by Tina Donahue
“Many weeks from today.” Vincent held on to Diana. “I intend to use them quite well, beginning now.”
Diana fought as she never had.
Swearing loudly, Vincent dragged her across the room and flung her onto the bed.
She grabbed the knife.
He punched it away.
She rolled across the mattress and pushed to her feet only to come face to face with another pirate.
Fury battled with hopelessness and raw fear.
Vincent crawled across the bed to her. “Cause any more trouble, and your brother will get a bullet in his head.”
A pirate trained his pistol on Peter’s crumpled form.
Vincent gave her a disgusting smile. “You’ve kept me waiting too long. I intend to take you now, in front of the men. Let them know what they’re missing.” He slapped the mattress. “Come here.”
Diana couldn’t move.
Vincent looked over. “Kill the boy.”
“No! I’ll do whatever you want.” Shivering uncontrollably, she padded to the bed.
Outside, a man ran to the window. “Captain, savages are on their way here from the fields. There are quite a few. They have pistols.”
Chapter 16
A short distance from the mansion, Laure tore down the path toward Tristan and James, her eyes wild.
Worried, Tristan dismounted immediately and called out. “What happened?”
“No, you must be quiet.” She glanced over. The path was empty. Gulping air, she turned back to them. “The pirates are in the stone house. Pierre said they were men from your old crew. They have your woman. We heard her scream.”
Tristan could barely breathe. “Canela did this. She was looking into the glass.”
“Wait.” James gripped Tristan’s arm. “You can’t go back to the house now.”
“I must.” He yanked free.
James grabbed him again.
Tristan shoved him.
James regained his balance and blocked Tristan from his gelding. “If you ride to the house now, you’ll surely be outnumbered. With you captured and murdered, how will Diana survive?”
“I must go. I have no bloody choice.”
“First we round up the men. They’re only a short distance behind us. With their help and numbers, we can free Diana. It’s the only way, my friend.”
“Please hurry.” Laure bounced on her heels. “Pierre went to help his sister.”
Mounting his gelding, Tristan prayed to a God he’d never asked for favors, though he did now. He offered his life for Diana and Peter’s.
Laure rode behind James.
Tristan took off to gather the men needed for a counterattack.
Many streamed from the fields and vineyards. Others left the pastures.
All prepared to fight.
Tristan wheeled his gelding around and put his horse to a full gallop. Eighty islanders followed, providing a far greater force than the pirates they needed to defeat.
Tristan knew his former mates’ desire for an easy prize. Only a determined and obsessive man could have found this island. Chadwick Vincent. The bastard was far too greedy. Vincent had most likely killed off quite a few of the pirates rather than share any prize with them. If he’d brought as many as thirty men with him, Tristan would have been surprised.
He tightened his hands on his reins as he’d soon do about Vincent’s throat. “You harm Diana in the least, you so much as touch a hair on her head, not only will you die, you’ll suffer greatly before doing so.”
He drove his heels into his horse. Twilight approached. Despite the moonlight, it would be hard to follow the pirates if they escaped into the forest. Waiting until daybreak to strike wasn’t possible. Vincent would have committed too many horrors by then.
“Just ahead.” James pointed. “Islanders on the path.”
Tristan put up his hand for the group to stop and reined in his horse near the men who’d stayed behind at the mansion today. The pirates had battered each. He asked if anyone got worse than them.
None had.
“Have any of you seen a man wearing a yellow scarf?”
The islanders shook their heads.
Vincent had most likely remained with Diana. Tristan lifted his face to the mansion on the rise. The forest protected him and the others from view.
“After the pirates beat you, did they go to the stone house?”
The men nodded.
“James, it appears Vincent and the others are still at the mansion. We need to surround them.” Tristan pointed to the left. “Take half the men up that path. I’ll take the other half up this one. Be careful.”
“Always.” He told the islanders the plan and led his group to the left.
The others followed Tristan.
The paths entered the grounds in seldom-used areas. Once they were near the mansion, Tristan and his men dismounted, tethered their horses, then ran to the courtyard walls. Past the opening, crying children and frightened women greeted them.
Follie said, “Les pirates sont allés!” The pirates have gone.
Tristan fought panic. “What of Diana and Pierre?”
“The pirates took her, him, and Canela.”
James ran to Tristan’s side. “Have you found them?”
“No. They must have run to the beach like the cowards they are to head back to the Lady Lark. Come on.”
* * * *
Adamo could scarcely breathe, pain racking him.
Hurried footsteps sounded on the path. He didn’t lift his head to see who approached. It didn’t matter any longer.
Canela had betrayed him so cruelly, offering no comfort or outrage at the pirates for beating him. To her, he no longer existed. She’d torn her marriage collar from her throat and tossed it aside. In the moment before he’d shouted her name, wanting to believe in some small way he mattered to her, she’d looked at Yellow Scarf. Canela lusted for him as she had for Tristan.
Adamo forced down an angry cry.
Other footfalls joined the first. Yellow Scarf and his men spoke.
Adamo waited for the crack of a pistol, his death, blessed peace.
