A Captain and a Rogue (Mills & Boon Historical)

by Liz Tyner

  Stephanos reached to grab the back of her neck and pulled her forehead to bump against his. ‘You are perfect as you are.’ He released her. ‘But I know how women are.’ He waved her to the other room with a flick of his wrist. ‘But you go care for yourself and Mikis and I will find something else to do.’ He reached for two wine bottles and gave one to Mikis. ‘This is to start with, my friend.’

  Mikis released Bellona and slapped her bottom. ‘You go, too.’

  Moving to the corner, Thessa took a straw from the broom and caught it afire enough to light a lamp and take it to the room he indicated.

  Bellona followed and Thessa clasped her sister’s arm when she moved towards the sword propped against the wall.

  The bed was small, but it had covers on it. Thessa pulled the one from the top. She saw marks at the foot of it and wondered if he slept in his boots. With the sword, she slit the cloth into two large halves. ‘We can’t fight them all. We would only lose. We are going out the window. We’ll go to the harbour. To the captain.’

  Bellona nodded. ‘But how do we know they will not toss us back to Stephanos?’

  Thessa thought of the captain’s eyes while she tied the two pieces into a knot, knowing they would not need much to lower themselves from the second floor to the ground, but she knew they couldn’t run with a twisted ankle. ‘He won’t,’ she said.

  Together, they pulled the small bed to the window and she put the end of the cloth firmly around one leg of the bed.

  Thessa went first, finding the descent easier than she expected.

  She’d barely landed when Bellona scrambled beside her and they both took off running into the darkness towards the sea where the English ship docked.

  *

  When they reached the shoreline, Thessa bared herself down to the chemise she’d left on and bundled her clothes. As she tossed them behind rocks, she realised hiding them would do no good. Stephanos would go to the ship first, knowing it was the only way they could truly escape him.

  She ran into the water. She heard Bellona behind her and together they swam towards the dark shape floating in front of them.

  She gauged them only a third of the way to the ship when she heard men’s voices shouting on the shore.

  She felt certain they’d travelled enough distance so their heads couldn’t be visible in the water. But she had no illusion Stephanos would not believe them swimming to the ship. On an island—there was no place to hide. Their only other choice had been the English ship and she could not be sure they would take any risk on her behalf.

  But the captain...he would. She knew it.

  Sounds travelled well across the waves. She heard Stephanos shouting for a boat and knew Bellona heard, too.

  All her strength was going into her arms and legs.

  Chapter Nine

  Benjamin was lying on his bunk, fully dressed, unable to let himself sleep. He wanted to be awake on this night. Every minute of it. Because never again would he be so close to Thessa. He thought of undoing her hair and watching her swim with it fanning behind her in the water. Of very human legs, bared to the sea. Of the way her lips had tasted, sweet, spiced and alive.

  Tomorrow he would give her the dowries for the two women, sealing their fates.

  He tried to think of the ship—his true home. He reminded himself of the reason he’d docked at Melos. But his mind returned to Thessa. He would think of her for many years to come. Perhaps for ever, and if a storm wave caught him and pulled him down, pushing breath from his body, his last thoughts would be of a woman who could frolic in the water like a mermaid—Thessa.

  She was a woman. Just one more woman in a world of handsome women. Just a woman who happened to have the look of a goddess and the grace of a mermaid. A simple woman routinely created—every thousand or so years.

  He looked at the planks above him and told himself not to let such insensible thoughts enter his head. He was foolish to believe she would stay in his thoughts. He was thinking more like an old man who’d spent his days in a bottle and had let his memories become sotted.

  He had to leave the island. He would make sure to get all the marble in the morning, have it loaded and sail at darkness when the tide changed—if they had enough wind. He hoped for the winds and wanted to hear the luffing of the sails as the air shook them.

  Ascalon needed him. The men needed his leadership. And to have a woman like her, and to leave her behind when he went on a two-to-three-year voyage... It would be just as Gid said. A family pulled a man under the waves. He could not sail with his heart dragging the ship down.

  The palm slapping against the outer wood of his door alerted him that Gidley knocked.

