Nicola Cornick, Margaret McPhee, et al (5 page)

It was Daniel. Lucinda could tell from the feel and the scent of
him, and from the disturbing familiarity of his hands on her body. He held her
impersonally, and yet she burned with awareness. It made her angry to be at his
mercy. She managed one well-placed and satisfying kick that landed somewhere
soft and caused him to swear, and then his arms tightened about her so
painfully that she could scarcely breathe, let alone move.

Being upside down completely disorientated her. There was the
sound of voices, she was passed from hand to hand like a parcel, and then,
finally, she was placed back on her feet and the sack pulled roughly from her
head. She stood there, panting and glaring about her.

‘What were you doing spying on my ship?’

Daniel’s voice, measured and hard, snapped Lucinda’s attention
straight back to him. She was standing in a well-appointed cabin that was lit
by the rays of the sinking sun. The refection from the water outside made
patterns on the wooden panelling and she could hear the gentle slap of the
water against the stern of the ship. Daniel was sitting at a fine cherrywood
desk and was toying with a quill between his fingers. A book lay open on the
top of the desk, and a half-finished letter beside it. It was so peaceful, and so
utterly removed from what Lucinda had expected, that for a moment she could not
speak. The pristine cleanliness was a far cry from the smelly darkness she had
anticipated, with a roaring drunk crew knocking back the rum and dallying with
quayside whores.

‘Well?’ Daniel sounded slightly bored, as though he found stray
women spying on the
Defiance
every day of the week. Lucinda felt
prickles of resentment run along her skin that he should treat her with such
disdain.

‘I was not spying,’ she retorted. ‘I was walking back from
Kestrel Cove and took a wrong turn on the path.’

Daniel raised one dark, disbelieving brow. ‘You got lost? I see.’

Lucinda ran a hand over her hair and tried to smooth it down.
There were stray pieces of straw—no doubt from the sacking—sticking to her
cloak. She smelled faintly agricultural. Catching sight of herself in the small
mirror on the bulkhead, she realised that she also looked a complete fright.

Daniel, in contrast, looked deplorably elegant, and she hated him
for it. He had always been able to wear his clothes with careless aplomb, and
now, with his dark well-cut jacket and snowy white linen, he looked hard and
tough, with no soft edges. He was still watching her with cold impassivity, and
she felt colour flood her cheeks as hot and embarrassing as though she had been
a young girl. She knew he thought she had gone there deliberately to see him,
and that the more she protested the less he would believe her.

‘You can believe what you like,’ she said, ‘but I did not seek
you out.’

Daniel shrugged. His face was set in hard lines. ‘So you say.’

‘It’s true!’ Pride and embarrassment compounded Lucinda’s anger.
‘What, do you think yourself so dashing, so irresistible—the gallant pirate
captain!—that every female in the neighbourhood must want to throw herself at
you? Do you think I was so bowled over to meet you again last night that I
could not keep away?’

Daniel’s firm mouth lifted in a slight smile that was not quite
reassuring. He stood up. ‘I don’t know, Lucy. Were you?’

‘No, I was not. And stop calling me Lucy!’

‘I forgot. You are—you always were—Lucy to me.’ He had come to
stand before her, and suddenly the spacious cabin seemed very small and very airless.
Lucinda caught her breath. She tilted her head to glare up at him.

‘And you always were
so
arrogant! Believing that I came
here solely to—’ Lucinda stopped abruptly.

He was so close to her now, perilously close, his body all but
pinning her against the door. She found that she was watching his mouth, that
tempting
mouth, as he said softly, ‘Yes?’

Lucinda ran her tongue over her lips. ‘To…um…’

‘You are somewhat inarticulate for a governess. I noticed it last
night.’

He put his hands flat against the door on either side of her head
and leaned in. Their breath mingled for a moment and then his mouth captured
hers. Only their lips touched, but that was more than enough.

The kiss was ruthless in its intensity. The swift current of
desire raced between them, leaving Lucinda breathless and unable to think of
anything other than the undeniable pleasure of his embrace. He lingered over
her mouth as though he were learning her all over again, and when he stood back
she could barely breathe, barely think. Her lips felt soft, and a little
bruised, and she pressed one hand to them and saw that she was shaking.

