Care and Feeding of Pirates (33 page)

When they reached it, James hauled
Christopher out of the water and dumped him on a space of muddy
ground. Christopher's limbs were slack, his face pasty white, the
dragon tattoo stark on his skin.

Honoria touched Christopher's chest,
searching for a flutter of pulse. His skin was cold and clammy, and
he lay so still. But at last, under her fingers, she felt a faint
stirring, a feeble twitch that meant his heart still beat. She
started crying. "James, he's alive."

Without answering, James flipped Christopher
onto his stomach and pressed hard on Christopher's ribs. Water
gushed from Christopher's mouth, but he made no other response.

A green snake slithered out of the
undergrowth. It stopped and inspected Christopher's waterlogged
boot with one jeweled eye.

James stood up, face grim, and the snake slid
hurriedly away. James pressed his booted foot on Christopher's
back, forcing more water out.

Christopher jerked, and then he coughed.
Honoria's heart beat swiftly with hope. Christopher's eyes half
opened, then he turned his head and vomited up the rest of the
water.

After a time, James gently turned Christopher
onto his back. Honoria gathered his head in her lap and brushed the
sodden hair from his face. Christopher's eyelids fluttered again,
then finally, he opened his eyes.

Bloodshot and wild, Christopher's gaze
flicked from her to James, who stood over him, tense and
watching.

His voice was a croak, but Honoria made out
the words. "Am I in heaven or hell?"

She leaned down and kissed him. "Be quiet,
Christopher." Her tears fell on his lips. "I love you," she
informed him. "You wonderful, arrogant, infuriating man."

*** *** ***

Christopher enjoyed lying on a blanket in the
sand, washed by sunshine, letting Honoria wait on him hand and
foot. Every so often, she'd stop what she was doing and kiss his
cracked lips.

Each time she did, Christopher felt his limbs
grow stronger.

He had no idea how he'd ended up in the pool.
He must have fallen through a rock-carved tube that snaked
rainwater into one of the springs that backed into the mountain. If
he'd fallen down the waterfall itself, he would have died. The
spring had been deep enough to cushion his fall, and from there,
he'd floated, unconscious, down into the pool where Honoria found
him.

She would not explain how she knew to look
for him there--she simply smiled and kissed him. Christopher
decided to close his eyes and live with it.

James gave the order to release Manda, so
Christopher courteously gave the return order to release Diana. Did
Diana and Manda meekly return to their respective ships? No, they
came charging to the island, demanding to know everything that had
happened.

Diana had flown into her husband's arms as
soon as Ardmore helped her out of the boat, and Ardmore gathered
her up for a long hug. Diana had shaken free of him, stepped back,
and started shouting.

Christopher enjoyed the show. That is, until
Manda approached Christopher and began shouting at
him
.

What business did he have letting Ardmore
lead him around by the nose and getting himself half killed? For a
stupid little stack of gold they didn't even need?

"I'm leading
him
," Christopher
retorted. His chest was encased in bandages that Honoria had wound
herself--he'd loved the feel of her small, firm hands on his body.
"The only person who leads me around is my wife, and that's not by
the nose." He grinned as Manda rolled her eyes.

Manda knelt down next to Christopher, gave
him a half-defiant stare with liquid black eyes, and said, "I'm
going to marry Henderson."

Christopher felt both amusement and a dart of
sorrow. He'd just found Manda. He didn't want to let her go again,
not so soon. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

She nodded, looking happy and miserable at
the same time. "I love him." She lifted her chin. "He's a good man
in a fight."

Christopher suppressed a laugh. "You always
have a place on my ship, you know that."

"I know. That's why we'll stay on the
Starcross
. Alden's a good navigator, even if he is fussy
about his clothes. You'll need him."

Christopher let himself grin. Lying here
recovering from death, his emotions were running rampant.

He reached for Manda and gathered her into
his arms. Her black hair was soft under his hands, her cheek smooth
against his.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hugging you."

She awkwardly rested her arms on his neck.
"We don't hug."

