The Captain's Pearl (24 page)

“What is wrong?” he asked.

Slowly she looked up at him, her face as gray as Hyett's had been. Her blue eyes were dim with despair. “Chester Simmons came here today to demand money from me and Trevarian Enterprises.”

“Why does that old fool, who never did an honest day's work in his life, think you should pay him now that he no longer works on the
China Shadow
?”

“Because he believes it is a daughter's duty to provide for her father in his last years.”

Bryce frowned. She was making no sense. “What does that have to do with you?”

He listened as she told him about Simmons's visit and his claims. His fists tightened at his sides. “That is absurd. Captain Catherwood believed you are his daughter. Davis believed you are his sister, and your mother—”

“Is the only one who knows the truth.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Even if we knew where she was in Canton, by the time we could get her here, the damage to Trevarian Enterprises from his lies would be done.”

“So you are going to let him blackmail you?”

“No.” She stood, cradling her box in her arms. “You know as well as I do that we do not have the money to pay for his silence now.”

“You have proof that you are Captain Catherwood's daughter right there.” He pointed to the box. “Your mother would not have given it to you if she had not thought you might need it to prove the truth.”

“But it doesn't.” She held up the box, touching the initials carved into it. “See this?”

“SC—Samuel Catherwood. All the proof you need.”

“But if it were meant to be read in the Chinese way, it would be—”

With a savage curse, he pulled the box out of her hands.

He opened the box and dumped the pages on the bed.

“Bryce, be careful!” Lianne tried to gather up the strips of paper. These stories were the only things she had remaining from her mother. She looked over her shoulder to see him going through the dressing room to her father's room. “What are you doing?”

“Making certain no one ever uses this box to question the truth,” he shouted.

She ran into the room just in time to see him throw her thousand stories box onto the fire on the hearth. “No!” she cried, not caring that the door to the hall was open, so her voice carried all through the house.

Bryce caught her arm, keeping her from reaching into the fire for the box. She moaned as the flames feasted on the varnish. Sinking to the floor, she stared at the box surrendering to the fire.

“It is for the best,” he said.

She raised her gaze to his hard face, as he pulled off his cloak and dropped it into a lump on his bed. “How can you say that? It was my thousand stories box! It was the only thing I had from both my father and my mother.” She reached for a poker. It might not be too late to save the box from being destroyed.

He stepped between her and the fireplace tools. Bringing her to her feet, he gripped her arms. “That box is the only thing that could take from you what your father wanted you to have. Your real father! Samuel Catherwood. If your old beau Newberry and his friends hear of this, they would waste no time seeing that you lost control of the Shadow Line.”

“And
you
lose control of it!” She glanced from his taut lips to the box that was disintegrating as the flame melted the glue holding it together. “If Chester Simmons is correct, it jeopardizes Trevarian Enterprises's claim on the Shadow Line.”

“Do you think that is all I care about? Trevarian Enterprises?”

“I
hope
it is not all you care about.”

He shook his head as he released her. “Keep saying things like that, and you will convince everyone in Storm-haven that you are truly Simmons's daughter. He always has distrusted everyone, thinking they were like him, only interested in what he could get for himself.” His scowl deepened. “That is not the way Samuel Catherwood would think. He always considered his crew first.”

“Are you saying that I lied when I said I am a Catherwood?”

“You are a Trevarian now.”

“You aren't answering my question. Do you think I lied?”

“You? No.”

“But you think my mother lied.” She looked at the box that had fallen into scorched pieces on the logs. Her heart twisted with pain. She had not guessed that the thousand stories box's own story would end like this. “She had no reason to lie when she knew that Mr. Simmons could refute anything I said.”

His face lost all emotion. “If she knew he was still alive. She might have thought that it was safe now to send you to Stormhaven.”

“No!” she cried, although an icy chill clung to her. “My mother did not lie, and my father did not lie. I am Lianne Catherwood Trevarian. You would believe that, too, if you were thinking of something other than possessing those accursed ships.”

“Accursed ships?” He leaned his hand on the footboard of her father's bed. “It seems—” He turned as a tentative knock was placed on the open door. “What is it, Hyett?”

The butler stepped gingerly into the room. “Forgive me for intruding, Captain.” He glanced at Lianne and quickly away.

“What is it, Hyett?” Bryce asked again.

“This just arrived from the
Pacific Shadow
.” He held out a slip of paper. “I was told by the boy who delivered it that it was urgent.”

Bryce took the note and unfolded it. His eyes widened as he read it. Stuffing it into his pocket, he went into the dressing room.

“Is there a problem?” Lianne asked softly.

The butler shrugged.

“You don't know what it says?” she persisted, so curious about what might take Bryce away now that she did not care what Hyett thought.

“No. You know I would not read a personal message for one of the household.” He again glanced at her and quickly away. “I am sorry, Mrs. Trevarian.”

Before she had a chance to ask Hyett if he was sorry about not being able to answer her questions, or for intruding on the quarrel, or for the loss of her thousand stories box, Bryce walked back into the room. He was tying a dry cloak around his neck.

