Table of Contents
Front Matter
DEDICATION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ALSO FROM BLUE TULIP PUBLISHING
The Captain’s Revenge
The Revenge Series, Book 3
By Nadine Millard
Blue Tulip Publishing
www.bluetulippublishing.com
Copyright © 2016 NADINE MILLARD
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
THE CAPTAIN’S REVENGE
Copyright © 2016 NADINE MILLARD
ISBN-13: 978-1-946061-05-8
ISBN-10: 1-946061-05-0
Cover Art by Jena Brignola
DEDICATION
To my husband Larry. You’re my soul mate, my rock, and the reason I can write about true, everlasting love.
PROLOGUE
“ARE YOU QUITE sure about this, Anna? I hate the thought of dragging you away from your family.”
Anna Spencer smiled into the beloved face of Lucas Townsend.
How kind he is. How handsome. How brave.
Though she was young, Anna knew that she was desperately in love with the young man standing before her. And though she would be sad to say goodbye to her brother Jonathan and cousin Evelyn, it would be worth it to be able to spend the rest of her life with Lucas.
But she had her doubts, of course.
Eloping to Gretna with a penniless merchant’s son was not what one expected of the beautiful daughter of a highly respected and wealthy family.
The Spencers had been treated like royalty in their part of England for generations. Never so much as a whiff on scandal.
And this was more than a whiff.
After years of waiting and preparing, Anna was due to have her come out in London. Mama had talked of nothing else.
There had been dress fitting after dress fitting, dance lessons, practising curtsies until she thought her knees would give out altogether.
The only thing that made the dance lessons with a stuffy old man suffering genteel poverty bearable was being able to roll her eyes at her comrade-in-arms since Evelyn was forced to endure them, too.
The only time Anna felt any real pleasure, however, was during these stolen moments with Lucas.
They were standing together in the spot they’d been using for meetings these past months. It was nothing more than a copse of trees at the side of the laneway that led from Anna’s home to the chapel on the estate.
The branches of the towering old oaks were so interwoven that they created a sort of hidden den, perfect for such interludes.
Anna, Evelyn, and Jonathan had discovered it years ago, but as they grew older, Jonathan going off to Oxford and Evelyn and Anna growing into young ladies and not schoolgirls, it had long since been forgotten.
That was, until, Anna had needed somewhere to meet Lucas.
She smiled up at him as reassuringly as she could.
He was so handsome with such an open, guileless air that Anna found terribly refreshing. Generally, the young men of her acquaintance were as stuffy and boring as their older counterparts.
She loved how his navy blue eyes sparkled with genuine warmth and joy. She loved how his chestnut hair was oft times unkempt and wild, rather than tightly held under submission.
Lucas was a free spirit with a good heart, and Anna loved him desperately for it.
“I am quite sure that nothing will ever make me happier than spending my whole life with you, Lucas,” she answered with all of the sincerity in her heart.
His answering grin made her heart gallop as it always did.
But after a moment, the grin faded.
Lucas moved away from her to lean against the trunk of an oak.
“I can’t give you the sort of life you are accustomed to, Anna,” he said grimly.
She could see by the tense set of his shoulders that it cost him to say those words.
“Much as I would love to shower you in diamonds and silks and take you to balls and parties, I shall never be able to.” Lucas laughed quietly, but it was humourless. “I don’t even know what I am thinking, asking this of you,” he continued, more to himself. “You should be getting ready for your Season. Enjoying the glamour and excitement of your come out. And here I am, dragging you away from it all because I’m too selfish to let you go.”
Anna didn’t respond right away. She needed to choose her words carefully, she knew.
Lucas wasn’t selfish.
He was the most giving person she’d ever met.
In fact, the first time she’d met him was when she’d been delivering soup to a tenant’s family who had fallen on hard times after he had become too sick to work.
Anna had been leaving when she’d quite literally bumped into Lucas, who was arriving with his own offerings of firewood and coal.
Anna knew who he was at once. There’s wasn’t a large village, and she had often seen him in his father’s shop.
But today, well, today he was different.
He seemed bigger, stronger. His face more handsome, though still filled with boyish charm.
And he smelled divine.
Anna had felt heat flood her cheeks at her wanton thoughts, curious as to what was happening to her.
Anna’s heart had begun to race as Lucas executed a very serviceable bow in greeting.
She had been disconcertingly tongue-tied as she stammered a response to his greeting and enquiry as to her health.
Her body was tingling in a most unusual way, her heart hammering so loudly she feared he would hear it.
