Chapter Fifteen
As soon as Nathan had stepped up on the quarterdeck, Judith had moved to stand just below it, where she could hear what was being said without being seen. But what she heard just fueled her anger all the more. More and more lies. Did the man ever tell the truth? But he was going to have to. His “Give me a chance to explain before you do anything we’ll both regret. It’s not what you think” was the only reason she hadn’t gone over to her uncle with him. Well, there was also the fact that James was the only member of her family who would just shrug at the news that a smuggler was on his ship.
It was her father she needed to inform, not his brother. Yet she didn’t go in search of Anthony either. The smidgen of doubt that Nathan had planted in her mind held her back.
She went to Jacqueline’s cabin instead to see if she was awake yet. Her cousin would never forgive her if she wasn’t the first to know that their ex-ghost had been found and who he really was, but Judith hadn’t had a chance to tell her yet. Last night after retrieving the book for Katey, her father had engaged her in a game of backgammon, which they had still been playing when Jack went off to bed.
But Jacqueline was still sound asleep now, and it only took Judith a moment to realize where she wanted to be. With Nathan Tremayne still firmly in her mind, she headed for where she knew she’d find him. But when she got there, she could hear him talking to Artie, so she went back on deck. She knew it was inappropriate for a lady to be alone with a member of the crew, and she didn’t want Artie to mention to anyone that she’d sought Nathan out.
The moment Artie appeared back on deck, she headed down to the hold again. She peeked into the cargo deck before she took the last few steps down the stairway. Nathan was alone now. He was unpacking one of the crates so he didn’t notice her approach. He’d removed his jacket and had even unfastened the top buttons of his shirt, which wasn’t surprising because it was warmer in the hold than it was on deck. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. He looked rather dashing like this. If Jack could see him, she would say he looked like a pirate—no, Judith reminded herself, like a smuggler.
The reminder got her eyes off him for a moment. She looked around the large cargo hold, which appeared almost empty because the ship wasn’t carrying any cargo for sale. Provisions were stored along the sides in crates and barrels of various sizes. Toward the stern, pens contained farm animals that would be brought to the galley as needed. She could hear the clucking of a few chickens in the distance. Nathan was standing next to a pile of building materials, but otherwise, most of the space was empty, so there was plenty of room for the exercise ring he’d been tasked to build.
“Not exactly what you expected a ship’s carpenter to have to do, is it?”
He stiffened at the sound of her voice, but he didn’t glance up. “Go away, trouble,” he said in a grouchy tone. “We can continue our debate after I’m done working.”
She ignored the unflattering name and the suggestion. “We need to clarify a few matters. And the sooner you accomplish your task, the sooner we can do that. I can help.”
“The devil you can.”
“You need to measure the tarpaulin before you begin building the ring, don’t you? I can help you spread it out.”
He turned to her. “So you were eavesdropping?”
She saw no reason to deny it. “I was just making sure that my uncle didn’t kill you.”
His eyes narrowed. “Spit it out. Are you joking about him or not?”
She shrugged. “That’s a matter of perspective. To me he’s the sweetest man, my best friend’s loving father, my father’s closest brother. Really, he’s just a big, cuddly bear.”
“But what about to people who aren’t members of his family?”
“Some people do fear him, I suppose, but I can’t imagine why.”
Nathan grunted. “I can. I saw him make mince of four blokes in a matter of minutes the night before last. He’s bleedin’ well lethal with his fists.”
“Well, everyone knows that. He and my father are both superlative pugilists. They have been for years. It’s a skill they honed when they were London’s most notorious rakes.”
“D’you even know what you’re talking about? Fighting and seducing women have nothing to do with each other.”
“Course they do, when you consider how often they were challenged to duels by angry husbands. But they had no desire to kill a man just because the poor chap had an unfaithful wife, so they took a lot of those challenges to the ring instead. They still won either way.”
Nathan took a step toward her. “I would think such worldly matters would be kept from tender ears like yours.”
She backed up. Was it the subject matter that had turned his green eyes sensual? Her pulse began to race. She took a deep, steadying breath, but it sounded like a sigh even to her ears. So she blurted out, “It was common knowledge, not a family secret.”
He kept moving toward her. “Does your family have secrets?”
She continued to step back, away from him. “There’s a skeleton or two in most closets, but not as many as I suspect are in yours.”
