Microsoft Word - Sherwood, Valerie - Nightsong

by kps

  She caught her breath. "Surely there is no lack of money? I mean-"

  "All the elegance that you see around you?" His lips twisted in a wry smile. "Ours is an expensive household to keep up."

  "But you have so much gold," she protested. "So much-" "Held safe for me in England, yes, but only I can touch it. And you do not want me to go there." She sat down suddenly, feeling that her legs would not support her. "No, I do not!" Carolina said faintly.

  "And yet, Christabel"-his gaze upon Carolina was wistful-"I must do something, else we will have to sell this house."

  "Then sell the house!"

  "No, I do not propose to do that." His face was stem. "In the first place it would be dangerous. If the feeling is noised abroad that I am slipping downward, there would be those who might be bold enough to try to sell me to the Spaniards for fifty thousand pieces of eight."

  She had forgotten that! "What do you propose to do?" she asked in a small voice.

  "I propose," he said, spacing his words, "to resume my profession. The world sees me as a buccaneer-by God, I will be one!"

  "Oh, no," she said unhappily. "I couldn't stand it-worrying, wondering where you are, whether you are still alive!"

  He gave Carolina a moody look. "You will have to stand it," he said shortly, "if we are to survive." And then he added more kindly, "It is either that or England, Christabel. I must have money-and soon."

  And she had sent away the necklace that would have saved him! It was already almost a week away, somewhere on the high seas.... She felt overcome by guilt.

  "Kells," she said, stricken, "I am sorry about the necklace."

  He gave a short laugh. "It does not matter." His voice was bitter. "I would have been driven back to buccaneering eventually anyway, I suppose. You made a mistake when you chose to love me,Christabel. Some other man would have brought you a better Iife-a peaceful home, children, surroundings in which you could hold up your head."

  "Oh, no, don't say that!" Impetuously Carolina circled the table and flung herself into his arms. "Don't ever say that! I've never been sorry, Kells, never, not even once!" It was not quite true-there had been moments--but just now, charged with emotion, she felt that it was true, and the intensity of her feelings seemed to shudder through her slight frame.

  Kells gave her a tender look. She was so reckless, so gallant, his fiery lady. She took every fence at a gallop, she flung her heart over, Devil take the hindmost. . . .

  She drew away from him, breathing excitement. "Tomorrow night is the governor's ball. You will speak to the governor. He will find you the necessary backing!"

  His smile was tender as he swept Carolina's slight figure up in his arms and bent to press a light affectionate kiss upon her parted lips. "What will be will be, Christabel-at least we will have tonight!"

  Gilly, who had slipped out of the pantry and was peering from the dining room into the hall, watched him take the steps two at a time and felt a stab of envy.

  THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE PORT ROYAL, JAMAICA

  Spring 1692

  Chapter 6

  "I wonder what she is like." Carolina was pulling on her gloves as she spoke, despite the sweltering heat that had not dissipated with the night.

  "Who?" asked Kells. He was frowning at the carriage that had just drawn up smartly before their front door.

  "The governor's cousin, Mistress Grummond. After all, the governor is giving this ball for her," she reminded him. "You must remember to be very gallant and dance with her several times-the governor will like that."

  Kells snorted. "He's unlikely to notioo-he'll be spending his time wondering why I was such a damn fool as to order up a carriage when we live close by!"

  Carolina gave him a reproving look and carefully adjusted her wide skirts before allowing him to hand her into the carriage. Carolina had insisted they would make a much more impressive entrance if they rode up to the governor's house rather than walking to the ball as most of the guests would probably do. "Not to mention the state of our shoes," she had added to cap her argument. "Satin slippers are simply ground up by this sand." She wagged a black satin-clad toe at him.

  "No one will be looking at your feet," he assured her as he climbed in beside her, an impressive figure in gun-metal satin, the wide cuffs of his stifflyskirted coat encrusted with silver and an emerald gleaming from the frosty burst of Mechlin at his throat.

  "They'll be too occupied staring at the rest of you."

  Carolina flashed him a winning smile that displayed a double row of even white teeth.

