“Her name,” Jared said. “What was her name?”
“He never mentioned it. I wrote back to him, urging him to leave England. The longer he stayed on enemy soil, the more dangerous it became that someone would realize his real reason for being there.” Daniel sighed, pursing his lips in thought, then shaking his head.
“I received only one more correspondence from John... and that didn’t reach my hands till after word of his death.”
“What did it say?”
“I’ve found Lady Sinclair.”
Jared let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. His eyes blinked shut and he turned to stumble heavily into the chair by the desk. After a few minutes he looked up. “And you think Lady Sinclair killed him?”
“I can’t be certain, but yes, I think he discovered her identity and she killed him.”
“And Lord Alfred?”
“Somehow he knew also. He contacted me in France.” Daniel paused. “He was desperate for money. So desperate he would have sold out almost anyone.” His pale eyes rested on Merideth.
She held his gaze, only breaking contact when she felt the captain’s eyes upon her too. “This is ridiculous,” she said. “My father wasn’t a traitor.” Her tone was insistent, but in her heart she wasn’t sure she spoke the truth. She wasn’t even certain if the doubt she read in the captain’s green eyes had aught to do with her father.
Unable to tolerate the accusation in his expression, Merideth turned on her heel. She was halfway across the library when the captain’s booming voice made her stop.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She refused to turn around. Closing her eyes, Merideth said. “To my room. You gentlemen can find your own way out when you’re finished... ransacking my home.”
Before she knew what he was about, Merideth felt a hand clamp around her elbow. She tried to wrench away, but the captain held her firm as he propelled her into the hallway, closing the door behind them.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Merideth managed as she was half dragged, half prodded up the stairs.
“You wanted to go to your room. I’m taking you. But hear me well, Lady Merideth. I’m not leaving here without you.”
“Well, I’m not going with you.” Merideth broke away from him as they neared her room. Gathering her skirts, she ran, managing to enter ahead of him. Using the weight of her body, she tried to slam the door in his face, but with one hand he thwarted her attempts. “Leave me alone,” Merideth cried, finally giving up and retreating toward the window.
“Are you the woman?”
He stalked ever closer, his big body seemingly swallowing up all the space in the room. “Answer me, dammit. Are you the one?”
“What woman? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Merideth tried not to show how frightened she was, but her sob was self-incriminating.
“My brother’s woman. The angel. Did my brother love you?”
“No.” Merideth’s back met the solid barrier of the wall and she stopped. “I never met your brother. I swear.”
He stood towering over her, his eyes searching her face; for what, Merideth wasn’t sure. But she didn’t look away. She couldn’t.
Finally he grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the chifforobe. “Pack some clothes. I’ll be back directly.”
“I said I’m not going!” Merideth yelled, but she spoke to an empty room. He’d already gone, slamming the door. As Merideth stood, trembling, her balled fist against her mouth, she heard the unmistakable click of the lock.
“Why in the hell didn’t you tell me this sooner?” Jared burst into the library in time to see Daniel throw the last book from the shelves onto the floor.
“I thought it better you didn’t know.” Daniel turned a calm face up to Jared’s fulminating gaze.
“You thought it better!” Jared took a threatening step forward. “You know who killed my brother and you thought it better I didn’t know.” His tone was incredulous. “I should tear you limb from limb for this.”
“If you think that will do any good, go on.” Daniel glanced around for something else to search. Seeing nothing, he sank into the closest chair. “No one has ever doubted your bravery... or your love for John. But there are times both border on being foolish.”
“What in the hell does that have to do with you keeping the identity of John’s killer from me?”
“Besides being brave, you’re impetuous and headstrong.” Daniel held up his hand when Jared would have interrupted. “And you have a temper that too often burns out of control. Fine-enough attributes for a privateer... but not for a spy.”
“Damn if I wish to be a spy.”
“Exactly.” Daniel leaned back in the chair. “However, if I’d told you about Lady Sinclair’s connection with your brother, you would have insisted upon storming in and—”
“And what? Ruined our chances of finding the bitch’s identity? If you recall, that happened anyway. You sent me here anyway.”
The shoulders of Daniel’s ice-blue silk waistcoat lifted with his shrug. “That couldn’t be helped. I needed an envoy. And as you just pointed out, I didn’t really keep the name of John’s killer from you. We don’t know who Lady Sinclair is.”
Jared’s thoughts sprang to Merideth. He couldn’t help himself. He’d asked her if she was the woman his brother had loved, and she’d said no. At that moment he believed her. But did her innocent eyes and fiery kisses sway his judgment?
His mind’s eye conjured up a picture of her as she was in Passy. Beautiful, refined, on the arm of a French dandy. She looked as if she could be very much at ease with intrigue.
“So you see, I decided not to tell you until we found who killed him. Believe me, it was never my intent for the guilty woman to go unpunished.”