  ‘Enter,’ he called out.

  ‘Capt’n.’ Gidley opened the door, leaning inside. ‘Lantern shining on the shoreline. Somethin’s happenin’.’

  Energy flared into Benjamin’s limbs. He followed Gid to the railing, barely keeping off the mate’s heels. He needed his spyglass. All he could see was two bobbing lights. The shore hadn’t had night activity before. But now, shouts reached his ears.

  He watched the boats skimming in his direction. It didn’t make sense. If someone wanted to board them secretly in the night, they wouldn’t have the lanterns. If they wanted to talk, daylight would be a better alternative.

  With both hands clamped on the railing, he saw another small boat leaving the island. Perhaps two. He didn’t take his eyes away.

  ‘Quietly. Assign weapons. Then bring me mine.’ Benjamin preferred to err on the side of caution and sometimes caution included an explosive and rabid attack.

  Gid whispered orders to the men. Sharpened swords waited in a barrel to be passed out. Flintlocks in a crate and then powder and balls.

  Benjamin stared at the boats, watching them get closer. Gid nudged Benjamin’s personal pistol against the captain’s hand and he took it without a word. The weapon would be primed and ready.

  ‘Captain Benjamin.’ A breathless female voice called, barely loud enough to reach their ears. Both he and Gidley stilled, locating where the sound came from.

  He heard his name repeated and leaned over the side. Two dark shapes were in the water.

  Benjamin shouted an order to the seaman on his left. ‘Throw down ropes with a loop on the end. That’s the quickest way to get them aboard.’

  Gidley stood at Benjamin’s right, also staring into the depths. The first mate’s voice trembled. ‘They truly is mermaids. And they’ve gone back to their fish forms in the night.’ His voice quivered.

  Benjamin turned to Gidley. ‘What did you say?’ he barked out the words.

  Gidley stepped closer and whispered, ‘Them’s mermaids. We can’t have mermaids on board. They can call up a storm in an eye blink. They’s worse than...than...than...anything.’

  ‘They’re women.’ He watched, making sure his order to retrieve the women was followed without hesitation.

  Gid’s voice was a trembling whisper. ‘We be in the land where mermaids is most potent and their powers started. Any man know’s anything about sailin’ will tell you mermaids is worse than—than—fevers and boils together. They’ll eat our gizzards in our sleep.’

  ‘Then you’ll have to stay awake.’

  ‘Capt’n.’ Gidley’s shrill whisper almost cracked Benjamin’s ears. In the darkness, Benjamin couldn’t truly see Gidley’s eyes, but his head shook.

  Benjamin squinted, seeing two shapes in the water and maybe three boats following.

  ‘Yer makin’ a blunder the size of the ocean,’ Gid said, voice breaking. ‘And blunders is what’ll keep you from having regrets. Regrets is something dead men don’t have.’

  Benjamin lowered his voice, but he knew it was too late to erase Gidley’s words from the other men’s ears. ‘Gid. I had best not hear the word mermaid from your lips again.’

  Gidley let out a deep breath. ‘Yes, Capt’n.’

  ‘Thessa,’ Benjamin called out, leaning over the railing again. ‘Can you wait for a rope?�
��

  ‘Hurry,’ she called back.

  He realised half his crew had materialised around him. Everyone heard Gid’s nonsense.

  ‘Pull them slowly,’ he commanded to the men with the hemp. His heart beat faster at the thought of Thessa boarding his ship. He turned back to the side. ‘Put the loop under your arms and use your feet to keep from bumping into the side of the ship if you can.’

  Half his mind and his hearing stayed on the women in the water, but he spoke to the men. ‘Douse all lanterns. We don’t need to be targets.’

  He reached to take Thessa’s rope even as he spoke and one seaman stepped away, giving up his place. Benjamin pulled, feeling the resistance as she became like dead weight, and he guided the rope to an even tug. He didn’t want Thessa’s skin scraping against the side of the ship.

  When she rose enough, he reached out, lifting her over the railing. Water sluiced over him. He brushed his cheek against her hair, filling his nostrils with the mix of her and the salt water, and his stomach tightened and his lips parted. She smelled better than Ascalon.

