Delight

Douglas Moncrieff was once a notorious pirate, the Dragon of Da
rien. With a stroke of the king
'
s pen, he is given a Scottish earldom… and a royal order to behave. Haunted by past sins, a heartless predator by habit, Douglas now faces the perilous road to reform.

Princess Rowena of Hartzburg, an innocent heiress in danger, has fled to the Highlands for a mysterious rendezvous with Douglas
'
s respectable half-brother. When his brother fails to arrive, Douglas plans to hide his shameful past from Rowena and claim this lovely girl for himself.

But this princess has plans of her own. Not the helpless maiden Douglas expects, Rowena is a royal hellion who cannot wait to tame her dragon.

In a secluded Highland castle, secrets are unveiled and desires unleashed as Douglas and Rowena join forces to fight a deadly enemy. Now the pirate who hoped to capture a princess discovers that her innocence—and his heart—are at stake…

1

The Scottish Highlands
,
1662

C
apturing the princess would be
hi
s last con
quest.

The pirate planned to win this woman just as he had won countless past prizes—with outright deception.

Flying false colors had worked well enough for him before. Hoist a Spanish merchant flag and sneak past the galleon
'
s guard. Steal the treasure without wasting a single pistol ball. He
'
d always preferred a battle of wits to one of weapons, and, after all, he was dealing with a woman.

The woman was innocent. She had been protected from scoun
drels like him all her life. Ac
customed to easy victories, he did not anticipate
'
twould take him long to win her.

Assuming he did not make an utter ass of himself.

Yet deception could be a dangerous game. He knew this too from experience. The princess was to be his personal victory, but he did not wish to hurt her as he had hurt others. Too many black marks had been tallied against his soul as it was.

Clouds passed over the moon. A wind blew up across the battlements. The breeze shredded the layer of mist that enveloped the stalwart towers of Castle Dunmoral. A deep sigh built in his massive chest.

He was an impostor, and he felt it to the very marrow.

Four solemn figures watched him. They waited for his deep baritone voice to issue orders. They were as uncomfortable as he, venturing into these hazardous waters of social convention. They did not know the primary rules of play.

"
She should have been here by now,
"
he said to no one in particular.
"
Why did I not ride out earlier to escort her? She could be lost.
We
got lost our first time here. The roads are impossible to follow.
"

"
The reivers, Douglas,
"
a young feminine voice said behind him.
"
They ruined everything. It couldn't be helped. We'd have been able to meet her if we hadn't wasted the day chasing cows.
"

His face darkened at the reminder. Early that same day, in the wee small hours, a band of outlaws had struck
the defenseless village of Dun
moral again. They had stolen cattle needed to see the clansmen through the cruel winter months
ahead. They had assaulted a young woman. The impoverished king could not afford to maintain armies in these distant Highlands. The feuds and raiding begun two centuries ago had flared up again.

Douglas had spent seven hours futilely pursuing cows into the hills when he should have been planning a reception for the princess.

The raiders had fled, promising to return. Their leader, Neacail o
f Glengalda, deerstalker and un
successful claimant to Cas
tl
e Dunmoral, had declared open war on the new earl. Douglas had galloped back to the castle, frustrated that he had been unable to prevent or avenge the attack.

The biggest of the three other pirates on the battlement approached him. He was a bald-headed mountain of a man who acted as Douglas
'
s bodyservant and man-at-arms. Actually, Dainty hadn
'
t held either position until a month ago, when word reached them of the princess
'
s imminent arrival. Before then he had served as first mate on the pirate ship
Delight.

But the Cornish giant had looked so misplaced in the castle that Douglas had been forced to give him an official title.

"
Aidan and I could ride out to find her, sir,
"
Dainty said.

Douglas
'
s gaze flickered to the austere face of the second man leaning against the wall.
"
I don
'
t think that
'
s a good i
dea,
"
he said with grim humor.
"
The pair of you are enough to give
anyone nightmares, let alone a princess. We
'
ll wait until Willie and Roy come back from their patrol.
"

Aidan shifted, his hand moving to his sword. His hair stirred in the wind, restless, unable to hold still like the man himself. Shadows obscured his expression, but Douglas believed there was a gentleness deep within the young pirate
'
s heart.
"
The reivers are still out there, sir.
"

"
I am aware of that.
"
Douglas's contemplative gaze lifted to the ou
tl
ine of hills above the land he had been entrusted to protect.
"
I shall go after the princess myself. Someone has to stay here in case there
'
s more trouble.
"

Which there would be. The promise of it hung in the air. His men sensed it too; Douglas had never met a pirate who didn't possess the devil
'
s instinct for disaster.

"
Disaster,
"
he said under his breath.
"
And here we are courting it in spades, pirates masquerading as gentlemen. Dear God, wh
y did I think this would work?
'
Twould be easier to civilize a pack of wolves.
"

Dainty shook his bald head.
"
We don
'
t need to be civilized, sir. Nothing wrong with our manners to begin with.
"

"
Not a blessed thing,
"
Douglas said.
"
Baldwin spits on his hair to give it shine. Willie cracks walnuts under his armpit. Roy puts a peeled grape in his empty eye socket to scare children.
"
He paused with an ironic smile.
"
And you, Dainty,
well, who could ever overlook your ability to consume one-hundred and eight pickled onions in a row, followed by a rendition of
'
Greensleeves
'
belched in perfect pitch? How could the princess fail to be impressed by such spectacles of human refinement?
"

"
'
Tis a hundred and ten,
"
Dainty said, unperturbed by the criticism.

