Chapter 27
“I don’t know how I can face his sister after what happened today.” Summer groaned as she snuggled down under the robe in the carriage.
“You won’t have to face any of his family,” Brent replied absently, carefully guiding his weary team through the last of the forest.
“But you know I’ll see them,” Summer insisted. “They go everywhere.”
“You won’t be here. We’re leaving Havana tomorrow.”
“Where are you taking me?” She sat up quickly. “You promised you wouldn’t hand me over to the earl.”
“I’m carrying you to my plantation, which is what I should have done in the first place. If I’d had any idea Gonsalvo and his ilk would take you for my discarded mistress, I wouldn’t have brought you to Havana at all.”
“There wouldn’t have been any need for your interference, today or any other day, if you’d left me where you found me,” Summer retorted wrathfully, but she stopped suddenly, ashamed of her vixenish behavior, especially after the way she had welcomed his embraces on the riverbank. She reflected bitterly on the unfairness of having to be thankful to a handsome brute who deserved to be flogged.
“I haven’t thanked you for coming to my rescue,” she said stiffly. “It was most fortunate that you took the time and trouble to come all this way on the chance that I might need your assistance.”
“If that is the way you talk when you’re being thankful, I prefer your anger,” Brent said scathingly. “At least then you don’t sound like a mutton-headed fool.”
“I was trying to thank you properly.” Summer’s anger flared. “Since the words nearly choked me, the least you could have done was to listen without making rude remarks.”
“I hate mealy-mouthed females.”
“You can be sure that I won’t be mealy-mouthed again.” Summer had a steely glint in her eyes. “I’ll let you know exactly what kind of a cur I think you are.”
“That’s better.” Brent laughed. “For a minute I was afraid you were catching a chill and would come down with a fever before midnight.”
“If I ever have the good fortune to come upon you bound and defenseless,” sputtered Summer, “I’m going to cut a hole in your belly and fill it with salt.”
“That’s dandy.” Brent was enjoying her anger. “Don’t give me an inch. Now you lie back and get some rest. I don’t want you worn out when we reach the island. There is too much I want to show you, and there are hundreds of things I want to do.”
“Where is this plantation?” Summer asked, unable to curb her curiosity despite her anger. “What’s it like? Is it really a plantation, or is it just a house?”
“I don’t think I’ll tell you,” Brent teased. “At least not everything.” She looked at him reproachfully. “It’ll be easier to let you judge for yourself, but it is a real plantation. In fact I’ve gone to a lot of expense to see that it’s in good working order. I’m anxious to see how the changes I’ve ordered are working out.”
“Can I go with you, out on the plantation, I mean? I did a lot of the work for Father and I could be helpful.”
“You can go anywhere you please. I own the whole island.”
“A whole island!” Summer was astonished. “It must be a huge plantation.”
“No, but it is rather large,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “Quite large enough to support me when I decide to retire from the sea.”
“But what about your home in Scotland?” she asked before she stopped to think.
“I have no home in Scotland,” Brent replied, and the light of happiness went out of his eyes.
“Who did all this?” Summer asked in open-mouthed surprise when she arrived at the hotel to find everything packed.
“That fool of a maid.”
“But where is she?”
“I threw her out. She had no business letting you go off with Gonsalvo.”
“There was nothing she could do to stop me,” Summer protested. “You can’t blame her for my mistake.”
“I can blame her for not telling me,” said Brent.
“Not after I lectured her on loyalty,” Summer told him as she pulled the bell rope. “The poor child couldn’t obey both of us.”
“You’re determined to spike my guns, aren’t you?” Brent thundered.
“How am I suppose to change for dinner? I can’t even get ready for bed by myself.”
“I can help you,” Brent said quickly, his sudden smile transforming his harsh expression and giving him a boyish charm.
“You will not!” Summer felt light-headed. She always did when he smiled at her in that way. “My reputation isn’t so bad that I can afford to have you making free in my bedroom.”
“Blast your reputation!”
“You nearly have, but there are a few shreds of it left, and I’m determined to hold on to them.”
“Did you want me, señora?” inquired Chichi timorously, peeping from behind the bedroom door with wide, frightened eyes.
“Yes. I need to change my clothes.”
“Madre de Dios! What happened to you?” Chichi exclaimed, forgetting Brent when she saw her mistress. Summer’s hair hung in ugly strings about her shoulders and her dress, which, though it had dried somewhat, clung to her body with indecent clarity.
“You’ll catch your death of cold,” Chichi declared, pushing Summer toward the bedroom door. “You must have a hot bath and something warm in your stomach.”
“If you don’t take better care of the countess this time,” Brent growled, “I will personally peel the hide off your body.”
Chichi’s burst of enthusiasm faded.
“Pay no attention to him,” Summer instructed her through chattering teeth. “As long as you please me, you don’t have to worry about anyone else.”
