by Gaelen Foley
He fastened his trousers as Kate righted her dress, but without a word, he drew her into his arms again and held her for the longest time, just hugging her, lost in his thoughts, tenderly stroking her hair. She sighed in contentment with her head against his chest.
“Am I evil, Kate?” he asked at length. “You must decide it for me. I can no longer tell.”
“No, of course not. You are not evil, and you are not cursed. But I suppose . . . I do fear for you, if you continue to ignore your heart.”
“My alleged heart,” he drawled in a low, world-weary tone. “If you must know, it’s all but broken by the darkness of this world.”
“Then let me mend it.”
“I’ve been trained since I was just a small boy to fight this evil your father speaks of. But I have not been untouched by it.”
“I know, darling.”
“Do you?” He stopped her from embracing him again, looking somberly into her eyes. “What you saw tonight was not unusual for me.”
“I realize that. I’m not naïve. You’re a warrior, Rohan. You come from a long line of them. It’s in your blood. That doesn’t scare me.”
“It should. I’m a killer, Kate.”
“No. If men like you did not exist, who would oppose the wicked? Besides, I have firsthand knowledge of your true honor.”
“You still find me honorable even after I lured you into a devil’s bargain so I could justify seducing you?” he murmured, studying her.
“Oh, Rohan, silly duke.” She laughed softly at him and cupped his face in her hand. “I know full well you did it to protect me.” She shook her head at him. “I have to go.” She turned around and crossed the tiny room in two steps, reaching for the door.
“Kate,” he whispered.
She paused, but did not look back. With her hand on the door, listening to him with every fiber of her being, willing him now to, please, God, let him say he loved her.
“Those other women, they never even knew me. Not like you do.”
She glanced back at him with a guarded smile that hid her disappointment. He stared at her, his expression somber. Struggling for patience, she gazed at his fierce pale eyes, and the scar above his eyebrow, and his irresistible lips. He was so amazingly good at some things and a walking disaster at others.
But she must find the strength to be gentle with him. It wasn’t entirely his fault he was like this. He’d been taught from an early age to keep the world at bay. At least he was trying. “I’m glad you let me know the real you,” she finally answered.
He slid his hands into his pockets like a rueful schoolboy and shrugged. “I can’t believe you didn’t run.”
“Perhaps I should have.” She cast him a wan half smile. “But, unfortunately, we were stuck in that castle together. And before I knew it, I found out you weren’t half-bad. Good night, my love. I daresay you should be able to sleep now.”
His smile flashed white in the darkness. “Like a babe.” When she turned to go, he ran his finger down her back, sending dangerous shivers through her that could almost tempt her to stay. “Good night, sweetheart.”
She sent him a heated glance over her shoulder, but gathered her resolve, and stepped out into the passageway.
Where the first thing she saw was her father waiting for her to come out.
Kate froze. She felt the blood drain from her face and her stomach plummet all the way down to her feet.
Gerald Fox was leaning across from Rohan’s door with an ominous scowl on his face, arms folded across his chest.
Kate began stammering, but he ignored her.
“Warrington,” her ex-Marine, ex-pirate father growled.
“Er, Captain.”
Rohan stood behind her with his shirt hanging open and his long hair as tousled as her own, and it could not have been more obvious what they had been doing.
“How dare you?” her father uttered, glaring past her at him. “You blackguard!”
She planted herself in the doorway of Rohan’s cabin, fearing violence. “Papa—”
“Debauch my daughter under my very nose?” His green eyes blazed by the distant lantern’s flicker of light. “You should be ashamed, sir! It will not stand, do you hear me? This is unacceptable!”
“Papa, please. We are both adults. Let’s not overreact—”
“Be quiet!” he roared at her. “Your mother would be appalled at you, acting like a hussy!”
Kate blinked, but Papa returned his furious attention to her seducer.
“For shame, Warrington! You’re supposed to be protecting the girl, not using her for your harlot!”
“I beg your pardon!” Kate’s cheeks flamed as embarrassment flooded her at his words, but her sire wasn’t finished.
