by Tina Donahue
That didn’t sound like Adamo. Despite his overwhelming jealousy for Canela, he was a good man. “He actually said those words?”
“I think he’s only trying to protect her. Claimed they were getting wed tonight.”
“She didn’t dispute it?”
“She was inside his house at the time. Told me she was there, not the courtyard when Diana was hurt, yet she asked how Diana could be alive. To me, she seemed surprised Diana hadn’t perished. She also said what happened was the children’s fault.”
Fury tightened Tristan’s chest to the point he could barely breathe. “It was hers.”
“Wait.” James grabbed Tristan’s arm, keeping him from going to Adamo’s house. “If you confront her now, there’s no telling what might happen. Diana’s not going to like it if you’re shot dead. Let Adamo wed the girl; then she’ll be his problem. He’ll keep her away from the mansion and Diana.”
“He better.”
“How is your lovely bride?”
Tristan breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. “On the mend, thank God, with only a small cut on her neck and scratches on her throat from the collar.”
“Looks as if that’s not going around her neck anytime soon.”
“Actually, the moment I get back. She insists upon it.”
James smiled. “And here you were going to give her up.”
“It would be easier for me to stop living.”
Back at the mansion, he worked on the collar’s clasp, a special design by the previous pirate so the wearer couldn’t remove the diamonds once they were on. Finished, Tristan returned to his bedchamber.
Diana sat on the mattress wearing a smile and the diamond in her navel. “Did you bring it?” She cleared the catch from her throat.
He held up the collar in one hand and bolted the door with the other. “Are you certain you want to wear it now? You could wait and give your neck a chance to heal.”
“I want it immediately.” She lifted her hair. “Come on.”
Tristan loved her order, but did take a moment to check the cut on her neck. With the blood washed away, the wound wasn’t as awful as he’d feared. Joining her on the mattress, he slipped the piece around her throat and fastened it. “I worked on the clasp. If the collar catches on anything, tug hard and it will come right off.”
“Quite brilliant.” She scooted around until they were eye-to-eye, her face sad. “Please turn and keep still. I want to see your back.”
She would. Despite his reservations, Tristan did as she wanted.
Diana mewled.
He closed his eyes. Until this moment, he’d taken great pains to ensure she hadn’t fully seen his injuries. If the weather was too warm for him to wear a shirt, he never turned his back to her. When they slept, he always laid a certain way to keep her from what she looked at now.
She stroked his scarred skin carefully. “Who did this to you?”
“My captain.”
“Bloody bastard.”
He laughed softly. “Is that any way for a reverend’s daughter to speak?”
“It’s the proper way for your wife to vent her rage. How dare he do this to you.” Diana leaned over his shoulder to see his face. “Why did you allow it?”
“I was hardly given a choice.”
“Was your ship one of Bishop’s?”
Tristan nodded.
“That’s why you went after his ships as a pirate?”
“Partly. They also carried valuable cargo I didn’t want the bloody bastard to have.”
“Good for you. Was your captain the one who lashed Peter?”
“No, though both took great delight in being cruel.” He shrugged. “Ignorant men often do. I suppose brutality makes them feel superior.”
“Face me.”
He did gladly. She’d seen enough of his back.
Diana searched his face. “Was your captain envious of what you know and how well read you are?”
“I was sixteen before I managed to read one word. The following year, I was finally able to write my own name, far later than most.”
“But you did and so much more.”
There wasn’t a trace of pity in her voice. If anything, she’d spoken with fierce pride, the kind a mother has for a precious child or a wife for a beloved husband. If Tristan hadn’t already loved her, he would for this moment. He brushed his lips over hers.
“Why the sweet kiss?”
Heat rushed to his face. “For believing in me.”
“Always. Now back to your story.”
“If we must.”
Diana grew somber. “When did you first go to sea?”
“I’d just turned ten.”
“Oh no.” She looked pained. “You were only a child.”
“A hungry child.”
She embraced him fiercely. “No one will ever harm you again, I swear.”
“You intend to protect me?”
“With my life if need be.”
“I have seen your skill with a rapier.”
Laughing, she released him. “I nearly swooned when you deliberately cut your thumb on the blade.”
“I was trying to impress you.”
“You accomplished your goal. Why were you lashed?”
Tristan shrugged, a childish response but he couldn’t help himself. It was best to forget those days.
Diana regarded him patiently and unwaveringly.
Any man who thought women were the weaker sex was a damned fool. “I was given an order and refused to carry it out. Quite simple. I was willful and promptly flogged.”
“What was the order?”
“What does it matter?”
“What was the order?”
He fiddled with the sheet, face lowered. “The captain told me to whip James. I refused.”
“James Sullivan, your friend?”
“At the time I barely knew him.” He looked at her. “Our friendship came later.”
“Because you saved his life by refusing to whip him?”
“Because we genuinely like each other.”