She thought only briefly about standing her ground. Was he trying to make her nervous about being alone with him down here? It might not have been the smartest move on her part when the man had his own secrets to hide and she was the only one who knew them.
She continued to back away from him, but something got in the way. Caught behind her knees, she abruptly sat down on a crate. He took a step back as if he’d just gotten the results he wanted and said with some amusement, “Stay out of the way if you’re staying.”
He’d done that deliberately!? Her hackles rose immediately as she watched him walk away. She was about to lambaste him for trying to frighten her when he stopped to add, “Unless you want that kiss I was thinking about.” He glanced around. “Do you?”
He’d only been going to kiss her? Well, he could have made that clear! “Certainly not,” she humphed.
He faced her again to say, “Don’t get indignant, darlin’. I was just going to show you the difference.”
“What difference?”
“Between your smuggler’s kiss and mine. Thought it might be a more pleasant way to clear up the confusion for you.”
“I doubt that would indicate anything a’tall.”
He laughed. “He was that good?”
She raised a brow. “That implies you think you’d be better at it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t get complaints, just the opposite. So you might want to think about the offer??instead of worrying that a smuggler might break your pretty neck to keep his secret. That did occur to you, didn’t it?”
“Is that a not-so-subtle threat?”
“No, I would never threaten you. In fact, I think I’d protect you to my dying breath.”
He’d managed to startle her. “Why?”
“Because only a few things are worth dying for, family, country—and the love of a beautiful woman.”
Why would he even say that!? Merely to plant the seed that something romantic could develop between them if she kept his secret? But he didn’t wait for her to reply. Instead he went about his work, ignoring her, taking the tarpaulin out of its crate and dropping it in the middle of the hold before he began unfolding it.
As she watched him, she saw how efficiently he worked. There wasn’t a single pause to suggest he didn’t know what he was doing, forcing her to conclude that he had really learned carpentry at some point. But had he worked at it for three years as he’d told James? When would he have had time to do that if he was smuggling five years ago? Very well, she conceded, maybe he hadn’t been smuggling all that time, but definitely more recently. He’d admitted he owned his own ship??if what he’d told her uncle was true.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him, fascinated by the way his muscles flexed as he staked out the four corners. He was far too muscular for a common seaman. She could see him captaining his own ship, though. Had he built the ship himself? Is that why he’d learned carpentry? Then who had taught him to sail it?
Good God, she had so many questions. One just led to another. Yet she still didn’t ask him any, was even having trouble breathing when he removed his shirt and tossed it aside as he began hammering together the first side of the platform. His chest was already gleaming with sweat. She was feeling warm, too, so she shrugged out of her coat and draped it over the crate she was sitting on.
“Besides, I can think of much nicer things to do with your neck,” he suddenly said, as if there had been no break in their conversation. And then: “No blush?”
She took her eyes off his chest and saw that he was looking at her again, had caught her staring at him. That brought on a blush. But had he actually been thinking about her neck all this time?
“There were more’n two rakes in my family, so there isn’t much that can embarrass me.”
“I seem to be having an easy time of it,” he said with a chuckle.
“You’re deliberately trying to embarrass me, so stop it.”
“Not deliberately, or do you think I’m in the habit of talking to fine ladies like yourself? Believe me, the women of my acquaintance don’t blush.” He gave her a grin, then turned more serious. “What made you think you’d heard my voice before last night—aside from five years ago, which even you know is too long ago to remember something like that?”
“It wasn’t your voice. It’s what you keep calling me. ‘Darling.’ The smuggler called me that, too.”
“You think sweet words aren’t commonly used? That I’m really the only man to use that one?”
“If you’re not a smuggler, what are you?”
“As has already been established, a shipowner and a carpenter. You should let it go at that.”
“When you also said you were just here to earn a living?” she reminded him. “You realize one lie means everything you say is suspect.”
He chuckled. “You’re very suspicious for someone so young. A fine lady like you, how do you even know about smugglers and the like?”
“You’d be amazed what some of the members of my family have been involved in.”
“Like?”
“I’m not sharing secrets, you are.”
“Not while I’m working, I’m not.”
She ignored that to ask, “Can you really finish this ring in a day as you told my uncle?”
