Linna : Historical Romance (The Brocade Collection, Book 5) (32 page)

“How am I supposed to know?” Drew answered.

“You brought him here.”

“Fighting me most of the way. I had to do something with him, didn’t I?”

“Where did you find?”

“I didn’t find him. He just showed up. In my carriage.”

“For the love of—
! All right. Where did he join your carriage?”

“Dominique’s.”

“God damn your hide to hell, Larket. And back.”  Rex attempted to lift Cord’s shoulders to shake him, but had to settle with shaking him where he was. “Is he drunk?”

“How am I supposed to know
? I went for a bit of...uh.”

“Whoring
. I know.”

“
Gentlemen! Please. There are ladies present,” Elizabeth spoke from the doorway, bearing a bucket, rags, steaming water, and a bar of soap. Drew stepped aside as Rex grinned at her.

“Please don’t say we’re using your tea water?”

“You hate tea anyway. Help me get his shirt off.”

“No...,” Cord moaned as they tried to lift him,  then he ground out a name
. “Linna!”

“Somebody better get him sober
. And I mean damn quick.”  Rex stood back, pulled out a knife, and started hacking Cord’s shirt away. The same patterns of welts littered the broad expanse of back, and even Elizabeth gasped as she looked at him.

“Who would do such a thing?” she whispered.

“Linna,” Cord choked, spitting bloody drool over the side of the sofa.

His mother was at his side, wiping it away
. Elizabeth watched her croon to all six-foot, five inches of him, and found herself smiling at the picture they presented. Then she sobered and bent, too.

“He’s not drunk, Rex,” she announced, getting up from her crouch
. “He’s been beaten. Who...or what would do such a thing?”

“Somebody as big as he is, no doubt.”  Rex went into his study and came back, strapping a gun
belt on as he walked. “Drew, get ready. We’re going for a little sight-seeing.”

Drew looked across at his father
before raising his eyebrows. “Oh. I’m ready whenever you are, Pa,” he answered. “That’s a lovely robe. Don’t know if we’ll get much information dressed that way, but I’m willing if you are.”

Rex looked down at himself and swore again
. “I’ll be back. Get something that makes sense out of him. Two minutes. Get a gun belt on, son. We’ll need it. Study desk, left drawer.”

“
We should wait until he can answer questions, Rex. You can’t just go off and—what is this?”

A grimy piece of paper, in at least eight folds was in the breast pocket of his shirt
. Elizabeth unfolded it, read it, and knew she paled. “Rex—?”

He was
at her side her instantly.

“What’s it say?” Drew asked.

“I understand my brother is visiting?”  A vision in white lace, covering her from her feet to the bottom of her neck stood in the doorway, her black hair swept into an up-do, and her red lips tilted into a confused smile looked across at them. Drew looked like he’d turned to stone.

Rex pulled the paper from his wife’s hand.

“It says...Damn it, and bloody rotten hell! It’s almost too worn to read. Oh, my God. It says ‘
You tell anyone, she dies. You go to the authorities, she dies. You get help, she dies. You try to rescue her, she dies. She whelps a boy, maybe they live. She whelps a girl, maybe they don’t. Dominique’s. Tomorrow. Noon.
’  It’s signed with an M.”

“Marcelle,” Elizabeth whispered.

“How long has she been missing? Andrew?”

Drew forced his gaze away from the girl at the door
. “Don’t look at me. I haven’t seen him on the plantation. I haven’t seen Linna either. Course, I was warned what would happen to me if I got near her again.”

“Who the hell would warn you?” Rex asked.

“He did.”  Drew pointed at the man on the sofa. “He thinks I have designs on his wife.”

“That’s not funny,” Elizabeth said.

“Mother?”  The vision at the doorway kept her dark eyes on Cord, although they were awash in tears.

The dowager marquise answered
. “It is your brother, Yvette. He has been injured. Assist Mistress Fletcher with his care, please. I must check the street.”

“Whatever for?” Drew asked.

“Observers. You heard the note. You brought him here. This constitutes seeking help. I will see if anyone watches.”

“What was I supposed to do with him
? Leave him there?”

“Linna...?”  Cord’s voice stopped the arguing voices about him with his groan,
then they all started up again. He thought he’d gone to hell.

