Master of Seduction (27 page)

“Woman, would you for once see reason. Go home.”

She reached to touch him. “But Jack—”

He moved away from her hand. “But nothing. I don’t want you near me, and I don’t want you touching me. I don’t want anything from you except for you to leave me alone!”

She flinched as tears stung her eyes, yet she refused to cry. Refused to let him see how much his words hurt her.

Then her anger set in. She had stared two men she loved in the face and told them a complete lie. She had given Jack his life and this was her reward?

To the devil with him, if that was his attitude.

“Fine then. Leave. You’re quite right, I’m home now. ’Tis where I belong. Where I am safe from the likes of you.”

Something flickered in his eyes a moment before his gaze hardened. He stepped past her and left the ship behind.

At first Lorelei couldn’t believe he’d really left her. Not until she forced herself to walk numbly to the railing and look out at him being rowed back to shore.

It was only then the full impact hit her. Jack was gone.

He didn’t care for her. And worst of all, while he was everything in the world to her, she was absolutely nothing to him.

J
ack didn’t dare look back. He could feel Lorelei’s eyes on him as if it were a physical touch and he knew if he turned around, he wouldn’t be able to leave her. Especially not when the only thing he really wanted was to have her soothe the pain that was pounding through every fiber of his being.

You have to leave her
.

And he did. She deserved so much more than he could ever offer her.

This was for her own good. She belonged with her own kind. People who knew how to love someone. People who knew…

He didn’t finish the thought. Too much had happened this day and he hadn’t considered what being face-to-face with his father would cost him emotionally. Right now he was in turmoil and didn’t know how to escape it. He just wanted to run away.

Nay, he needed time to think, to sort through this maelstrom of emotions.

T
wo days later, Lorelei sat alone in her cabin. Inside herself she wept constantly, and it was getting harder and harder not to let her sadness out, especially when Justin would visit with her. He was so kind and understanding. So forgiving and dear.

Why couldn’t he make her heart pound the way Jack did?

Why, oh why wasn’t it Justin’s scent that haunted her?

And over the last two days she’d discovered just how right Jack had been. She would never have had a happy life with Justin. They would have gotten along for a time, but after awhile their difference in personality would have destroyed that bond.

As her grandmother so often said, ’twas one thing to love a man, ’twas entirely another to live with one.

“Oh, Jack,” she whispered, “Why couldn’t you love me?” She drew a ragged sigh as she sat alone at the small desk sketching a picture of the man who had haunted her day and night. Then, out of spite, she placed two horns on his head and a dark circle about his left eye.

“Lorelei?” Justin called from outside her door.

She shoved the paper into a small pigeonhole. “Yes?”

He opened the door and leaned in. “There’s something on deck you need to see.”

She frowned at him. “What?”

Justin looked like a small child who had glimpsed an early Christmas present and was trying to keep it a secret. “You’ll have to see it to believe it.”

Perplexed, she rose and followed him topside.

The crew stood ready at their cannons while Admiral Wallingford stared out with his telescope. Looking in the direction he faced, she saw a sloop gaining speed on them.

Only it wasn’t just any sloop. It was Morgan’s.

“They’ve raised the white flag, Admiral,” a youth called from the crow’s nest.

The admiral lowered the telescope and looked to where Lorelei and Justin were standing. “Should I order them blasted from the sea?” he asked.

Lorelei gasped. “Nay.”

“I somehow thought you might protest such a move.” The admiral turned to his men. “Stand ready to defend, but do not fire upon your lives unless I state so.”

“Aye, sir!” they shouted in military unison.

Uncertain, Lorelei watched as the ship drew closer.

How had the admiral known it was Morgan’s ship approaching? It hadn’t been near the harbor the day he arrived.

As if knowing her thoughts, the admiral stepped forward and whispered into her ear. “I saw Ja—” He paused and cleared his throat. “Jacob,” he pronounced slowly, as if catching himself in a slip, “on the deck.”

Lorelei stared up at him in disbelief.

He knew!

