The Mysterious Merriana

by Carolynn Carey

  “Your cousin is no fool,” Justin replied softly but calmly. “He is aware that people with nothing to lose can be dangerous. He fears you might set a fire, and, as you probably know, a fire at sea can be much more deadly than one on land.”

  “No, I didn’t know, nor do I care,” Merriana said peevishly. She was tired and frightened and worried, and she was now growing stiff from having sat so long in one spot. “I’m going to stand up and stretch a bit.”

  Justin sighed. “Very well, but be quiet. If I don’t hear your so-delightful cousin coming, I’ll never have time to get behind the door before he opens it.”

  Merriana didn’t reply, nor did she stand. Justin was no doubt as tired of sitting still as she, but he had not once complained. With a sigh she settled back on the cot, determined to be as strong as the occasion demanded.

  The silent minutes dragged on, a seemingly endless mix of darkness and rolling and creaking as the ship plowed through the ocean waves. Twice she felt her stomach trying to rebel against the unfamiliar motions of the ship, but the medicine she had drunk was working and she was thankful not to feel bile rising in her throat. Unfortunately, the medication also seemed to be making her sleepy, and she was forced to begin pinching herself in an effort to stay awake. It occurred to her that should she survive the misadventures of this day, most of her bruises would be self-inflicted, and she was forced to fight back a near-hysterical desire to laugh.

  It was almost a relief when she heard Justin’s hissed warning and the soft shuffling of his movements as he stood and moved with quiet stealth to position himself behind the door.

  Merriana also stood as a sudden infusion of fear pumped life back into her numbed body and mind. She clasped her hands tightly while listening to a key turning and then turning again in the lock, and she flinched in the darkness when she recognized her relative’s voice in the muffled curses coming from outside the door.

  But he was smiling when he at last pushed open the door and held his lantern up to throw light into the pitch-black cabin.

  “Ouch,” Merriana exclaimed, throwing a hand over her eyes to shade them from the sudden invasion of brightness.

  “Greetings, little cousin,” her abductor murmured in a cheerful voice. “How delighted I am to see you, especially considering that Arny—the blasted fool—left your door unlocked. He told his mate he intended to visit you. That idiot’s lust is exceeded only by his stupidity. Did the two of you reach an understanding? Did you trade your favors for an unlocked door and a chance to escape? If you were waiting for Arny to come back and help you, my dear, I’m afraid you’ll have a long wait. The bastard jumped ship.”

  Thankful she’d thought to hide Arny’s cap and pants under Charles’s bunk, Merriana lowered her hand and opened her eyes just a slit, pretending still to be half blinded by the light while she furtively examined the figure in the doorway looking for weapons. Obviously, he had expected no trouble either from her or from Charles, because he held the lantern in one hand and in the other, a small travel case designed to hold paper, ink, and quills.

  “Ready to write that missive explaining to the Duke of Daughrity that you are an impostor?” he inquired cheerfully.

  “Not really,” Merriana muttered, “but I suppose I have no choice.”

  “None at all,” he agreed as a smile brightened his face. “None at all. Now if you’ll just step over to the table… ”

  Merriana clenched her teeth, even as she forced a smile. The blasted man still stood in the open doorway, too near the hallway for Justin to make any move against him. It was up to her to lure him further into the cabin. “First,” she murmured as she sank back down onto the cot, “why don’t we become better acquainted? I feel I hardly know you, cousin.”

  Merriana was both chagrined and angered as her relative threw back his golden head and laughed in apparent delight at her feeble attempt to seduce him.

  “You’re a lovely lady,” he said at last when his laughter had faded into a grin, “but never so lovely as the money you represent. Now, please move to the table and I’ll tell you what to write to your uncle, the duke.”

  “No,” Merriana exclaimed, her lower lip sticking out in a petulant expression.

  “Did I insult you?” her captor inquired with a self-satisfied smirk. “I’m a bit surprised, but then, with your looks, I suppose you’re more accustomed to men vying for your attention than turning away from your lures. Ah well, my lady, I suppose a kiss or two between cousins is not too much to ask.”

