Other Oceans: Book Two of the Hook & Jill Saga (79 page)

As Yulunga had borne his captive from the rail, Cecco signaled to Nibs and Tom. They’d jumped down to stand penitent before their captain.

“I have no time to deal with you young rebels. Your mother sails farther every moment, and our rudder is jammed.” He strode away to the stern.

Nibs and Tom gawked at one another. At the same instant, the answer dawned on each of them. They bent down and hauled at their boots. When their feet were free, they scrambled for the stern, peeling off their French blue jackets as they ran. Nibs sent his orange kerchief fluttering to the deck, then dug in his pocket to toss the pouch holding Jill’s message on top of it. Bounding over the rail, the brothers dove.

Cecco, Mullins, and an increasing crowd of pirates hung over the stern, peering into the water where the lady’s sons had splashed and vanished. The white water churned, then settled. A few bubbles broke the surface. The
Roger
rode up and down on the waves.

After a minute Nibs’ head emerged from the brine, sleek as a seal. “Captain,” he gasped. He drew breath to shout. “It’s those wedges! The ones we used on the Dutchman.” Tom’s wet head bounced up beside him, spitting.

Cecco leaned over the rail. “As I suspected. You know what to do— if you wish to make yourselves indispensable.”

Nibs dark face lit with determination. “Aye, aye, Sir!”

Tom grinned. “Right away, Captain!” Drawing deep gulps of air, Cecco’s sailors bobbed up, then sank into the depths.

As the salty water swallowed them up, they hardly noticed the chill. Their captain wasn’t satisfied with his rebels yet. But it sure felt good to be home.

§ § §

Jill had observed her sons over Hanover’s shoulder, while she loosened his cravat. At the prearranged time, Nibs disappeared from the deck. Tom and Liza followed, more clumsily. Soon Jill spied them speeding away, an awkward flock heading out to sea, aiming for the pearl on the horizon that was the
Roger
. All according to plan, the tightness around her heart relaxed. She felt almost faint with relief, as light as a water bird, nearly soaring herself. Her boys had escaped.

Jill had only to pry herself from the surgeon now, along with his information. She retied his cravat.

“My dear Doctor. You have had your wedding. Now I must have my answers.”

Hanover clasped her hands and raised them to his lips. Kissing each, he looked sorrowfully into Jill’s blue eyes. “My darling. How I regret to be the bearer of sad tidings.”

“If the news is sad, it matters little who brings it. Where is Captain Hook?”

“I am afraid the man you loved no longer exists. Perhaps he never lived.”

“I ask for truth. You give me riddles.”

Hanover bowed his head. “I am sorry. Quite simply, then. On the day he disappeared, I learned that your captain had defiled my daughter— ravished her…more than once.”

Jill was stabbed by an ache in her gut. She resisted the impulse to double up. Hanover clung to her hands.

“Yes, I understand how difficult it is for you to hear the truth.” He waited for her eyes to meet his again. “Liza was afraid to come to me. Ashamed. It was only when I came upon them, in my quarters, that I comprehended.” The scar upon his face tightened at the memory, and his voice grew bitter with disgust. “Hook had torn her clothing away. He was covering her, like some kind of beast. Of course I had to stop him. I acted immediately. I struck him, with my cane…” Hanover’s voice softened. “A blow to the head.”

Jill’s hand, masked in black, rushed to cover her eyes. She had tried to prepare herself for news of Hook’s death. She had expected it. But this news was worse.

“Only long after I dealt with him did Liza indicate the extent of the captain’s violations.”

Jill shook her head. She had prepared, also, to discard untruth.

“I am sorry, my darling. I would spare you if I could.”

She lowered her hand from her eyes. Her fingers curled. “You are telling me— that you killed him.”

“I confess it. I had to defend my daughter.”

Carefully, she blinked. The hilt of Hanover’s sword came into focus. “And…what then?”

“I sought out my closest ally at that time.”

“An…ally.”

“With the captain dead and my daughter despondent, I needed another man’s aid.”

For a long moment, Jill closed her eyes.

“Again, my dearest, I apologize.”

She stood dreading, expectant.

“I turned to Mr. Cecco.”

“Cecco.” Her jaw rose with her voice. “No. No, you couldn’t have.”