  "That was what I had in mind," she admitted modestly, looking down with satisfaction at the black and silver creation an excited Betts had helped her into. She had taken the time to pirouette before the mirror and was certain that this was the most dramatic gown she had ever owned. Indeed the dressmaker had done a wonderful job, for the daringly low-cut silver tissue bodice fit her delicately rounded breasts and narrow waist to perfection. The silver tissue sleeves ended at the elbow in an enormous burst of sheer black lace, and the tiny waist was emphasized by the width of the silver tissue skirt. But what made the dress so spectacular was the shepherdess effect given the tight bodice by crisscrossed black satin ribands and the wide black satin insets flowing from the waist, which were shaped like long flower petals sweeping down the wide skirt. Her shining fair hair was swept up with studied casualness in the new higher mode which allowed several shining locks to dangle down carelessly to caress her smooth white shoulder. Betts, who was clever with such things, had set small bursts of brilliants on black satin ribands into her hair so that they outlined and made the most of its daring sweep down to her shoulders.

  Diamonds glittered from her ears, and across the bare expanse of her white bosom the ruby and diamond necklace wound a fiery trail, for she intended to look opulent tonight!

  He laughed, but he cocked an eyebrow at her, for he was an indulgent husband and paid little heed to how much she spent. Arriving ship captains bringing the world's goods to Jamaica knew-if they were experienced in the Port Royal trade-that the finest fabrics, the most lustrous silks, would find a ready market with Captain Kells's dazzling lady. "You do me credit!"

  "I changed it slightly from the Paris fashion doll it was copied from," she told him airily. "This effect of silver petals on the skirt is of my own invention."

  His gray eyes glinted. "Our new French neighbor across the street, Monsieur Deauville-who will undoubtedly be attending the ball tonight-will be brokenhearted that you have elected to change the design of the fashion doll he gave you," was his ironic comment.

  Carolina was startled. Did he know everything that happened, her tall buccaneer?

  The horses' hooves continued their muffled clip-clopdown the sandy street as she made him a cautious answer.

  "When Monsieur Deauville moved in across the street while you were gone, the cart carrying his baggage overturned," she explained."Hawks and I had just come out of the house on the way to market, and Hawks assisted the men in getting poor Louis's baggage out of the street." She could have bitten her tongue for calling the Frenchman "Louis," but it was too late.

  "And so instead of rewarding Hawks, who bent his back to aid him, 'poor Louis' sent you a fashion doll," Kells remarked without expression.

  Put that way it did sound very bad, she thought. "Louis Deauville was merely trying to show his gratitude," she said a trifle crossly.

  Kells laughed. "And pay a tribute to beauty at the same time! Well, no matter. I will meet Deauville tonight, I have no doubt."

  Carolina had no doubt at all that he would meet Louis Deauville tonight. The handsome Frenchman had been dogging her footsteps. Indeed he had formed a most disconcerting habit of popping out of his house and bowing deeply and exchanging pleasantries every time she went to market. "Hawks talks too much," she muttered, guessing rightly the source of Kells's information. "Poor Louis is harmless!

  But he is French and Frenchmen do pursue women!"

  "Harmless . . ." murmure
d her buccaneer thoughtfully, for the town had been flooded with stories of the Frenchman, and in all of them the new arrival had cut quite a figure. "We will see how harmless 'poor Louis' is! Well, it seems we have reached the governor's house after our long journey!" He dropped lightly from the carriage and assisted Carolina down while other satin-clad guests, streaming toward the governor's wide-fronted brick house, turned to stare curiously at the striking pair.

  "Get rid of the carriage, Hawks," said Kells, glancing up at the laconic buccaneer, who had volunteered to drive them.

  "No, bring it back when the ball ends," Carolina said instantly, for she had already spotted Louis Deauville through the brightly lit door and had no wish to bait Kells by having the attractive Frenchman join them for the walk home. "We will leave in style!"

  Kells grunted and Hawks hid a grin as he turned the team about, a maneuver necessitated by the position of the building, which was set at an angle with the street as if to command a view of Fort James on the point.

