them. “You have hysterics over Josh’s violence, yet you murdered Francisco Marcheno without a qualm.”

  “Because it would’ve meant Josh’s life if I hadn’t.”

  “You care for you husband that much!” After a moment he said quietly, “I think I’ve misjudged you.”

  Lianna looked into Fletcher’s eyes and for the first time felt as if all animosity were gone, yet the moment was of little consequence. Lianna wept with a sense of absolute loss.

  At port in Valparaiso, El Feroz looked majestic riding at anchor in the bay. The English colors flew abovedecks, along with a blue flag bearing a golden lion. Men were busy getting ready to sail. Beyond it were two more ships flying the Union Jack. Lianna hurried up the gangplank and followed Fletcher to the captain’s quarters. He held his silence when he noticed a man watching them. The man leaned against a barrel on the wharf, then straightened and hurried in the direction of a small boat.

  “Fletcher!” Lianna whispered.

  “I saw him. It’s the same man who watched us in Santiago,” he said grimly.

  “Why would someone watch us now?”

  “I don’t know.” He took her arm to go below, and opened the door to the captain’s cabin. “This is yours.”

  When she saw the familiar surroundings, Lianna’s heart lurched. “Thank you,” she whispered as he closed the door and left.

  All she could think of was Josh holding his sword against Marcheno’s throat. Would he kill Quita and Salina as well? An ache in her chest was unbearable and she felt as if something inside her were dying a little too. As she sat still in the silence of the cabin, she realized it was also a beginning. She placed her hand on her abdomen and thought about the child, praying it was healthy and would have Josh’s eyes. She pulled the tiny blanket out and rubbed its softness against her cheek, then dropped it in a chair.

  She had few possessions,
almost as little as she’d brought aboard from Portsmouth. There were four treasures to keep: a faded, wilted gardenia from the ball; the flag of Chile; the diamond necklace from Josh; and the baby blanket.

  She crossed the cabin to the washstand to bathe her face. In a few minutes Fletcher sent a steward with hot water and Lianna bathed, glad to change from the dusty clothing into a dress. She wore a blue muslin, tying her hair behind her head with a ribbon. She stood turning the gold wedding band on her finger, her tie to Josh; and now there was a more binding tie, their baby.

  Would Josh appear with the Marchenos’ blood on his hands? She dropped into a chair and placed her head in her hands.

  Suddenly there was a scuffle outside and the cabin door banged open.

  Fletcher came stumbling into the room, propelled by a man who stepped in behind him, holding a saber at Fletcher’s throat.

  “Edwin!” Lianna was stunned to face him.

  “Lianna, I mean no harm to anyone, but they wouldn’t let me come aboard to see you.”

  She stared at him, unable to think or to answer.

  “She’s wed to another,” Fletcher said.

  “Fletcher, please leave us alone,” Lianna said, knowing she would now have to tell Edwin about her love for Josh.

  Fletcher said, “I think I should protect Josh’s interests—” The saber tip prodded sharply, bringing a prick of blood that darkened Fletcher’s white shirt.

  “Shut your mouth!” Edwin snapped. “And do as she asked.”

  “Edwin, please don’t hurt him!”

  “Burford!”

  A burly sailor appeared. Edwin nodded. “Get him out of the way so the lady and I can talk.”

  “Don’t do this!” Fletcher said to Lianna. “If you—”

  The sailor swung a club, striking Fletcher on the side of the head. Lianna gasped as he crumpled to the floor. The sailor caught him beneath the arms to pull him out.

  “Edwin, how you’ve changed!” She stared at him in shock, wondering how much she really knew him.

  “He’ll come around in minutes. Lianna, my ship is docked only yards away. Come aboard and let’s talk.”

  She stared at him in indecision, wanting to blurt out that she loved only Josh, yet knowing it would be a cruel way to break the news. “Edwin, Josh will be along shortly. We can talk here.”

  “I don’t want to have to keep clubbing his men on the head.” He smiled. “Lianna, please. I’ve sailed around the world for you. Can’t you come talk for an hour?”

  “Of course,” she said, feeling guilty but dreading the hour.

  His smile broadened. “Ah, Lianna, we have so much to discuss.” He took her arm to go up the gangway. Topside, each of Josh’s men was guarded by Edwin’s men. Edwin and Lianna hurried down the gangplank to a longboat, and within minutes she was whisked down to the captain’s quarters on Edwin’s two-masted schooner, the Eagle. The ship was smaller than El Feroz, the captain’s quarters cramped. While she heard men pour onto the ship, Lianna stared at the man she knew so well, yet hardly knew at all. Edwin had changed, hardened. A scar cut a jagged path across his cheek, and his shoulders were broader, more filled out. He was tall, broad-chested, dressed in an elegant white shirt and blue breeches, yet the gray eyes gazing at her were so familiar. He held her hands, holding her away from him while he smiled. “How beautiful you are!”

  “Thank you. And you’re more handsome than ever.”

  He smiled as he motioned her to a chair and moved to a table to pour two glasses of brandy. “It seems forever, Lianna.”

  She said, “Now you’re a captain! How did you get your own ship?”

  He crossed to hand her a glass of amber liquid, holding his out. “To the most beautiful woman on earth.”

  She laughed. “Thank you, but that’s ridiculous!” She touched her glass against his, hearing a faint clink; then she took a drink. The brandy was bitter, a flame going down while she sat back and watched Edwin move to a chair. “I didn’t return home after you left. I signed on a ship.”

  She gazed at him in surprise. Edwin sat back in the chair looking relaxed and composed, and again she realized how vastly they had both changed. “You didn’t know anything about sailing.”