“I had no recourse but to enlist his assistance. He sympathized. He agreed that if the men discovered that Captain Hook had died at my hands, I would stand very little chance of explaining. I would be murdered.” The surgeon’s manner grew gentle again. “Cecco helped me to…to consign Hook’s remains. To the sea.”

“This cannot be true. I would know it.”

“My darling.” He gathered her into his arms. “I believe you
do
know.”

A cold breeze lifted the ringlet on her neck. “His hook—”

“Has disappeared. I set it aside to prove to you— but it is gone. I believe that Liza, in her torment, disposed of it.” Hanover reached within his waistcoat. “But I do have proof. It will be painful for you, yet I know you will wish to see it. Give me your hand.”

But Jill stood staring at nothing, her eyes searching for a place to settle. Hanover cupped her hand in his. Something golden dropped into her palm, bright against the black of her glove. Jill refused to look at it.

“His earring, my dear. I wouldn’t allow the gypsy to claim it.”

Her fingers closed over it. Her heart threatened to close, as well. “The gypsy.”

“I should have suspected then, when he demanded Captain Hook’s jewels. I only knew he had acted to help me. I owed him a great deal— my life, even. I followed his instructions, tipping the balance to win him the captaincy. He promised to protect me, and to protect Liza. I didn’t understand, then, to what depths he would sink to steal you.”

“Almost as deep as those into which
you
have sunk.”

“Jill. You are beside yourself, grieving. You will understand, in time.”

“I understand now.”

“Then you see, now, that your Captain Cecco has deceived you. He knew of Hook’s fate all along.”

“As did you.”

“Captain Cecco held the power. He held my diamonds. And he held you. I was in no position to reveal the truth. You will remember that he forbade me even to speak with you. Cecco might have turned on me at any moment. My darling, I am not proud of what I had to do, but surely you will forgive me. I acted for the best. I used my knowledge of Hook’s fate to draw you away from your new master. His own barbaric behavior helped. I was lucky to have escaped with my scars. Your pirate captain is a brutal man. Given time, I am certain he would have hurt you, too.”

“You wish me to believe that my first love assaulted your daughter, that my next withheld the truth. And now my husband—”

“Loves you beyond the capabilities of either.” He squeezed her hand. “We have both suffered damage. Yet the cruelest blow of all has descended upon the most innocent: our daughter. Our daughter needs you.”

Jill’s forehead creased with question.

“Liza requires a mother more than ever now. It is a matter of some delicacy. You see…I examined her, of course. She is as healthy as can be expected, under the circumstances. I have every reason to believe our daughter will carry Captain Hook’s child to term.”

For Jill, the brilliance of the mid-day sky went black. She reeled, pushing the back of her hand to her mouth. Hanover reached to support her, but she jerked up her elbows and tugged free. If she was ever going to escape this man, the time was now. She felt his lies weighing upon her. She couldn’t afford to become bogged down in his tales. The ship seemed to pitch as she backed away. Groping for the stern, Jill blinked to clear her vision. She sensed the ship’s rail at her back. She gripped it. Hanover caught up to her and took her in his grasp. As his body pressed against hers, his rapier prodded her hip.

“My Jill. My precious wife. You see why I wished you never to know. And why I am forced to inform you.”

Jill looked to the sky. It seemed clear now. Not a puff of cloud…just black.

She shook his hands from her shoulders. She felt the necklaces encircling her throat, choking her. Her arms ached, heavy with jewelry, but his grip had gone. Jill twisted to face the sea. She raised up on her toes. She felt the deck beneath them. She waited for the waves to rise, to nudge the ship upward and give her a boost.

Hanover kept his distance, watching her. “Please, tell me how I can make your affliction lighter.”

She kicked off her slippers. “Let me breathe!”

“Of course.”

Something solid in her hand distracted her. She discovered she still grasped Hook’s earring. Visualizing it in his ear, she stared at the horizon. She had to fly.

“Yes. Drop it in the sea. You will never have to look at it again.”

She held it fast. The gold seemed to drag her hand down. That familiar, faint pulse within her soul started up, fighting back. She wanted to believe. Hook’s heart was beating. It
had
to be beating.

“Jill. Let me help you.”

“Yes, Johann. Help me.” She spoke over her shoulder. “Tell me that you are as fine a storyteller as I.”

