Captives' Charade (17 page)
Authors: Susannah Merrill
“Sir, you are mistaken. I have no such thoughts,” Sarah responded breathlessly, pushing herself away from his silken touch. But he was not yet ready to let her out of his grasp, and held her slim fingers captive in his stronger ones. “Please, it’s late. I really must go.”
As if he hadn’t heard a word she uttered, Stewart brought his arm around her waist and held her close to his side, ignoring her resistance.
“Beautiful, innocent Sarah,” he murmured. “You must be very careful not to offer what you are not willing to give ... especially to me.” The threat was unmistakable.
Struggling against the e ffects of the wine and his kisses, Sarah realized the foolishness of her incautious actions, but her pride would not let her admit her deep longing for his caress. Defensively, she muttered, “Are you so weak that you cannot control your own lusts?”
“Are you?” he whispered seductively, his warm breath tingling her earlobe as his hand molded itself against her ribs.
“I was foolish to allow myself to be alone with you. I assure you it will not happen again!” She struggled to remove herself from his viselike hold but to no avail. “Unhand me before I scream.”
“Are you sure you wish to cause such a disturbance? You forget this is my ship. No one will interfere when they see you are with me. Besides, you should know you are quite safe. Didn’t I give your father my word that no harm would come to you?”
“Your promise was only too clever,” she sniffed haughtily, though a slur marred the confident tone, “for you do not consider your ravishment of me a danger. But I tell you this: My father would not hesitate to ruin you if I am returned to him in a-a trifled state.” Sensing that her threat was ineffectual in the face of this wellconnected and highly resourceful man, she cast her eyes downward, struggling in vain against his powerful arm.
“Then I suggest you take pains to bridle your desires, my sweet, for I cannot continue to protect you from yourself.” With a disgusted snort, he added, much to Sarah’s surprise and consternation, “”Tis ironic that you should be the one to warn me against trifling, since it is your game, not mine. I would do better to confine myself to women who are honest about what they want.”
“Like the woman at the dock?” The bitter words left her mouth before she had a chance to think. Stewart did not seem surprised, but neither, to her chagrin, did he comment.
Releasing her for a moment, he took her hand and placed the combs, stolen from her hair, into her palm. “Off you go, little one. It’s late and you need your sleep.”
Incensed by his paternal dismissal, Sarah snatched her hand away and with a burning look, flung her tangled mane over her shoulder and stalked off with what she hoped was great dignity. But his short, deep-throated chuckle told her the show of bravado was lost on him.
Had she been able to see the disquieted look in his dark eyes, she might have found some whit of satisfaction to take to her bed. But as she did not, there was nothing to comfort her; only silent tears of anger, humiliation and a sense of frustration she could neither name nor understand. CHAPTER 17
Just as Stewart promised, the weather as they edged southward grew increasingly warmer. Despite Tegan’s warnings, Sarah spent a great deal of time reading on deck, allowing the hot sun an occasional peak at her face.
“Your mother would dismiss me forthwith if she could see those sunspots. You look like a dairy maid,” she scolded Sarah one afternoon as they were having tea in their cabin.
“Perhaps, but those colonists will have a hard time believing you’re the daughter of a Duke with your cheeks ruddy and all,” Tegan insisted.
“Captain Slade tells me his wife goes without hat and gloves all summer when they stay at their country home. And he thinks she’s beautiful.”
“What does Mr. Chamberlain think? ‘Tis his opinion you should be worrying about.” Tegan eyed her pointedly.
“Icarenotonefigforhisopinion,”Sarah replied sharply, “but if you must know, he says he thinks a woman should do whatever she wants. So there.”
“I thought you and Mr. Chamberlain would have hit it off better than what I’ve taken in so far,” Tegan remarked, without so much as a warning.
Sarah returned a suspicious look, her blue eyes glinting dangerously in the sunlight that streamed through the porthole in their quarters. Tegan had definitely struck a nerve. “God help me, I don’t know where you get your notions. Mr. Chamberlain does not appeal to me in the least. I have told you that before. You saw him in London with --- that woman. I’m sure he has others all over the globe. What use would I have for a man like that?”
