Alana

by Barrie, Monica

  Ledoque stared at her through narrowed eyes, his thick lips moist from spittle. “It was I who arranged for the agent to offer you the contract–-the consortium’s contract. When the Harmony reaches Cape Town, it will no longer be your ship; it will be mine. We’ll give it a new name. Of course,” he said, releasing her at last, “in a week, two at the most, word will reach NewYork that the Harmony was lost in a freak storm, not a week out of port.”

  “Insanity!” Alana declared, ignoring the pain his fingers inflicted. “The Harmony won’t sail for another five days!”

  Ledoque shook his head knowingly. “The last piece of equipment arrived today. It’s aboard now, and the Harmony leaves tomorrow to meet its fate.” Ledoque smiled again as he savored the distraught look on Alana’s features.

  “There will be only one survivor of that unlucky voyage. He will report that all other hands were lost, as well as the cargo, when the ship sank. You see, my dear, one of my ships has already left to intercept the Harmony shortly after she leaves port. Then it will be my crew, flying the Marquette flag, who will bring the ship to Cape Town. Your crew will not survive their journey.”

  Ledoque smiled at the shock so plainly visible on Alana’s face. “You realize, do you not, that you are responsible for all those men who will die when the Harmony is boarded?”

  “You’re mad!” Alana declared.

  “Perhaps,” Ledoque agreed with a shrug. “But look at what my madness has gained me.” Again, he reached out. This time his hand caught her long hair. He dragged her to him until his eyes were a half inch from hers.

  “You could have saved Landow Shipping when I made you my offer. You could also have saved Riverbend. But you’re going to lose everything. When word of the Harmony's loss reaches port, the agent will call for full restitution of the cargo, as is stated in the contract.”

  “No!” Alana shouted, twisting from him.

  “Yes,” Ledoque replied in a calm, victorious voice. Then he released her. “As I said, Alana, you should have accepted my offer when I gave it. You would have been the wife of one of the most powerful men in the world.”

  Alana was shaking inside, but forced herself to appear calm, despite her nakedness.

  “I accept the offer now, Charles,” she said, her mind working frantically to think of a way to save the men of the Harmony. Calculatingly, she moved close to him and pressed her breasts to his chest. She moistened her lips with a darting tongue; her fingernails ran lightly up and down his arms.

  “Do you think I would marry a whore?” he asked, staring hard into her eyes, ignoring what she was attempting to do. “That is what you are, Alana…you and that Revanche woman. No, I will keep you until I grow tired of you, and then I will throw you into the street where a good whore belongs!”

  Alana spun from him. “As you did with Rafe?” she asked. Behind her,

  Ledoque laughed explosively. “Your lover will never see another street.”

  Alana stiffened; her breath caught as his words bored into her mind. Yet she did not turn back to him, for fear he would see the hope in her eyes.

  Then she felt Ledoque come up behind her. His chest touched her back. His hands went around her waist and began to stroke her stomach as he pressed her tighter against him. She could feel him beginning to harden, and she could not repress the shudder that rippled along her body.

  “You see, my dear,” Ledoque continued as if he were having a pleasant conversation with one of his peers, “Montgomery had made an enemy of the most powerful man in New York, and perhaps the entire country. This man wants Montgomery to live out his life as a lesson in stupidity and futility. Rafael Montgomery is to live with the memory of what he will never have or see again.” Ledoque paused to kiss Alana’s shoulder. His lips were hot and wet against her skin; his hands rose upward, pushing her arms away as he grasped her breasts and fondled them freely.

  “Montgomery is on a ship that left port yesterday morning bound for South Africa. When the ship docks, Montgomery will be turned over to a–certain party, who will take him to the Transvaal, where he will spend the rest of his life in bondage, working in a diamond mine like a slave.”

  Ledoque’s last word echoed ominously. Alana reacted ferociously. Spinning, she dislodged his hands; her own hand rose and flashed toward him. The sound, when her hand met his face, was loud and sharp. Then she launched herself at him, her fingers curved into claws, her nails seeking his face.