He pointed a threatening finger at Rohan. “Your father ruined my life; you will not ruin my daughter’s! I don’t give a damn for your rank. You will marry her, do you understand me?”
“Papa!”
“Stay out of this, girl—”
“No, you stay out of it!” she shouted without warning.
He looked her up and down in outrage, but Kate’s temper snapped. “Leave him alone! I’ve managed just fine these past many years without a father, so don’t think you can come barging into my life and immediately tell me whom to marry!”
“Oho, so you do reproach me?” he exclaimed. “I knew it!”
“You sailed off and forgot about me!” she cried.
“I did not!”
“You went on with your life! Your new family. Well, I went on with mine, too,” she flung out as the anger burst from her more sharply than she had intended. “Warrington is my lover. So what? Welcome to the world.”
Incredulous at her cynical words—words she had borrowed from Rohan—her father turned to him. “What have you done to her?”
He was staring at her as he murmured, “I’m not entirely sure.”
“Ugh! I’m going to bed.” Abandoning the doorway she had been blocking, Kate dropped her arms to her sides and slipped past her father, then began marching away.
“Kate—maybe your father’s right.”
She stopped, closing her eyes, for the stoic resignation in his tone caused a great pang in her heart. She turned around slowly.
Rohan had come out into the passageway, and when she saw his face, her fleeting hope sank even lower. His expression was as grim as a man’s who had just been sentenced to a hanging at dawn. He swallowed hard. “Maybe it’s better we wed.”
“You cannot be serious,” she uttered in quiet, flabbergasted rage. “This is your proposal? Now you would agree to it, just because he says so? Do you think I don’t know how you really feel? No, thank you—Your Grace! Not like this! Never!”
“Kate—”
“No! Do you hear me? Absolutely, unequivocally—no! God, I can’t take any more.” Shaking with fury, she started to stride away, but blinded by tears, and not having gained her sea legs yet, she bumped into the passageway, accidentally knocking a life ring off the wall.
With a sound of exasperation, she caught the durable white ring as it fell on her.
“Kate—don’t go storming off.” Rohan had started toward her.
“Stay away from me!” She hurled the life ring at him. “Just—leave me alone! Both of you! I’m not interested in your charity, Duke! Remember yesterday?”
The dolt had surely had not forgotten her hurling his money at his head.
“As for you, Papa, you forfeited the right to pick my husband when you had Charley lie to me and tell me you were dead. So, kill each other if you like. You’re both fools, as far as I’m concerned!”
With a furious sob, she ran the rest of the way to her cabin, leaving the two oddly similar men behind in awkward, stymied silence.
Chapter 19
What have you done to her? Days later, the question still haunted Rohan as he readied himself to face the Alchemist’s Tomb, but the answer, he feared, was unavoidable. He had turned his wild Dartmoor darling into a woman of the world.
He knew his dutiful offer of marriage had been unsatisfactory in terms of sentiment, yet he was stunned by the vehemence of her furious refusal.
She had hardly spoken to him since, and the fact was, he really couldn’t blame her. He barely knew what to do with himself with Kate not talking to him. If this was a taste of what life would be like without her, he wanted no part of it. Something had to be done.
For good or ill, Rohan knew his course was clear. He had to get into that Tomb, find a way to break the Kilburn Curse, win Kate back if she had not lost all respect for him by now, and only then, make her safely his—forever.
Resolved to tread this precarious path, though he had railed against ever marrying just a few days ago in the music room—more bullheaded than the bloody Minotaur—he ignored the inner howling of his superstitious fears, armed himself with the full complement of guns and knives that he had taken to the docklands, then threw a warm scarf around his neck and slipped on the long, heavy sealskin coat that Gerald had lent him.
It was nearly waterproof, as well as being the warmest choice available. The Orkney archipelago lay only six degrees below the Arctic Circle, after all. Daylight lasted but a few short hours this time of year.
