When his mouth finally released hers, she was breathless and her eyes were sparkling and as blue as the sea.
"Thank you for worrying about me."
"I...was not the least bit worried," she stammered.
His eyes searched hers and saw the truth. He kissed her again, then took the shirt out of her hands. Without further attempts to deny him, China helped him into his breeches then fetched his boots.
Ted Bates' thorny face brightened...then darkened like a storm cloud when he saw Justin step out onto the main deck. He grunted an order to the helmsman then descended from the quarterdeck in one nimble leap, bypassing most of the steps.
"A fine day for sailing, Mr. Bates," Justin remarked, effectively cutting off any forthcoming protests. "She's dancing ahead of the wind, I see, in as much of a hurry to leave the stench of England behind as we are."
"I've set a course for Canaria to take on salt and fresh water."
Justin nodded and tipped his face up into the sun. All three masts were laden, their sails swollen with the wind, carved into hard arcs as the Reunion sped south. The coast of France was a thin purple strip along the eastern horizon; to the west was clear open sea and blue skies.
"Have we a full crew, Mr. Bates?"
"We lost two lads at the jail, another three in the boarding. Five were wounded but none so bad as to make a fuss over. We took on three miliamen who preferred your command to that of their lieutenant, and two more seamen in Falmouth, stranded off an American ship and wanting to go home."
"Home," Justin mused and looked up again. The Reunion flew the thirteen stripes and twenty one stars that represented America, and until then, it had only been a convenience, but now... "Thank God we have one that does not judge us on past deeds. I would sooner be called an American than an exiled Briton wanted for murder."
Bates and China exchanged a quick glance, one that was not entirely lost on Justin.
"What is it? You look like a pair of well fed foxes in an empty coop."
Bates grinned. "You've been cleared, lad. Your brother was met on shore by the king's men and invited to share the hospitality of a magistrate's docket."
"What? How--?"
"The girl...Tina...told them the whole story, as much as she knew, and what she didn't, Mr. East provided."
"Bart is alive? But I thought--"
"Aye, he played dead when your brother's men shot him with a peapod. Got him in the shoulder and didn't do as much damage as he did himself falling onto his nose."
China nodded when Justin looked to her for confirmation. "Ranulf must not have considered Tina to be any kind of threat, and as soon as I was dragged away from the inn, she was free to go with Mr. East to the authorities. She told them what Eugene had done, what he had tried to do, and how Ranulf had taken the law into his own hands and was determined to see you hang...by his own hand if necessary. And then Mr. East--"
Bates interrupted to take up the story. "Bart told them everything he knew about our suspicions about what happened to crew of the Scorpio. He told them we were bloody certain Lord Cross was behind their deaths and would likely have killed us all if he had the chance." He grinned broadly. "That was when Chambers showed up. He gave them the letter you wrote, added a few of his own corroborations...then rode off into the night with his saddle pouches jingling."
"Well I'll be damned."
"That isn't the best part of it, Cap'n," Bates said, his grin nearly splitting his face in two. "The magistrate they roused at three bloody o'clock in the morning had been a mate of Cap'n Trimbel back in the day when they were running blockades and aiming cannons at Napoleon Bloody Bonaparte. He said as how he'd stormed into the tribunal to be a witness in defense of Cap'n Trimbel, but it was the Cap'n himself who told him to keep silent and let it lie.
"When he refused, the only way the Cap'n could keep him from tearing the court apart with his bare hands was to tell him the truth of what happened that night. He said it had been the owner of the Orion who had sent a secret message to naval headquarters, telling them the ship had to be stopped before it reached France. Said the message contained the names of twelve traitors...and a thirteenth man who was posing as a traitor, but who had been spying on the real traitors for several months and passing vital information on Bonaparte's movements after he escaped Elba. Said he passed just as much false information the other way, leading old Boney to believe Wellington's army was half the strength it was, that the Prussians were not part of the coalition, and that the English army could be easily defeated and the emperor's throne restored. He said as how this brave man had to die along with the others in order to keep Boney from learning the truth and changing his plan of attack at Waterloo."
Justin held his breath, but Bates shook his head. "He didn't know who the spy was, lad, not by name. Said the secret was at the bottom of the sea with the Orion."
Justin nodded. There would never be any way of knowing for sure and yet, suddenly, the last few pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The unanswered question of why a man loyal and fierce in his convictions would abruptly throw everything away--home, family, reputation--to begin working for the enemy. The reason why captain Trimbel had remained stonily silent throughout the trial, saying not one word in his own defense. And the reason why, all through the long years of questioning, probing, searching for explanations, Justin had felt in his very soul that Anthony Cross had not died a traitor. It all made sense. Even Timothy Grant's offer of salvation in the guise of his only daughter and her dowry--a vast sum of money that had appeared in the account of Timothy Grant the same time Anthony Cross had liquidated all of his business holdings. Grant had owned the Orion and it had been the owner of the Orion who had sent the message to Trimbel that there were traitors on board and the ship had to be stopped by any means.