‘This is not—’ She stopped, cleared her throat. ‘This is not what
I want.’

‘No?’ Daniel had turned away, and she could not see his face, but
she thought that his voice sounded strained. ‘Well, this isn’t a game, Lucinda.
Do not come down to my ship looking for trouble, or you will surely find it.’

Lucinda’s anger—the anger he could always arouse in her, along
with that uncomfortable attraction—jetted up.

‘I play no games,’ she said. ‘You are the one who hides out in
the wood playing at pirates, abducting people, smuggling,
spying
for the
French, so I hear! You are the one who never grew up!’

Daniel moved so quickly that she jumped back. But it was too
late. He had caught her wrist in a grip that did not hurt, but which she could
not break. His expression was grim, but just for a moment, and for the first
time in her life, she saw a bleak unhappiness in his dark eyes before his face
was impassive once again.

‘What do you mean?’ He spoke very quietly, but there was an
undertone to his words that made her shiver.

‘I met Mr Chance in the woods just now,’ Lucinda said. ‘He told
me that the smugglers would be out tonight and he would be hunting them.’
Daniel’s fingers tightened a little and her voice faltered. ‘He said that you
are a criminal, Daniel, and a spy and a traitor—’

Daniel dropped her wrist as though he had been burned. ‘Did he
mention me by name?’

‘No,’ Lucinda said. She suddenly felt chilled. Could she have made
a mistake? ‘But who else could he mean?’ she whispered.

For a long moment they stared into one another’s eyes, and then
Daniel turned away in what felt like a gesture of repudiation.

‘Dearest Lucy, always thinking the worst of me!’

‘Well, it did not require a great leap of imagination!’ Lucinda
said, stung by his accusing tone. ‘After all, you told me yourself that you
were a pirate, and I thought…I assumed…’

‘You assumed that I was a traitor as well.’ He slammed his fist
against the panels of the door. ‘You would have trusted me once. You loved me
once.’

‘That is all in the past,’ Lucinda said. She felt bitter and sick
at what had become of that love, what had become of him.

He turned back to her suddenly, almost violently. ‘You are
telling me that you feel nothing for me now?’ He raised a hand and trailed the
back of it down her cheek. His touch seemed to burn her. She could feel her
blood heating beneath the skin. The same treacherous attraction he could always
arouse in her flared up, but was quenched in bitterness.

‘I cannot deny that I respond to you,’ she said, unflinchingly
honest. ‘But it is nothing more than physical attraction. I do not trust you,
Daniel, and I cannot respect you.’

For a moment she thought he was going to pull her into his arms
and kiss her senseless, as though in defiance of all the love that had been
lost between them, and her perfidious heart leapt to think of it. But then his
hand fell to his side and he stepped back, turned on his heel and walked out of
the cabin.

Lucinda stood still for a moment, trembling a little with the
intensity of the storm of emotion within, and then suddenly recollected where
she was and hastened after him.

‘Daniel! Wait! I want to get off the ship—’

He was standing at the end of the companionway, but now he turned
and looked at her. One long, unreadable look.

‘You cannot,’ he said. ‘You should have thought of that before,
Lucy. The tide has turned and we have sailed.’

Daniel strode up on deck, his hands clenched in tight fists at
his side.

‘I do not trust you…I cannot respect you…’

He had been within an ace of grabbing Lucinda, throwing her down
on the floor and making love to her there and then—as though that would enable
him to wipe out all the anger and bitterness between them and conjure the old
love in its place. Devil take it, he must be going soft in the head. What did
it matter what she thought of him? He could have explained it all to her if he
had wanted her good opinion. But it was far too late for that. Lucinda was
right. They could never go back.

The
Defiance
was slipping down Kestrel Creek very slowly,
towards the open sea. He heard the patter of feet on the deck behind him, and
then Lucinda had grabbed his sleeve and pulled him around to face her. Her blue
eyes were blazing. She looked furious.

‘What do you think you are doing? Turn the ship around! Make it
stop! I want to get off!’