His cousin’s words brought Jared back to the present. He nodded and blew air out through his mouth. “I still wish you would have told me. I’m not all brass and bluster. There may have been something else I could have done.” His brow wrinkled. “The man John was visiting in England... the scientist. Perhaps if I—”
“I’ve already sent an agent to inquire... discreetly, of course. He’s apolitical. Too interested in his inventions to be bothered with anything else. He apparently didn’t even realize John was missing until he wished to discuss an invention with him. Besides”— Daniel gave the room one more cursory glance before leading the way to the hall— “you can’t stay in England. It will do your brother no good for you to hang.”
What Daniel said was true. But Jared couldn’t simply leave now that he knew about John. “Don’t concern yourself. I shall be careful, and when I discover who killed John I’ll—”
“No!” Daniel turned on his cousin. “You will do nothing of the kind. I told you I’ve made inquiries. There’s nothing else to be done here. The important thing now is for me to return to America with word of Dr. Franklin’s progress in France. And to take the guns and munitions to Charles Town.”
“I can’t just leave.”
“You must.” The flickering light from the candle he held cast an eerie glow across Daniel’s angry features. “This treaty with France is what John worked for. He’d want you to finish what he began. And...” Daniel lifted a finger. As the lace fell away from his delicate wrist, he pointed at Jared. “I assume you’re taking Lady Merideth with us.”
“Aye.” Jared’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
The lift of Daniel’s shoulders was nearly indiscernible. “Perhaps if you weren’t so... blinded by her beauty, you wouldn’t need ask.”
With that, Daniel settled into a chair and crossed his slender legs. The soft glow of polished silver twinkled from the toes of his shoes.
Jared turned on his heel and headed for the wide, curved stairway. He wanted to protest that his thinking was perfectly clear when it came to Merideth Banistar, but, Lord help him, he couldn’t. The sight of her, the smell, the taste had become an obsession that he seemed unable to shake.
But how? Torture was out of the question. For one thing, he didn’t think he could order it done, even suspecting she might have killed his brother.
The method was obvious.
Seduction.
A campaign of gaining her trust. Of making her believe he would do anything for her. That might lead him to the truth. Lead him to his brother’s killer.
Seduction. The very thought made him hard as he rounded the newel post at the top of the staircase. It scared him how eager he was to put his plan into effect. Lure the moth to the flame. But which of them was the moth?
He gave the paneled door a cursory knock before fitting the brass key into the hole. She had lit a candle and was standing by the window. The window she’d managed to open. Neither of those things surprised him. Jared had regretted locking her in the moment he did it. But his choices had been few.
She looked up when he entered and shut the door, her expression defiant. “I shan’t go anywhere with you. This is my home and I intend to stay here. You allude to some danger, but I don’t think... What are you—” Merideth didn’t even get a chance to finish her question before his mouth molded to hers. Her gasp allowed his tongue inside and he thrust it deep, filling her completely.
His body pressed her back, till she was pressed between the wall and him. She could feel his hardness against her stomach as he continued to make love to her mouth... sipping, biting, sucking her lower lip between his teeth until she could do naught but make small whimpering noises of surrender.
When his lips left hers, Merideth sucked in air, all thoughts of protest driven from her mind.
“I want you with me,” Jared said as his fingers skimmed the lace edging of her bodice. A flick of his wrist and one breast was free, its extended nipple rucked and begging for his touch. And touch it he did, first with the pad of his thumb, then the tip of his wet tongue.
Merideth’s knees gave way, and if not for the strength of his body pressing her into the solid wall, she would have melted into a puddle on the threadbare rug.
Moist heat surrounded her breast and Merideth arched forward, silently begging for more. He heard. He answered. As Merideth fingered the rough silk of his hair, cradling his head to her chest, he fought his way through layers of petticoats.
Without preamble he cupped her mound, stroking between the folds with his finger. Like a spark to dry tinder her body convulsed. Her eyes glazed and the only sound coming from her slack lips was the litany of his name.
“My God, you’re so hot and wet.” Jared tore at the front of his breeches. He buried his face in the curve of her shoulder, deep in the softness of her sweet-smelling hair as his first thrust joined them.
Their united sigh of contentment soon gave way to heavy rasps of breathing. Breathing that came as fast and hard as the push of their flesh to come together. Jared’s hands skimmed down her body, down the skin-warmed silk covering her ribs. Sorting through her skirts to find the soft fullness of her buttocks was impossible, so Jared grasped handfuls of silk and lace, lifting her up and around him. She clung to his shoulders, and their lips met in an erotic kiss.
And all the while he filled her, each soul-consuming plunge deeper than the last. When she began to quiver, Jared’s own release exploded. It rocked through him and seemed to last forever.
When he could think again, Jared lowered her slippered feet to the floor. Her eyes were closed, but she opened them slowly when her skirts slipped down around her legs. Her expression was one of disbelief. Jared was certain it matched his own.
Dropping his head, he rested his forehead against hers, his hands flat against the watered-silk wall. “I’m not leaving without you,” he said, his voice low and husky. He thought he heard her sigh... or sob, he wasn’t sure which, but she said nothing to his pronouncement.
Jared left her against the wall, and after rearranging his breeches he moved to her chifforobe. She’d packed nothing, and so for the second time in his life Jared found himself assembling an array of women’s clothing. The glance he spared her showed that she’d settled onto the window seat and was leaning against the deep casement. She looked as drained and debauched as he felt.
