“So why do you think he has decided to marry now?” she asked, cocking her head at Ned and giving him a quizzical look.
“Doubt if it is love. Don’t think I have seen his intended, so if he knew her for very long we would have seen her at one time or another. There was a time we all thought he had found the love of his life, but suddenly we hear she up and married someone else, and he was black for a long time after that, and then we hears he is going to get married himself. Must be to show his old lover up, and make her think he don’t care that she left him flat, the way she did. But the drinking binge he went on, right after she left him, tells the true tale,” Ned laughed.
“So you think he is getting married to get revenge on his lover marrying someone else, then?”
“Seems that way. He acted happy on the way out here, talking about the beauty he was about to marry. She must be something, he says, even though he has never laid eyes on her before. She is known as the woman in red, and no man has been able to get near her yet. Says he figures she hasn’t been ruined by a man, seeing as how she wouldn’t even let men call on her, even though she is a notorious flirt, but he claims she won’t be hard to tame to his ways.”
“He sounds like a man who wants to be in control,” Eleanor mused, her eyes narrowing at what Ned had told her about Sebastian. Tame her indeed. If it came to it, he would have a surprise on that account.
“Oh, he likes people to keep in their place when they are around him, but he is a very generous man, when it comes to women, always lavishing them with gifts and all. He has them eating out of his hand, so to speak, the moment they lay eyes on him.”
“You sound jealous,” Eleanor laughed.
“Guess I could say I am, but no woman could compare to your beauty,” Ned said, leaning in closer to Eleanor. “And I don’t see you eating out of anyone’s hand,” he chuckled.
“I am sure I wouldn’t,” Eleanor agreed.
“We’re sailing today,” Ned said suddenly. “I probably won’t get a chance to see you again. I thought maybe you would like to see the ship before we sailed, and I could show you where Mr. Brentwood’s cabin is, if you want. You seem so interested, I thought you would like that.”
Eleanor raised her well shaped brows. She started to feel excited at the prospect. “Why, I would love to see the ship. To tell you the truth, I have never been on a ship before, and it would be most interesting.”
“Then come this way, my sweet,” Ned said, holding out his arm for her to take under her small hands covered in a pair of frayed gloves. Eleanor put the handle of her basket of flowers over her elbow and took the proffered arm. Perhaps something in Sebastian’s cabin, would tell her more about the man, and this would be the last time she could get any more information out of Ned.
As Ned led Eleanor up the ramp that led from the dock to the deck, the men on board began to call out, and whistle at her. Eleanor felt a little uncomfortable, and tightened her grip on Ned’s arm.
“Don’t pay no mind to them,” Ned told her. “They are just woman starved and know we will be sailing soon, so it will be a mighty long time before they lay eyes on a woman again. Just stay close to me, and they won’t bother you none.”
Eleanor followed Ned around the deck, as he pointed out how the sails were to be lifted and the kind of work each hand had to perform. As they toured the ship, she started to feel less nervous, since the crew members seemed to go about their tasks with out much notice of her, except for sometimes removing their hat, or bowing their head, when she passed them. After Ned showed her the above decks, he took her down below, where the hammocks were slung out for the crew to sleep on, and the galley was, where they cooked the meals. Then he took her into the bowls of the ship, to show her the cargo hold.
“If you were thinking you might like to come on our voyage, there are plenty of places to hide you down here,” Ned told her, to discover if she was really interested in stowing away.
“I don’t know that I would enjoy being cooped up down here where there is little light,” she laughed, not saying one way or the other of her intentions.
“Well there are plenty of other places,” he laughed, as they began to walk up the ladder that led to the higher decks. “You want to see Mr. Brentwood’s cabin?” he asked as they came up into the light.
“Yes, I would like that,” she agreed.
“Right this way, but we must be careful. I will have to take the key without anyone noticing because, of course, we are not allowed in his lodgings, but for you, I would do anything,” he told her with a wink. “Why don’t you distract the captain while I grab it,” he told her, as he brought her up to where the captain was standing. “Captain, I would like you to meet Rose. I’m just giving her a look at the ship, before we sail. She is so interested in the ship and the way it is run, that I couldn’t turn her down when she wanted to see it. You don’t mind, do you?”
“It is quite irregular to have a woman on board, but since we are still docked, I am sure no harm is done, as long as Mr. Brentwood doesn’t learn of it. You know how he feels about the crew bringing their women on the ship.”
“Oh, but I assure you, I am not Ned’s woman,” Eleanor put in. “We are just good friends, and I am so interested in sailing ships. Seeing as how I am just a nobody and would never get a chance to sail to foreign countries like the elite, I just wanted to know how it feels to be on the decks of a ship,” she said, and as she talked, she saw that Ned was wandering away down the deck.
“I see you are a flower girl,” the captain noted, looking at her basket of flowers.
“Would you like a bunch? I will give you one free, since the day is almost out, and they will just wilt anyway, if I don’t sell them.” She held out a bunch to him.
“That is very sweet of you, my girl. You seem to have a kind heart,” he smiled as he took the flowers and smelled them.