“A man with experience makes a better husband. Gets his sporting out of the way before he’s wed, not after. Besides, you’d get the benefit of all that skill in pleasing woman, if you know what I mean,” she answered, her eyebrows arching suggestively.
“Iswearyouareimpossible,”Sarahshot back, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “You talk as if that is all that matters. What about trust, mutual interests, honor, respectability? Mr. Chamberlain is a scoundrel, I am convinced. Would you have me marry a pirate?”
Tegan laughed brightly. “There goes your imagination again. Do you really believe your own papa would send you off with a scalawag? Seems to me you are looking a tad too hard to find the muck. His only faults are that he’s a bloody Yankee – which you can’t blame him for – and he treats you like a grown woman.”
“If you only knew ....” Sarah began, and then, her eyes smoldering with disturbing memories, changed the course of her words. “How in the world did you manage to get on the subject of marriage to Mr. Chamberlain? ‘Tis a dead issue, Teeg. He has declared he does not wish to marry, and besides, I find him intolerable! Please, can’t we discuss something pleasant? Like ....”
Just then, the women were startled by shouts from above and the sound of heavy boots running in every direction. “What in the devil?” gasped Tegan, stiffening in her chair. Never in all their days at sea had they heard such unexplained chaos.
A prickle of fear stung Sarah’s nape as she strained to hear what the voices were shouting, but it was impossible to make out words above the clamor. Her heart thumping nervously beneath her blue-flowered day gown, she moved hesitantly toward the porthole, but could see nothing save the incredibly blue water shimmering in the light of the hot afternoon sun. Edging toward the door, she practically jumped out of her chemise when a loud pounding commenced. “What is it?” she cried?
In her relief, she lurched toward the door and fell back again, the latch in her hand. “Come in, Ezra! Tell us, please, are we in danger?”
The young boy, his face flushed with a combination of fear and excitement, panted, “A ship’s been sighted ... no colors ... could be pirates. Cap’n says you’re to stay here ... keep out of sight and quiet. I’ll lock the door from without when I leave ... don’t Make your presence known, understand?” The women nodded in dumbfounded silence. “Not a peek. Cap’n and Mr. Chamberlain have keys. They will let themselves in if there’s any need. Got that?” Again, the women nodded. “I’m off then ... don’t worry,” he added, though not quite convincingly.
“Ezra,” Sarah pleaded as the boy backed out of the room. She could see the sailors rushing past behind him, their faces grim. “What’s going to happen?”
The boy’s young face was straining with emotion. “I do not know, Lady Sarah. I’ve only been to sea for nigh six months now. It’s never happened before ....”
Seeing the fear in his eyes, and remembering how kind and polite the cabin boy had been, Sarah was moved to grasp his arm in a brief squeeze. In a voice much more confident that she was, she said, “We will be fine, Ezra. Captain Slade and Mr. Chamberlain know what to do.”
Finding comfort in her words, the boy smiled with a bit more assurance and closed the door firmly, staying only to bolt the lock.
But the bravado used on Ezra disappeared the second his footsteps were gone. In their shock and fright, Sarah and Tegan clutched each other for a moment, unable to think what else to do. “My God, Teeg,” Sarah whispered, trembling, “this is a merchant ship. We’re at their mercy!”
“But they are not flying flags! Stewart told me that all friendly vessels show their colors. It’s the code of the sea.”
Suddenly the women heard footfalls coming from the stairs, and then, the sound of the captain’s door opening and slamming. Together they inched toward the wall that separated the two quarters, hoping to eavesdrop. Sarah immediately recognized Captain Slade’s voice, but the wall, covered with built-in furnishings, was too thick to hear specific words. At one point, however, she distinctly heard Stewart’s baritone scowl her name, and fervently hoped that he would come through the door and rescue them from their terror. But in a few minutes, the men left the cabin and rushed back on deck, not even pausing to shout a word of reassurance through the door.
The young women waited for hours, it seemed, in interminable silence, huddled together on the floor of the wardrobe. Hidden by the heavy doors and yards of fabric from Sarah’s gowns, the panic-stricken women perspired from both the heat and their raging fear stemming from a fate unknown.