Embarrassed beyond belief, she beat a hasty retreat and began pounding down the laneway, determined to return home and hide away forever.
Since the tenant lived on her father’s lands, Anna hadn’t bothered to take a maid with her. She often roamed freely around the estate. It was usually the only peace she got from her overbearing mother and her father, who treated her as either an inconvenience or a possession to auction off to the highest bidder.
Anna had been lost in her confusing yet intriguing thoughts about the young man when she heard a shout behind her.
Stopping and turning, she was equal parts horrified and delighted to see Lucas rushing to catch up to her.
“Excuse me, Miss Spencer.”
Anna had to look up a fair bit as he towered above her, his limbs long and gangly.
“Y-you seem to have dropped your basket.”
Anna, rather stupi
dly she must admit, looked down at her empty hands as though expecting her basket to be there, as though the one he held out to her was an imposter.
“Oh, of course,” she mumbled, her cheeks growing hotter still. “Thank you.” She reached out and took the handle of the basket, her hand brushing slightly against his.
And though she wore her kidskin gloves, she felt a jolt from the contact shoot right through her.
“Are you all alone, Miss Spencer?” he asked now, frowning slightly.
“Yes, I am,” she stammered nervously. “I often walk the grounds alone. It is my home, after all.”
Lucas seemed embarrassed now and strangely, it made her feel much more at ease.
“Of course,” he answered. “I just — well, I would have accompanied you home otherwise.”
Anna suddenly found herself quite desperate to spend more time with him, especially away from the prying eyes of her mama or the village gossips.
“I would like that.” She smiled gently.
And when he smiled right back in return, Anna felt something shift in her. Something change. And she knew that her life was about to be altered forever.
From then on, their meetings had been as regular as possible and as wonderful as she could have imagined.
Lucas had treated her as though she were something precious. And not in the way her father did; father treated her as a commodity. Something he could benefit from.
Lucas treated her as though it was her heart that mattered, her soul, the person she was on the inside, not the polished exterior she had been trained to show to the world.
She had grown to love him with all the passion her young heart was capable of, and he had returned that love.
As the time crept closer to her leaving for London, they had developed the idea of eloping together.
Young and in love, they could think of no worse fate than being separated.
And so, here they were. About to embark on a life that would destroy the ones they’d lived thus far.
Anna knew what she was doing, but she had no reservations.
Without Lucas, she would be miserable.
She walked over to him and gripped his hands, forcing him to look down at her.
“I have grown up with wealth and grandeur and all the things you think I deserve, Lucas,” she began, now picking her words carefully, making sure he understood just how right this felt to her — being with him. Being more than the daughter of Geoffrey Spencer.
“And I have never known what real, true happiness is. Until now.”
Lucas’ deep blue eyes bored into hers as she spoke with all the sincerity she could muster.
It was desperately important to Anna that Lucas know what he meant to her, what he had done for her.
He’d shown her, for the first time in her life, that she was worth more than what she looked like. That she was worth caring about, truly caring about. That her mind and her soul and her heart were more important than her blonde hair or unusually coloured, amber eyes.
“I don’t want to spend another day away from you, away from that feeling.” Anna’s breath caught in her throat as she waited for him to speak, to react.
Finally, after eons of complete silence in which all sorts of terrible thoughts and self-doubt ran through Anna’s mind, Lucas’ face relaxed into a beautiful, tender smile.
“I love you so much, Anna Spencer,” he said simply.
But it was all she needed.
“And I, you,” she responded, her heart bursting with happiness.
The church bell from the village church suddenly rang loud and clear across the countryside, rousing lazy birds and reminding Anna and Lucas of the time, pulling them back to reality and away from each other.
Lucas gathered her in his arms once more, pulling her lithe body against his own, capturing her lips in a desperate kiss.
“Tonight then?” he asked hoarsely when he finally released her.
Anna smiled beatifically. “Tonight,” she confirmed.
As she dashed away, back toward the cold mausoleum that was Spencer Park, back to her foreboding father and irritating mother, Anna thought how lucky she was.
In just a few short hours, her life would be irrevocably changed.
She was right, of course.
Her life would irrevocably change that night.
And the biggest change of all would be that Lucas Townsend would not be in it from that moment on.
CHAPTER ONE
ANNA FELT… MAUDLIN. That was it.
And she shouldn’t, really.
Jonathan had just been married to the love of his life.
Her older brother, whom she had worried herself sick over, was finally healing and had become whole once more.
And it was all down to his beautiful bride.
The wedding had been lovely — the flowers, the wedding breakfast, the radiant bride and the proud groom.