  Her left hand sank into his cheek. She pulled it sharply down. Ledoque’s roar of rage filled her ears. Before she could strike him again, Ledoque attacked. Pain exploded in her stomach. She doubled over, gasping for breath, but before the pain started to diminish, he caught from behind and grasped her long hair.

  Her head snapped back, and she found herself staring into Ledoque’s maddened face. “Bitch!” Ledoque spat. Jerking her painfully to her feet, his other hand grasped her throat.

  “I could kill you easily,” he stated, his hand tightening on her windpipe. “But not yet,” he finished in a whisper.

  Alana stared, not into his eyes, but at the three deep red furrows her nails had made in his cheek. “You’ll have to kill me, or I’ll kill you,” she promised in a flat, deadly voice.

  Pulling her head back, Alana tried to escape his grip. He reacted by tightening his hand on her throat and cutting off her breath. He held her like that until spots danced before her eyes and darkness seeped into her mind. Then he suddenly released her and pushed her back.

  Gasping for air, Alana could not stop him from grabbing her and carrying her to the bed. She was trying to fight him, but the way he held her prevented any but the weakest of moves.

  Suddenly she was on her feet, facing him, for he had set her down at the side of the bed. Without letting herself think, she lashed out. He caught her wrist in his left hand; his right palm struck her cheek. The force of the blow sent her tumbling back onto the bed.

  She lay still for a moment, feeling blood flow from her lower lip. Ignoring it, she stared hatefully up at him. Then her eyes widened, and her body turned cold.

  Ledoque laughed again, even as his eyes shone with insanity and lust. Alana realized that their fight had only served to excite him and he was swollen with desire.

  She almost cried out, but she stopped herself.

  “Good,” Ledoque said, “very good, Alana. Maybe now you’ll show some life when I take you, instead of lying beneath me like a dead sow.”

  Alana shook her head fiercely.

  “Oh yes, you will. Now I will teach you how to please a real man!”

  When he put one knee on the bed, Alana kicked upward toward his face. Ledoque had been prepared and grabbed her ankle. Then he caught her other ankle and locked them together. An instant later, he twisted both legs and turned Alana onto her stomach.

  She tried to squirm away, but his fingers twisted into her hair and he jerked her head back. She cried out in pain.

  Then his hot breath rushed across her ear, followed a moment later by his voice. “Keep fighting, Alana. I like a woman who shows life.” He lifted his body and then forced himself between her legs, his chest pressing heavily onto her back.

  She stiffened when she felt his hardness pressing into her, its hot, blunt tip probing where it should never go.

  She squirmed anew, shouting as she tried to dislodge him, but the painful way he held her neck stopped any move she attempted. Then his other hand was under her, lifting her backward toward him. His fingers slid cruelly toward her womanhood, while his rigid pole continued to try to gain entry.

  Her body stiffened with a fear such as she had never known. Anger and humiliation fed her mind, but they did not give her the strength to throw him off.