Collecting a few more supplies, Rohan threw them into a sturdy knapsack, anything he could think of that he might possibly need, but what did you take to a battle against a dead sorcerer and his horde of conjured demons?
Ballocks. Stop it. He scowled at his own idiotic imaginings. This was most unlike him. But God’s truth, he was ever so slightly rattled. He feared if he did not get his irrational notions under control, he was going to make a stupid mistake and get himself killed.
Knowing he still had to get The Alchemist’s Journal with all the clues in it from Kate, he glanced at his fob watch and saw it would soon be dawn.
Almost time to disembark.
Thanks to Fox’s masterful sailing and more square footage of canvas on the frigate than on the enemy’s schooner, they had passed the Prometheans two days ago, but their lead was not great.
He had to act fast. Though doing this in the predawn darkness posed added challenges, Rohan wished to avoid being spotted going into the Alchemist’s Tomb, just in case Mr. Tewkes had forgotten which of the many caves in the area was the actual entrance. There was no need to let Falkirk see which one it was.
“I am not looking forward to this,” Rohan grumbled to the air with a disgruntled look as he pulled on a black knit hat, followed by thick, heavy, leather gloves. Tossing the knapsack over his shoulder, he trudged up on deck.
He lifted his fur-lined hood against the bone-chilling wind whistling through the yardarms.
He spotted Kate at the rails with her father. She, too, was dressed in a long sealskin coat, with the hood pulled up to block the bitter breeze from her face. Using her father’s telescope, she was looking out to sea.
The moment he clamped his gaze on her, Rohan felt relief spread through his entire body, warming him. He knew she had come up on deck to see him off, and he was utterly grateful. How he would find the strength to say good-bye to her, he did not know. He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he might never see her again.
If they were ever going to be able to be together, though, first he had to do this.
Stalking toward her through the crisp, chilled darkness, he glanced at the rugged grandeur of the sentinel cliffs looming nearby. The rocky crags were covered in hardy northern seafowl sending up a clamor while others dove for their breakfast of fish. There were no penguins at this latitude, but thousands of puffins and terns, along with gulls and cormorants.
The moon had sunk low over the ocean, but its silver glitter played across the dark water and gleamed on floating platforms of ice that seals rode over the waves before flopping back into the water.
Kate laughed softly at the creatures’ antics; he could feel her merry mood and thought it odd under the circumstances as he joined her and her father at the rails.
He nodded to Gerald, who was clad in a bearskin coat, then he noticed that Kate had her boots on, and realized she must have donned her old footman costume again. No doubt the breeches and livery coat were warmer than the satin gown that he feared was her only other option. The poor girl still had no decent wardrobe of her own.
He heaved a sigh, wistful for the chance to spoil her as he had earlier planned.
“So glum this morning, Your Grace?” she inquired, still peering through the telescope.
She must’ve heard his sigh. He just looked at her, leaning his elbow on the rail. As long as he lived, he would never get used to her cheeky humor. Or find another like her.
“I thought facing certain doom was your idea of fun,” she said, turning to him.
“Right,” he murmured, masking his joy that at least she was speaking to him this morning. “Thanks for the reminder. You’re up early.”
“Look. Whales.” She pointed past the seals, then offered her telescope.
He shook his head. “I’m more concerned about the Promethean ship. Where are they?”
“They’ve just entered visual range,” Gerald said.
“Then I’d best be going.”
“The small-boat’s ready whenever you are, Warrington.”
“Did you know Orkney was a favorite stop of Viking ships along their voyages?”
“She’s been at the almanac again,” her sire said dryly.
Rohan succumbed to a fond grin. “Our little bluestocking.”
“There’s your marker. The Dragon Ring.” Gerald pointed to the hilltop, where a circle of giant standing stones dusted in snow rose against the starry sky, ancient, enigmatic, and foreboding. “The entrance to the cave is just across that cove, aligned with the tallest stone. Under that stone arch, you see?”
Rohan nodded, staring at the dramatic rock formation. The stone arch at the base of the towering rocky outcropping was very low, barely visible, except between the white-capped waves that crashed against it.