  And he stepped, finally, into the room.

  Five minutes later, Merriana’s cousin-in-law was firmly secured to the sole chair in the cabin. She herself had bound his feet and hands while Justin held the pistol on him. Then Justin had tied him into the chair while Merriana locked the door against unexpected intruders.

  “Well, that’s done,” Justin exclaimed with a satisfied smile as he stood back regarding their prisoner. “Now we can relax for a while.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Merriana’s relative spoke up. “After all, when I don’t return, I’ll be missed. There will be several men on this ship wondering why I am lingering in this cabin so long.”

  Merriana’s eyes widened as her fears were reborn, but then she glanced toward Justin and found that he was relaxed and smiling. “I imagine the men will draw their own conclusions about why you’ve chosen to spend the remainder of the night locked in this cabin with a beautiful woman, and I doubt that they will decide to interrupt you. Of course, should anyone come to the door and inquire, I assume you’ll be wise enough to request that they leave you in peace.”

  The blond gentleman sighed and shrugged his shoulders, then affected a sad if understanding smile as he turned his brilliantly green eyes toward Merriana.

  “So, cousin,” he remarked calmly, “you have decided to change sides again. Well I must say I don’t much blame you. The winning side is always the better side to choose, after all. But do you suppose your handsome rescuer here can be fooled indefinitely? Someday, I fear, he will realize just how devious you really are.”

  Merriana had again lowered herself onto Charles’s cot, for she had been growing more groggy with each passing minute as the effects of the seasickness medication intensified. But her relative’s comments entered her brain like a scream and she felt her entire body jerk as the implications of his words filtered into her bemused mind. Her gaze flew to Justin in an attempt to gauge his reaction, but his eyes were locked on their captive, and his expression was as wooden as the skeleton of the ship that carried them.

  “What do you mean?” he inquired softly.

  “Nothing you’ll believe, I’m sure,” the man answered as his eyes met Justin’s unwaveringly.

  “Try me,” Justin replied, still calm, still rigid.

  “Surely you can guess. You’re not a stupid man. Your beautiful lady is here of her own free will. She’s no more Charles’s sister than I am, but as long as the Duke of Daughrity believes in her, we knew we could count on his paying handsomely to save her and Charles from the clutches of evil kidnappers. Or so she convinced me. What has she convinced you of?”

  “Nothing that you could understand,” Justin replied in a tone so cold that Merriana had to suppress a desire to shiver. “Nothing that you could ever possibly understand. Now shut up or I’ll throttle you.”

  A slight smile touched the blond man’s lips as he shifted his eyes to meet Merriana’s horrified gaze. Then, quite blatantly, he winked at her.

  Merriana did not have the courage to look at Justin again for she feared that if she did, she would find that his contempt for her had intensified. And so she merely curled up on the end of Charles’s bunk where she lay gazing at the wooden frame above his head and worrying.

  Did Justin really believe that she was guilty of complicity in Charles’s abduction? There was no reason to think he would not. After all, he had believed her guilty of Antonia’s. And if they were rescued and returned to London, would he then
, finally, turn her over to the authorities? Only Charles could prove that she’d played no part in his kidnapping, but even if he survived, it might be weeks before he was able to speak up on her behalf.

  Tears born of fear and anxiety welled in Merriana’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks to moisten the rough blanket beneath her head, but she didn’t allow herself to sniffle or sob. She would die of suffocation before she let either her relative or Justin see how upset she was.

  But even her misery couldn’t prevail over the effects of the medication she’d drunk, so she at last fell into a deep and drugged sleep, never realizing that for all of that long night Justin was standing guard over her sleep and occasionally reaching down to caress with exceptional tenderness the single yellow curl that still clung to the moisture on her cheeks.

  Chapter 32

  Merriana awoke the following morning to the sound of a warning shot being fired across the bow of the ship. She sat up on the end of the bunk and glanced hurriedly at Justin.