“My dear—”

“You lie!” Pushing her toes against the boards, she concentrated. Captain Hook was alive. He never touched the girl. Never—

“You are distressed.”

The
Roger
. Jill could see it. Hook wasn’t aboard
L’Ormonde
. He might be on the
Roger
…

Jill became aware of a sensation. It was pain. Her toes hurt. She was digging them into the deck, trying to shove off from it. But the rough boards were stubborn; they wouldn’t let her go.

The
Roger
lay just a few leagues away. Cecco was aboard her. If only she could touch him. Then she would know without a doubt. The surgeon’s account had to be a fabrication. Hanover would say anything to break her. She knew it. She would swear Cecco never suspected what happened to Hook! Jill marshaled her faculties and sent all her thoughts flying toward the
Roger
. All her thoughts— but not herself.

Liza was aboard there, instead. Jill remembered now. Liza didn’t look well. Jill recalled the sight of her opals, these stones she felt at her neck, now, bearing down upon her. Hook’s opals, dangling against Liza’s new dress…as the girl clutched her belly.

No.

Not Hook. The man who took liberties with Liza might be anyone. Yulunga. Not Hook. Not Cecco. Jill shoved Hook’s earring inside her glove. She laid her hands on the balustrade. Her feet rose at last, to swing up to it. Her skirt swirled with them, sighing, and she settled to straddle the taffrail. She felt Hanover seize her waist. She swayed there, fighting off his hands. “Let go. Let me go!”

“My dear, you are hysterical.”

She drew her dagger. “You’re free to believe it. And I’m free to fly.” Her knife flashed as she slashed at him.

He yanked himself back. “Jill!”

She ignored him. Gripping the rail with her heels, Jill leaned into the wind. She closed her eyes, envisioning the
Roger
’s figurehead— the Beauty…
Bellezza
. Her own face was carved upon it. The figurehead was she, and she was flying at the fore of her ship. She held the dagger aloft the way the Beauty upheld her hook.

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn’t airborne yet, but another miracle had occurred. The
Roger
was coming about. Cecco must sense she was in trouble. He was coming! Jill stretched out her arms to him. The sun shone on them, shone in his bracelets. She would see their mates shining on his own arms, soon. He was sailing toward her. Jill’s red hand reached for him. He never refused her hand. Cecco’s love for her was true.

Jill was floating now, an inch above the rail. Straining for Cecco, she could see him in her mind. She heard his bangles. She felt his arms surrounding her, embracing her, just as the breeze was doing now. The same breeze that bore the
Roger
toward her. Induced by that breeze, the
Roger
’s sails bellied out full…like a woman with child.

Captain Hook’s child
…

Jill sank. Concentrating again, she managed to buoy herself. The dagger in her hand belonged to Hook. He’d stowed it under her pillow, to keep her safe. Hook’s protection pulled her, even now. She squeezed the hilt, like a lever, to lift herself up. She rose to float a little higher over the railing. The jewels of his dagger dug into her scarlet palm. Jewels, with which Hook loved to tempt her. The jewels were real, they were solid, like Hook. She could feel him. She felt his lips in the kiss of the wind. She could feel the gems…through her glove. The glove that smothered the stain of Hook’s lifeblood.

A black glove…the color of mourning.

The wood of the rail felt hard beneath her. Jill dropped her longing arms. The wind, not a kiss, whipped her lips.

Jill turned her face away.

Surrendering the dagger to her sash, she looked to the sea below. It was gray again, as on the day Hook disappeared. Gray, as her new husband’s eyes.

Jill didn’t look at the
Roger
again.

She turned to
L’Ormonde
.

Hanover settled his hands upon her. Gently, with his strong arms, he pulled her from her perch and set her on the deck. “Madam. You are in shock.” He took her face in his fingers. “Let me tend to you.”

She gazed into those eyes. Gray. The color of nothing.

He smiled and kissed her cold, cold lips.

At the prearranged time, all according to plan, Jill’s charade had ended. But Jill wasn’t home. The wrong man embraced her. On the wrong ship, bearing the wrong direction.

And then Jill recalled Cecco’s fingers around her throat. She remembered the ruthlessness in his eyes…the threat in his voice, the chill of his knife.

Like a bird of prey, the
Roger
swooped toward her. Deep in the pit of her stomach, Jill churned.