Another sigh escaped Douglas. Concern emphasized the creases that bracketed his finely molded mouth. He pivoted on the walkway of the watchtower. He seemed immune to the cold air that chafed his hard-lined face, the rugged planes carved into sharp relief by moonlight. How
did
a pirate go about pleasing a princess?

In truth, he was not even supposed to be a pirate anymore. To his shame, however, stealing what belonged to another
ha
d become a habit he could not easily break.

As of seven months ago, Douglas Moncrieff, the Dragon of Darien and Scourge of the Spanish Main, had been rendered null and void by royal decree. Soon he would be lost and forgotten in the mists of folklore and infamy. His days of sailing under a letter of marque from an exiled king had fizzled to an unremarkable end.

May the Dragon rest in peace. Douglas wouldn't miss him at all. In fact, he was appalled by the monstrous deeds attributed to his brutal alter ego. Unfortunately, however, more than a
few of those monstrous deeds could be well and truly laid at his door.

The Stuart king had regained his throne. Douglas
'
s reward for his rich contributions to the royal coffers was an earldom with an obscure castle buried in the Scottish Highlands. The golden age of piracy had taken on a tarnish. Freebooting had become an embarrassment to the British Crown. He had been asked by his sovereign to behave. This might prove easier said than done.

The short Scotsman named Baldwin, with crimped reddish-gray hair and protruding ears, stepped forward. A worried frown wrinkled his sun-blistered forehead. The middle-aged man had been Douglas
'
s quartermaster from the very beginning, and he wasn
'
t happy about his demotion to castle steward.

"
I dinna know why we need a hokery-pokery princess anyway
,
"
Baldwin said.
"
Not unless we
'
re going to hold the lass fer ransom. Women are always more trouble than they
'
re worth.
"

"
We are not holding Princess Rowena fo
r ransom,
"
Douglas exclaimed.
"
Have I not made myself clear? Earls do not hold women hostage. Where would you get such a ungodly idea?
"

"
From yerself.
"
Baldwin scratched his s
craggly whiskers.
"
Are ye forgettin' we ransomed Dona Maria in Cartagena? Her papa paid a pretty penny to get her back, and we didna have to go to all this bother.
"

"
Those days are gone.
"
Douglas drew his hand
over his eyes, deliberately keeping his expression ste
rn
.
"
We are not holding the princess prisoner.
She is to be our honored guest.
"

"
What if the princess is as homely as hell?
"
Baldwin wondered aloud.

Douglas frowned.
"
My brother would not court an unattractive woman.
"

"
But what if she is just plain ugly, sir?
"
Dainty asked, glancing around to wink at Aidan.

"
I
'
ll cross that bridge when I come to it,
"
Douglas said.
"
Now cease your stupid questions, and do as you are told.
"

"
We
'
ll do whate
ver you want us to do, Douglas.
"
His sister Gemma spoke up again, but the girl was only seventeen; she'd spent half of her life in a brothel, the other on a pirate island. She knew no more about royal protocol than Douglas.

The three men behind her subsided into silence, their weather-beaten faces mirroring Douglas's ow
n
uncertainty. They were the thorn in his side, the crew members of the
Delight
who
'
d shadowed him like a malodorous smell to the Highlands because they couldn
'
t find gainful employment elsewhere.

Douglas didn
'
t know how to get rid of them so he
'
d given them various jobs in the castle. They still held hopes of getting him back on a ship. They still dreamed of gold and adventure.

He said,
"
God willing the princess will be safely arrived within the hour. Remember there are to be no references to the past. No mention of
pirating
,
ransoms, or stolen booty. Is that understood?"

"
Aye, aye captain,
"
Baldwin said.

"
Not
'
Aye, aye, captain.
'"
Douglas glowered at the man from beneath his heavy black eyebrows.
"
'
Tis to be
'
Yes, my lord,
'
from now on. I am the third Viscount Str
athkeld, and ninth Earl of Dun
moral—
"

"
Eighth,
"
Gemma said.
"
You
'
re the eighth earl.
"

"
A little polish, sir, and she'll never notice that we
'
re the dregs of society,
"
Dainty said with another grin.

"
Mary MacVittie, the doctor
'
s sister, has been giving us all little lessons in proper behavior,
"
Gemma said proudly.
"
She was a seamstress
'
s assistant at court a year ago. She sewed for the Duke of Buckingham's nursemaid.
"

Douglas glanced down at his own costume, tartan trews and a dark blue-green belted Highland plaid that fastened at the shoulder with a silver stag
'
s-head brooch. Buckled shoes, a dirk and
sgian
du
b
h,
a short knife, completed the image. His shoulder-length black hair was tied back in a leather thong. Mrs. MacVittie had assured him that this was the correct attire for a castle laird to greet a foreign princess.

Now he was a nobleman dressed by a nursemaid
'
s assistant.

The woman wanted to help him because Douglas had promised to help the people of Dunmoral. Her quavering voice echoed in his ear.

"
The plaid was made for men built like warriors such as you, my lord. You canna wear those garish waistcoats and tight black leather breeches to greet a princess. She
'
ll appreciate a touch of tradition for a first impression.
"