Chapter Forty-Five
Catherine was stewing. it wasn’t the first time she’d felt frustrated on his ship. She wanted him. It would have been nice to add the bonus of a passionate interlude to the real reason she’d convinced her father to send her along on this venture. With such a lengthy voyage to England and back, she’d been so sure she could seduce the captain. But she’d found out too late that he despised her father, and because of it, he could barely tolerate her presence on his ship. She should have known that, but her father never told her anything!
“I thought these men were yours, but they don’t seem to like you,” Andrew said as he joined her on the deck.
“Shut up. You shouldn’t even be here.”
“Then why am I?”
“Do you really need to ask, after you took that silly moral high ground? I couldn’t trust you not to spill your guts to the Malorys before we sailed.”
He quickly changed the subject from that reminder. “Where are we going?”
“After St. Kitts? To another island, one so small it doesn’t even have a name. You won’t like it though.”
“Why not?”
“Pirates,” Catherine said smugly.
“So that’s who these men are?”
She snorted. “Do they look like pirates to you?”
“Actually . . . ,” he said warily, glancing around the deck.
She chuckled. “That’s just the flamboyance of the Caribbean, nothing more. These aren’t my father’s men.”
“So you hired them?”
“No, but the captain does my father’s bidding. He was tasked with getting Jacqueline. Amassing a fortune in jewels for Father was the only reason he let me go along on this venture. He thinks I’m as incompetent as his other bastards. This was a test for me, one he was sure I’d fail. But I haven’t failed. I even helped with the captain’s mission, so now Father will know I can be an asset to him. He won’t send me away ever again.”
“You barely know the man. Didn’t it take you most of your life to find him? Why do you even want to impress him?”
“He’s my father! The only real family I have left.”
“But since you were not tasked with kidnapping Jacqueline, you could let her go.”
“Don’t be absurd. She—”
“Has the captain’s full attention. You think I haven’t noticed how you look at him—like you used to look at me.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “They were going to keep you locked up. Don’t make me regret letting you out.”
“I’m only pointing out the obvious. You want him, but you’re not going to get him with a beauty like Jacqueline aboard—kept locked in his cabin. He hasn’t let her out once. Do you even know if she’s all right?”
“Of course she’s all right. She’s his precious cargo,” Catherine said scathingly, turning to glare at the locked door Andrew had mentioned.
“I still don’t understand why you snuck their man aboard The Maiden George when they were following us to Bridgeport anyway. What was the point of that?”
“You ask too many questions,” she mumbled.
“You don’t even know why, do you?” he guessed.
“It was the captain’s doing. I’d already devised a way—you—to get me on that ship that was about to sail with a fortune in jewelry on it. They tried to get to Jacqueline before the Malorys sailed, without success. The captain didn’t want to waste time following the Malorys to America if he could get Jacqueline off that ship a few days out of England.”
“He even had his man drug her, didn’t he? She kept saying how tired she felt the first few days at sea. That smacks of desperation when stealing her off that ship could only have saved a week or two of time.”
She shrugged. “He thought the timing was important. He didn’t say why, so don’t ask me! He’s so closemouthed I don’t even know his damned name.”
Andrew was incredulous. “But he works for your father.”
“My father doesn’t tell anyone anything they don’t need to know, about his men or anything else.”
The captain suddenly left his cabin, slamming the door, looking furious.
“What’s wrong?” Catherine asked.
“She won’t eat. Not once has she touched her food, and we’re four days out. Her belly cries, but she refuses!”
The food was horrible compared to what they’d had aboard The Maiden George, dry, flavorless, half the time burnt, but that wouldn’t be causing Jacqueline’s rebellion. As handsome as this man was, she was amazed he hadn’t cajoled the girl into being reasonable. So captor and prisoner weren’t getting along at all? That eased her jealousy a little, but not enough.
“Let me talk to her,” Catherine suggested. “I’ll get her to cooperate if I can see her—alone.”
“When you led her out to me in that garden? She thinks you’re one of us.”
“Did you tell her that?”
“I’ve told her nothing.”
“Then I can convince her to at least eat.”
He started to deny the request, but then nodded stiffly and extended his arm with a flourish toward the door. She expected Jacqueline to still be wearing her ball gown, but when she entered the cabin, she found the girl wearing one of his long shirts and nothing else! She stared at bare legs from the knees down and saw red. Had they made love?
Jacqueline was standing at the windows that faced behind the ship, not a full bank of them, just two, but with clear, clean glass. Hoping to see her father’s ship appear, no doubt. Back stiff, arms crossed, she turned at the sound of the door’s opening with eyes blazing. And the anger didn’t dissipate at the sight of Catherine.
“What do you want?” Jack demanded.
“My lover isn’t happy with you, Jacqueline.”
“Your what?”
“He didn’t mention our relationship?”
“Are you mad? How can you consort with that bastard? They’re going to kill my father!”
Catherine tsked. “Whatever happens, you won’t be able to help, will you? Not if you’re so weak you can barely stand up because of this childish refusal to eat.”
Jacqueline marched over to the captain’s desk, where a plate of food had been left, untouched. Catherine smiled, anticipating the captain’s gratitude for her success in making Jacqueline behave reasonably. But the girl didn’t lift the plate to eat from it. Catherine ran out of the cabin, but not before the plate came flying after her to break on the deck and make quite a mess.