- - -

The first thing Cord saw when he opened his eyes was his youngest sister, Chantelle. His smile froze the instant his jaw felt it. He watched her eyes fill with tears. His own felt moist, too. He blinked the emotion away, clamped his teeth together to stop the pain, and forced himself into a sitting position.

He didn’t know where he was
. It wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Clear, blue sky met his gaze from the curtained window, a satin comforter covered him, and he was bandaged from knee to neck with strips of linen. He lost every expression.

“Chantelle?” he whispered.

“You were brought here two days ago by the blonde man they call Drew. He is below with his family. They have no news of your wife. They have a man...a person, I mean...named Simons. They are questioning him.”

Cord pulled in as much air as he could without moving his ribs, and forced his legs over the side of the bed
. Chantelle watched him without saying a word. They’d put a pair of drawers on him that was too tight, too short, and too restrictive. He could hardly move, but at least he was modestly covered. Besides everything hurt too much. He groaned before he could staunch it.

Rex pegged it correctly
, he thought.
I am definitely going soft
. His legs trembled for a bit before they’d hold him. Cord held to the bed post and watched his hands shake in disgust. He didn’t have time for weakness. He certainly didn’t have time to lose two days abed either.

“Where...are my...clothes?” he asked, using small gasps of breath for each bit of sentence
. The burning sensation in his lungs made him shake before he got control of it. Rex had been right. He had experienced worse. It just hadn’t been for several years.

“We had to cut them off
. The bruising swelled. The doctor is pleased with you.”

“Doctor
!”  The word made everything hurt with the power he gave it. They’d called in a doctor? With Marcelle’s warning?
Oh
,
dear God. Dear God...no. Please...no
. Cord started silently praying, and he didn’t even believe in God anymore.

“Do I...have...a robe?” he wheezed through the question.

“You are not to get up. Except of course, to attend your needs.”

“
Merde
.” 

The curse came out silly-sounding since he had to wheeze through it
. Chantelle knew how he felt too, for the ghost of a smile touched her lips before it faded. Cord turned gingerly and picking up the satin comforter, pulled it over his shoulders. “Where are...they?” he asked.

“There is soup here
. To eat. You must get your strength back. Here.”

She held the bowl out
. Cord looked at her a moment longer and turned toward the door. He went two steps before his right leg collapsed, sending him, with too much noise, to the floor. He was unconscious before he hit.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Three days later, Cord was completely awake, recovering poorly, and madder than hell
. He wasn’t letting it out of his system easily either. He was storing it, keeping it for the right person, and the right time. He knew exactly how to do it, too, because it came back to him the moment he needed it. He hadn’t forgotten the first couple of times he’d fought, and had to come out alive. It hadn’t been pretty, he hadn’t looked pretty, and it had to harden him.

It had.

He finished buttoning his shirt, reached for his knife, and pulled in the small gasps of air that were available to him. Chantelle continued to watch him from her chair. He wondered if she’d moved.

“They waiting?” he asked.

“All except the blonde man named Drew. He is escorting Yvette for supplies.”

“He do that a lot?” Cord asked.

She nodded.

“Tell him he touches her, and I’ll geld him
. You do that?”

Chantelle raised her eyebrows, blinked once
, and then nodded. She smiled slightly, too. “You should be a-bed.”

“I should be a lot...of things
. Among them, Marquis
de
Larroquette. You ready?”

“You have cracked ribs
. You have four loose teeth. You have internal damage, the doctors couldn’t assess fully. You also have massive contusion. What is contusion?”

“Bruising,” Cord answered
. “You need to be a doctor to know that, I guess.”

“What did they use on you?”

“Leather,” he answered.

“Leather
? That cracks bone?”

“If it’s wrapping iron bars, it does.”

Chantelle’s eyes widened. She stood from her stool and walked ahead of him to the door to open it. Cord didn’t want her help, but he’d watched his own hand tremble still as if palsied. He didn’t want her to see it. He set his jaw and started walking.

“You wish to see them now?”

“Yes.”

Cord held onto the railing with such effort, sweat broke out along his forehead
. He wasn’t healed enough for this, but he had to get to Linna. That was all that mattered:  Linna…and their baby. He didn’t question it. He only knew there wasn’t anything worth living for if he lost them.

