Silver Sea (50 page)

With Abraham's calm assistance, Nathan soon found himself riding a magnificent gray gelding up the road that skirted the dramatic limestone cliffs. The two men were separated while Abraham hurried back to his hut to explain to his wife where he was going, but, after taking Owen Horner's horse, he caught up with his new employer just north of Crowe's Nest.

They were galloping along side by side, in silence, when they came over the brow of a hill and sighted a carriage in the distance.

"Devil take it, I think that is
my
carriage!" Nathan cried, outraged, as he squinted through the moonlight. "How can it be?"

"A thief?" Abraham speculated. "You have a pistol, sir?"

"Yes, but I don't think it's a thief."

"Who else, in the dead middle of the night?"

"I think—" Nathan winced. "I believe it's my blasted wife, on a mission of her own."

Abraham lifted his brows, curious and slightly amused. "Doing what, sir?"

"Rescuing the occupants of Crowe's Nest, I surmise. She—ah—has mentioned such a plan...."

Unable to think of a polite reply, Abraham said nothing.

As they drew alongside the carriage, Nathan shouted at Philip to halt. As soon as the old man saw his pursuer, he obeyed, cringing a little as he watched Nathan jump to the ground and reach for the carriage door handle. "She mean good, Captain."

"The bloody chit will turn my hair white before the New Year," Nathan raged, and yanked open the door. The sight that met his stormy gaze was beyond belief. Lady Thomasina looked more outlandish than ever, if possible, with her hair wild and her clothes unfastened. Eloise and Martin cowered in the seat opposite, wide-eyed and pale, and Angus leaped toward the door and began growling ferociously while Hortie tried to quiet him. The terrier had a blue glove in his jaws! Finally, Raveneau saw Adrienne, her slight form tucked into a darkened corner. She wore the colorful garb of a slave woman, including a coral-striped headtie, and she was rubbing her eyes as if he'd roused her from a deep sleep.

"I beg your pardon, Madame, if I have disturbed you," Nathan ground out. "I would have a word with you."

"Don't hurt her!" Eloise begged.

He threw a sharp glance her way. "Pray do not judge me against the standards of your husband."

Adrienne's chin trembled as she struggled out of the crowded carriage. Standing in front of Nathan, she looked pitiful. "I have been so very worried about you!"

"That's a very interesting disguise you've chosen." He shook his head and gave a little snort of disbelief. Then, relenting, Nathan opened his arms and she threw herself into them. "If I had known what you were planning for tonight, I would have chained you to the bed. Naked."

"A game?" she dared tease. "I might like that if you were there." Her arms were fastened tightly round his neck. "Oh, Nathan, I love you more than I thought possible! Please, from now on, promise me that you will try to stay out of harm's way!"

"I was trying to go home to you, to put your worries to rest, when I discovered that the occupants of Crowe's Nest were
missing!
I am furious with you for rushing into such danger without even telling me!" He buried his face in her neck, drinking in the dear scent of her skin. "If Crowe had caught you, all of you might be dead!"

"I was too crafty for him. Have you no faith in me at all? Besides, I tried to tell you, and I tried to enlist your aid, but you had more important business." Her story tumbled out then, in a shortened form, and she listened to the outcome of his trap for Xavier Crowe.

"I'll tell you everything when we are at home, but for now I must know why Eloise and Martin are with you, and why you are on this coast road."

"Eloise insisted that we find Huntsford. She said that he has been digging for treasure all night and that she heard Crowe saying that he won't find anything." Lowering her voice, Adrienne added, "Oh, Nathan I've discovered so much tonight about Eloise and Xavier Crowe—and that entire coil. He is evil! Why, he—"

"We haven't time for this now," Raveneau said fondly.

"Well, as for Huntsford," she hurried on, "I think that Eloise decided that he was also manipulated by Crowe, and she feels sorry. I believe she wants to take Martin back to England, where no one will know about Xavier Crowe and they can have a decent life. Perhaps Huntsford can escort them, with Lady Thomasina, on the return voyage."

"I perceive that you are trying to take charge of this matter, my dear, but it won't be decided by the side of the road. I haven't decided what to do with Harms yet. I remain convinced that he plotted to murder Walter Frakes-Hogg—"

"Let's go and talk to him. I agree that Huntsford is weak and flawed, but perhaps he's worth saving."