  But Carolina's impressive entrance was destined to be spoiled. Even as they were about to step through the doorway, where the portly little governor in bronze satin was standing next to his wife in applegreen and an arrogant young woman in pink silk, there was a howl from the direction of the kitchen followed by such piercing screams that the governor and his wife both broke and ran for the commotion; the woman in pink-who must have been his cousin, Mistress Grummond-trailed distractedly after them, leaving the arriving guests to fend for themselves.

  "Someone upset a boiling kettle, I'll be bound," muttered someone at Carolina's elbow. "Over somebody else from the sound of it," came a cheerful observation from behind her.

  And Carolina found herself looking into the smiling face of Louis Deauville, who must, she thought irritably, have deliberately stationed himself with a view of the door, for he bobbed toward her eagerly the moment they entered.

  By the time she had introduced the Frenchman to Kells, by the time all the proper pleasantries were exchanged, by the time the panic in the kitchen had been quieted and a doctor summoned for the sobbing servant girl who had accidentally dribbled scalding sauce onto her foot, by the time Acting Governor White and his lady were back in position to receive at the door, Carolina and Kells were deep into the room, the music had struck up, and Louis Deauville had made her an impressive leg and demanded the honor of the first dance.

  Kells was conversing with a nupriverplanter who was urging him to buy the property next to his, a subject which might keep him occupied for the next half hour, so Carolina was pleased enough to glide out upon the floor with the engaging Monsieur Deauville, for she was dying to ask him about his adventures in London.

  "I am told you know London well, Monsieur Deauville," she challenged him.

  The Frenchman, a marvel this night in fawn satin heavily stitched with orange silk, shook his golden periwig gracefully and admitted to having some small acquaintance with the town.

  "And perhaps some acquaintance with its gaming houses as well?" Carolina asked negligently, permitting him to twirl her about so that her wide skirts billowed.

  "Indeed yes," was the blithe rejoinder. "What would the so beautiful lady care to know about them?"

  The so beautiful lady smiled up at her elegant dancing partner and murmured, "I wonder ifyou could tell me about a certain gaming house-let me see if I can remember the name. Could it be Mistress Masterson's?" She frowned as if searching her memory.

  "I believe you mean Chesterton," he supplied promptly. "Jenny Chesterton's." "Ab, yes ..." Carolina's face cleared. "And was she not once a headmistress?" she wondered vaguely.

  "Indeed she wasl" the Frenchman agreed gaily and promptly led Carolina into a pattern of steps so intricate that she decided he must indeed have been a dancing master back in France. "She maintained a very select school for young ladies, so she told me, until she was discovered en deshabille, I believe I must call it, with one Lord Ormsby."

  Carolina chuckled inwardly. En deshabille was a mild way of putting it, for Jenny had been discovered by the mama of one of her young charges, clad in her chemise, in the midst of a wild game of Blind Man's Buff with Lord Ormsby and some of his rowdy friends-all of them caught prancing about, very drunk, in their smallclothes.

  She was careful not to betray a personal knowledge of Jenny Chesterton or her establishment. Instead she looked up at Louis Deauville with her large lustrous eyes and said in a wheedling voice, "I am told you have some wonderful tale to tell about the plaee----something about an English schoolgirl?"

  Beneath the power of that silver gaze, Louis Deauville's fawn satin chest expanded.

  "Ah, she was a pretty piece," he sighed. "A head of wonderful auburn hair, tres merveilleux, tres elegant."

  Yes, that would have been Reba-marvelous auburn hair, very elegant! Carolina's next question was flung out carelessly. "Did you know her well?"

  Monsieur Deauville's eyes glittered with amusement. "You wish to know if she was my paramour, non? You wish to hear of my amorous adventures, my affaires de coeur?"

  "Not all of them," chuckled Carolina. "We would find ourselves dancing till dawn!"

  Flattered, Monsieur Deauville beamed.

  "Just of your amourette with her," specified Carolina, giving him a wicked glance. "I am told it is an amusing tale."

  At this reference to the affair as a "passing fancy," Louis Deauville drew himself up.