It should have been perfect. It had been perfect. Until Anna had looked up and seen him.
Lucas Townsend.
How was it that after all these years, after the way he’d broken her heart and left her to such a terrible fate, her heart still yearned for him? And, even more bizarre, why did she still long for his good opinion?
When she had first heard that Lucas was back in England, all those years ago at Spencer Park, she had been shocked and really rather furious at her reaction to the news.
Where was the outrage? The anger? The fury?
Why wasn’t she remembering how she had stood beneath that damned oak tree as dusk turned to night, as the sounds of the day drifted to those more ominous ones of the darkness?
Why wasn’t she abhorred as she thought back to the fear, the upset, the heartbreak she felt as she listened to the church bells, so jolly and celebratory earlier, now, only hours later, ringing out desolate and sombre in the otherwise still night air?
Lucas had called at Spencer Park upon returning to England, but Peter, her now-deceased husband had refused to allow her to receive him, and Anna had to send her cousin Evelyn in her place.
Her husband had always been the possessive and jealous type, cruel in the restrictions he imposed on her.
But in that moment, when the butler had announced that Lucas was there, Anna had been tempted to defy him, defy her father and anyone else who would stand in her way, and run to Lucas.
Of course, common sense had prevailed.
Why should she risk Peter’s notorious temper to go to the man who had left her, broken and alone, under that oak tree, hoping he would come, knowing as the seconds ticked by that he wouldn’t?
She had seen him again, of course.
The night of the ball in the Assembly Rooms.
The night the truth had come out about Peter and her father and how they had conspired to orphan her cousin Evelyn, and for what? So her father could have Evelyn’s money, and Peter… Peter could have her.
That night, Andrew had almost been killed trying to save Evelyn.
That night her whole family, her whole world had nearly fallen apart.
And she had been oblivious, yet again falling too easily under the spell of a man who detested her.
Anna’s mind skittered away from the memories of Lucas and the ball at the Assembly Rooms all those years ago. It was too much to bear, allowing memories of that night and his disdain for her to seep into her brain, poisoning what should be a jolly occasion with insidious thoughts of his contempt and her humiliation.
Of course, the wedding was already ruined by the lout, at least for Anna.
His mere presence would have been enough to cast a cloud over the proceedings. But his treatment of her when she’d gone to greet him as he’d stood with Gabrielle, her new sister-in-law, had been the outside of enough.
He had coldly answered her greeting and then made a getaway so quick he practically sprinted from the ballroom of Jonathan’s Mayfair townhouse, where the wedding breakfast was being held.
And now, here she sat, hiding a
way in a drawing room just off the entrance hall, too humiliated to face anyone and missing the first joyous occasion her family had gotten to celebrate since the arrival of her nephew, William.
Though William wasn’t technically her nephew, since Evelyn was a cousin and not a sister, no two sisters could have been closer than they, so it stood to reason that she would be Aunt Anna to the adorable little boy.
The sound of revelry permeated the house. The clink of glass, a laugh, a cheer. It was slightly less sedate than usual ton events, but Gabrielle’s Gallic charm seemed to have roused a bit more spirit in the stuffy British guests than usual.
Anna knew that she would soon have to re-join festivities.
For one thing, her absence would be noticed and gossiped about. For another, she’d seen Gabby’s distress and Jon’s anger when Lucas had been so rude to her before taking his leave, and she had no intentions of ruining their day by having them worry about her.
Lord knew it had taken long enough for them to get to this point. Between Jonathan believing that Gabby was dead, and Gabby mistakenly thinking Jonathan had tried to have her killed, there’s had been a bumpy road to happiness indeed.
Anna released a self-indulgent sigh.
She didn’t often allow herself to be maudlin or self-pitying about her lot in life, preferring a more philosophical approach to things.
But sometimes…
When she saw Evelyn and Andrew, and Gabby and Jonathan. When she coddled her nephew or spent Christmastide or Easter with her family, she wished quite desperately that she could have had a life filled with love and happiness, not just a pretence at it or worse, living at the peripheral of someone else’s.
Still, there was no sense in indulging such thoughts. They served no purpose other than to upset her and force her to isolate herself from friends and family. Just like now, when she was hiding in a drawing room instead of spending time with her brother and Gabby, Evelyn and Andrew.
There would be plenty of alone time awaiting her after today, in any case.
Evelyn and Andrew were returning to his seat tomorrow with dear little William. And Jonathan and Gabrielle would be leaving shortly thereafter for their wedding tour.
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