  ‘We need something to cover her,’ he said, putting her on to her feet. He kept one arm around her waist and the other hand brushed back the dripping tendrils of her hair. He didn’t have to look. He knew exactly what she wore. She’d worn it the first time he saw her. The skin under her wet garment burned into his palm. He turned her, pulling her into his arms, concealing her from the others’ eyes.

  He watched another man lift Bellona on to the decks.

  ‘Coverings, now,’ he snapped out. ‘From the physician’s bunk.’ Half the men scrambled to do his bidding. The other half, he was sure, were looking at shapely legs and checking for feet.

  ‘I cannot marry Stephanos...’ Thessa pushed back from his shoulder, and ground out the words to the question he didn’t ask ‘...and if I stay on the island, I will have to marry him. He planned to force us tonight.’

  Her sister spoke. ‘Mikis is evil. You must stop them.’

  ‘We will see you safe.’ Ben spoke even as the truth of what he might have to do burned in his stomach. Only Gid knew how killing affected him. Ben did what he had to do to keep his crew safe, but he would never shed blood when there was another way.

  Benjamin heard footsteps pattering up and his thoughts jerked into the present. He heard a squeak befitting any able-bodied seaman whose voice was changing. He whirled and saw the cabin boy, Stubby, stumble while running with the sword.

  ‘Mermaids?’ The word whooshed out of him. His eyes were the biggest part of his body.

  ‘Stub.’ The one word, with the emphasis of Benjamin’s whole body, halted the boy.

  Benjamin felt Thessa tense in his arms. And she wriggled a bit, turning to looking at the men. When she moved, her wet backside slid against the exact place Benjamin would have requested in his dreams. Only one part of his body could move and that one could not think. The parts of him that could comprehend could not linger on anything else but Thessa.

  Benjamin tried to pull her around again, but she twisted. He pressed his lips together and turned sideways from the men, using his body to shield her and holding her against him, concealed. He felt the heat rising in him, even with the damp clothing between them, and he stepped back. His hands remained on her waist and he was thankful for the darkness.

  ‘Captain. We can’t risk keeping her,’ a voice called. ‘She’ll sink the ship or just get us all killed.’

  ‘If I am a mermaid—’ her voice rose when she spoke to the men ‘—do you really wish to anger me by tossing me overboard? How far do you think your ship would get then?’ she asked. ‘And the long boats would sink even faster.’

  ‘Miss—’ The seaman on his first voyage spoke up. His voice cracked. ‘You surely wouldn’t kill a man with a family to attend to.’

  She drooped back against Benjamin. ‘I would never do such a thing—unless tossed overboard.’ Now she tensed upright again.

  Benjamin bit inside his lip. The woman was as full of nonsense as Gid.

  He tightened his grip on her and moved her forward—again increasing the distance between them, but in doing so, his hands slipped with the wet fabric and skin, moving to the base of her breasts.

  She grabbed his hand, grasping the smallest finger, the one that he couldn’t bend, and forced his hand back. He firmed his hand on her waist and she released his finger. The added elbow jab to his midsection was more reprimand than attempt at injury.

  Touching her had not been his fault. The woman had damn near ground her hip into his member so that he couldn’t think and when he’d accidentally touched her breasts, she’d almost broken his finger.

  At that moment, men ran up, holding enough coverings to wrap four women in and he helped arrange the wool around Thessa. He’d never smelled a woman so close who’d been doused in sea water. If they could bottle the scent and sell it, sailors would be lining up for it. A torturous blend to have on a long voyage.

  But even after he had her wrapped, he kept his arm around the covering, holding her at his side. He’d just made the decision to sail and the true treasure would be on his ship.

  ‘Can you not shoot at them? Now?’ The younger sister interrupted his thought. ‘Even just to frighten them back to the shore?’

  Ben shook his head. ‘In the dark, with weapons flashing, it would be easy for the two of you to get hurt. It’s too hard to tell who is friend or enemy.’

  ‘Just keep him away,’ Thessa said. ‘If you do not shoot him, he will board and take us.’