A moment of horror filled her as she wondered if Justin had betrayed her. And if Justin had betrayed her, why hadn’t the admiral ordered Jack taken?

“Is this a trap for him?” she asked, unable to see another reason.

The admiral shook his head.

Unable to comprehend another reason for his mercy, she watched as he walked back to his place and waited for the
Roseanna
to approach.

Once Morgan’s ship was broadside, Jack shouted, “Permission to come aboard, sir.”

The admiral waited several heartbeats before he answered. “Come aboard if you’re able.”

Jack let fly a huge, iron grappling hook. It caught and wrapped around the mizzen mast. Lorelei gaped as Jack jumped from the upper deck of Morgan’s ship and swung to the main deck a few feet in front of her.

He looked marvelous to her. His long blond hair was free and blowing about his roguish face. He wore a black pair of breeches and high black boots. His white linen shirt was open at the neck and his long, green waistcoat was left unbuttoned and hanging open.

An urge to rush into his arms seized her. All she wanted was to feel his arms about her and have him pull her into a fierce kiss.

But beneath that urge was an even greater one to kick him. After all, he’d left her harshly and she did have her pride.

Jack paused just before her. So close that she could smell the crisp, clean scent of him. “You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Why would you think that?” she responded tartly. “I actually enjoy being snapped at and then left behind.” Lorelei eyed him with suspicion. “Why are you here?”

He smiled that smile that had never failed to warm her and make her breathless and weak.

Jack gestured like some great stage actor. “Down in the valley, leaves fall from trees, the branches are bare.” He sighed and brought his hands together over his chest as he gave her a forlorn stare. “All the flowers have faded, their blossoms once so beautiful. The frost attacks many herbs and kills them. I grieve. But if the winter is so cold, there must be new joys. Help me sing a joy a hundred thousand times greater than the buds of May. I will sing of roses on the red cheeks of my lady….” He took her hand. “Could I win her favor, this lovely lady would give me such joy that I would need no other.”

“What are you saying?”

He lifted her chin with his knuckle. “Noble lady, I ask nothing of you save that you should accept me as your servant. I will serve you as a good lord should serve, whatever the reward may be. Here I am, then, at your orders, sincere and humble, gay and courteous. You are not, after all, a bear or lion, and would not kill me, surely, if I put myself between your hands.”

He bent down on one knee before her. “I love you, my lady, Lorelei. Marry me and I swear I shall never again do or say anything to harm you and I will slay anyone who does.”

She bit her quivering lip. A thousand thoughts and emotions tumbled through her simultaneously. Joy, happiness, and most of all love. Never in her wildest imaginings had she envisioned this man on his knee before her spouting such wonderful words of poetry.

Jack looked about uneasily. “Are you not going to say anything after all that?”

She could feel her face betray her giddiness, while her need for vengeance still stood strong. “And what would you have me say?”

He arched a brow. “That you love me, too, would be nice. Especially given the fact that I look like a complete ass kneeling here in front of you while two hundred men watch.”

She laughed as joy exploded through her and yet her vengeance was not so appeased that she could let him off the hook quite so easily.

She pursed her lips as if in serious debate.

He squirmed a little more and looked a bit sheepish.

“Very well, knave,” she said at last. “For some reason heaven only knows, I do find you…irritating.”

Panic flickered in his eyes.

“Forgive me,” she said, savoring her power over him. “That’s not quite the word I seek.”

She could read on his face the fear he had of her next word.

“Irresistible. Aye, that be the word. I find you irresistible.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “And?”

She cocked a haughty brow. “Who said there was an
and
?”

“Your eyes say it.”

“Oh, very well then. And I love you.”

The smile broke full force across his face as he stood and scooped her up in his arms. When his lips touched hers, he claimed her with a passion that stole all the strength from her limbs.

“I’m so sorry I left you,” he murmured in her ear. “I swear I’ll never do it again.”

She held him close and leaned her head against his shoulder, content to stay in his arms for the rest of her life.

The admiral stepped forward and cleared his throat. He looked to Jack. “I take it you’ll be joining us for the trip to Charleston?”