  He smiled. “No, but neither have many men before me. I couldn’t go back to the farm. At the time, I had a notion of finding you.”

  She blushed and knotted her fingers together. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, Lianna. I’m glad. I couldn’t have achieved this if I’d returned home to work.”

  “That doesn’t explain how you became captain,” she said, and waved her hand. “How did you get your own vessel?”

  “We were sailing back to England when we were attacked by pirates. We were caught in a storm with a crippled ship.” While he talked, Lianna realized Edwin was as busy assessing her as she was him. And she wondered if his conclusions were as startling to him as hers. He had been an awkward, bumbling youth, but now he was poised. He looked as hard and fit as the seamen on El Feroz.

  El Feroz…Green eyes with golden flecks came like mist drifting down from the sky, to envelop her in a fog that shut out the world.

  Edwin was talking. With an effort she tried to force her thoughts to his words. The cabin was warm and she ran her fingers across her brow.

  “…when the fight was finished, there were only some twenty of us on my ship who had survived, and the others were less fit to captain than I was. Suddenly I had my own ship.”

  While he talked, Lianna turned to glance out the window again. He continued, “We returned to England, where I was hired by Lord Quimby as a mercenary to carry weapons to Chile.”

  “I was afraid Josh had harmed you that day the ships crossed paths.”

  Edwin laughed. “No, he merely chased me off the ship. I heard your father died. I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you,” she answered perfunctorily, her thoughts on Josh. Edwin’s voice seemed to recede as he talked, and she felt faint, wondering if her pregnancy were causing her head to swim.

  “To old memories, Lianna,” Edwin said gently, and held out his glass.

  Without thinking, she touched his glass again and drank, closing her eyes momentarily. It felt as if the ship were moving. “Edwin…”

  He crossed to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Are you ready to go back to England?” he asked, his gaze searching her face.

  Lianna looked up into gray eyes and saw only green. She listened to Edwin and heard only Josh’s husky voice. Josh’s image filled her mind.

  Edwin swore, startling her. “You love him, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. That’s why I came to talk to you and explain. We were so young, Edwin. You told me I was a child, and you were right.”

  “No!”

  “I’m sorry,” she said again. “You know I wouldn’t deliberately hurt you.”

  “I heard you scream that day, Lianna. You didn’t love him then.”

  “No. maybe not. I don’t know what I felt then, because I was shocked to see you and I wanted to talk to you. I was afraid Josh might kill you.”

  He moved to pull her to her feet. “I love you more than ever,” he said softly. “You’re all I’ve dreamed about since we parted in Portsmouth.”

  “Edwin, I can’t stop what I feel,” she whispered. “I love Josh.”

  “The day we fought the Spanish ship, he admitted to me the marriage was forced. You didn’t love him then, and he hasn’t given you a chance to see whom you truly love. Give me a chance, Lianna.”

  “I can’t! I love Josh deeply. Edwin, I’m sorry,” she repeated, feeling dizzy. “I don’t feel well. I should go back,” she murmured, swaying. His arms steadied her. “It feels as if the ship is moving,” she said with a rising panic.

  “Careful, Lianna. Come here.” He led her to his bed. “Lie down a moment.”

  She couldn’t argue with him, feeling as if she might topple over in a faint. She sank down and lay back, closing her eyes. “We’re not
moving, are we?” she asked, having difficulty forming the words. She wanted to get up and insist she be taken back to El Feroz, but it took too much effort.

  “Childhood is over, Lianna. We’ve both grown up, but I know what I want as much now as I did when we were in England.”

  “I don’t know how you found me,” she murmured.

  “I had someone watching your house in Santiago. I got word when you returned.”

  “I’m deeply in love with my husband.”

  “Give me a chance, Lianna! Just a chance. Once we loved each other—I don’t think you truly know what you want!”

  His voice shook with emotion. She couldn’t comprehend the depth of his feeling—and she didn’t share it. Each moment that passed, she felt torn. Her heart was elsewhere, and nothing could change her. She wanted to ask Edwin to take her back to El Feroz, but words wouldn’t come.

  “I want you, Lianna, and now I’m not a simple groomsman.” His voice deepened. “I know what I want and I intend to have it.”

  His arms slipped around her as he lifted her up, moving to sit beside her.

  “No,” she whispered, wanting to push against him but unable to do so. She remembered the bitter taste of the brandy and looked at him. She was on the wrong ship, in the arms of the wrong man, and she knew without a doubt there was no way she could make any kind of life with Edwin, but she couldn’t stop him. She felt boneless and dizzy. “The brandy…”

  “I’m going to get my chance, Lianna. It has been denied to me by fate too long.” He pulled her to him to kiss her, and she couldn’t fight him or stop him or feel anything! She wanted to scream at him to stop and take her back. It seemed impossible Edwin would take her against her wishes, yet she knew how much he had changed and hardened.

  Edwin bent his head to kiss her again, trying to force a response. And while he kissed her, he could feel the movement of the ship beneath him as it gathered speed and put out to sea.

  He fought the urge to peel away Lianna’s clothes and claim her body. Time enough later.

  Now he’d win her love. They had a long voyage and he knew from years past how to please her; he knew what women liked in bed. Lianna had been forced into the marriage with Josh Raven, and then, with time, she had come to love him, but it could work the other way also. With time and absence and childhood memories in Edwin’s favor, he could make her forget Josh Raven. And now that they had put out to sea, she would have to accept her fate. He would have the voyage to win her over—and he could delay their landing in England until he did win her over!