  ‘The other choice is England,’ Ben said. ‘We can sail tonight and I can deliver you to your sister.’

  The women didn’t know it, but by comparison to their lives on the island, they would be wealthy. He had to let them appear to make the decision, but he was having to force himself not to tell Gid to pull anchor. They were about to sail.

  Bellona said, ‘I’d risk swimming to England before I’d marry Mikis. I want to leave.’

  ‘We must,’ Thessa said. ‘We must leave everything in our lives behind. Everything. We do not even have clothing.’

  At that moment, Ben heard another shout from land. He had to get the women to safety and he did not want another dying face in his thoughts he could never forget.

  ‘Pull anchor.’ Benjamin spoke to Gidley. ‘We have to catch the wind and leave. If we’re becalmed, we risk the men gathering others from the island and trying to board us.’

  He knew he was leaving behind the sculpture and the chance to own his ship, but he had no other choice he could live with.

  The slapping of the oars in the water came closer. ‘Stubby,’ he commanded. ‘Put the women in the physician’s cabin. Now.’

  Stubby reached for their arms, but the sisters didn’t move.

  ‘Go,’ Ben said and realised he would have to release Thessa for her to leave. ‘He’ll show you where you’ll be staying.’

  The women both paused for a moment, then turned and followed Stubby.

  He moved close to his men and lowered his voice. ‘If we stay and the Greeks set the Ascalon alight, we lose everything. Even if we were to give the women back, there is no guarantee. We must leave.’

  One woman on a ship was trouble. Two was catastrophe.

  The sound of the oars slapping the water increased.

  Benjamin turned back to the sea, took the flintlock from his waistband and fired into the water near the boats.

  The rowing stopped.

  He handed the gun to Gidley. ‘Reload.’

  A voice shouted out from the boat. Stephanos. ‘Send the women back to us.’ His English needed no translation.

  Gidley took his own flintlock and handed it to Benjamin.

  ‘You might as well ask for the ship. You’re getting neither,’ Benjamin shouted to Stephanos. ‘We give them refuge.’

  Then the man on the boat began speaking so quickly and so fast Benjamin couldn’t even guess at the words.

  ‘He said...’ Thessa stood in the shadows be
hind him, and spoke softly ‘...he will trade you the treasure for us.’

  Benjamin noticed how well his orders had been followed, but he would deal with that later. For now, he might need the help with the language should Stephanos speak to his men.

  ‘No,’ Benjamin shouted across the water.

  Again Thessa translated the response. ‘He said you will not be able to return for the treasure or steal it in the night. If you do not send us back now, you will not get us or the treasure. He says if you do not let us return, he will tell the French sailors in the harbour where the stone statue is. That you will never have her. This is your only chance.’

  Stephanos started speaking rapidly again.

  Benjamin heard the gentle dropping of the sails being unfurled.

  ‘Each of our swivel cannons is loaded and we will capsize or kill them,’ he told Thessa.

  The command was quick and Ben knew what had been said before Thessa translated. Oars slapped the water and the men were leaving. They gave up too easily. His head darted to Thessa. She stood still. He couldn’t read her eyes and she didn’t speak.

  ‘Is there something else I should know?’ he asked. ‘No argument from them. They retreated as if getting water on their toes might frighten them.’

  The silence was a little too long. ‘I do not think he is giving up,’ Thessa said and expelled a breath. ‘I would say he is not giving up. I do not see Stephanos leaving so easily.’

  She gripped the railing and leaned forward. ‘Stephanos,’ she shouted, ‘I am not coming back. I am not. Do not try to get me.’

  Nothing answered her call. The boats didn’t slow or stop. A faint order reached Benjamin’s ears, but he didn’t understand the language.

  ‘What did he say?’ Benjamin asked Thessa.

  ‘He told them to hurry.’

  To hurry. Benjamin turned and shouted the same command to his own crew.

  A man who had built a house for a woman would not give up quickly. A man who’d only nailed two sticks together would not turn back so easily. Ben accepted the knowledge that the battle had not ended before it had begun. It had simply not begun.