At the fifth step, he was breathing in air that felt like fire-filled agony
. By the time he reached the landing, he was soaked with sweat, trembling like a new foal, and about as steady. Cord stopped to hold a hand to his forehead. Chantelle watched him. These girls hadn’t been more than babes when he’d left. He’d forgotten how it was at home. Nobody said much, unless it needed to be said.

He smiled to himself
. They acted just like he did.    

She handed him a damp piece of linen
. Cord nodded his thanks and wiped his face before handing it back to her. She opened the parlor door for him.

Everyone stopped talking
— and there was a lot of talking happening— and a lot of people. Cord stood in the doorway and took in the scene in a glance. Fifteen...no sixteen, fully armed men stood or sat, apparently awaiting Rex Fletcher’s next command, among them Blight and Birdie. The only females were Elizabeth and his mother. Cord looked across at Rex.

“You shouldn’t be up.”

Cord straightened. “She’s my wife,” he answered.

“Yeah, well she’s my daughter, too
. I have first crack at him.”

“She’s...she’s
—?”  Cord couldn’t get his brain to work, or his mouth. His teeth hurt, too. He held them together and shuddered through the pain until it became a bearable throb.

“
Linnette is our daughter,” Elizabeth said. “I was carrying her when I lost Rex. My second husband, Ryan Daniels, knew the truth. He just didn’t like it. He claimed Linna as his. She isn’t.”

“Linna...?”

“If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, the answer is no. She doesn’t know. Yes, Drew is her brother, so you have absolutely no reason to be jealous of him, and no, we don’t have her, yet. The main word being yet. We do know where she is though,” Rex spoke up.

“But why...did you pay me
? To...? Why?”

Rex sobered
. “Because I didn’t know, damn it! I was filled with one need: vengeance. Remember? I was hard. I didn’t hear one thing my wife was trying to tell me. Not one. Know why?”

Cord shook his head.

“I figured Liz-Beth did it. All of it. She’d betrayed me. I had myself convinced that she’d helped set the whole thing up so she could wed  Daniels and finish stealing everything from me. I wasn’t meeting a lover when I stole her away. I was getting revenge. I was hate-filled and owed ten years of my life back, and she was going to pay the debt. That’s why.”

Cord tried to whistle
. It wasn’t worth the pain. He had to let it go.

“Didn’t you ever wonder why I’d threaten to blow a hole through you if you didn’t wed with Linnette?”

“No,” Cord replied.

“Why not?”

“I didn’t care. I used you.”  Cord’s jaw hurt, his ribs burned, his stomach stung in a thousand places, and his legs wobbled. He held the man’s gaze and narrowed his own before any of his agony showed through. “And you didn’t even guess it.”

“Used me
? How?”

“I was already going back for her
. Had the money saved up. Then you came along...and put everything into play. Made it...all easy.”

Rex glared for a moment, and then he grinned, showing a lot of teeth
.

“Now that’s something
. You did use me. Me. Rex Fletcher. That’s going to take some getting used to.”

Cord didn’t have a reply
. He didn’t have enough moisture at the moment to make one. He sucked on the inside of his mouth instead.

“Right now though, we got other business
. Simons wasn’t willing to talk.

We had to find the right persuasion.”  There was some snickering throughout the room
. Cord kept his gaze on Rex.

“
Oh. He’ll talk. Let me...see him,” Cord said.

“Can’t
. He isn’t taking visitors. And it wasn’t him. He didn’t know.” 

“What...did you do to him?”

“Nothing. Didn’t touch the freak.”

“Fletch...?” 

“Didn’t need to, actually. All I had to do was recollect your words. That got me to the root of this.”

“Mine?”

“You said Simons had another love interest. Perked my ears right up. I had him found and brought here. Dark fellow. Muscled. Named Matthew. Not very bright, but big. Real big. You know the one?”

Cord paled
.

“He seemed to have a lot of blisters on his hands
. Recent blisters. From swinging leather-covered, iron bars. I started wondering why.”

“What did you...find out?” Cord asked.

“That he doesn’t take pain as well as he gives it. And he talks a lot. He talked all about you. You’re very stoic. And he’s very sorry. You’re actually lucky Dominique plays sides and rather fancies you. Matthew had orders to dump you in the water. Dominique changed them. She had you dumped in Drew’s carriage instead. I guess your cousin is not as cunning as he thinks.”

“Cunning?”

“Hard to administer that kind of punishment with a business operating above. Had to make it nice and quiet.”