“Oh, there is Ned coming to finish showing me the ship. I thought he had abandoned me for a moment there,” Eleanor said, as Ned came up beside them, with a big grin on his face.
“Oh, I would have finished your tour, if he had neglected you,” the captain assured her, and he took her hand and raised it to his lips. “Thank you for the flowers,” he said, and Eleanor turned towards Ned and took his arm again.
“I got it,” he whispered, as they walked away from the captain, and then he was pulling her down some stairs and through a hall, then putting the key in the lock of a door.
When he opened the door for her, she stepped in and started looking around, while he closed the door. “I had better lock the door, so no one knows we are in here,” he told her, but she was paying little attention, as she started looking at the books in the shelves and other things about the room. There was a bed built into the wall with a curtain that could be pulled shut for privacy. A roll top desk was fastened to another wall. Even the small table in the center of the room was fastened to the floor. The room was not large, but it was larger than any of the other rooms that Ned had shown her earlier, and she began walking idly around it, trying to decide if she could bare to be married to this man who had a woman in every port and was marrying her to get revenge on a lover that left him. If he had loved that woman so much, he couldn’t possibly fall in love with her. She thought of the brief moment that she had met him on the wharf, and the way his eyes had lit up when he saw her. It was just because he liked women, and she was a good looking woman, as she well knew, she decided.
Ned came up behind her, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “You know, you could hide in this room,” he whispered in her ear, “If you was hoping to take a voyage to foreign countries, like you told the captain. No one could ever find you here, and I could bring you food and stuff.”
Eleanor turned. For a moment the idea sounded appealing. She could just disappear, and no one would know what happened to her. But what would she do when they finally reached a port someplace? She had no money and no way of supporting herself. She may be jumping out of the frying pan int
o the fire. “That sounds tempting, but it may not be a good idea. What would I ever do once the ship docked somewhere else?”
“I would take care of you,” Ned said. “I would take good care of you,” he added, as he pulled her closer to him.
“But I don’t even know you,” Eleanor said, starting to feel nervous from the look in Ned’s eyes.
“I like you a lot,” he whispered, as he lowered his head towards hers, “and you been coming every day for a week. We know each other well enough,” he insisted.
“But…I…I would never…No, I think it is a bad idea,” she said at last, backing up, but as she backed up, she was up against the wall, and Ned continued to come towards her.
“Now you know you been making my heart go mad, every time I see you,” he told her. “We will be sailing soon, and I may not ever see you again. You could at least give me a good-bye kiss,” he insisted as he pressed up against her.
“But you are just my friend,” Eleanor insisted. “I was just being kind to you, because we enjoy talking with each other.”
“Life’s not made up of just talking,” Ned reasoned, as his head moved closer to hers, and then his lips were covering hers, and she stiffened, when he started kissing her. She would let him have his kiss, she decided, and then leave the ship. She did not want to make a fuss, since he had been so kind to her and showed her the ship and all.
Only he did not lift his head from hers, and continued kissing her, forcing his tongue into her mouth, holding her arms against the wall, as he plundered her mouth with his. She began to squirm, but he held her fast, and then one hand was ripping at the top of her dress. “Just give me some before we part,” he begged, as he forced a hand down the top of her dress.
“Please Ned, I thought you a better person than this,” she stressed.
“You been teasing me with your smiles and body, since the first day I laid eyes on you. You can’t just walk away now,” he insisted. “I may never get this chance again, so just don’t make a fuss about it,” he pleaded.
Eleanor started to push against his chest. “If you do not unhand me, I will be forced to scream, and you will get in trouble for having me in this room,” she threatened. “I don’t want to get you into trouble, Ned, but if you continue to…”
“No one can hear you down here. All the other cabins are at the other end of the ship, and no one comes down to this cabin when Mr. Brentwood is not using it. Scream all you want. I’ll be the only one that can hear you. There is too much noise going on loading the cargo. No one will think any thing of it even if they did hear you,” he informed her, and then his mouth came down over hers again as he started guiding her towards the bed.
“Please stop this!” Eleanor, begged, as she wrenched her mouth from his.
“I will, once you give in. I would like to keep you here for the whole voyage, but if you give in, I will let you go,” he told her.
“How do I know you will actually keep your word?” she asked, but he only smiled at her, and started to push her down onto the bed.
Eleanor started to struggle, and as she did so, Ned flung her onto the bed. There was a sharp pain in her head, and then everything went black. She could hear Ned chuckling in a far off distance, as he whispered, “That’s better, my sweet.”
Eleanor woke with a start, but as she lifted her head, a sharp pain stabbed through it. She lifted her hand to her head, and opened her eyes. She was still laying on Sebastian’s bed, but Ned was no longer with her, and she was under the covers. She threw the covers back, and realized she did not have a stitch of clothes on. In a half mist, she felt there was something strange about the ship. She could feel it rising and falling, and she pulled herself out of the bed, and stumbled to the window, opening the two panels that encased several small diamond shape panes. Eagerly she put her head out to feel the cool breeze upon her face, and it was then she saw that the ship was under sail, but it must have just started to sail because she could still see the shore close at hand. Eleanor, scanned the room for her clothes and could not see them any where. Only her basket of flowers lay strewn upon the floor. She ran to the door and pulled on the knob, but she was not surprised to discover that it was still locked. She opened the trunk at the foot of the bed, only to discover it had papers and books in it, not clothes. She ransacked the cupboards and draws, but no clothes had been left behind. The longer she took, the farther away the ship was getting from shore, and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to swim that far, so there was nothing she could do but climb out the window, onto the bow where the carving of a woman was attached. She climbed out on the carving, dangled from the woman’s arm, and then letting herself drop into the icy cold water.
