Siren's Song

by Trish Albright

  “Of course. Where shall I escort my lady?”

  Alex gave him the location.

  Joshua recognized the name of Sir Thomas Morbay, and his heart dropped a little. He was a friend of her family, she explained. A man of means, as he already knew. She had just stepped unequivocally out of his reach. Not that he could have any ambitions to know her. It would be useless. He focused back on the present. Now was all that mattered. Getting her to safety, then getting out of Morocco.

  They were nearly at the end of the alley when an elegant, black carriage flashed by. It stopped. Joshua thrust her safely into the shadows. The horses pulled to a stop and the sound of a carriage door opening echoed in the darkness.

  “Captain?”

  Joshua exhaled with relief. “Raja. You truly are a prince, my friend.”

  A tall, dark native in robes beckoned. “Quickly. The streets are full of quiet hunters.”

  The two fugitives scrambled to the safety of the carriage.

  The girl nearly tripped over a prone form on the floor of the carriage. She jumped backward onto Joshua’s lap.

  “I am sorry, miss,” Raja said. “My cousin has overindulged and disgraced himself tonight. He is harmless.”

  There was a confirming groan from the carriage floor. The girl nodded but remained curled up in Joshua’s arms, not protesting when he pulled her closer.

  Joshua swallowed painfully as long, slender fingers moved up his chest, then crept slowly to the skin at his throat. She took a wobbly breath and he instinctively began to soothe her by caressing her silken layers of hair. He was rewarded when her body relaxed and she snuggled more comfortably against him, wrapping that same hand around the back of his neck.

  She was his.

  The drive to Sir Thomas’s was over too soon for both of them.

  The carriage pulled into a shadowed area not far from iron gates leading to a sprawling English-style mansion. No one spoke as her champion helped her to the ground. Alex stepped gingerly, her bare feet sore and miserable from their escape.

  The Englishman started to accompany her, but Alex stopped him. His presence might evolve into more scandal. The English, she knew, were big on scandal. It was unlikely anyone would believe her story as it was.

  “ ’Tis best I go alone,” she said.

  He gazed down into suspiciously sparkling eyes and studied her in the moonlight. Then he took off his coat and draped it around her. It went past her knees.

  She shoved her arms into the sleeves appreciatively and stared up at him as if to imprint his image forever in her mind. “I have no words that can describe how truly grateful I am for all you have done. Both I and my family will be forever in your debt.”

  He bowed gallantly at her polite speech. “Ah, my lady, it was nothing.” They both laughed. “Well,” he amended, “it is rare to have the opportunity to save a truly beautiful damsel in distress. But in all fairness, I also owe you my own life in return.”

  That pleased her. “Then we are indebted to each other!”

  “Nay. Let us say the debt is erased,” he whispered, voice husky, “and we come to each other freely.” With that he lifted her chin and caressed her full, soft lips with his.

  Joshua meant it as a chaste farewell, but the longing that overcame him was a shock. She was young, brave, and beautiful, and he wanted to keep this girl for his own. When the fingers curling in the linen of his shirt crawled up to twine into his hair, he sighed, yearning for one last taste, and deepened the kiss. Just once he wanted something good, and pure. Knowing the impossibility, he finally pulled away.

  Regret stabbed painfully. He had nothing to offer. Nor would he for some time. His life was at sea for now. Clearly she was from a good family and wealthy if she called Morbay a friend. Better to leave her with a happy memory than the truth.

  The girl’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She studied him with a fierceness that was nothing less than disconcerting. As if she could read his thoughts and was not happy with them.

  “I’m not going to see you again, am I?”

  “I am due to leave soon. After tonight, the sooner the better, I’d say.”

  “Come here. Tomorrow. My family will want to thank you.” She reached down and pulled off a ring. “Return this for whatever favor you wish. I or my family will grant it.” She gripped his vest with one hand, then pulled his head down with her other. “You must come. I have a fondness for this ring.”