Jack shook his head and set her back down on the deck. “She’ll be joining us.”

The admiral nodded. “I understand. Follow us into port and I shall see to it you make safe harbor, but you’ll be on your own when you decide to leave.”

Jack said nothing. Instead, he moved to grab the rope he’d used to swing over to the admiral’s ship. He returned to her side and took her hand, then led her to the upper deck.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Taking you home,” he said as he dipped down and placed an arm about her waist. His arm tightened. “Lift your feet.”

“Don’t you dare!”

But he did. The two of them sailed off into the air, over the ocean, and to the deck of Morgan’s ship. Everything seemed to swim around her and she didn’t feel safe until her feet finally touched the wooden boards of the deck.

Lorelei’s entire body shook with fright. “I swear, Jack—”

“Jake,” he whispered as he let go of the rope. His loving gaze captured hers and left her bereft of words. “A fair maiden cast her spell upon Jack Rhys and transformed him into a new man she named Jacob Dudley.”

“You truly hate that name, don’t you?”

His look was playful and warm. “Something a little more masculine would have been preferable. However, I can console myself with the knowledge that you’ll be Mrs. Jacob Dudley.”

“And that I surely will.”

Six months later

J
ack stood in the door of his father’s bedroom as the butler quietly walked past. He still wasn’t sure why he was here, only that Lorelei had asked him to make peace and he would do practically anything she wanted.

Wallingford’s eldest son, Adrian, stood at the window staring at him. And Justin, who sat by the bed, looked as if he were seeing a ghost.

“What are you doing here?” Justin asked, his voice almost accusing in its grief.

“Leave us,” Wallingford ordered, though his voice had lost its power and authority. “I wish to speak with him alone.”

“But Father—” Justin began.

“Do it!”

Reluctantly, they did as he wished. Adrian closed the door and Jack moved closer to the bed.

“Come to see me die to make sure the devil takes me?”

“No,” Jack said. “I’ve come to make peace with you.”

“Have you now?” Wallingford asked in disbelief.

Jack clutched his hands together before him as he grappled with his numerous emotions. “I guess it doesn’t make sense to hate you anymore. As Lorelei is so quick to say, the past is the past and it can do us no harm unless we let it.”

His father wheezed and coughed for several minutes into a blood-soaked handkerchief. When he finally regained himself, he motioned for Jack to come closer.

Reluctantly, he did. He was trying to give the man a little peace, and trying to find some for himself. But it was hard to be here and witness the destruction of a strong man. Even one he’d spent most of his life hating.

“You’ll never know how much regret I’ve had,” his father wheezed. “How many times I wish I’d had the strength your mother possessed. In spite of the sneers and ridicule, she stood strong, fortified by her love of me. I was so undeserving of her love.” He looked away, his eyes misting. “I should have been willing to do the same for her, but I couldn’t stand the thought of losing my commission, my family…”

Jack clenched his teeth as old wounds were gouged open.

His father coughed again, then rasped, “I’m glad you didn’t make my mistake. You’ll never know how proud I was of you when you knelt before Lorelei and told her what you felt. You’re the man I never was.”

The unexpected compliment hit him hard and he wasn’t sure how to take it. What did one say to such a thing?

“I’m sure she’s the reason you’re here, isn’t she?” his father asked. “You told her about us.”

“Aye. I keep no secrets from her.”

He nodded. “Women can’t help but try to set matters to what they consider right. But I’m glad she insisted.”

For some reason Jack was beginning to, too. “I do forgive you, Father.” The words were harsh against his throat and yet, once spoken, they seemed to remove some strange burden from his shoulders.

But I will never really understand why you did it. How you could have done it
.

Jack buried those thoughts and the words. They were the past, and he was now willing to let it rest.

“Call your brothers in.”

Jack obeyed.

Once they were all in the room, Wallingford positioned them around his bed and smiled. “’Tis a sight I’ve waited my entire life to see.”

He looked to Justin. “Open the bottom drawer of my table and you’ll find a sealed parchment.”