"You aren't going anywhere except back to Tempest Hall!"

"Yes I am. I am going with you and—?"

"Abraham. I've taken the liberty of freeing Crowe's slaves, whether it was legal or not, and I have offered them work at Tempest Hall."

She beamed at him. "I am proud to be your wife, sir." And then, Adrienne's tired lips found his and she kissed him with every ounce of love in her heart. "I believe I would have died of worry tonight if I hadn't been occupied with my own adventure."

"All right, I surrender," he sighed. "Philip will drive the others back to Tempest Hall, and you may come with us."

* * *

Guided by moonlight, the trio rode farther along the cliffs overlooking the treacherous Atlantic Ocean. Sitting in front of Nathan on the gelding, Adrienne was flushed with excitement and thrilled to be in the circle of her husband's embrace.

When they turned off the overgrown road and came around a stand of fiddlewood trees, Victoria Villa loomed abruptly before them. The crumbling, hollowed-out plantation house was like a specter against the night sky, and for an instant Adrienne imagined the distant strains of a waltz and the murmuring voices of guests. The moon, glowing fitfully behind restless violet clouds, illumined huge cave bats that fluttered in and out of the verandah's arches. As the ocean pounded the cliffs below, Adrienne sighed.

Nathan laid a finger over his wife's mouth. "Shh." He then raised a hand to signal Abraham that they were near the beach where he guessed they would find Huntsford Harms. After tethering the horses to the cannonball trees, Nathan took Abraham off to one side and conferred with him at length. When they parted, the black man went off toward the south end of Cave Bay.

"What was that all about?" Adrienne queried softly. She was bursting with curiosity.

"I can't go into it now. I would only suggest that you forget anyone came with us tonight. Pretend we are alone, except for Hunty."

She tugged at his sleeve as they walked. "Isn't this a violation of your marriage vows? Didn't you promise to tell me the truth at all times?"

Nathan arched a brow at her. "The only marriage vow that matters right now is your promise to
obey
your husband. All else can wait until—"

His hushed voice broke off. They had reached the edge of the vertical cliffs that plunged down to the beach, and Nathan drew Adrienne down beside him so they were concealed by oleander shrubs. When a bat flew low over their heads and swept out over the water, they watched as it skewered a fish with its clawlike toes.

Seeing his wife's look of horror, Nathan whispered, "Are you still glad you came?"

She squared her shoulders, nodded, and stared down at the wide crescent of white sand shadowed by coconut palms. A movement caught her eye. Was it a man? Then, as clouds blew past the moon, a beam of light shone on pale hair and shoulders that she recognized as those of Huntsford Harms. He was digging into the sand with a shovel.

Nathan found her hand and squeezed it. Slowly they moved around the cliff to the place where steps had been carved into the rock. Adrienne knew a sudden tide of fear. The cliff went straight down, and the indentations were hard to see in the darkness. But Nathan bent down, boldly kissed her, and murmured, "I'll keep you safe."

He went first and she came right after, so that his arms shielded her lower body. Nathan helped her feet find the steps. Once or twice she slipped, but he was quick to catch her, and before long the sand was within jumping distance.

On the beach, they crept around palm trunks and through sea grape leaves, thankful that the crashing surf and the noise of Huntsford's shovel strokes were sufficient to drown out their progress. Drawing closer, Adrienne saw that all around the sand was pocked with dark holes, many of them half full of water. It was an eerie sight, rather like Adrienne's imagined vision of the moon. When she focused on Huntsford, it was a further shock to see that he was standing in one of the holes, water splashing as he flailed away with a shovel. His face was dripping perspiration, his clothes were torn and soiled, and he wore the expression of a madman.

"This is the spot," he muttered to himself with feverish intensity. "It must be! Yes, yes, keep going, that's it—"

Nathan and his wife exchanged glances in the shadows. There was the sound of metal clanging against a hard object. Huntsford Harms began to sob and laugh at the same time, his face contorted with joy. Bending over, he pushed his hands down into the watery mess to find his treasure and moments later brought an object out that was far too small to be a pirate's chest.

Adrienne nearly gasped aloud as Harms lifted the pale, curved thing higher, squinting at it in the moonlight. Pure horror spread over his face.