  "But it was tres serieux, madame!" he declared with mock solemnity.

  "Well, serious or not, I would be glad to hear you tell of it, Monsieur Deauville,"

  laughed Carolina.

  "First I must say that I am not so much the gambler," sighed the Frenchman with a charming shrug. (Carolina doubted that statement but she repressed the merriment it brought to her eyes.) "So when this former schoolmistress bore me away to her abode, this gaming establishment, I did not care to play but merely sipped wine and observed the play until this jeune fille, this glowing glowing beauty, this-"

  "Auburn-haired girl," murmured Carolina, wishing he would get on with it. "The one with the elegant clothes."

  "Ah, yes." His expressive face mirrored an ecstatic memory and he paused to let her expectations mount. "But I did not meet her at once, you understand. She was indisposed." (Probably sleeping late, thought Carotina skeptically, remembering Reba's old habits.) "But later, when the patrons had gone, I was about to leave also, but Jenny Chesterton asked me to stay on. She said there was to be a party. And indeed almost at once an English peer, who I learned was Lord Ormsby, arrived with a party of friends. The gentlemen were all very far gone on drink, and most of the ladies as well-do you think this story too risque, perhaps, for your tender ears, madame?"

  "I doubt it," Carolina said tranquilly.

  His eyes sparkled. "There was much drinking of good Bordeaux, the evening grew wilder. Someone brought a sheet and the ladies disrobed down to their chemises and paraded behind it with candles behind them while the gentlemen made wagers as to which lady it was who stood revealed in silhouette."

  Carolina could envision the scene. They would have pushed back the tables in the main gaming room downstairs-that room she remembered so well as the stiff front reception room of Mistress Chesterton's School for Young Ladies and as a citadel of virtue-and the men, drunk enough to slosh their wineglasses, would have lined up on the gilt chairs, all in a row, to cheer on their favorites as each minced out in a state of undress behind the sheet to pose saucily with the candlelight behind her and only a thin sheet between her and the onlookers.

  "There was one young lady whose-er-profile

  I could not quite recall. She was not, you understand, to be overlooked. She was a shade taller than the others and of a more delightful-er-stance."

  Reba always stood proudly, thought Carolina. And

  thrust her chest out provocatively. Ah, yes, Deauville would indeed have noticed her enticing silhouette behind the rippling sheet!

  "Afterward we all played Blind Man'
s Buff in our smallclothes and there were pretty indiscretions all about."

  Carolina could well imagine!

  "The ladies, I am afraid, got very drunk and the auburn-haired beauty, who seemed not so used to drinking, tripped while dancing and fell upon a wine-glass that had rolled out upon the floor and cut herself on the hip. I carried her upstairs, away from the fray, and washed the cut. It was, you understand, necessary" –his wicked grin flashed-"to remove the young lady's chemise in order to attend her wound properly and-ah," he finished regretfully,"the dance is ending. I regret I cannot say more, madame."

  A cut on the hip! And when Carolina had shared a cabin aboard the Mary Constant with Reba, she had acquired a small new scar on her hip! Carolina remembered remarking on it and Reba had shrugged and muttered something about broken glass.

  And now her irritating dancing partner was regretting that he could not say more!

  "Oh, but you must say more, Monsieur Deauvillel" cried Carolina in a state of near panic lest this elusive Frenchman disappear into the crowd before telling her all there was to know. "I cannot let you escape. You really must dance the next dance with me!"

  Deauville's grin deepened. He prided himself on his timing and knew he had caught the attention of the woman in black and silver at last. Now he shook his head chidingly at several young bucks who were just converging upon Carolina. One of them had heard her last remark and was staring open-mouthed at the couple as they glided out upon the floor. The dazzling Silver Wench begging this Frenchie from nowhere to dance with her while she snubbed the cream of Port Royal? His indignation caused him promptly to repeat what he had heard to both of the disappointed young bloods who had joined him. Soon the story of Carolina's beseeching remark was all over the room and heads were turning curiously to eye the handsome pair, who were gazing at each other in such rapt fashion as they trod a measure.