“Yes, of course. But what had he done for the captain to order him whipped?”
“It’s quite horrid. Are you certain you want to hear this?”
She made a face but still nodded. “What was his crime?”
“He fell ill.”
“What?”
Tristan smiled, enjoying how easily he could shock her.
She regarded him coolly. “If it pains you to tell me the truth, then—”
“It is the truth, my love. James fell so ill he could barely stand. Despite his condition, our captain ordered him to take his turn at the wheel. Any fool could see those four hours were likely to do him in, so I offered to take his place. I was strong and able to do the work.”
“Your captain refused the gesture?”
“The bastard laughed. Then he told his quartermaster to bring James on deck. After he did, the captain told me to tie James to the mast and give him a hundred lashes.”
Diana gasped. “My God. That would have killed any man.”
“It nearly did.”
She whimpered and slipped her arms around his neck. “He ordered you to take the flogging instead?”
Tristan held her closely. She was so warm and soft he lost his breath. “That kind of choice usually convinces a man to do as he’s told.”
“But you still refused to obey and the captain lashed you.”
Tristan nodded. “He was a fair ways into it when James found the right moment to grab the quartermaster’s pistol and put a bullet in the captain’s head.”
A shiver tore through her. She held him even tighter. “That’s how he saved your life and you saved his by keeping him from the whip.”
“It’s what friends do for each other.”
Diana pressed her face to his neck. “Is that why you went on the account, because James shot the captain?”
�
�It was more or less required if we wanted to avoid being hanged.”
“But you never would have gone into piracy otherwise, would you?”
“To survive, I fear I would. To eat, I would do anything. To protect you, our children, Peter, and James, I would kill without pause.”
“You aren’t a violent man by nature.”
“You’re right. I would rather lie with you than fight.”
She laughed. “Good.”
“But fight I will, if I must.”
“There’s no need. You’ll never return to piracy and everyone here is peaceful, right?”
They had been until Adamo’s threat. “I didn’t banish Canela from here if that’s what you mean. She never gave me the chance. Tonight she’s wedding Adamo and moving into his house.”
Diana leaned back. “Are you quite certain?”
When it came to Canela, he wasn’t sure of anything. However, before the day ended he’d have her things and dowry delivered to Adamo along with a message stating she was no longer welcome in the mansion.
* * * *
At sunset, Canela faced the priest with Adamo. There was no other choice. She could either live in his house as the mistress or beg her people to let her stay with them. Gavra and Laure had already delivered her things from the stone house. When Canela protested, they told her she’d brought this on herself by pushing Diana into the loom and taking the diamond collar. The children had seen her.
Adamo looked ashamed at what the others had said, then stunned when James and Peter delivered cattle, chickens, pigs, and horses as her dowry, gifts from Tristan, Diana, and the islanders. For Canela there were also silks, jewels, a looking glass, and a music box. Gavra and Laure put those items in Adamo’s house, built from mud, not stone. With a dirt floor, not cool marble.
The priest finished saying the words over them. Adamo slipped his marriage collar around her throat, one made of leather, not silver. Instead of diamonds, its beads were fashioned from glass.
He kissed her reverently. “Je vous aime.”
His words barely registered. She recalled the lacy fan Tristan had brought her after his last voyage. Before that, he’d come back with combs for her hair, velvet coverings for her bed, but never the offer to make her mistress of this isle. She’d always promised herself a place at his side. She, alone, deserved his power and wealth.
Adamo led her into his home, eager to create a child.
She convinced him she’d be in too much pain because of her monthly cycle. Seducing him was easy. On her knees, she lowered his breeches, took his rigid shaft into her mouth, and brought him to climax. When he wanted more, she worked him with her tongue and lips, then removed her silk cloth. On her hands and knees, Canela invited him to take her tightest opening as Tristan always had, so there would be no infant.
After Adamo was finally sated, they lay together on his simple bed. Wind rustled the leaves on the thatched roof. In the stone house, the air was sweetly scented. Here, she smelled defeat.
Adamo rolled into her. “You are so beautiful.” He stroked her jaw. “I will protect you well and see to your every need. With the cattle, pigs, and horses we now have, our future is bright. When you birth our first child, I will build you an even larger house.”
Of mud, not stone. Filled with trifles, not marble and jewels.
In the light of the solitary oil lamp, his dark eyes flooded with love, his handsome features content.
Hatred and disgust filled her, but she pretended to be meek. “This home is enough. It would be wrong for us to desire anything else.”
He looked at her questioningly. “Why? I want to give you everything I can.”
“No. I was wrong to take the diamond collar. When Tristan threw it aside, I thought he no longer wanted it. I hoped you might slip it about my throat when we…” She shook her head, feigning too much distress to go on. “What does it matter? I allowed Tristan to seduce and use me. Can you ever forgive me for doing so?”
He cradled her breast. “We will never speak of it again. It remains in the past and forgotten.”