  “No!” she screamed when he pushed harder against her amnd tore into her.

  ~~~~~

  Throughout the entire first night, the whole of the next day, and the early hours of this night, Chaco had stayed near the townhouse. He’d walked around it endlessly, waiting t
o see if he could catch a glimpse of Alana. Early that morning, he’d seen Ledoque leave, but not with Alana. Ledoque had returned just after sunset, and Chaco had gone into the small alley that separated Ledoque’s house from the one next to it.

  The feeling of dread that had been with him since he’d recognized Ledoque, had stayed with him and had not given him a moment’s peace. Yet until he knew where Ledoque held her in the house, he could do nothing.

  Two hours after Ledoque returned, Chaco had glanced up at the sound of a window opening. He flattened against the building when he saw someone lean out of the second-floor window.

  When he saw it was a woman, he left the shadows, trying to see if it was Alana. He thought it might be, but the woman had withdrawn her head quickly.

  Then all he’d been able to do was to wait.

  Later, the back door had opened. A woman and man had stepped outside for a moment. Again, Chaco fled to the protection of the shadows, but stayed within listening distance.

  “Poor girl, I’ve never seen him like this. Not in all the years we’ve been here,” said the woman.

  “He’s getting crazier every day,” the man agreed.

  “How long do you think he’ll keep her here?”

  The man shrugged his shoulders. “Not long. I heard Corsell tell Mr. Ledoque that Mr. Allison expects him to go to Washington with him tomorrow night.”

  “What will he do with her?”

  Before the man had answered, another woman had called the two people inside. Chaco knew he must act soon.

  Looking up, he saw that light still flickered in the window, and he decided he would wait until it went out. He had already inspected the latticework, and he decided it would support him.

  It was well past midnight when Chaco’s senses urged him to move. He had seen the lights in two other rooms go out, but the lights in the upper bedroom still illuminated the windows.

  He heard loud voices shouting from the second-floor window. His muscles tensed when he recognized Alana’s tones. Then he heard her scream, and his body went into action. Pulling his knife from its sheath, he clamped it between his teeth and started to climb the trellis.

  More shouts, followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh reached him. Two minutes later, his hands were on the window ledge; his feet anchored in the trellis.

  Levering himself up, he looked into the window and froze. He saw Ledoque strike Alana in the face, and he watched as her body tumbled onto the bed. His rage turned cold when Ledoque twisted her onto her stomach and grasped her hair. When Ledoque yanked her head back and put himself between her legs, Chaco’s anger broke all his control. He opened the window slowly, not once allowing the wood to make any noise. As Alana screamed in defiance, Chaco pulled himself into the bedroom. Freeing the knife from his teeth, Chaco reversed the blade and threw it at Ledoque’s back.

  As Ledoque rolled off of her, Alana bolted from the bed. When she stood and saw Chaco, her eyes widened and her breath escaped in a loud sigh. She looked at Ledoque’s body, and knew immediately that he was dead. Realizing she was naked, Alana wrapped the bedspread around herself. “Thank you,” she whispered, tears suddenly spilling from her eyes. She would find out the rest later.

  Chaco’s hands moved quickly: We must go.

  Alana shook away the fog that was part of her mind. “I need my clothes.” Alana looked at the door. “This way.”

  Chaco pulled his knife free from Ledoque’s back. He stepped in front of Alana and went to the door. Opening it, he peered cautiously into the hallway. When he saw it was clear, he motioned to Alana.

  In the hallway, Alana took the lead, bringing them to the third-floor bedroom where she had left her clothing. Chaco stood guard while Alana dressed. When she was finished, she touched Chaco’s arm.

  Once again, Chaco was the first into the hallway. Silently he led Alana down to the main floor, pausing by each doorway to listen before going on.

  When they reached the front door, Alana opened it while Chaco stood with his back to her, watching in case one of the staff appeared from the back of the house. A half minute later, they were out the door and into the street.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Alana looked at Chaco. “We don’t have much time,” she said. As they walked quickly toward the hotel, Alana told Chaco everything she had learned.

  Alana closed the last trunk and went to the writing desk in her hotel room. She had succeeded in blanking out most of the shame she’d suffered at Ledoque’s hands, and she now concentrated solely on her first objective: to save the crew of the Harmony.

  She wrote a note to Captain Sanders, ordering him to wait at the dock until she arrived. She stressed the urgency of her request, stating that there was a dire emergency. Then she sent Chaco to the dock with the note.