It was a skull—apparently that of a human!

Reaching down again, as if in disbelief, he yanked again and this time came up with a long bone, perhaps a femur. Back in her hiding place, Adrienne had to cover her own mouth to contain her shock. What could be more ghastly than to dig for treasure and find a skeleton instead?

Just as Huntsford began to scramble out of the watery grave, a deep, chilling voice called from above. "You betraaayed me, Harms! I trusted yooou, and you killled me!"

Adrienne's heart threatened to come out of her chest, but Nathan quietly pointed upward and she spied Abraham, wrapped in shadows and clinging to the top of one of the coconut trees. Huntsford Harms, meanwhile, was staring straight at the heavens. At that moment in his life, he was ripe for all manner of guilt and ghostly suggestions.

"Walter?" he quavered, then pressed a hand to his mouth, trembling. "Is that you?"

"Admit the truuuth! You'll feel—" Abraham paused for effect and spat out the last word:
"better!"

Huntsford Harms looked as if he feared that the ghost of Walter Frakes-Hogg might thrust him into the hole filled with water and human bones. His confession tumbled out. "I'm sorry! So sorry! Even though we were in league, I couldn't let you have your way with her! And I admit it, I wanted Adrienne for myself, and I hoped that if I killed her tormentor, she might be grateful—"

Holding Adrienne's hand, Nathan stepped out of the palm trees and into the moonlight. "You needn't go on. That's all we had to hear." He nodded slowly, and Huntsford, meanwhile, looked more confused and terrified than ever. Moments later Abraham had descended to join them, and Nathan gestured toward the former slave with an ironic smile. "Sorry to disappoint you, my lord, but Frakes-Hogg's ghost was really Abraham speaking to you from the top of a palm tree."

In spite of himself, Huntsford was relieved to see other people and to know that he might escape the haunted beach after all. "By Jupiter, do you have any notion what's buried down there? Bodies! Pirate skeletons! A fellow would admit to anything when it seems that a lot of cutthroat buccaneers are about to rise up out of the sand and—"

"Too late, Harms," Nathan replied calmly. "You've told the truth, and it is just as I suspected from the start. Not that I'm sorry that Frakes-Hogg is dead, but I did hate to have you strutting about playing the hero. In truth, you first conspired with him against Adrienne, then you turned traitor against him and lay in wait to murder him that night in her bedchamber."

Huntsford came stumbling toward them, a broken man. "Yes, yes, but I did care for her, and he was a hideous beast! He wanted me to let him into her room so that he could force himself on her!"

"Don't worry," Nathan murmured, waving a hand in the air, "I won't have you sent to the gallows for it. Just tell me the truth about what's been going on at Crowe's Nest. You've let him drug Lady Thomasina, haven't you?"

"Oh... I suppose he has been, but I've tried not to know. I've been more worried about this blasted treasure! It was buried by Stede Bonnet, and Crowe promised me part of the booty. He said we'd have wealth beyond imagining!"

"I hate to dash your dreams, but he only kept you occupied down here so that he might undertake another wrecking party without involving you. Crowe was doubtless afraid that you might betray him at some future date, if you witnessed the full extent of his crimes."

"How do you know all this? And how did you find me tonight?" Suddenly the last bits of life seemed to drain from Harms's body and he slouched against the trunk of a palm tree. His face was blue-white in the moonlight.

"I own this land, old fellow," Nathan replied coolly. "I was here, just yards away, the day you and Crowe stood on the beach and discussed Stede Bonnet's supposed treasure map for the first time." Then he went on to describe the adventures of that very night, ending with Crowe's capture and the removal of Lady Thomasina, Eloise, and Martin from Crowe's Nest. "The women seemed to think that you ought to be taken to safety as well. I've freed the slaves there, and given their mood, I don't know if they'll welcome you back tonight—"

Abraham, standing off to one side, shook his head doubtfully.

"Please!" Huntsford cried. "Let me come with you!"

Nathan reflected that it almost wasn't any fun to have such an easy victory over the once-pompous Lord Harms. He was groveling a bit too much. "Only to please your mother, and because you may need to escort her back to England. Her health may be ruined for good, no thanks to you." He paused, his expression harsh. "If it wouldn't make her worse to know the truth about her own son, I'd force you to own up to your unpardonable behavior."