Maybe her departure had not been necessary, but perhaps it had been well worth the price of a headache. She had come to him, and she had given the promise of a sweet tomorrow.…
Right before she had clunked him on the head to leave him.
Maybe it really wasn’t such a bad thing that she was going to see the Silver Hawk again after all. They had a bit of reckoning to do, all three of them: the Silver Hawk, Lord Cameron—and Skye, Lord Cameron’s lady.
* * *
“He’s going to catch up with you any minute, young woman. Any minute!” Mattie moaned. She looked over her shoulder, past the lamplit main street and toward the palace green. Mattie was absolutely convinced that Skye had dragged her on a fool’s mission. Any minute indeed her young mistress’s husband—enraged husband, now, surely—would come tearing out of that house and down the street, seeking his wayward bride. Mattie did not want to be in the path of his anger, nor did she think that Skye really wanted to meet his fury, either.
“Mattie, that’s why we need to hurry!” Skye said. “Now come along.”
Mattie groaned and hurried along beside her Skye. It had been her choice to come. She wasn’t happy about Lord Cameron lying on the floor in a pool of rum, but she hadn’t been able to endure the idea of Skye running off alone. She had practically raised the girl, and Skye’s years in London hadn’t lessened the affection they shared.
Skye was heading on toward the next tavern on the street. This one wasn’t as reputable as the others where they had gone to seek information, but Mattie still felt as if they were safe. This was Williamsburg. It was Lieutenant Governor Spotswood’s city, and there would surely be some good men about to know that Lady Skye Kinsdale had been married to Lord Petroc Cameron—and that to touch her or cause her harm could well mean death at that man’s able hands.
Mattie hurried along beside Skye against the quiet of the night. As they approached the tavern, a shadow stepped out from the trees by the side of it. Mattie gasped, pulling Skye back against her side. “Lady Cameron!” a voice called softly.
“Sh! Don’t give no stranger in the shadows your name!” Mattie warned her.
“Yes!” Skye said, stepping closer.
The shadow backed away, lifting a hand.
“No closer, milady. No closer.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I hear you’ve been prowling about tonight, asking what ships lie in the James, seeing if any man knows about a pirate. A rogue ship, out in the river.”
“Yes! Do you know about her?” Skye stepped forward again in her excitement. The man blended against a tree. The streets were always lit well by lamps, but the trees afforded such deep secretive shadows that the lamps could help little against the night.
“Stay where you are!” the voice commanded.
“Let’s get out of here!” Mattie urged her in a whisper. “Let’s go home. Please, child! You can be the fine lady wife, kneel down by his side, and pretend it was an accident—”
“An accident!” Skye whispered in turn. “I struck him over the head with a rum bottle—by accident?” She shook her head. “Mattie, no! I must find the Silver Hawk. He can save Father.”
“Hey!” called the man from the shadows. “Are we negotiating here or are we not!”
“We’re talking—” Skye said quickly, coming forward.
“Stand still!”
“I’m standing still,” Skye promised, stopping. Mattie hovered unhappily just behind her. The breeze stirred, sweeping unease along her spine.
“I’ll tell you where to find the Silver Hawk.”
“Where?” Her heart thundered quickly. Perhaps she was on a fool’s errand. She was coming to know Roc Cameron well, and he would not take kindly to her betrayal. Maybe she should run back and throw herself upon her husband’s mercy. Maybe it would be much, much better than leaving the one man behind to seek out a rogue and enter into a world of tempest and temptation. She clenched her jaw, realizing anew that she was coming to love her husband. To love the man that she had betrayed. She had to move forward. Her father was out there, Logan’s prisoner.
She almost screamed aloud with the thought, and she cast her guilt from her shoulders with a shrug. “Where!” she cried out to the man in the shadows.
“Not so fast, milady. You wear an emerald around your neck. I will have it.”