  While he was on the errand, she went into Rafe’s rooms and collected his belongings. When she found the golden chain with her mother’s band on it, emotion welled up strongly in her. Pushing those emotions aside for now, she took the band and put it on her right hand. Then she returned to the desk and started to write again.

  Dipping the pen into the inkwell, Alana first wrote Nathan Bennet, detailing Rafe’s abduction and telling him that she would be leaving on the Harmony in an effort to save Rafe. She put Mike Murphy’s confession in the envelope so the lawyer would have it for safekeeping.

  The second letter was to Crystal. In the minutest detail, she wrote Crystal of everything that had happened to her and of her discovery of Ledoque’s plans. She wrote that she would accompany the Harmony and deliver the cargo. Once she arrived in Cape Town, she would not leave until she had found Rafe and freed him from whatever hell Ledoque and James Allison had sent him to. Having never explained to Crystal who her true love in fact was, Alana supplied some of the pertinent details about Rafe, and about the miracle of her finding him again. She finished the letter by telling Crystal that she was leaving all business matters in her hands.

  As she sealed and addressed the envelope, Chaco came into the sitting room. Looking up at him, she spoke. “Captain Sanders will wait for me?”

  Yes, Chaco signed.

  “Good. I will arrange for my trunks and for a carriage to take me to the dock. Chaco,” she said, pausing for a moment, “I will never be able to thank you for tonight.”

  Chaco shook his head emphatically. Then his hands moved slowly so that Alana could read every word they spoke. It was my fault you were taken. You were hurt because of me.

  “No, Chaco,” Alana said as she stood and went to him. She grasped his hands between hers and looked directly into his eyes. “There was nothing you could have done to prevent them from taking me. They would have killed you. But I am here now because of you. That is what is important. And we will never discuss this again!” Alana stated.

  Chaco held Alana’s steady gaze for a moment before slowly nodding his head.

  “Good,” Alana said with a warm smile. “Chaco, when we go to the docks, I will arrange passage for you back to Charleston. You must see that Crystal gets this letter. It will tell her everything that’s happened.”

  Chaco shook his head adamantly. Then his fingers flew in speech.

  “Too fast,” Alana said.

  Chaco signed again, slowly. Crystal say I must stay with you. Chaco stay!

  “You must go back to her.”

  No!

  “Please, Chaco. I am going far away.”

  Chaco’s face was expressionless, but Alana thought she saw a flash of amusement in his ebony eyes. His hands spoke again. You will need me there. It is far away for you. It is home for me.

  “Home?” she whispered.

  Chaco nodded his head. I will help you find him. I promise this. When Chaco finished signing those last words, he tapped his hand over his heart to emphasize he meant Rafe.

  Unable to argue with him, she signed, Thank you.

  An hour and a half later, with the hotel clerk having promised to see the two letters posted, Alana’s trunks were loaded into th
e same cabin on the Harmony she had used on the voyage to New York. Alana herself went to see Captain Sanders to explain the imminent danger.

  After she’d told Captain Sanders of Ledoque’s scheme, he’d called the first and second mates to him and ordered them to be prepared for the possibility of piracy and to have the cannons manned as soon as the Harmony left the harbor. Then he told the mates to check each of the new crewmen and find out who worked for Ledoque. After that, he’d given Alana his assurance that somehow they would reach their destination.

  When the sun broke on the horizon, Alana went to stand at the bow of the Harmony, and soon New York Harbor was falling quickly behind.

  She looked back at the city for one last time as it came to life under the dawn’s light. When she turned away, she saw that three sailors had already uncovered one of the Harmony's four cannons and were bringing out the stock of powder and shells.

  “Perhaps we can outrun them,” she whispered hopefully.

  Book 3

  South Africa

  Cape Town, The Transvaal

  1867-69

  22

  Rafe opened his eyes. A solitary beam of sunlight filtered down to where he lay on the earthen floor, trying to breathe the sweltering, humid air. His mouth was dry, his lips cracked, and his tongue swollen. He was weak, but he was also thankful that he was no longer in the hold of the ship.

  Rafe blinked several times and forced his muscles into action. Sitting up, he looked around the darkened cavern of his new prison and wondered exactly where in the world he was.

  Throughout the long ocean journey, he’d been below, allowed on deck exactly twice, but his brief respites outside had only made it harder to tolerate his fetid prison in the hold. No man on the ship spoke to him, and whatever he’d been able to overhear had given him no insight regarding his destination.

  He’d had no food or water for the first three days of the trip. When his captors finally showed themselves, it had been behind several guns. Resistance was hopeless. Weakened and outnumbered, he’d been unable to fight the men who had put manacles on his wrists and ankles.