They strode past. There was a great deal of commotion. Sand hit his legs.
Diana called Peter’s name. She sounded afraid.
Adamo tried to open his eyes. The left had swollen shut, the right a mere slit. Two pirates pulled their longboats from a stand. The others held tight to Diana, Peter, and Canela.
Hatred for her warred with Adamo’s love, or perhaps what he’d always felt had been nothing but lust. He no longer knew.
The pirate holding Canela ran his filthy hands over her breasts and spoke to her in English. She nodded, manner subdued, face lowered.
She’d traded her husband and people for the promise of a stone mansion, silks, and jewels. Luxuries she would never possess. Yellow Scarf didn’t want her. His attention remained on Diana.
He forced her into the longboat. Peter followed, along with Canela and others in the crew. They cast off.
Adamo kept still until they were too far to notice or care what he did. Pain gripped him. Clenching his teeth, he lifted his head. The pirates’ boats bobbed on gentle swells.
His temples throbbed so badly he couldn’t focus and had to wait until the agony passed. At last, his vision cleared. Something glittered on the sand.
With great effort, he pushed to his knees and crawled to the sparkling object. Diana’s marriage collar, Tristan’s symbol of possession and love for his wife. Canela had deliberately torn hers off. Adamo couldn’t believe Diana had done the same. The others had told him how she’d insisted on wearing the collar even after it hurt her. She adored Tristan.
Adamo closed his eyes, shame overwhelming him. If Tristan never saw Diana or Peter again, he was to blame. He struggled to his feet and staggered up the path to find Tristan, tell him what had happened. What he’d done. An anguished cry caught in Adamo’s throat. His
breathing hitched. He’d gone only a few steps when he had to rest.
* * * *
Diana wrapped her arm around Peter’s shoulders.
He lowered his head, fighting tears.
She hugged him. “It’s all right. Everything will be fine.”
“Quiet.” Vincent glared at her, then Peter. “The same goes for you. One more sound and I’ll surely give you something to cry about.”
Peter stiffened beneath her arm, but he kept his tongue like a timid cabin boy.
Vincent regarded Diana.
She stared him down, showing no emotion, yet inwardly she smiled. Moonlight revealed the bloody scratches she’d put on his hideous face.
He sneered. “You owe me a great deal of pleasure. You cheated me the last two times. Won’t happen again.”
It would if she had anything to do about it. She brushed her hair off her shoulders, wanting him to know what she’d done when they were on the beach, his error in not noticing.
Unfortunately, he was more concerned with the injuries she’d inflicted. He frowned at his bitten hand and touched his raked cheeks. “It appears you need taming before I take you.” He bared his teeth at her. “Care to guess how I intend to accomplish it?”
“You will never do so.”
“You think not?” He smiled. “Then you’d be wrong. Dozens of lashes to your brother’s back ought to do the trick in getting you to bend to my will.”
Peter tensed.
She squeezed his biceps, warning him to be still.
“It would appear you agree. You give me what I want or I give Peter the whip, after which I’ll get exactly what I—what the bloody hell?” He seized her throat.
Diana froze.
Peter grabbed Vincent’s wrist.
The pirate was deadly calm, the way a fiend is before he murders someone. “Tell your brother to remove his hand.”
“Do it, Peter.”
Tears sparkled in his eyes, but he dropped his hand.
Vincent squeezed Diana’s throat.
Her ears buzzed, her vision growing dim.
He leaned toward her. “What did you do with the bloody necklace?”
She shook her head, unable to speak or breathe.
He released her throat. “Where is the damn thing?”
“On the beach where I dropped it.”
He lifted his hand to strike her.
Peter cried out, “No.”
Diana didn’t cower. “Leave any marks on me and I assure you, Benedict Bishop won’t pay your ransom.”
Vincent’s glare turned monstrous, his violent nature warring with his greed. He finally lowered his hand, avarice winning out. He spoke to the men at the bow. “We have to go back to the beach.”
“Go back?” The pirate who’d spoken sounded as young as Peter.
Vincent pointed his pistol at the boy. “Another word and you die.” He twisted around to the men in the other longboats. “We’re going back to the beach for the jewels we missed.”
They exchanged glances. One in the boat nearest them leaned forward. “What of Tristan and the savages?”
“They don’t know we’ve left the island. They’re most likely looking for us in the stone mansion or the forest.”
The other men stopped rowing toward the Lady Lark and changed course for the island.
* * * *
Tristan ran down the path to the beach. Just below the point, he stopped at Adamo doubled over, his breaths shallow. Near the shore, water sparkled wildly beneath the moon. In the distance, the ocean was darker and less distinct. Without his glass, he couldn’t see if the pirate boats were out there, Diana and Peter aboard.
“Tristan?”
Adamo lay face up on the path, lids black, nose bloodied, mouth swollen to twice its size. He lifted his fist.
James and the others raced down and halted abruptly.
Tristan pointed to the beach. “Get the skiffs and find the glass. Take care the pirates don’t see you if they’re watching with theirs. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
The men hurried to the boats.
Tristan dropped to one knee at Adamo’s side. “Where did the pirates go?”