“What?” Skye murmured. Her fingers came to her throat and she realized that she still wore the emerald pendant she had found among her things at Bone Cay. She had worn it the first night that she had been with the Silver Hawk. She had worn it when she had cast aside all else, all clothing, all inhibitions.…
Her fingers closed around the pendant. She carried gold to give to the Silver Hawk. She could afford to give this man the pendant.
She snatched it from her throat and started to cast it forward. “Wait!” the voice cried. “Come forward, and drop the pendant.”
“No!” Mattie called out. She stepped forward, taking the pendant from Skye. “I’ll drop it, and if this man is a reputable liar and thief, then he’ll have his pendant and you’ll have your information, child.”
Skye would have protested casting Mattie into danger, but Mattie gave her no chance to do so. She hurried forward to the tree and cast the pendant down as the shadow slunk back. Mattie sniffed her opinion of the man loudly, and came back to Skye.
A hand reached down and scooped up the emerald.
“The Blackhorse Tavern. It’s south on the river. Speak softly and subtly, and you’ll find the Silver Hawk.” The shadow turned from the tree and went racing toward the rear of the tavern. Skye followed after him and found him leaping atop a sleek bay horse. “Wait! Wait, please! I still don’t where this tavern is! I—I haven’t followed the waterfront that often—”
She stopped, gasping. She recognized Robert Arrowsmith, the Silver Hawk’s first officer aboard his pirate ship. “Robert!”
“Milady!” He doffed his hat to her, then swore. “Come! Come with me now!”
She didn’t have time to agree or disagree. He urged his mount quickly forward and reached down to her, sweeping her up before him on his mount even as the bay pranced and prepared to bolt.
“Skye!” Mattied shrieked, coming after her.
“Tell her it’s all right,” Robert warned her.
“Mattie! It’s fine. He’s a—friend.”
Mattie’s tense and worried features as they rode into the night gave Skye a second seizure of guilt for the evening. Mattie would understand, surely. Mattie loved Theo Kinsdale as much as Skye did. But she would worry. She would worry horribly.
And worse. She would go back to the house and arouse Lord Cameron and then Roc would come riding for her. She swallowed as the wind lashed against her face. It was going to be dark along the road.
She couldn’t fear the darkness, for there were worse dangers in the offering that night. Roc Cameron might well come for her, determined to kill the Silver Hawk. And if he did, it might well be her own fault—because she had told her husband that she was no innocent bride and that the Hawk had behaved in a foul and abusive way and seized her innocence away.…
She couldn’t think about it. Robert would take her to the Hawk, and when she reached him, she would explain that they had to run, and quickly. He was a fool for being in Virginia anyway. Governor Eden of North Carolina might suffer pirates, but Lieutenant Alexander Spotswood of Virginia did not. The Hawk had to flee Virginia, and since he did, he might as well seek out Lord Theo Kinsdale and reap the benefits of the gold that Skye would so gladly pay.
The gold only! she thought with vehemence.
Gold … and nothing of herself.
She shivered, remembering the day not so long ago when she had lain in the pirate’s arms beneath the sun. When she had felt his dark beard brush her naked flesh along with the searing rays of the sun. It was so easy to remember.
Easy to remember the first night, the very first night. He had warned her.…
A
nd she had walked into his arms anyway, of her own free will.
That was before! she vowed to herself. Before she had come to know Petroc Cameron. Before she had discovered that she could love him. Before this very night, even, when she had come to him knowing that she would leave him, and determined to love him first. It was before the soaring splendor of his passion.
She trembled suddenly, and it was not the darkness of the night that brought her fear. Robert rode behind her, and though the lamps of the city were fading behind them, the moon was very high. There was light.
And she was learning not to fear the darkness, to fight the panic of it. Roc Cameron had done that for her, she thought. He had drawn the venom of the past from her soul. She had spoken about it to him, and she wasn’t afraid. Roc had taken the words from her, while the Silver Hawk had taught her that there could always be a beacon against the darkness of the night.
The Silver Hawk …
She loved her husband.