  He was sitting on the floor with his back against a wall, his pistols in his lap and a stiletto beside him. “It sounds as though help has arrived,” he commented. “Let’s pray the captain is as good a seaman as Michael Hudson says he is.”

  Merriana merely nodded. At the moment she was less interested in the battle raging outside than she was in the struggle she intended to pursue within this cabin. For the morning had brought a clearer mind, and she was determined now to prove to Justin that she had played no role in Charles’s abduction. She didn’t want to die while fearing that Justin believed such infamy against her.

  “Justin?” she began.

  “Yes?”

  “The things that my cousin said about me yesterday…” She paused as she noted the sudden clench of Justin’s jaw.

  “Don’t remind me,” he snarled. “I was strongly tempted to ram my fist down his throat last night. This morning I’m tired and have even less patience with his ramblings. If I start thinking about the sleazy ruse he tried to use against you, I may very well throttle him.”

  Merriana’s heart tripped. “Then you didn’t believe him?”

  “Believe him? Of course not. How could you have supposed that I did?”

  “Very easily,” Merriana responded. “You came here only to rescue Charles. You made that quite clear yesterday. I assume you were surprised to find me on board since there was no way you could have known I was here, and so it would have been natural—”

  “Damnation!” Justin scrambled to his feet and stared at her with a bemused expression in his eyes. “I can see now that I should have described the events of the last few days in greater detail to you, but I assumed you were still angry with me and wouldn’t want to hear anything I had to tell you.”

  “Angry with you? But you were the one who was angry with me.”

  Their captive sighed, loudly and exaggeratedly. “I believe Shakespeare could have written a farce about this situation,” he said, a sneer in his voice. “But I’m glad he didn’t. It would have been too ridiculous. So why don’t you both just admit that you love each other and kiss with great passion. Then we can blessedly draw the curtain on your little drama.”

  “Shut up, whatever-your-name is.” Merriana swirled to glower down on him, furious that he had interrupted the most promising conversation she’d had with Justin in days. “Don’t you dare make fun of something you can never understand or I’ll throttle you myself.”

  “Well, well, the kitten grows claws,” the man said with a grin. “But sheath them, please. I’m done. As you say, my lovely lady, I’ll never understand true love. But I would appreciate having some knowledge of just what is going on above us. Am I correct in assuming that this ship is being attacked by another in order to effect your rescue?”

  “Why should we answer your questions?” Merriana demanded, still seething. “You, who have tried in every way possible to bring harm to me and Charles, have not even entrusted me with your real name.”

  The prisoner laughed then, a deep, long, bitter laugh. “There was no need,” he replied at last, still chuckling. “You guessed it, almost at once.”

  Merriana turned to Justin. “He’s lying,” she said. “I’ve never even attempted to guess his name.”

  “But you knew,” the blond man insisted. “Don’t you remember? You called me by my name almost at once, soon after you awoke in my carriage.”

  He was too sincere not to be believed. And so Merriana bit her lip in concentration and then suddenly recalled. “I-I don’t believe you,” she stammered. “It would be too much of a coincidence.”

  “A coincidence?” her cousin-in-law chuckled. “My mother thought it was a joke. She said she named me Lucifer after my father, whom she hated. Everyone agreed that it was quite funny. I was the only one who never laughed.”

  “Excuse me,” Charles called in a relatively strong voice from his bunk. “I hate to interrupt this tender moment of reminiscence, but would someone tell me what’s going on?”

  Merriana twirled, forgetting the man named Lucifer in her joy at hearing her brother speak. “Charles,” she exclaimed, falling to her knees beside his cot. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”

  “Like my head has been used as a pin cushion. But I’ll live, I believe. Justin? What in the name of all that’s holy are you doing here?”

  Justin explained quickly and succinctly.

  “You mean there’s a sea battle raging around us right now?” Charles asked with a frown.