He found a small trunk that looked as if it had seldom been used, and stuffed several gowns and petticoats inside before closing the lid and hefting it onto his shoulder. When he crossed the room and reached for her hand, Merideth seemed to pull herself from her lethargy.
“I can’t just go with you,” she said in a tone that Jared knew she thought was sensible. But he ignored both the tone and the sense behind it.
“You can and you are. Now, I still have a shoulder free if you’d like me to toss you over it.”
In the end she didn’t require such drastic measures. But even though she followed behind him, carrying the candle to light their way, Merideth continued to expound on the reasons she must stay. All for naught. For like his pirate ancestor, he gave her no choice.
The moon, momentarily freed from the blanket of clouds, cast silvery shadows across Banistar Hall as Merideth glanced back. The walls looked tall and imposing... imprisoning. Daniel, the captain, and Merideth were making their way across the garden, walking single file along the overgrown paths, when she stopped. Expecting a terse order to hurry along from the captain, who was behind her, Merideth was surprised when he too paused.
“You’ll return,” Jared said, though he wasn’t sure he wasn’t promising something he couldn’t deliver.
Merideth stood perfectly still a moment longer, the wind swirling ribbons of hair in her face. She was staring... remembering. With a sigh she tilted her head toward Jared. “I’m not certain I wish to,” she said before resuming the trek toward the cliff.
They climbed down in the same order as their assent. Jared went first, followed by Merideth, then Daniel. There were no near-accidents. Once, close to the bottom, Merideth’s leg brushed against a root. She sucked in her breath, expecting the same feeling of tree limbs snarling about to entangle her legs. But it didn’t happen. And the more she thought about the snaring from before, the more it bewildered her.
By the time Daniel reached the rocky beach, Jared had settled Merideth in the longboat. The inky sea was choppy, with crowns of frothy white skimming the swells. ‘Twas a foreshadowing of a storm brewing to the east... a storm that sent the wind whipping through Merideth’s hair and fluttering her skirts.
A fast-moving squall... on them before they knew what was happening. What had begun as a simple trip from Land’s End to the Carolina, became a race against time.
“Keep it straight,” Merideth heard the captain yell above the thud of waves splashing against the sides. Lightning raged across the sky, etching the captain in bold relief, his muscles straining against the wind-plastered shirt.
Then the rain began, a deluge of skin-prickling pellets that immediately soaked the three occupants of the longboat. They were almost to the Carolina. Merideth could make out the skeletal stand of its mast through the sheets of falling water.
She clutched the seat, digging her fingers into the splintery wood, holding on as the small boat rocked and heaved into the next trough of sea. Salt water sloshed in the bottom of the boat and Merideth no longer tried to raise her slippers above the wet. It was simply too deep.
“Get the bucket!” At first Merideth didn’t realize this growled order was meant for her. But with the next flash of lightning she could see the captain shouting her way.
“I don’t know...” The wind carried the remainder of her words toward land, but Jared apparently knew what she meant, for he yelled for her to search the bottom of the boat.
Slipping down on hands and knees, Merideth braced herself against the ribs and felt about till her hand closed around a rope handle. “I found it!”
She made little progress against the steady stream of water that splashed over the hull, but at least her efforts kept her too busy to think. Merideth supposed she should be thankful for that. She was so frightened. Surrounded by open air and still she was frightened.
Were they moving toward the Carolina? Merideth couldn’t tell. Over the angry rumble of the sea she could hear the captain yelling at Daniel. It wasn’t until a web of lightning seared the sky that she saw the hull of the schooner looming beside them.
Then there were more shouts, this time from above. Merideth glanced up, protecting her eyes from the rain with the curve of her hand. Lights bobbed overhead spilling murky circles of yellow on the ochre-sided ship.
“A rope. They’ve thrown over a rope.” His voice faded as he maneuvered the longboat around toward the Carolina’s hull. “Grab hold, Merideth.”
But the words were barely out of his mouth before the boat tilted and Daniel lunged toward the dangling hemp. Balancing himself, he twisted the rope around his waist, knotting it frantically, then giving a yank. The crew above lifted, and he used his shoes to keep him from banging against the hull.
By sheer luck, the next rope fell nearly in Merideth’s lap. She clutched at it just as a wave smashed the longboat against the hull.
“Hell and damnation,” she heard the captain yell above the splintering sound. “Wrap it around your waist,” he ordered, “while I try to keep this thing still.”
“Still” was obviously a relative word, for they were bobbing all over the place, one minute cracking against the Carolina, the next pulling away.
“Not without you.” Merideth clutched the slick hemp and crawled toward the bow of the longboat.
“... hurry... up. Tie it!”
“I said... not going without you.” Merideth fell to her knees as a swell swamped over them.
He barely hesitated before pulling in the oars and grabbing the rope. The longboat seemed caught in a vortex, spinning uncontrollably. For one hideous moment as he lashed the rope around his waist, Merideth saw herself being left on the sea to drown when the longboat sank.
Sea of Desire Page 21