Yet another piece of the puzzle slotted into place. Timothy Grant and Anthony Cross had served in Nelson's navy together as captain and first officer. It was not unreasonable, then, to assume the two had continued to work secretly together, one as spy, one as the conduit. Moreover, Justin would stake his life on a wager that, if he delved into the admiralty's records, he would discover that Trimbel had served on board the same ship. It would explain Trimbel's silence and also why a veteran sea captain would deliberately ram another vessel. Bates and East had both been on board that night, as had Jason Savage, and none had been able to offer Justin a reason why a normally sane man had committed such an insane act.
If all of that held true, then it stood to reason that the entire betrothal might have been arranged by Timothy Grant and Anthony Cross in order to protect the Cross fortune. Those were dangerous political times and men played dangerous games. If Anthony Cross suspected he might not survive the voyage, he would make certain his family did not suffer for it. With Grant's help, his fortune had been protected and would be returned, after a suitable time had passed, back into the family coffers. Ranulf's greed and ambition would not permit him to see it as anything more than a desire to ease a guilty conscience.
Justin gazed past the rail of his ship, past the marching whitecaps and the thunderous rush of the wake as it curled out behind them, glittering in the sun. He raised his eyes to the sheets of straining canvas and breathed a lungful of bitingly clean salt air. It tasted of peace. At long last, peace.
A moment later, the frown was back as he scanned the faces of the crew.
"I don't see Mr. East."
Bates grinned. "That'd be because the great oaf is behind you."
Justin turned just as Bartholomew East stepped forward out of the shade of an overhead sail. His craggy face was a little worse for wear with a bent nose and yellowish signs of bruising still circling his eyes, but his grin was as wide as the ocean itself. Tucked behind his bear-like frame was Tina Biggs, blushing self-consciously as she came under Justin's scrutiny.
"I promised the girl she could come with us," East said gruffly. "Weren't for her, I would--"
Justin waved away the rest of what he was about t
o say. "Welcome aboard, Tina. And I thank you for everything you've done."
"I'm ever so happy to be here, Master Justin, and ever so glad to see you up and about," she said shyly. "I told Miss China she would wear herself to the bone fussing and fretting over you but she'd have none of it. She wouldn't let a soul but herself tend you. I swear she hasn't taken more than a bite to eat, nor had more than a few hours sleep during the past six days."
Justin arched an eyebrow and looked at China. "So. You were not worried?"
A warm flush bloomed in her cheeks. "Not at all. I simply--" she shrugged and looked about vaguely, "had nothing better to do with my time."
Justin laughed and drew her into his arms with enough unabashed joy that the crew started to back discreetly away, their smiles hidden beneath bowed heads.
"Do you know," he murmured against the soft crush of her hair, "that when you lie, your eyes turn the color of sapphires? Right now they are blue enough to swim in."
"Well...perhaps I was worried just a little. Gracious me, you only have to look at all of your bandages to see why."
"And your skin turns a most delicious shade of pink when you're been caught at it. Your chin trembles--" he paused, and leaned back to study the contours of her face closely. "I wonder if our children will inherit the same traits?"
She raised the dark wings of her lashes, scarcely daring to breathe. "Children?"
"Mmmm. Four, I should think. Perhaps five. That should keep you out of trouble for a while."
"Keep me out of trouble? And laugh if you like, but it would be far better for them to inherit an inability to lie, than to acquire a talent for excelling at deception."
He nuzzled into her hair again. "Have I ever lied to you?"
"Avoiding the truth is the same thing."
He growled, then laughed. "I warn you, madam, I will have nothing to do with a nagging or suspicious wife. You take me as I am or you'll go no further than the Canary Islands."
"Wife?" She tipped her face up to his. "But...how can that be? I am wed to your brother."
"Once the courts get through with him, I suspect that will no longer present an obstacle."
"But you once told me...in your cabin...that you were not the marrying kind."
"And you said one day I would lie and you would believe me." He laughed when all she could do was continue to stare up at him. "Well, my lady, could you do it? Could you tie yourself to a man who has no family and no social standing? Could you tolerate my moods and tempers and suffer to bring my sons into the world knowing they will likely grow to be as wild and unprincipled as their father?"
"I would be proud beyond measure," she whispered, "should they become one tenth the man their father is. And I would run to the ends of the earth to be with him."
Justin held her gaze for several long moments before he trusted his voice to speak. "My lovely China Rose. To think I once considered you nothing more than a means of rousing Ranulf's anger. Now I believe my own anger would not have permitted him to live had I thought for a fraction of a second that he had touched you."
His fingers raked deeply into her hair and pulled her into the warm plunder of his kiss. She clung to him and returned the passion, and high above them the bleached white sails reared into the wind and raced for the far edge of the horizon.
THE END
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