  Taken aback by her forwardness, Joshua moved instinctively. His lips pressed down, hunger for her overcoming reason, and with a surprised gasp her mouth opened, taking in his warmth.

  Joshua knew she had never been kissed before tonight, and he knew he would never again savor lips so sweet. His tongue slipped inside and tasted hers. He groaned, wanting more.

  “I will come.” He gave in, sighing against her cheek, his lips brushing against her skin in discovery. “We will be properly introduced. Have a bit of tea. And perhaps you will tell me more about this monster and the end of days.”

  “Perhaps,” she teased. “What is your name? I shall let the butler know to expect you.”

  “Captain! Quickly,” Raja called from the shadows. Her champion turned at the summons, distracted.

  “I must go,” he said. “Until tomorrow.” He bent his head one last time and enveloped her in his arms, before lowering for a possessive kiss. When he came up for air she hugged him tightly. “Try to stay out of trouble for the rest of the night.”

  That won a smile. “I will.”

  Alex pushed away from him and spun off before she humiliated herself with tears. She walked quickly through the shadows ignoring the pain swelling in her feet, determined not to look back. Then she remembered. “Wait!”

  “Leigh,” he called back, knowing instinctively her desire.

  Alex nodded and continued. Captain Leigh. Army or sea? The English needed ships in the Barbary Coast to protect vessels. It must be the sea, she decided. A very good sign.

  Just then, the breeze picked up. Alex stopped and frowned, her senses alert. She looked skyward, noting the stars had disappeared. A storm was coming. It was early in the season for a storm. A bad omen. She shook the thought away and continued carefully on her path. Luckily, she didn’t believe in omens.

  Another carriage pulled up just as she neared the entrance, and she ducked back into shadows. A large, fit man in his late forties stepped out. Alex gasped in shock. Her father’s head was bent in utter dejection, and he pushed aside the comforting hand her brother Samuel offered. Samuel, too, appeared deeply distressed. Alex stepped out of the shadows.

  “Papa?” she whispered, unable to move.

  Robert Stafford froze as if hearing things. He turned, looking up now. Her brothers gasped in shock but didn’t move either, as if afraid she was a ghost.

  “Allie?”

  “Papa!” She sobbed as she tried to run toward him, limping.

  Robert Stafford straightened with new power and in quick strides held his daughter in a fierce hug. His body heaved as tears streamed down his rugged face.

  Alex, too, was crying and laughing, and crying again as her brothers Samuel and Matthew spun her around, practically tossing her in the air, demanding to know what mischief she had gotten into and who was her new tailor.

  Joshua watched the touching reunion from the shadows. She was truly loved. He envied them. She belonged with them, to them. Someday … no. That was foolishness. He would have tonight, and tomorrow. That would have to be enough. He was an outsider, and from the outside he watched the jubilant family start to go in. She stopped and looked back at him one last time. He knew she couldn’t see him but he dared not move anyway. Her father caught the action immediately.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing, Papa. A guardian angel perhaps.”

  When they were gone, Raja patted his shoulder from behind. “You have done well, my friend. Rest easy with the knowledge she is safe.”

  “She was shopping,” he told Raja with a gr
in.

  “Shopping?”

  “Yes. And there was something about a prophecy with a terrible monster and the end of days.” He laughed at it now. The danger of the evening over.

  “How strange.”

  “Yes,” Joshua agreed. “I shall find out more tomorrow. When I call on her.”

  Raja held the carriage door open for Joshua to climb in.

  “Allie,” Joshua whispered. Her name felt good on his lips.

  She was his last thought before the butt of a gun to the back of his head sent him tumbling into the carriage.

  “Ah, my friend.” Raja sighed. “The prophecy brings only death and ruin to all who pursue it. I hope some day you will forgive me.” Now he had two bodies to take care of tonight.

  Then he needed to find out what that girl had to do with the ancient warning of the siren.

  Reginald Paxton winced as the needle pierced skin near his eye.

  “Hold still, cousin. It’s the last one.” Liz Beauveau tied a knot, and cut the thread.