Daniel was aware that all the crew were covertly watching, under
cover of going about their tasks. He put his hands on his hips and smiled down
into Lucinda’s infuriated face.

‘Can’t do that, Mrs Melville,’ he drawled. ‘We sail on the tide.
It doesn’t wait.’

Lucinda’s eyes narrowed to angry slits of blue. ‘You mean that I
am stuck here with
you
? For how long?’

Daniel had only been intending to take the ship out for a night,
to hunt Norton along the coast and remove himself from the threat of Owen
Chance’s men finding him, but now he shrugged lightly.

‘A week? Two? Who knows? You can share my cabin if you like,’ he
added with a mocking smile. He took a step closer to her. ‘It might not be love
between us any more, Lucy, but it could still be pleasurable…’

He thought for a moment that she was going to strike him, but
then she turned on her heel and ran across to the side of the ship. They were
still very close to the bank as the
Defiance
slid almost imperceptibly
out of the creek, and Lucinda did not even hesitate. She grabbed the rigging,
pulled herself up onto the rail, and stood there, poised to jump.

Daniel swore violently. Anger and fear collided within him, and
he covered the deck faster than he had ever run before, grabbing her about the
waist and dragging her backwards into his arms in the very second she was about
to launch herself over the side.

‘Are you insane?’ he shouted. ‘You could
kill
yourself
trying a trick like that!’

She struggled like a demon in his arms, kicking him, beating him
with her fists, and calling him some colourful names that Daniel felt vaguely
shocked she even knew. Her tomboyish behaviour reminded him of their childhood,
when she would scramble through the fields, losing her bonnet and tearing her
dress, an utter hoyden. Evidently she still had that same wild spirit. His crew
were looking highly diverted, trying to smother their grins, and Daniel picked
Lucinda up bodily and dragged her behind the mainmast for a little privacy. The
man working there moved discreetly away.

Daniel held Lucinda tightly until she went soft and quiescent in
his arms, then he gently pushed the tumbled hair away from her face.

‘Do you hate me so much, Luce, that you would risk your very life
to get away from me?’

They stared at one another for what seemed like hours, and then
Lucinda dropped her gaze. ‘No,’ she whispered, ‘but I wish I had never met you
again, Daniel.’

Something wrenched Daniel deep inside.

‘I’ll take you back,’ he said shortly.

She looked annoyed. ‘There is no need for you to come. I can
manage perfectly well on my own.’

Daniel smiled. ‘I know, Luce, but I insist.’

After a second she gave him a faint, hesitant smile in return.
‘Owen Chance might catch you.’

‘I doubt it.’

She smoothed her tattered gown ‘You are
so
reckless.’ She
raised her gaze and gave him a proper smile this time, and it made his heart
lurch. But there was sadness in her eyes as well, and it hurt him to see it.

‘I wish I did not feel I know you so well,’ she said, ‘when I do
not really know you at all.’

For a moment Daniel was desperate to tell her the truth. The
temptation was so strong that he could feel the words jostling to come out. He
had never previously cared for any man’s good opinion, but now he found he
wanted to regain Lucinda’s trust and respect. He wanted it more than anything
else in the world. He drove his hands into his pockets in a gesture of
repressed rage. He could tell her he was on the side of the angels, but in the
end what good would it do? He could neither take her with him, nor make up for
the damage he had done to her in the past. So it was better that he kept his
peace and let her go.

The anchor was lowered and a rope ladder thrown over the side.
Lucinda insisted on climbing down it herself, just as Daniel had known she
would. He instructed Holroyd to take the ship out beyond the bay and stand by
to pick him up at Harte Point whilst he walked back with her through the woods
to Kestrel Court.

They walked in silence, though every so often he would hold back
branches from her path, or pull aside brambles, and she would thank him
politely. It was only as they were approaching the edge of the parkland that
she spoke.

‘Does it suit you, Daniel, this business of being a pirate?’

‘Most of the time,’ Daniel said. He raised his brows. ‘Does it suit
you to be a governess?’

She shot him a look from beneath the battered edge of her bonnet.
‘Most of the time,’ she said. There was an undertone of humour in her voice.
‘It is better than marriage, at any rate.’