She had fallen in love with the pirate king first, and though his memory had faded away only to combine with that of the man she had legally wed, she was both dreading and anticipating her meeting with the pirate. What would his memories be?
What would his demands be?
Could she sell her soul to come to him again, if that should be his price?
“Are you cold?” Robert whispered behind her.
She shook her head. “No. I am—I am anxious to see the Hawk. Are you certain you know where he is?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated, thinking how kind Robert had always been to her. He was here in Virginia, and she had to be glad. But she dreaded the future for him. “Robert, you shouldn’t be here!”
“The Hawk dares anything.”
“The Hawk is not in Williamsburg.”
Robert chuckled softly. “Sometimes it is necessary to come close to the flame of the fire, lady. Surely, you know that.”
“You came to Williamsburg to spy,” she accused him.
“Aye, milady, I did.”
“If they catch you, they’ll hang you.”
“They’ll never catch the Silver Hawk.”
“But—”
“I am Robert Arrowsmith here, milady, good citizen of His Majesty’s colony of Virginia. I am safe.” He hesitated. “Are you all right? We are almost there, another twenty minutes.”
They no longer galloped, but Robert moved the horse along at a quick trot. The moon beat strongly upon the road, but she was touched. Even Robert considered her fear of the darkness.
“I am fine,” she murmured, twisting to seek out his eyes. “But my husband might come after me. Robert, I would not have him come upon you.…”
“Is his temper so bad then?”
“He would slay a pirate, surely.”
“But you would defend me?”
“I would, for you were always kind.”
“And tell me, milady, what of the Hawk himself? Would your husband seek to slay him, or await a hanging?”
She started to shiver again. She could not imagine the Silver Hawk and Lord Cameron coming together. One of them would die, and she would not be able to endure the outcome of it.
“Hurry, Robert! Race the night, for we must get the Hawk and leave Virginia. We must!”
“We!”
“Yes! My father—”
“I know about your father, milady. But there will be no ‘we.’ I’ll talk to the Hawk with you on your behalf, and I know that he will set sail. But he will not take you. You will go home.”
She would not go home. She could not go home, not now. But she didn’t tell Robert that—it was something she would have to worry about later.
Robert turned his mount eastward toward the river, nudging the animal’s ribs, and sweeping them into a fast lope once again. She liked Robert so much! Skye thought. She felt warm with him, and assured that he would carry her to the Hawk.
Even if he had stolen her emerald!
It was all right. It was all right to race with him through the night, leaning low against the flying mane of his bay horse, feeling the wind and the gentle wash of the glowing moon upon her. It would be all right.…
“There! We’re coming up on the Blackhorse now!” Robert said, reining in. “Stay with me, milady, do you understand?”
Skye nodded. She was glad of his presence, for she did not like the appearance of the tavern.
It stood just off the waterway and the docks, a rickety place with broken windowpanes and faulty steps. Dim, misty light issued from the open doorway and windows, and raucous laughter could be heard.
Robert dismounted from the horse, reaching up to help her down. Skye drew the hood of her navy mantle close over her forehead and slipped her hand through his arm as he led her toward the doorway.
It was not a place for a lady.
It was a complete den of iniquity, she thought, and her heart hammered somewhat as she thought of the Hawk. How dare he come here when she might need him! It was not a place where any decent woman would want to be.
“Milady?” Robert said to her, watching her curiously.
“Shall we?” she murmured.
He helped her up the rickety steps and through the open front doorway, and there they paused.
The main rooms were heavy with smoke and they stank of ale. Even the standing room by the bar was crowded, and all manner of men—and women—were there. The smell of humanity was terrible here. The men were old and young, but all of them had a look of dust and dirt about them; they were neither clean shaven, nor did they seem to have a decent beard among them. One fellow at the bar wore an eye patch and a white queued wig, but his wig was askew and his brawny shoulders seemed about to split the shoulders of his elegant mustard frockcoat. A stolen coat, no doubt, Skye thought.