  “I think not,” Justin replied. “From the lack of sound, I assume it’s over. I just wish I knew who won.”

  “That information would be of some interest to me, too,” Charles said. “But I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Justin pushed himself to his feet. “True. Rather than wait, I’m going to take a look around. Charles, if I leave a pistol with you, are you strong enough to fire it if the need arises.”

  A creak from the opening door had Justin spinning to point his pistol in that direction, and a familiar voice called out loudly. “Don’t shoot, Justin. Sorry I startled you, but the captain had an extra key, so I decided to slip in quietly in case you needed some help. I should have known you wouldn’t.”

  “Tom!” Merriana ran to throw her arms around her former employer. “My dear friend. I can’t believe you’re really here.”

  “How goes the fighting, Tom?” Justin asked quickly.

  “That Cap’n Weston is amazing, Justin,” Tom replied. “I’ve never seen anybody who could plan an attack like him. You should have seen the faces of the sailors on the Charlestown Belle when our young captain run up the skull and crossbones. We almost had the battle won before it started. Of course, his sailors are also some of the best fighters I’ve ever seen.”

  “I assume this high praise means that we won the battle?” Justin inquired.

  “We sure did—easily,” Tom replied with a cheerful grin that faded as he perused the blond man still secured to his chair. “And I suppose this fellow you’ve got tied up is the one who kidnapped Merriana and Charles?”

  “He is,” Justin said. “Personally, I’d like to see him hang, but I promised him to Captain Weston.”

  Justin had been watching their captive to see if the name Weston meant anything to him. Aside from a muscle twitching in his jaw, he showed no reaction.

  “Let’s go then,” Tom suggested. “Our men are keeping an eye on the other crew so they won’t try nothing else, not that I think they would anyhow. They were beat in no time. Didn’t seem to like the looks of Cap’n Weston and his men, and I can’t say that I blame them. Weston’s men made the most realistic pirates you’ve ever seen. If I hadn’t known they was acting, I’d have thought they were the real thing myself.”

  Justin smiled in fond amusement for Tom’s enthusiasms and then requested that he help Charles ascend to the deck. “I’ll be responsible for our captive,” he continued grimly. “Merriana can help with Charles should you need her.”

  A few min
utes later, Merriana blinked her eyes against the brightness of the sunlight on deck. And then she blinked again, barely able to believe what she was seeing. The wicked-looking sailors of the Charlestown Belle had been herded into a small area on deck where they were being guarded by the even more roguish-appearing men of the Diamond Queen. As Tom had said, the Queen’s crew resembled nothing so much as a band of pirates, dressed as they were in a variety of garish styles, most of which appeared to have been designed for much smaller frames. For all of these men were immense, with heavily muscled and frequently scarred arms. Some wore sleeveless shirts that might once have been white, while others sported leather vests hanging open to reveal well tanned and brawny chests. One especially large sailor had donned a blue velvet coat with sleeves that had been slit to accommodate his protruding biceps. All wore belts of weapons—pistols and swords and the occasional wickedly curved cutlass. Merriana wondered briefly where they had found such realistic costumes.

  But then her attention was attracted by the man who was obviously the leader of this unusual and rather intimidating group of sailors. It was not his appearance that proclaimed him captain, Merriana realized. Quite the contrary, actually. He stood at least a head shorter than the shortest of his men, and the youthfulness of his appearance would have been more appropriate for a cabin boy than for a captain. His costume, too, was more conventional than those of his crew, for he wore faded cotton trousers and a long-sleeved, full-cut shirt that was open at the throat. His only weapon was a pistol that he had stuck into the top of his waistband.

  Perhaps, Merriana decided, it was the simplicity of his attire that proclaimed him as leader, but she soon realized that this was only a fraction of the reason she had so quickly identified him as the captain. Mostly it was his manner, which was as self-assured as any Merriana had ever seen. He appeared to be a man who was aware of his own worth but was so accustomed to that awareness that he had long ago forgotten such knowledge could be important to a man.