The scarcity of food had brought despair. He’d eaten nothing the first four days and after that only when someone remembered to feed him. The small dungeon had been newly constructed and so secure, no guard had been needed. Damon had been alone in the single cell, but he had heard Andrew’s screams coming from somewhere aboveground. He’d wondered if that was the fate that awaited him.
Catherine was responsible for his imprisonment in her father’s dungeon. She had blamed her lover, Andrew, for Jacqueline Malory’s escape and Damon for not preventing it. The first time Catherine brought him some food and water, he’d asked her if Andrew was still alive, but she hadn’t answered his questions, so he figured Andrew was dead.
The solitude had given him time to reflect on all the things he could have done differently. He’d been assailed by regrets that he hadn’t succeeded in helping the one person most dear to him. And his ship and crew had been captured. Catherine had taunted him with that, though he’d hoped it was a lie, and it was. But Catherine didn’t admit that until she finally approached him with a new deal three long weeks later.
“Your men are fine,” she’d told him that day. “My father wasn’t interested in punishing them for your failure. He was keeping them on your ship until he decided on a new captain for it. Then I think he forgot about it. He doesn’t go outside often these days and probably failed to notice that it is still anchored in the bay.”
“I’m not surprised, as sickly as he looks.”
“He’s not sick, he’s recovering,” she’d said angrily. “He wasn’t treated well in prison and it hasn’t been that long since he’s been out.”
“Why didn’t my men sail away?”
“And leave you? That big lummox you call a friend probably would have skinned them alive at the suggestion. Treats you like he’s your mother, as protective as he is of you. Why is that?”
“I’m all he has left. He lost his family to a hurricane while he and I were away at school.”
“So you adopted him?” she’d asked sneeringly.
“We were already best friends” was all he’d replied, and he hadn’t meant to say that much.
Giving Catherine any information about himself would be as foolish as succumbing to her seductions, which he was heartily sick of. He’d rebuffed her from the start. She should have stopped trying long ago. But for some reason she didn’t seem to believe that he disliked her.
“He did try to sneak onto the island to rescue you a half dozen times,” she’d gone on to say. “I had to assure him you were chained to my bed enjoying yourself to get him to stop risking his life. But the idiot actually doubted me. So I let him know you would be released soon if he behaved, and that put a stop to his recklessness. You can thank me later.”
“Was that a lie, too?”
“At the time, yes.”
“And now?”
“Now you’re lucky I’m on your side.”
Having her on his side was a curse, not luck, and he’d told her so that day. She’d merely tsked, dangling the key to his freedom on her finger.
“You need to start being nice to me,” she’d said. “You have no idea how difficult it was to talk my father into giving you another chance. I had to convince him we are going to be married.”
“Go away.”
“You’d rather rot in here than marry me?”
“Yes.”
She’d left, taking the key with her, but was angry enough to return a moment later to snarl, “I lied. Marriage isn’t a condition. But I did make a lot of promises to gain your release. So we’re going to be successful this time. One way or another, we’re going to deliver James Malory for my father’s vengeance. You don’t know what he’s like when he’s angry, and he’s very angry.”
“Then he did kill your friend?”
“Andrew? Well, not exactly. He thought he did, whipped him so bad it was hard to imagine Andrew had any blood left. But he merely had his body tossed out of the hall. I managed to secrete him onto your ship so your crew could tend him. I have no idea if he survived or not. I didn’t bother to ask. But I suppose we can drop him off at St. Kitts when we stop there to stock up for the voyage—if he’s still alive.”
She was so blasé about it, but he hadn’t been surprised. From his dealings with Catherine, he’d learned she cared about no one but herself—and that old pirate she called her father.
She took him to see her father that day. On the way, Damon told her, “You should be running in the other direction, Catherine, not trying to please a man like that.”
“Whatever he’s done, he’s still my father. And his anger will dissipate once he gets what he wants. For your sake, I hope you can assure him we’ll succeed this time.”
In the large hall, Pierre was sitting alone at a table, but a half dozen other tables were filled with the cutthroats who’d eagerly joined the old pirate. Tall, maybe even muscular prior to his stay in prison, he was slow in recovering from that, was still too thin and haggard, and yet his icy-blue eyes were uniquely chilling. His black hair and beard were laced with gray and matted. He might have been handsome in his youth, but it was hard to tell now.
He stood up when Damon and Catherine reached him, remarking, “At a simple first test of your loyalty, Captain, you failed grandly. I’m sure spending a few weeks in my dungeon has made you eager to prove you can be trusted never to fail again. A prison cell in Anguilla isn’t much different from the one I built here. It’s not easy for a man to survive in either. Are you ready to try again?”
“I’ll take on the mission, but only if I can go alone, without Catherine. She only complicates the situation.”
“How dare—!” Catherine started to yell.
Pierre held up a hand. “He’s right, chérie. You’re too attractive and tempting. You’d only distract the captain when he needs to concentrate on the business at hand. Besides, I have a different jewel-stealing mission in mind for you.”
Catherine had been mollified, seeming to bask in her father’s complimentary remarks.
Pierre had turned to Damon. “As for you, Captain, no, you will not go alone. You will take my men to serve as your crew.”
“I have a good crew, good at following orders. Your men—”
“Follow my orders and will keep an eye on you and ensure your success this time. You can keep some of your men, but you do not leave without some of mine. If all is well when you return, then you will be given our new location.”
“You’re moving?”
“An old habit of mine. I never stay in one place very long. Once you have the girl, follow these instructions.” He handed Damon a folded small sheet of paper. “If she is not with you, you will be killed instead. Do you understand? I will not accept another failure.”
“That is perfectly clear.”
But then Pierre said in a darker tone, “You should have succeeded. The girl would have been let go if you had lured her father here in a timely manner so I could have my revenge. But I’ve been made to wait, so now I will have a better revenge. Can you imagine what that is?”
“Both of them dead?”
“Exactly.”
That single word had had a profound effect on Damon. He might hate James Malory, but he certainly didn’t hate the man’s daughter. And he wasn’t about to let her die at an old pirate’s whim.
Chapter Thirteen