“Yes, even if I had to cut the lumber, which I don’t. Artie said he got all the materials from a man who builds rings for a living, so it’s already cut to specifications and just needs to be put together. Are you worried I’ll get on your uncle’s bad side if I disappoint him?”
“No, when that happens, I doubt it will have anything to do with your carpentry job.”
“It will if you keep distracting me,” he retorted.
She suppressed a grin. “I was being quiet. You brought up necks.”
He snorted but continued to hammer, even when he asked a few minutes later, “How often did your father and your uncle lose those challenges you mentioned?”
“They never did.”
“Never? Even when they get taken by surprise?”
“Who would dare do that?”
He didn’t appear to like her answer, but since he could apparently work and converse at the same time, she continued, taking a different tack. “I have to say, that was a very good excuse you came up with, instead of admitting that you’re running from the law.”
“What excuse?”
“That you’re chasing a stolen ship. Did you build it yourself?”
“No, I inherited her from my father two years ago.”
“So you’ve been smuggling for only two years?”
She slipped that in hoping to get him to tell the truth while he was distracted by his work, but it didn’t happen.
He glanced her way. “I’ve told you how wrong you are, yet you do seem to be very curious about me, so why don’t we make a deal. I’ll answer your questions over the course of the voyage if you’ll answer some of mine, and we’ll agree to keep each other’s secrets.”
“I don’t have any secrets that would land me in jail,” she said pertly.
He shrugged. “Neither do I, but if you don’t want to strike a bargain, so be it.”
“Not so fast, I didn’t say that. Let me be clear, you’re offering to tell me your life story, the truthful version, if I agree to keep what you say to myself?”
“You’ll have to do more’n that. You can tell no one that we’ve met before. That will have to be our secret.”
“But my cousin Jack—”
“No one.”
She snapped her mouth shut. She wasn’t sure she could keep secrets from Jack and certainly didn’t want to when they always shared everything. Annoyed, she said, “I seem to be getting the short end of the stick. I’ll have to think of something else you can do for me to more evenly balance this agreement.”
“Then we have one?”
“We do.” She got up to shake hands on it, but heard her name being called. “I have to go. Jack’s calling for me.”
“That’s a woman’s voice.”
“Yes, it is, but there’s no time to explain.”
“There’s time for this.”
She was already hurrying to the stairway and wasn’t going to stop to find out what he meant. So she didn’t see him put down his hammer and reach for her. But suddenly he was holding her quite intimately with one of his arms around her waist and the other halfway around her shoulders with his hand behind her neck. She was bent slightly back as his lips moved softly against hers.
Such a classic pose he had her in, romantic really, yet it did run through her mind that he was stealing kisses from her again. But this time she knew who was doing it, not some faceless rogue, but an incredibly handsome one. So when she did what she knew she was supposed to do and tried to push away from him, the merely halfhearted effort brought her hands sliding up his bare chest to his shoulders. And before she could try again, the pleasant way his lips were moving over hers caused such scintillating feelings to flutter inside her that she didn’t want to pull away from him.
The foray was simply too sensual, the way he parted her lips with his, sucking on her lower lip, nibbling at her upper lip, then running his tongue over both before flicking it teasingly at hers. His hold tightened and he deepened the kiss, sending her pulse thrumming erratically and a wave of heat over her whole body.
Utterly immersed in what he was doing to her, she was surprised when he let her go and she found herself standing there without his help. Her eyes flew open to find him giving her a curious look she couldn’t fathom.
“Was there a difference?” he asked.
That’s why he’d kissed her? “You already know there was a difference because you know how brief that other kiss was and that it ended like this.”
She didn’t slap him as hard as she’d done that night at the old house. Which was probably why he laughed. “I guess the bargain is off?”
“No, but I will think of something unpleasant for you to do to keep up your end of the bargain—besides giving me the truth.”
“I doubt anything to do with you could be unpleasant, darlin’.”
“Even if I keep you at my beck and call, subject to my whims?”
He grinned. “Sounds like the pot just got sweetened for me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she huffed.
“Oh, I am. As long as it doesn’t get me in trouble with the captain, I’m yours to command. Would you like to seal our bargain with another kiss?”
She didn’t answer as she marched up the stairs. She’d amused him more than enough for one day. When they met again, she’d have the upper hand and she planned to keep it that way.