“Mind you, there are boulders all over the place, and with all these seals, likely sharks in the water, so be careful. When you approach the cave entrance, you won’t have much room to slip under that arch,” Gerald warned. “You’ll have to row in on the trough of a wave. If you hit it on the crest, it’ll capsize you. The water calms once inside the cave, but have your lanterns ready. It’s pitch-dark. You remember what I told you about that Shark’s Mouth contraption?”
Rohan nodded.
“Good. Once you’re in, I’ll sail out to meet those blackguards and engage them. It’ll give me great pleasure to blow them out o’ the water,” Gerald added heartily.
Rohan had every confidence in the hardened captain’s ability to sink the Promethean ship. “What about your bo’sun? ”
“I’ll be sending my men in the small-boats to retrieve Tewkes once I’ve demasted her.”
Rohan nodded. “Fox, they’ve taken one of our agents. A man called Drake. He was the one guarding Falkirk at the docks. Did you see him?”
“Aye.”
“If your men are able to pick him up when they rescue Tewkes, I’d be obliged.”
“Take him captive?”
“It would be helpful. Be sure and keep him in your brig if you do manage to grab him. Be careful of him—truly. He is as highly trained to make mischief as I am,” he said dryly. “If anything happens to me, send word to my manservant in London, Eldred. He’ll contact the appropriate people to come and collect Drake from you.”
“I’ll do as you ask if I can, but I’m not making any promises.”
Rohan nodded. So be it. Part of him thought it might be just as well for Drake to die. From what he had seen of him in the docklands, serving as James Falkirk’s human shield, it would certainly appear that their agent had switched sides. If Drake had turned against them, the hard fact was he was going to have to be eliminated along with their enemies.
Rohan hoped he would not regret sparing him.
“I can’t belie
ve I’m here,” Kate murmured, shaking her head at the bleak, timeless landscape before her. “It’s as if we’ve gone to the far end of the earth.”
He glanced at her with a pang, knowing the moment of their parting had arrived. “Well, you wanted adventure, didn’t you?”
“I certainly did,” she murmured as she handed the telescope back to her father. “That’s why I’ve decided to go with you.”
“What?”
“I’m going with you,” she repeated.
“No, you’re not!” he and Fox answered in unison.
“Of course, I am,” she said reasonably, lifting the knapsack by her feet and throwing it onto her shoulder. “I’ve come this far, haven’t I?”
“Kate, you are not going in there.”
Her stubborn gaze met his. “You need me in there with you, and we both know it.”
“Out of the question! You listen to me, young lady,” her father blustered. “That evil place took your mother from me. I’ll not lose you, as well!”
“Papa, you know I have to do this. You can’t stop me. This is my decision.”
“It’s madness!” Gerald cried, paling. “What are you trying to prove? It won’t bring her back!”
“I know that, but at least then I will have some answers. This is the reason you made sure to have me educated like a son, remember? I can do this, Papa. Rohan, I’ll be waiting in the boat.”
“You are staying here,” he replied.
Anger flashed across her face. “Haven’t you two realized yet that you don’t run my life? That place killed my mother! Besides, I have a right—the Alchemist is my ancestor, not yours—and also, I’m the only one who has figured out the clues.”
“Kate, I don’t know what sort of deviltry I may face in there. I’m sorry, but this time, considering I have no idea what I’m getting into, I don’t want to be responsible for having to protect you.”
“With all due respect, Your Grace, I’m the one who’ll be protecting you on this occasion. You’re a warrior, not a scholar, Rohan. I’ve been studying this book, and I’ve already decoded the clues. You don’t stand a chance without me.”
“Just give them to me.”
“No! I’m going in with you. Now, if you prefer to survive the fiendish obstacle course that lies beyond that cave, quit wasting time arguing with me, because my mind will not be changed. For that matter, the Prometheans will be here soon. So, let’s go!” With that, she pivoted on her heel and marched off toward the small-boat.