Nearby at one of the tables a group of seamen in linen shirts and caps frolicked with a single, buxom, dark-haired wench. One fellow slipped his hand straight into her bodice while she kissed another, then laughed uproariously. She bit into the coins handed to her by the both of them, then laughed, and kissed them each, in turn.
Robert cleared his throat.
“The Silver Hawk is here?” she said.
“Aye, milady. He is a pirate, you know.”
She thought that Robert’s eyes were twinkling. “A pirate, a rogue, and he’ll hang!” she agreed. She cried out as one of the men from the rough wood table rose, grinned a drunken grin, and lunged toward her. Robert stepped forward and his fist shot out and the man fell flat to the floor. “She’s come to see the Hawk!” he warned the others. “Make way—she’s here for the Hawk!”
Men and wenches stepped aside and Robert led her through the path of them toward a dark and narrow stairway in the rear. Skye felt eyes boring into her. The men coveted her gold, or her person, Skye thought. The women would have gladly robbed her blindly of her clothing.
But Robert was at her back. And he had announced that she had come for the Hawk. None of them would touch her.
“This is awful!” she muttered.
Robert passed ahead, catching her hand. She saw his eyes, and he flashed her a smile. “As I said, milady, the Hawk is a pirate.”
“Umm. And welcome to his ways.”
“You mustn’t be … jealous, milady.”
“Jealous! I assure you, sir, I am not jealous!”
“Umm, well, begging your pardon, milady, it did seem at the end that you and the Hawk had settled … er … well, certain of your difficulties. But you must remember, and I warn you kindly, that he is a rogue and a fiend.”
“Oh, is he? Thank you for the warning, Robert. I might not have noted that on my own!”
They had come to the top of the stairs. Robert smiled, and with a broad shrug he cast open the door there. He prodded Skye into the murky light of the room, then closed the door behind her.
Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the light in the room. She heard a soft giggle, then she stared with amazement and a slow simmering rage.
; Robert had brought her to the Hawk, all right!
“Lady Kinsdale! Why, no, ’tis Lady Cameron, is it not?”
She stood dead still, collecting her wits and control as she stared at the Hawk. He lay bare-chested atop the bed, with a beautiful redheaded wench curled nearly atop him. The girl watched her with amusement; the Hawk watched her with interest. His hand rested lightly atop the redhead’s hair, and he seemed not at all distressed to have been found so by Skye.
“Aye, ’tis Lady Cameron,” she murmured, pushing away from the door. If the sea slime meant to unnerve her, he would be surprised. She would never let him know that her insides were afire, that she had thought that he had come to care for her because he had taken her with such passion and such fire.…
She was not jealous! He was a fiend, a beast, a pirate! Robert had warned her.
But she had spent all that time on the road here wondering what she should do if he demanded her love in payment for service. Demanded her love! The rogue had a string of women in every port.
The sheets were drawn to his waist. He folded his hands over them and cocked his bearded face to the side. “Far be it from me to question a lady, madame, but what are you doing in such a place? Did you miss me so, then? Were you anxious to come back?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but teased the redhead at his side. “If Lady Cameron is anxious, then you must hurry away, Yvette.”
“I’ve come on business!” Skye snapped.
“Oh. Oh!” He pretended that it was a very grave matter, narrowing his eyes. Skye shivered suddenly, fiercely. Now she shivered because his resemblance to her husband was so great. Cousins! They were near to being twins. If she had not seen the both of them at the same time on the day that she sailed away from Bone Cay, she could easily think that they were one.
Well, the Silver Hawk had been bred on the wrong side of the Cameron covers. She had seen the portraits now at Cameron Hall. This Cameron had the eyes, if not the name.
“Sir—” Skye began, but he interrupted her, turning to the redhead.
“Yvette, love, this is business.” He gave her an affectionate pat on the rump, and Yvette arose, dragging one of the covers along with her. She wrinkled her nose Skye’s way.
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