She smiled to herself, despite the scowl the captain was now giving her. She could not care less if Jacqueline ate before she was delivered. She didn’t need to be in good health when the exchange was made.
Andrew noticed Catherine’s smirk as she sauntered away. He took a chance and approached the captain himself. “That was a mistake, you know. Jack has never liked Catherine. She wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say, but she’ll listen to me. I guarantee if you let me speak to her, she’ll start eating her meals.”
“You have until more food arrives and not a moment more.”
Andrew nodded. Catherine hadn’t bothered to close the door. He peeked around it to make sure Jack wasn’t ready to throw something else before he rushed inside. But she wasn’t happy to see him, either.
“You, too, Andrássy?” Jack snarled.
He gave her a weak smile. “It’s actually Andrew, but there’s no time to explain. You know I’m not part of this,” he whispered urgently. “But I might be able to help you escape.”
“I’ve thought of nothing other than escape—when I’m not thinking of ways to kill him. But how? He keeps me tied at night, the door locked in the day.”
He nodded toward the two windows. “Use a blanket to break those, as quietly as you can. I will knock three times on the door to let you know when we are nearing the harbor at St. Kitts. That’s when you must do it and quickly, while the captain is distracted by docking the ship and the noise in the harbor. But you must eat in the meantime, or you won’t have the strength to do this.”
“Catherine said nearly the same thing, just without mentioning escape, so how can I trust you?”
“I’m only going to give you the signal, Jack. The rest is up to you. But once you escape, I would advise you to hide and stay hidden until these people give up and go away.”
“And if they don’t leave?”
“Do you really think they will stay and face your father without you in hand?”
She grinned for the first time. “No, that wouldn’t be very smart of them.”
Two days later, they reached St. Kitts late in the morning. Andrew had given his signal to Jacqueline, but since he was not allowed to debark and the captain’s cabin was locked, he had no way of knowing yet if she had successfully escaped. The captain went ashore to arrange for a go-between. The exchange wouldn’t happen here. They just wanted to make sure that James Malory wasn’t going to arrive with a flotilla of ships before he was directed to the next and final location. But by the time the captain returned and gave the order to sail again, Jacqueline had been gone for several hours. They might even have sailed without knowing that if the captain hadn’t gone straight to his cabin when he got back.
Of course he was in a panic when he saw that Jacqueline had escaped. He began to send his men to search the docks nearby. Catherine approached him quickly. “Call them back,” she warned. “There’s no time to waste here now that your hostage is gone and her father could arrive at any moment.”
“He won’t. I sank every ship in their harbor.”
“You underestimate him if you don’t think Malory would have found another ship within hours. We need to report to my father right away. The fortune I am bringing him will lessen the blow of your failure—or I could lie for you.”
“Lie?”
She coyly put a hand on his arm. “I can tell him she jumped ship and drowned. That there was nothing you could do. You will of course assure him that you will leave immediately to obtain another Malory to use as a hostage instead. His wife, perhaps, while she’s still in America. Or you can return here to try and catch Malory yourself while he’s looking for his daughter, though I do assure you that isn’t likely to go well—for you. But in either case, I insist you return me to my father now. You can’t risk losing the fortune I went to great risk to get for him, by allowing me to be discovered here.”
Andrew was close enough to have heard most of that and note how annoyed Catherine was when the captain didn’t answer her either way. But they did pull up anchor and depart in haste. Andrew looked longingly at the shore as they left, wondering if he should dare to jump overboard. But Catherine would probably send the ship back for him. He knew too much now. And Jack couldn’t come out of hiding until they’d gone. So he didn’t jump and just hoped he wasn’t making an even bigger mistake than he’d made when he’d succumbed to Catherine’s wiles.
Their final destination was only a few hours away. The tiny island was overgrown with plants and tall palms. It didn’t look inhabited, yet two other ships were anchored there in the aqua waters. The only building that could be seen from the ship was the top of an ancient, crumbling fort. There was no dock. They rowed ashore and started climbing a steep, sandy hill. At the top, a small village of huts was spread out in a clearing in the jungle. Inside the fort, near the huts, was a new building, a big one, which is where they headed.
Catherine was obviously happy and excited to be home, particularly since she’d succeeded in her own task, and she ran ahead of them to crow to her father about it. The captain, having failed in his task, looked distinctly worried, which infected Andrew to the point that his feet stopped moving.
He called after the captain, “I’ll just wait on your ship, if it’s all the same to you.”
The man turned. “You aren’t my guest, you’re hers, and she would have left you in St. Kitts if she was done with you. Come along.”
“But—is her father actually dangerous?”
The captain took Andrew’s arm to get him moving again. “Yes. But if you still have her protection, then you have nothing to worry about. Just try not to draw his attention to yourself, and if you can’t, address him respectfully as Captain Lacross.”
They entered a big, open room that contained large, long tables and resembled a medieval great hall. The balcony in the back had rooms off it upstairs and below. But this main room was where men were gathered. Catherine was hugging an older man who had stood up at one of the long tables.
But then she turned and pointed an accusing finger at Andrew. “Daddy, he helped Malory’s daughter escape!” Then she pointed at the handsome captain. “And your captain took no steps to prevent it!”