The shock of hitting the cold water almost rendered her unconscious again, but she managed to cling to consciousness and hold her breath as her body plunged deep into the ocean. Then she was kicking for the surface. When her head bobbed up, the ship was almost past her, and she took in a deep gasp, as she felt the life giving air on her face. She treaded water for a moment, trying to get her bearings until she focused on the shore and started swimming in that direction.
CHAPTER SIX
Sebastian Brentwood, stood on the docks, legs spread, hands clasped behind his back, watching the Annie Bell, named after the woman he thought would become his wife, sail into the distance. He tried not to think about Annie, as her namesake tacked into the wind. Perhaps he should change the name of the ship, he thought idly. His life seemed a shambles at the moment, in spite of his wealth and success. He knew what was missing. Something that could fill the empty place that Annie left behind. Only he was sure it could never be filled, but fill it he would, in one way or another, and he would get to the business of doing so, once he called on the Belingtons.
He tried to shrug away the thought of even that necessity, and started to turn, but something caught his eyes, as the ship continued to tack into the wind. He could see someone out on the figurine of Annie. He took in a breath of anger, assuming someone was trying to jump ship, but the only way they could get to that figurine was to climb out of the window of his own cabin, and this concerned him even more. He wished he had a spy glass so he could see who it was that had plunged into the turquoise water below.
He watched with narrowed eyes as whoever it was began swimming towards the dock, but they were so far away, he could barely see their head above the bobbing of the gentle waves, as they stroked ever closer in the direction of the dock. He gave a little gasp as he noticed that the swimmer, had long flowing dark hair, and the pinkness of their body could be seen through the water. It was a woman, and she apparently was naked.
Sebastian started to rip his own clothes off, down to his trousers, and then dove into the water, barely causing a ripple, as his body knifed into the cold ocean. His arms dug through the water pulling ever closer out to intercept the creature. Before he reached her, he lost sight of her head, and his breath stopped when he saw that she was starting to sink below the surface of the water. He pushed harder, as his already fast beating heart doubled its speed at the thought of the woman drowning. He submerged himself under the ocean, streaking towards the body that was floating beneath the water, and managed to reach her before she sunk away from his grasp. With what seemed the last of his strength, he managed to pull her back to the surface, and then began dragging her the rest of the way to the docks.
By the time his breathless body reached the docks, with the woman in tow, she was sputtering and coughing up water. He pushed her shapely body up onto the dock, and then crawled up himself, grabbing at his discarded coat and wrapping her in it. His trembling hand pushed her long dark hair out of her face. It was then he took in a ragged breath, as he recognized the woman he had bumped into on the dock that first day he had arrived.
He pulled her up in his arms. “Are you all right?” he breathed, his heart still pounding too fast for him to barely take the breath it took, in order to speak the words. She merely nodded, but did not open her eyes. “W
hat happened? Why were you on my ship, and with no clothes on?” he asked, but she didn’t reply. He could see she was starting to slip into unconsciousness. “What’s your name? Tell me your name,” he begged, putting his ear close to her mouth, because she had started mumbling something.
“Eleanor,” she choked. “Belington,” she finished, and Sebastian froze, staring down at her, disbelievingly. The girl he had seen on the dock was the very girl he was arranging to marry, and suddenly his tightly constricted heart, relaxed a little. He had been drawn to her then, and now he had saved her life. But what in the hell was she doing on the Annie Bell?”
Sebastian’s strength seemed to return two fold, and he scooped her up, along with the rest of his clothes, and carried her to his carriage that had been parked in front of his business office at the end of the dock. He gently laid her small limp body on the seat, buttoning his coat up around her, and headed out at a fast clip towards Belington Manor.
Sebastian’s carriage skidded to a stop in the Manor drive, at the very moment that Teddy and Percy were driving up. They watched with surprised interest, as Sebastian climbed down from the carriage, with Eleanor in his arms. Teddy immediately leaped from his carriage and confronted Sebastian. “What have you done to her?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” Sebastian grimiest. “Go get the doctor, once you let me in. The woman almost drowned.”
“How did you know where to bring her?” Teddy inquired, opening the door, as Percy came up beside the two.
“She told me her name, and I knew where she lived, because I am Sebastian Brentwood. The man who has been promised her hand in marriage.”
“We shall see about that,” Percy broke in, with a frown on his face. “She has already agreed to marry me!”
Sebastian gave him one quick glance. “Get the doctor,” he said quietly between clenched teeth. “Neither of us may get a chance to marry her, if she is not revived,” and he followed Teddy into the house.
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