Christopher squeezed her tight and kissed her
cheek. "I promise I'll never do it again."

Manda broke away from him, giving him an
incredulous stare, but she did not look unhappy. "You've lost your
mind."

"My beautiful wife saved my life today and
told me she loved me. I'm pleased with everyone."

"Huh. I suppose I should enjoy it while I
can."

Christopher gave her a brotherly pat on the
knee. "Go get the ship ready to sail. We're leaving as soon as I
can get rid of Ardmore."

They exchanged a long look, conspirators once
more. "Are we going where I think we are?" Manda asked.

"You'd know better than anyone."

"I'll have to tell Henderson, you know," she
warned.

"Tell him anything you want. Just wait until
we're well away from Ardmore."

Manda's grin widened, and she winked. "Aye,
Captain. See you on board."

She stood up and walked off, with a long
stride and buoyant bounce. Christopher's heart lifted. It was good
to be home.

When next he opened his eyes, Ardmore was
staring down at him.

Christopher sat up carefully, hand on his
bandages. "Still here, are you?"

James's face was granite-hard as usual.
"We're leaving. We searched the rest of the island in case you
forgot to tell us about more caches of gold, but we found none. It
seems you led me directly to the treasure and gave it up to me.
Why?" His voice was quiet, smooth, waiting.

Christopher tried a shrug, flinch in pain. "I
refuse to waste men and time trying to fight you. You want the
damned gold so much, take it and go away."

Ardmore's lips compressed. "Are you paying me
off so I'll leave you alone from now on? It won't work, Raine.
You're still a pirate, and I'm a pirate hunter. Our debts to each
other are paid, but we start again, with a blank slate."

"Fine," Christopher answered, trying to look
defeated. "But to tell the truth, I believe I'll retire from the
pirate life. I'll take my wife and settle in some coastal town
where I can smoke my pipe and bounce my children on my knee and
regale them with tales of my exploits. I'll tell them stories about
you, and they'll call you Uncle James."

Ardmore started, as though just realizing
that Honoria's children would be his family. Then the corners of
his mouth quirked. "Sounds idyllic. I suppose Honoria will have us
come around for Sunday dinners."

He paused while both of them thought about
this scenario. Sitting around the table, brother and sister,
husbands and wives, the Ardmore children and the Raines' running
about making noise. They'd make noise, no doubt about that--a din
that would rival that of any pirate gang.

"Was there something else?" Christopher
asked.

Ardmore's eyes glinted with some hidden
thought, as though he debated with himself whether to speak. "No.
Except that I believe you and Honoria will live--what is the
phrase--happily ever after?"

"I think we will," Christopher answered.

The glint in Ardmore's eyes became
disquieting. It held a grudging respect, acknowledgement that
Christopher had won this round.

In other words, the bloody man had deduced
exactly what Christopher was up to.

Christopher's heartbeat quickened, but he
kept his expression impassive as he waited. Ardmore was choosing,
his look said, to let Christopher win. For Honoria's sake, perhaps,
or the sake of the children to come, or perhaps because Ardmore
believed he was still paying a debt to Christopher for telling him
about Mallory.

Before Christopher could speak, Ardmore gave
him a lazy salute. "Until we meet again," he said. "Don't let
Honoria drive you insane. She has peculiar notions about what
carpets you're allowed to walk on and what pillows you can't
use."

"Thank you for the warning." Christopher had
already run into her notions about bedding and pillows. Painfully
so, his backside reminded him.

"I'll say good-bye to her," Ardmore finished.
"On my way out."

"She'll want to talk about her feelings,"
Christopher warned.

"I know." Ardmore gave him a curt nod.
"Good-bye, Raine."

Christopher didn't have the strength to get
to his feet, but he gave his rival a return salute. "Well met,
Ardmore."

Both men had come here trying to best the
other, and neither had been defeated. They'd both won.

Without another word, Ardmore strode off to
face his last ordeal, a conversation with his sister.