“How can I deserve you or anything good?” She kissed his knuckles. “I will never be English. My skin will never be pale.”
He frowned. “You deserve the best because you belong to me. You deserve what the English have and far more.”
“May I ask you something?”
“Whatever you want.”
“Why must the English rule?”
He stared, then yawned.
She wasn’t about to let him put her off. “Why are the English allowed to be the masters of this isle where our ancestors have always lived? They and the French hurt our people. Have you forgotten the last pirate killed your parents and mine, murdering everyone who was old or lame and unable to work? Did you like how he used us as if we were his slaves?” She pointed to where the stone house stood. “The pirate’s home, now Tristan’s, was built by our people. You and I should be living there along with the other islanders. Everything here is ours. Why do we let him or the others have any of it?”
Adamo looked away. “It would be best not to speak of such things.”
She squeezed her fists but kept her manner patient and coaxing. “Then you do believe Tristan and the Englishwoman deserve what we do not.”
“I never said that. Tristan had no right to seduce or use you.” He punched his pillow. “I will always hate him for doing so. But he has also made life better for our people. Our crops yield more than they ever did because of what he taught us. His knowledge of cattle saved the animals when they fell ill. Now the herds are twice what they used to be. He has never denied us anything. He shares the food, water, and clothing.”
“Water taken from our land. Food sown and harvested by our people. Cloth woven by our women.”
“That may be, but what does it matter if Tristan uses the stone house? He helped our people. The other pirate was cruel, or have you forgotten what you just said and what it was like to live here when he ruled?”
Although she’d feared and hated the pirate, she’d tried to seduce him the moment he’d arrived with a white woman as his mistress. Canela had only been thirteen at the time. Even at that tender age, she’d wanted the jewels, silks, and finally the stone house. She’d had it with Tristan until he gave Diana his name. For doing so, he would pay. She’d see him lose everything, especially his wife.
“Tristan is fair.” Adamo drew lazy circles around her nipple. “We should be grateful he is.”
She wanted to scream at him, but tempered her fury. “Tristan is fair until we need something his children want. Then the land, cattle, or water will go to them, not our sons and daughters. One day our children will labor for his.”
“No!” He lowered his voice. “Our children will never work for anyone but themselves.”
“Then they will starve, unless this island is in our people’s hands again. Only islanders should live here.”
He exhaled noisily. “You speak of something that will never happen. We cannot force Tristan to leave. Too many of our people love him and accept his rule.”
“What of his people?”
“What do you mean?”
“James Sullivan told Gavra how Tristan deceived his crew to bring the Englishwoman here. He tied up his men and left them aboard her ship to die. What if they seek revenge for his actions? What if they come to this island searching for him and slaughter our people while he escapes?”
“How could they? No ship can use the shallow waters around here. Few come close. Even so, we watch the sea to make certain no one approaches in a skiff or longboat. If they did, we have pistols. We will never allow them on our shores.”
“You may stop the first and then the next, but you cannot stop them all. His men are certain to find and destroy us unless you strike first.”
“What?” Adamo pushed to his elbow. “How can one man fight—”
“Not fight, control the outcome of the encounter
.” Excitement raced through her, a plan forming. “Use the glass to search for Tristan’s old ship or the one the Englishwoman was on. Before it passes, row out and make a deal to deliver Tristan. You have my silks and jewels to show his men and hers what riches are here. After they kill Tristan, we can kill them. The land will be ours again.”
Adamo sagged back to the mattress.
She leaned over him. “Do you want them to destroy us?”
“No, but perhaps they will never come here.”
They had to. She would settle for nothing less. Once Tristan was gone and his crew took over the island, she’d rule beside the new pirate captain.
Chapter 11
With Canela wed, a relaxed mood settled over the mansion. Diana found the days peaceful and perfect, especially when Follie was about to birth her first child.
At breakfast, Tristan pointed his fork at Peter. “We need to prepare for a celebration.”
The boy stopped slouching over his meal. His eyes glittered. “We’ll have lots of food, music, and drink.”
“Not you.” Diana peeled a boiled egg. “You’re far too young to drink.”
He rolled his eyes.
She spoke to Tristan. “Shouldn’t we wait to celebrate until the infant’s born? Follie’s just begun the birthing process.”
“All the more reason to hurry and prepare. These things are usually over before one knows it.”
Spoken like a man who knew none of the pain. “Do what you must then. I’ll be needed with the other women in the birthing room.”
“Watch everything carefully and learn all you can.” He played with her fingers. “I want you well-prepared when your time comes.”
Peter straightened. “You going to have an infant too?”
She stopped eating her egg and shot him a look.
“I suppose I’m to leave now?”
Tristan took another helping of bread and bacon. “You’d be well-advised to do so.”
“I’ll see to the meat we need for the celebration.” With a banana stuck in his mouth, Peter hurried from the dining room.