It was obvious from the fearful glances Chichi cast in Brent’s direction that she didn’t put a great deal of faith in Summer’s ability to protect her from his wrath.
“We leave at first light,” Brent said, “so be sure the countess’s trunks are ready to be carried to the docks by midnight.”
“Aren’t you going to take me with you, señora?” Chichi was visibly upset.
“I don’t keep incompetent servants,” Brent said firmly.
“Go take care of your business and leave us alone,” Summer ordered, her vexation evident. “You’re upsetting her.”
“Fine thing. You’re more concerned about a worthless maid than me.”
“You can take care of yourself. She can’t.”
“That’s the first compliment you’ve ever paid me, yet you managed to make it sound like a fault,” he said as he left.
“There’s no need for you to cry anymore.” Summer guided Chichi toward the bedroom. “The captain’s gone now.”
“It’s not that.” Chichi hiccupped. “The captain scares me a little, but he would not make me cry.”
“Then what are you crying about?”
“You are leaving.”
“I’m sorry Chichi, but you knew from the first that I was only going to be here a short time.”
“I know, but you had such a great success I thought you might want to stay.”
“You know I must return to my husband,” Summer said carefully. “I can’t stay away from him forever.”
“Does he love you?”
“What do you mean?” Summer was unnerved by the impertinent question.
“He hasn’t given you a baby.”
“How can you know that?”
“Everyone knows that you don’t have such a perfect figure after you’ve had babies.”
“But what has that got to do with my husband?”
“Captain Douglas is a very handsome man. You have said so.”
“What are you trying to say?” Summer was no longer feeling sympathetic.
“Maybe he would give you a baby.”
“One more word out of you, and I’ll slap you.” Summer advanced on the hapless maid with flashing eyes. “That’s a
rude and stupid thing to say, and if the captain ever hears of it, he will surely beat you. If that’s what you think of me, I’m glad you’re not coming.”
Chichi tried over and over again to convince her mistress of her devotion, but Summer was too infuriated to listen to her arguments. She might want to tumble into Brent’s arms, but she had far too much pride to do so.
Summer thrust her face squarely into the cool sea breeze. It was heaven to be out of the heat and the fetid closeness of Havana. Now there was no need to spend hours dressing or to wear clothes she didn’t like. On the small craft were only Brent and the two crewmen necessary to help sail it. Smith had been left behind to see to the disposal of the cargo, and the crew had been dispersed until such time as Brent was ready to go to sea again.
“Smith can do just as well without me,” Brent had confessed sheepishly when she’d asked why he wasn’t staying. “My temper has scared off so many buyers he practically ordered me to stay away until I was human again.”
Brent had also told her that he was taking her away for her own protection. “Whatever you find to do on Biscay, it won’t include the likes of Gonsalvo de Aguilar,” he had declared, a martial light in his eyes. “If that man ever dares to set foot on my land, I’ll put an end to him once and for all.”
“I don’t think he’ll be anxious to see either one of us again.” Summer had been unable to suppress a smile of satisfaction. “No man can pretend to be a lover after his servants have fished him out of the river. They did find him, didn’t they?”
“They must have. News travels fast in Havana, especially news that promises to turn into a scandal.”
“I still think you were too rough on him.”
“I wasn’t as rough as I wanted to be. That scalawag ought to be wiped out.”
A sharp retort had hovered on the tip of Summer’s tongue, but she’d bitten back the words. However much she might revel in being able to throw his sins in his face, she was deeply grateful to him for saving her from Gonsalvo; and there was also no use denying that her feeling for him had undergone a complete change. She felt almost none of her earlier anger. Maybe it was because his abuse of her was beyond recall. Maybe it was because he had left her alone and for a fortnight her self-respect had not been bruised by the selfish demands he made on her body. Or maybe jealousy was a stronger emotion than all the rest, and now that she had him by her side again, she wasn’t willing to give him up. She wasn’t sure that it actually mattered. But she was more charitable to him than she had ever been; she even felt a companionable closeness that was new to her. They were more friendly than in the days before they’d reached Havana. Looking at his tanned profile, she realized that she was looking forward to the coming days.
“I thought you said it wasn’t a large island?”
“It’s not.”
“We’ve been following the coast for the last hour and we haven’t gotten halfway around it. You must have thousands of acres here.”
“I don’t know the size of the island, but I do know we have about two thousand acres in sugar cane.”
Summer gasped. “But that’s enormous. You must be terribly wealthy. I never knew pirates made so much money.”
“I couldn’t buy this island. Not even pirates are that rich.”
“Then how did you get it?”
“You might say I won it on a wager.”
Summer gave vent to a snort of disgust. “And Smith told me you never gambled. I should have known he was just trying to protect your reputation.”