*** *** ***

Honoria ground her teeth as her argument with
James wound down. They'd shouted at each other for the better part
of an hour about all the things they'd shouted about their entire
lives--James staying so long from home, Honoria doing whatever she
pleased without consulting him. They'd moved on to Honoria marrying
Christopher in secret, and James not telling Honoria how he'd found
out who'd killed Paul's wife.

Honoria ran out of breath at the same time
James did. He glared at her and closed his mouth in a grim line,
and she gave him a haughty stare right back.

Diana, who'd waited on the edge of the beach
while they quarreled said, "Are you finished? For heaven's sake,
we'll likely not see Honoria again for a long while. You must do
better than scolding her."

"I told her she could return to Charleston
with us, with her husband," James said in his infuriating way. "She
declined."

Honoria raised her brows. "Christopher live
with you in the Charleston house? The pair of you would be at each
other's throats. Not what I'd call comfortable living."

"No," Diana agreed.

James frowned, but she caught a glint of
sorrow in his eyes. "Damn it, Honoria, you will come home sometime,
won't you?"

"Well, of course I will. I'll return home
quite often. That is, if I am welcome."

"You'll be welcome," James growled. "Why
wouldn't you be?"

Diana rolled her eyes. She left them, gliding
away to where Isabeau was supposed to be keeping baby Paul from
eating sand.

After a moment, Honoria said softly, "Why
didn't you ever tell me that Christopher told you who killed Paul's
wife and the girls?"

James drew a sharp breath, his handsome face
going hard again, then he blew out the breath and closed his eyes.
"I was in a hurry. That's the only reason, I swear to you. I wanted
to be immediately on the man's trail, and I didn't have time for
anything else."

"And even if you had no idea what Christopher
was to me, you didn't think I'd want to know that you'd found the
name of the murderer?"

"I didn't think anything," James said. "I
just wanted to get him. I thought . . ." He sighed again and rubbed
his hand tiredly over his face. "For some reason I thought that if
I came back and laid Mallory's dead body at your feet, you'd be
happy. You'd be proud of me. But of course, nothing about that
worked out the way I thought it would."

It hadn't. Diana had played a large part in
the adventure, and Honoria had heard the full story from her.

"I've always been proud of you, James."

His brows shot up. "Have you?"

"Well, of course."

They stared at each other--two people certain
they'd known all there was to know about each other, but now were
not so sure.

"I'm not proud of myself," James said. "If
I'd been there for Paul, and his wife, they might be alive
today."

Honoria touched his hand, for the first time
having a glimmer of understanding of what her grimfaced older
brother had gone through. "You can't know that."

James's eyes darkened. "Oh, I know it. But
I'm learning to live with it."

They fell silent again. The men around them
shouted and joked, sailors happy the mission had ended without
bloodshed. A longboat left the beach, half a dozen men leaping into
it as it hit the waves.

Honoria said softly, "I wonder what Paul
would have thought about me marrying Christopher."

"Marrying a pirate?" James stopped, softening
his tone. "He'd have been glad you were happy."

Honoria agreed. For all his teasing, Paul had
been generous-hearted. "He would have been glad you found Diana,"
she said.

"I think so."

They fell into another awkward silence. The
wind darted around them, stirring up sand where Diana laughed at
the antics of her two children.

James said, "Well, good-bye, then."

Honoria gazed up at her brother's tanned
face, his flyaway black hair, the green eyes that missed nothing.
His wife loved him intensely, and Honoria, as a girl, had so
admired him. Now they faced each other, feeling the distance that
had grown between them over the years. Honoria sensed that James
regretted their distance--she knew she did.

But maybe now, with grief behind them and
hope ahead of them, they could close that distance, be a family
again. Diana and Christopher believed they could. She and James had
married people who'd both been hurt so much and yet had remained
strong and resolute. James and Honoria could learn from them.

"James," she said, pain lacing her at the
thought of saying good-bye.

James opened his arms, and Honoria came into
them for a tight, heartfelt embrace.

"Thank you for saving Christopher," she said.
"You could have let him die. You didn't."