Justin went and found it, then returned to the bed. Wallingford took it from him and handed it to Jack. “For my grandchildren. I would that they have at least part of what I should have left their father.”

Dumbfounded, Jack reached out and took the paper.

His father touched his hand for just a moment, and then he drew his last breath.

Adrian and Justin erupted into tears as they wailed for the father they loved.

Feeling awkward and unsure, Jack made a quiet exit.

L
orelei sat at the window of her drawing room, painting in the fading daylight. It was yet another portrait of Jack, her favorite piece of fruit.

Jack
, she thought, warming at the mere thought of him. Her father had been most reluctant to accept his new son-in-law, but after a few days of pouting and prodding, Lorelei had finally swayed his affections for Jack.

Then there was the way Jack had followed him around, making a nuisance of himself and warning her father that he would not stop bothering him until her father gave him a fair shake.

She smiled at the memory.

Lorelei looked up at the large room and stared at the molding on the ceiling. ’Twas a beautiful home Jack had bought for them and she hoped to one day fill the large plantation house with precious children. Especially since Kit had decided to sail with Morgan.

Jack had taken his son’s decision hard. But in the end, he’d let the boy go.

Morgan had promised to take good care of Kit and to bring him home at least twice a year. She hoped for Jack’s sake that Morgan kept his promise.

She heard the front door open.

Before she could rise, Jack came into the room, his face dour.

Without a single word passing between them, she knew what had happened. “He’s dead?”

Jack nodded.

Lorelei rose and went to him. After removing her stained apron, she pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m sorry.”

His response came as an even tighter squeeze.

They stood embracing each other for several minutes before Jack finally pulled away from her. “Thank you for making me go,” he said hoarsely.

She clutched his hand in hers, delighted that the final confrontation had done him some good. “You feel better, then?”

He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “In some strange way I do. I feel so relieved. Like the past can harm me no more.”

“I’m glad for it.”

Jack released her hand and reached inside his coat. He pulled out a sealed piece of parchment and handed it to her.

Lorelei turned it over and studied the Wallingford crest. “What is this?”

He shrugged in that irritating way that often drove her to distraction. “He wanted me to have it.”

“And you didn’t open it?”

“I thought you might wish the honor.”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she broke the seal and opened it. As she scanned the page, anger, relief, sadness, and joy mingled inside her.

“Well?” Jack asked after she finished.

Lorelei debated whether or not she should let him know. But then they had sworn to have no secrets from each other—to be honest no matter the pain.

“Your mother’s father wrote to the admiral numerous times over the years begging him to bring you home,” she said, her voice cracking at the sadness that settled over Jack’s features. “It seems he had no other heir, and when he died eight years ago, he left everything to you.”

“What?” Jack breathed.

“Aye. The admiral wrote that he never had the heart to tell your grandfather what he’d done to you, and since he didn’t know how to tell you about your inheritance, he managed your estates and money in your absence.”

Anger darkened Jack’s cheeks.

Lorelei touched his arm lightly, offering him what comfort she could. “He took great care of it all for you. The admiral has also left you a large holding of his in Wales.”

“Did he honestly think—”

“Jack,” she said, cutting him off. “He’s gone now. Does it matter what he thought?”

Jack sighed. “I suppose not.”

Lorelei handed him the letter. “You’re a wealthy man, Jacob Dudley.”

He snorted. “I was already a wealthy man.” Jack pulled her into his arms. “But tell me, Mistress Dudley, were I merely a poor sailor bereft of jewels and wealth, would you still have a kind thought of me?”

She smiled. “Most certainly not, sir. For then I would see your thinning hair and poochy belly.”

“My what?”

“You heard me.”

“Methinks milady hasn’t seen my belly in so long that she has it confused with some other man’s.”

“I but saw it last night, and it was quite the flabby mound I claim.”

“Flabby?”

She bit her lip. “Then again, perhaps my memory is not what it once was.”

“I should say not.”

“Then come, my pirate, take me upstairs and refresh my memory.”

His smile was wicked. “Ever as you wish, sweetest. Ever as you wish.”