“This gamble had nothing to do with cards. The island was held by the previous captain of the Windswept, a man who was widely known for his cruelty. The actual owner wanted his island back and I wanted the ship, so we joined forces. Unfortunately Don Agustín was injured in the assault. It didn’t seem serious at first, but he suddenly got worse and died. Now the island belongs to me.”
“Didn’t he have any heirs?”
“Only a sister, and she didn’t want it. Doña Inés has never forgotten that I helped her brother, and unless I can think of some way to prevent it, she’s going to leave me her fortune as well. Then I won’t be able to set foot in Havana without expecting to be stabbed in the back by some Spaniard fearful that I mean to annex the rest of the Caribbean.”
Summer interrupted him excitedly. “I see a break in the trees, and there’s the dock. Are we finally coming to the house?”
“Yes. There are terraces down to the water, but the view is cut off by that grove of Cyprus. You’ll be able to see it in just a few minutes.” Summer waited expectantly. Her excitement mounted as more and more of the beautifully planned grounds came into view. One terrace after another climbed up the hillside, each with a particular design and its own special plantings.
“How many terraces are there?” she asked, amazed. “I can count three already.”
“Six including the one in front of the house.”
“It must be huge,” she said in wonder.
“It keeps a dozen men busy, but I can’t claim any credit for them. They are the work of Don Augustín’s family.”
“Like Señor de Aguilar’s garden?”
“Very much,” he said, scowling at the unpleasant memory of Gonsalvo. “The two families used to be friends, and they began their gardens in friendly rivalry. There are none finer in all of the new world.” The yacht approached the dock and at last Summer had an unobstructed view of the sweep of lawn that rose from the sea to the house high on the hill.
“It’s breathtaking,” she said, hardly able to believe her eyes. “How can you bear to leave it?”
“I’ve grown rather fond of it, but you can’t sail a ship like the Windswept and have much time left to run a plantation.”
Summer sensed his enthusiasm was not wholehearted. She supposed he was remembering his home in Scotland. To her, nothing in Scotland could compare to a beautiful home such as this, but she accepted the fact that Brent had loyalties she couldn’t dismiss.
“It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,” Summer said dreamily. “I feel I’ve just awakened from a bad dream to find that I’m an enchanted princess who lives in a palace.”
“Maybe you’ve come home,” Brent said in an odd voice. Summer waited hopefully, but all he added was, “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to.”
“Good,” she said, trying not to show her disappointment at his refusal to commit himself. At the moment it was enough for her to know that she was safely away from Havana and the people that had driven a wedge between them. For a while he would be completely hers.
“I can’t wait until we dock. I want to see everything.”
“You can’t see much today. It’s almost dark. You’ll have lots of time to look into every corner tomorrow while I’m out checking into what has been going on since I was here last.”
“I want to go with you, at least some of the time.”
“What for?”
“I probably know more about running a plantation than you do,” she said, proudly tilting her chin. “You forget that I was reared on one and that I helped run it for a year.”
“True,” he admitted. “All right, you can come with me, but you will have to prove your worth or I’ll leave you at the house to deal with the kitchen maids.”
Summer laughed. “You are a miserable wretch, Brent Douglas. What are you going to do when I answer your every question and solve all your problems?”
“Thank you.”
She was thrown off stride by his unexpected answer. “That’s not much of a reward for expert advice,” she said, recovering her balance.
“I haven’t gotten the advice yet, but I’m certain it won’t be without cost.”
“You are unquestionably the most maddening, infuriating man I’ve ever met,” Summer said without heat, “and I don’t know why I continue to put up with you.”
“Probably because I won’t go away.”
“You needn’t remind me of that. I’ve been trying to get r
id of you for months.”
“You counted it a major sin when I disappeared in Havana,” Brent retorted.
“That was desertion,” said Summer, collecting her dignity and her skirts as she prepared to climb onto the dock. “No woman wants to be abandoned in a strange city.”
“It seems like the same thing to me.”
“You’re a man.”
“I’m glad you noticed.”
“And,” Summer ignored his interruption, “that’s exactly the kind of remark I would expect from a self-centered, insensitive male.”
“If men are such terrible things, I wonder why you females want to be around us so much.”
“I’ve wondered about that too,” Summer replied, pretending to consider the point seriously. “I admit that men are quite useful when it comes to chopping wood and frightening off wild animals, but the civilized world would be so much more civilized without them.” Brent pulled Summer back from a particularly inviting path.
“So you would like to dispense with us altogether?”
“Not quite altogether,” she temporized. “I do like you a little, but it would be nice if you were tame enough to be brought into the drawing room without fear that you would overturn the coffee cups.”
“You lying wench.” Brent threw back his head and laughed. “You talk out of both sides of your mouth, and so fast you don’t know what you’re saying out of either side.
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