“She was...at Dominique’s
? In the next room?”  She was that damn close and he hadn’t even known it? Cord caught the groan before it sounded and forced it back into his belly where it joined the pounding sensation already there.

“Good
spot for it, I’d say. But not anymore. I emptied the place. Took control. We’ve got control of the plantation, too. And Marcelle’s wife. Strumpet type. Drew used to like her. Not anymore. I think he’s a bit taken with your sister now.”

Cord ground out an expletive from between his clenched teeth.

“Sit down, son. Give him room.”

Cord was afraid to move
. His legs weren’t steady enough. He looked across the room at Fletcher and watched as it looked like the gap between them widened.

“It’s nearly over, lad,” Rex said
. “You’re Marquis
de
Larroquette now. We had it verified and rectified and everything-ified, so it’s nice, tight, legal, and completely irrevocable. No matter what the bastard does, he’s not the heir.”

Cord’s ears heard it
. His mind refused to.
My God! They’ve signed her death warrant
! The pounding in his stomach intensified, before moving to his chest and  reaching his throat. Marcelle was going to kill her!

“He shipped out five days ago
. Right after they took care of you, by my guess. You hear me?”

“Linna
—.”  Cord choked on the rest of it.

“He’s still got her
. He’s sneaky, too. It’s definitely worth my time to take him. He made a major error though.”

“Linna?”  Cord whispered, repeating the only name he could.

“No. Draft. The bastard took a caravel. And forgot about the shoals.”

“What?”  Cord closed his eyes
. It didn’t help.

“He could have taken one of the schooners...but no
. He took the caravel – my French-made one. Loaded it up, too.”

“I can’t stand...talking, while...”  Cord choked on the words and opened his eyes to a blur
. He didn’t care.

“Then don’t talk
. Sit. Eat. We’ve got time.”

“You don’t know Marcelle!”

“Don’t have to know him. I just have to know where he is.”

“You know...where he is?” 
And stand, talking?
Cord blinked rapidly at the moisture in his eyes. He didn’t know where it came from or what he was supposed to do with the heart-pounding pain. He just knew it was there.

Rex smiled, long and slow
. “He’s right where I can get to him. And he’s not going anywhere. That’s why I’m taking
The Seduction
out of retirement.”

“
The Seduction
?”

“You heard me
. We’re taking my pirate ship. The fastest ship in the water. Why do you think I’d associate with cutthroats and thieves like these anyway? Social status?”  He waved his arm to encompass the roomful of chuckling and grinning men.

“You’re taking it out...because it’s fast?” Cord asked
.

“
And light.”

Cord put a hand to his eyes and held two fingers against his shut lids
. It didn’t mute anything. It just made it harder to keep upright. “Light?” he managed to mumble.

“You
should probably sit down, son.”

Cord pulled his head away, opened his eyes
, and focused on Linna’s father. She didn’t favor Rex much, but it was easy to see the resemblance to her mother. It was the eyes. “When do we sail?” he asked.

“
Ah. That’s the beauty of it. Your cousin’s cunning, but he’s no sailor type. Did everything wrong. Tried to take a big ship over the shoals. Didn’t wait for the tide. Got stuck. Why...he’s sitting nice and pretty, just inside of scope range. Right about there.”

Rex pointed out a window
. Cord blinked, but didn’t move his eyes. “He’s...grounded?” he asked.

“Like a rock.”

“He’ll move at high tide. We can’t wait.”

Rex chuckled
. “He’s had the tides, but he’s got too much ballast. They’ve been emptying cargo for days now, and can’t get free. Maybe tonight he’ll get luckier. That’s what we’re preparing for. I only hope he hasn’t torn a hole in her.” 

“And Linna?”  Cord asked
. His legs were shaking in place. He didn’t have much time. He watched Rex’s face soften.

“She’s alive
. I’d stake my life on it. She’s carrying my grandchild. That’s what Marcelle wants. He’s not going to harm her or the baby. Not yet. He’s going to need it. Told you the bastard was cunning. If it’s a boy, he’ll have your heir and control of everything.”

“If it’s not?”

“Well...we’ll have to make sure Linna’s rescued before we find out, won’t we?”  

Cord fell to his knees, and it seemed to take a long time
. Then he did something that made them all stare. He buried his head in his hands and grunted through the sobs.