Pirates! Sarah’s inner voice screamed, as the sweat trickled down her back and between her breasts in the overwhelming blackness. Robbers, murderers, rapists, all! There was no hope for salvation. Desperate, evil men had no respect for human life. They would take what they wanted from this defenseless ship, killing anyone who would stop them. Killing for sport if there were no resistance. Oh yes, she’d read about their wretchedness.
Asamewlingcryescapedherlips,Tegan hissed, “Don’t think!” and clutched Sarah’s damp fingers in the darkness. “Pray! God and Mr. Chamberlain will take care of us. He promised!”
Suddenly the distant sound of quickening footfalls rang like thunder in their ears and, in their horror, the women grabbed each other tighter, oblivious to the insufferable heat and airlessness of their prison. The metal scraping of the lock being opened at their cabin door increased their trembling as they imagined the worst – that pirates had take over the ship and were in search of their captives.
“LadySarah!Tegan!Whereareyou?”The voice. Whose? Before they could react, the wardrobe doors flew open, exposing the cowering women to fresh air and light. Fearing the worst, the women hid their faces, pushing themselves farther back into the recesses of the closet.
“Gooses, it’s me, Captain Slade. Come out now before you perish of suffocation.” Grasping both of them firmly by the arms, he pulled their quivering bodies from behind the mass of muslins and silks. In their relief, they clutched him tearfully, hiding their faces in his rough shirt. “There, there you two,” he chuckled kindly. “It’s going to be all right. Come. Sit down. I must talk with you.” Pushing the terror-stricken women into their chairs, he noted their pale, sweating faces and the hot spots of color on their cheeks. “I wish I’d had a chance to talk to you before. You needn’t have hidden yourselves away. You might have died in there!” His wide mouth turned up into a grin, but Sarah could see that his crystal blue eyes did not share the humor.
“Weareingravedanger,aren’twe?Please Captain, tell us what is happening!” Her hands trembled as she brushed clinging tendrils of hair from her drawn face, feeling weak from the ordeal.
“It’s a pirate ship all right, but don’t you worry. We will all be safe, as long as you do as I say. Tegan, quickly. Grab your things, bundle them up and give them to Ezra when he returns. Hurry, I’ll explain everything to your mistress.” With a second of hesitation, Tegan leapt from the chair and set about the task.
“Lady Sarah,” he said quietly, taking her hands and looking sternly into her eyes. “We know who the pirates are and as long as we give them what they want, they will leave us in peace. But they are going to make us go with them to their island because their hold is full and they can’t take on any more cargo. I know because it’s happened before. I am eternally sorry for this change of plans, and for your fears. We didn’t expect to meet up with them this time of year, leastways not without an escort. But our blockaders must have met with some misfortune. They never appeared.”
“Well,” he cautioned, “you will be as long as you and Tegan do as I ask.” The tone of his voice aroused a new fear in her, more ominous than before.
“I do not want to alarm you unnecessarily but the fact that you and your maid are aboard makes our situation dicier.” He paused, and the visions Sarah had imagined earlier came back to haunt her even more vividly. “These men have been known to take female hostages, though it has never happened to me when Peggy sailed with us. Even in their lawlessness, they have some respect for the institution of marriage.”
“I am saying that I want Tegan to disguise herself as a boy. She is rather slight and plain. Ezra’s clothes will fit her but, though I hate to suggest it, you will have to cut off her hair.”
He looked at Sarah speculatively, though his eyes spoke of a decision already made. “There’s no way we can disguise you, Lady Sarah, even though you are slender. Besides, we would never be able to get rid of your belongings in time. There is only one solution.”
Ashespoke,heremovedapacketfromhis shirt pocket. Sarah’s skin prickled with apprehension. “This document,” he said evenly, unfolding it with maddening care, “will serve as your protection. It’s a Special License for your marriage to Stewart dated the day of our departure. It was prepared by the Archbishop of Canterbury while we were in London. Stewart and I felt the need for this ‘insurance policy’ should your safety be in question.