Tears rolled down the man’s cheeks. “I brought them here. Forgive me. Your woman left this for you.” Adamo opened his hand, revealing the marriage collar.
Pain tore across Tristan’s chest. “Diana gave this to you?”
“No.” He pulled in a strained breath. “She dropped it on the sand before the pirates took her and Pierre away.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Not long.”
“Where’s the glass?”
“Canela had it before the pirates took her. She might have dropped it on the beach.”
She had surely talked Adamo into this. His only crime had been in loving her too much.
Tristan pushed to his feet. “One of the men will take you to the stone house so Simone can treat your injuries.”
“No. Let me die here. I betrayed you.”
“You gave me Diana’s marriage collar and told me what happened. You’ve helped more than you’ll ever know. Now keep still, you’ll be taken back shortly.” Tristan pressed his lips to the diamonds. Once he’d run the collar through a buttonhole in his breeches, he fastened the clasp.
On the beach, Tristan found James behind a palm, the glass to his eye. “Do you see anything?”
“Vincent and the others are changing course.”
“To where?”
“This beach it would seem.” He offered the glass.
Tristan took in the scene and smiled. “Bravo, my love.” Not only was his wife beautiful but crafty in the bargain, dropping the diamonds here so Vincent had to come back for them. He lowered the glass. “Tell the other men to take their positions on the beach but to hold their fire until I give the signal.”
“What about Adamo?”
“I’ll see to him.”
Tristan bolted up the path, taking care to remain near the trees and within the shadows. He placed the glass to the side, helped Adamo to his feet, and led him into a stand where he’d be safe.
“No.” Adamo held back. “The pirates took my weapon, but I still must fight with the other men.”
“You’re far too injured. Remain here.”
“Please. If I cannot fight them, I am not a man.”
Tristan gave Adamo a pistol. “Take care when using this. Your injuries may compromise your aim.”
Adamo grabbed Tristan’s wrist. “I will prove myself. Never again will I fail you.”
“I know. Much luck to you in this fight, my friend.”
“And to you.”
Tristan retrieved the glass and rushed down the path to another stand. As he backed into the shadows, James and the others took their positions on the beach.
* * * *
Vincent pressed his gun muzzle against Peter’s forehead, then spoke to Diana. “Think carefully before you answer me. Your brother’s life depends upon what you say.”
Terrified to make a wrong move or say something to set Vincent off, she nodded.
“Will Tristan be on the beach when we get there? Is that why you dropped the diamonds, hoping he’d waylay us?”
Of course it was, though she hadn’t considered what her deception would mean to Peter. “The diamonds are a symbol of our love. I knew I’d never see Tristan again, so I wanted him to have a memory of me.” Tears stung her eyes, her anguish true and overwhelming. “I hoped you wouldn’t notice their absence. I never thought you’d go back for them.”
His terrifying smile widened. “Then you don’t know me at all, though you will before our time’s over.
“Men!” He’d called to the ones in the other boats. “Stop rowing!” He turned to the pirates in front. “The boats aren’t going to shore. Fletcher will swim to the beach and bring the diamonds back with him.”
Peter stared. “What if I can’t find t
hem?”
“Then the island girl dies. After her, I’ll shoot your sister, then you.”
Canela’s eyes widened.
Diana was past fear straight into outrage. “How can you do this?”
“I’ll do whatever I damn please to get what’s mine.” He pulled her between his legs, using her as a shield. “If Tristan feels like taking a shot at his old friend Chadwick, it will be you he’s killing, instead.”
She wanted to be sick.
Vincent tightened his grip and pressed his lips to her ear. “We’re nearly to our goal. In no time at all, you’ll be mine.”
Chapter 17
Tristan held the glass steady, barely risking a breath. Moonlight washed Diana’s face. She pressed her lips tightly together. Vincent cowered behind her.
“Bloody coward.” Tristan couldn’t risk a shot now, nor could his men. He used a silver doubloon to reflect the moonlight, signaling for them to hold their fire.
James signaled back, indicating they understood.
Tristan raised the glass to his eye, readying for when the pirates reached shore.
They’d stopped rowing.
Peter left the lead longboat and swam toward the beach. A pirate held his pistol to Canela’s head. Tristan guessed what would happen to her if Peter didn’t retrieve the collar. The only solution now was to put the diamonds on the beach and allow Peter to discover them, leaving Tristan to his other plan.
He dashed past the trees and tossed the collar.
“Damn you!” Vincent’s muted shout carried from the boat.
Tristan brought the glass to his eye.
Peter treaded water and faced the longboat. He swam toward it.
Tristan swung the glass in the same direction.
Diana rammed her upper body repeatedly into Vincent’s. The pirates exchanged glances. One lifted his pistol. Hatred in their eyes, the others followed, training their weapons on Vincent rather than Diana.
They wanted him dead, but if their shots missed, she’d pay with her life.
Tristan dropped the glass. He pulled off the brace holding his pistols, tore across the beach, and dove into the sea. Even beneath the water, the first shot sounded clearly and deadly, then the next and the next.
Terrified, he broke water.