  Reginald turned to the mirror and observed the damage. There would be a scar. It was a blow to his vanity as well as his ego. He only hoped the girl was being beaten into submission right now by the sultan. The image was a comfort. He ran fingers through gold coins. Enough gold to build another ship. The Stafford chit had earned him as much as all the other women combined. His loins tightened at the memory. She had been tempting, but without the map, she was of no value to him.

  There was a knock at the door. Falco. The man was stealthy on his feet and efficient with a knife. He could also organize raids at the drop of a hat.

  Reginald bid him to enter. “Did you get it?”

  Falco nodded. “We captured the entire shipment before it reached the wharf the Staffords guard. An old man got away, but the others were eliminated.”

  “And the map?” That’s all he cared about. He didn’t need crates of rugs.

  Falco shoved his hands into the pockets of his loose pants. “Nothing. We went through everything carefully, and then a second time. Whatever the old lady gave her, it wasn’t a map.”

  “Then it’s a dead end. Literally,” Liz said. “With the old lady dead and Stafford in the sultan’s hands.”

  “Could it have been with the girl?” Falco asked.

  “No,” Reginald said. “I checked her myself. Twice.” His lip curved up on the uninjured side, and Falco smirked back.

  “What about the map, and the prophecy,” his cousin asked. “Do we continue? What if the girl was the link?”

  “She is no one,” Falco answered. “Least of all ‘one who commands the sea’ if this legend is to be believed. And she is landlocked now. I don’t see her rising up to bear destruction on all in her wake.” He laughed derisively. “At the least, not soon, no?”

  Liz shook her head with contempt. “She comes from a family of sea captains. She has some command over the oceans. At the very least, an understanding. And what of this?” She pulled the worn map from Reginald’s desk where they had been studying it. “The one splash of color. Red. Her hair? Is that a coincidence?”

  “All mermaids have red hair, cousin. It’s maritime tradition. If she is connected to the prophecy she doesn’t know it. And her ignorance is to our benefit. There will be fewer obstructions to our goal.”

  As he said the words, a heavy rumble vibrated the room.

  A crewman pounded on the door before entering, in a panic. “Captain! The building’s surrounded. By an army.”

  “What do you mean?” Reginald shot back, immediately reaching for arms.

  “The Stafford woman escaped! Some giant monster that flies carried her away!”

  “A flying monster?” Reginald disparaged. “Not bloody likely.”

  “Perhaps she commands power of which we were unaware, cousin,” Liz said, stepping back just as the sultan’s guards burst in.

  They demanded the girl. Reginald waved a hand for them to look around. Not finding her, they took the gold. When he resisted, their leader threatened, “Your life is spared. That is the sultan’s mercy, after you sold him a witch.” With that, they were gone.

  Reginald cursed violently. The others waited for their leader’s direction. It wasn’t what they expected. “We leave tonight.”

  “But the weather, Captain!” His small crewman twitched, worried again. “There’s said to be a storm coming through.”

  Reginald loaded a gun then reached for his knife. “Stafford has three ships in harbor, correct?”

  “Yes,” Falco confirmed. “But they are no doubt heavily guarded.”

  “Unless the doting father has every available man out looking for his daughter,” he countered. “Prepare the crew. I’ll get my new ship by one means or another.”

  “And the girl?” his cousin asked.

  Reginald flipped the knife in his hand. “She’s next.”

  Chapter Four

  “Allie, think! What did Paxton want with this map?”

  Alex had her feet in a bucket of water and a plate of food virtually untouched next to her. Now that her father’s worst fears had been allayed, she was subjected to the full power of his inquisition and anger.

  “He didn’t say why he wanted it. The entire thing was so strange and absurd, Papa. Really.”

  Alex swallowed and reached for some ale that had been brought for her. Her brothers flanked the sides of the room. Samuel stood with his hands behind his back. Matthew methodically polished the array of knives encircling the hips of his personally designed knife belt. She knew they wanted to help, but were smart enough to wait for their father to finish.

  “What else did this carpet seller say?” Her father paced the room not looking at her.

  Alex hesitated, unsure how much to tell. “Just what I told you. That I had to protect the secret. Danger was near. If the prophecy came into being great things would occur. Among them … I think she said the end of days. I’m not sure. She was talking fast. And …”

  Her father stopped pacing and turned at her pause. “And?”

  “She kept calling me Kelile.”

  Her brothers’ heads shot up. Kelile was her middle name.

  “That’s damned strange.” Matthew looked to the others for an explanation.

  “Father, you always told me I was named after a warrior prince. Do we have any other link to him? Did he ever mention a prophecy?”

  “Enough!” Her father looked harried. “I don’t want any of you to ever mention this prophecy. Or any other for that matter. It’s all a legend. People are killing each other in the hopes of gaining some mythical power.”

  “And untold riches,” Alex said.

  “Alex,” her father warned. “Your mother …” He choked on the memory. “Your mother died because of people who believed in this treasure. This prophecy holds only promises but can never deliver. Don’t be duped. There will always be people looking for an easy way to riches. There isn’t one. Only work. Don’t forget it.”

  Her brothers nodded, but Alex thought there was more to be told. She also knew she wouldn’t get it out of her father tonight.

  “Birdie is okay?” she asked.

  “Yes,” her father responded. “I sent him to tell the crew you were safe and to prepare the ships for departure.”

  “We leave then?” Samuel asked.

  “I’m leaving,” their father corrected.

  “What?” Samuel straightened to his full height. “I thought we stayed together. For safety.”

  “Head to Portsmouth. I’ll meet you there.”

  Alex looked at her brother desperately, wanting him to intervene.

  “Matthew will captain Alex’s ship.”

  “What!” Alex stood, feet still in the bucket. “No offense, Matthew.”

  “None taken.”

  “Father, I’m perfectly able. I—”

  “You were kidnapped and nearly raped and murdered. You are forbidden to return to Morocco with a Stafford ship. You are suspended from your captainship—for now
.”

  Alex gasped, hurt. “But—”

  Her father cut her off, relentlessly bearing down on her. He was tall. It was intimidating enough without the knowledge that she had disappointed him and he no longer trusted her. “Every man delivering that shipment from the market to the harbor is dead, Alex. They were your responsibility. Consider this lenient.”

  His words struck hard. “No …” she breathed, horrified at the loss.

  Her father’s tone softened, but only a little. “Skill is not good enough. You have to be smarter than every man out in the ocean, in the harbor, dealing with merchants, bankers …” He ran out of examples. “Everyone, everywhere, every moment. That is the choice you made. God knows I would rather you married off and having babies. But if you insist on captaining a ship, there are no excuses and no weaknesses. As a woman, you can’t afford it. You are the first target for every ship out there, and don’t think they won’t find you.”

  Samuel stepped forward to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s exhausted.”

  “I’d rather exhausted than dead.” Robert Stafford spun away from his children and gathered himself. If Paxton believed in this prophecy and linked it to Alex or his family, they would never be safe. He had thought all the believers were dead. But always there seemed a carrier of the myth. Someone who spoke so beguiling of fortune and power that others listened and would do anything to gain part of it. His friend Kelile had died because of the legend. And Rebecca, his beloved wife, gone—murdered, saving their only daughter, a daughter who couldn’t even remember that night.

  Prophecy or not, Alex was a target, especially at sea. But the sea had been the only thing that made Alex happy after her mother was gone, and it had seemed wrong to keep her from it, especially since that’s where her talents lay. Unfortunately, her uncanny knack for understanding the sea would only add to suspicions about the prophecy.

  There was a knock at the door. “It’s Birdie, sir.”

  “Come in,” Robert said. “What’s the news?”

  “A lot of it and none good.” Birdie shifted on his feet, gnarled fingers brushing back the remains of his hair. “Seems one of the ships is, uh … missing.”