“We will discuss all of this later,” he said in a strained voice. “I cannot let this wait.”

Although she wanted to ask what
this
was, she nodded.

“Stay close to the house,” Bryce said quietly. “I don't want you doing anything to give credence to Simmons's claim.”

“There is nothing to give credence to his claim. I am not his daughter.”

When Hyett drew in his breath sharply, Bryce frowned. “That is what I mean. Hyett is shocked. How much more shocked will the people in Stormhaven be? A single thoughtless word can condemn you to those who hate that the captain's half-Chinese daughter inherited his wealth and company.”

“You are just like Simmons!” she exclaimed. “I am not the one like him, but you are. All you can think of is destroying my happiness so you can have yours.”

“If that is what you think, then you shall have to suffer from that misconception a while longer. I don't have time now to show you how wrong you are.” He slapped the page against his hand. “
This
cannot wait.” He walked out of the room.

Lianne looked at Hyett, but the butler rushed out, clearly embarrassed to witness their fierce words. She closed her eyes. Why had she said what she had? To hurt Bryce because he had burned her thousand stories box?

With a sigh, she reached for the cloak on the bed. Her hand was grasped, and she saw Bryce's determined scowl. He drew her out of the room and twisted the key in the door.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I don't want you to get any ideas of trying to fish the last pieces of that damn box out of the fire.”

“You don't trust me?” She was sure her heart had shattered into uncountable splinters.

“I trust you to think with your heart instead of your head.”

“One of us must listen to our hearts.”

“I don't have time to argue with you about this now. I will be back as soon as I can.”

He pulled her toward him, but she turned her face away. She did not want him to woo her from her anger with one of his fiery kisses. Fiery! Like the flames that had swallowed her beloved box.

Cupping her chin, he tilted her face toward his. She gasped when she saw the sorrow in his eyes. For her? For him? For both of them? She could not tell because he kissed her on the cheek before walking away, his dark cloak soaring behind him like a demon's dark wings.

A green-eyed demon! That was what she had thought when she first saw him. Did she still believe that?

She sighed and looked at the locked door. She no longer knew what to believe about any of this. But she was sure of one thing. She was sure that Bryce had been wrong when he called her a little fool.

She was not a little fool. She was the biggest fool between Stormhaven and China.

Seventeen

Lianne drew her hand back from the locked door on the far side of the dressing room. She should have guessed that Bryce would lock both doors to her father's room. She could have Hyett bring a key to have it opened, but what good would it do? The thousand stories box was gone by now.

Turning, she went back into her bedroom. She stared at the slips of paper scattered across her bed. What had seemed like a thousand stories when the pages were stored in the thousand stories box now seemed to be so few. She read the Chinese characters she had not looked at in so long and touched the symbols that spelled her Chinese name. Quickly she sorted through the papers and found the story she wanted. She reread the story of the fox's daughter, who had helped a young man realize that love was not easily gained and kept.

She held the slip of paper close to her heart. The story had been one of Mother's favorites, and now Lianne understood why. Mother's love for Samuel Catherwood had cost her everything, but she never had considered the price one she would not willingly pay.

Lianne glanced back at the closed door in the dressing room. She loved Bryce. She had tried to deny that, but she could not. Now was
she
willing to face the cost of loving a man who had hurt her so deeply … to protect her and his dreams?

She dropped the paper containing the fox's daughter's story back onto the bed, then gathered them all up and placed them in the top drawer of her dresser. Catching a glimpse of her pale face in the mirror, she stared. The pain of the past hours had etched lines around her eyes. She raised her hands toward her blue eyes, a legacy from her father. She touched her rapidly thudding heart. She knew in her heart that her mother had been honest with her. Just as she knew that Bryce would not have destroyed her thousand stories box if he had thought he had another way to safeguard her and the Shadow Line.

Sinking to a chair, she gazed out at the harbor. Another ship was docked near the
Pacific Shadow
. It must be Captain Burroughs's ship, which was months late returning from China again this year, because
The Pearl
did not have the strong lines of a Shadow ship.

Commanding a ship of the Shadow Line had been the dream that Bryce had worked so hard for, just as the young man in Mother's story had struggled with his studies to win the fox's daughter in marriage. The young man's dream had come true, and so had Bryce's. And hers? Her dream was of a life with this man she loved, working with him, arguing with him, making love with him.

“Mother,” she whispered in Cantonese, “you gave up your past for Father. I ask you to ask Mother's Father to guide me in doing the same. Let me free myself from what was, so I can savor what is.”

“What did you say?” Great-Aunt Tildy asked from the door.

Lianne came to her feet. “I was talking to myself.”

“About why Bryce left in such a hurry?”

“You are being very kind. I am sure you heard our loud voices.”

Great-Aunt Tildy smiled sadly, but she kept her hands behind her back. “This house has heard many arguments in the past, and it will in the future. No one who lives beneath its roof has a gentle temper. We all are stubborn and certain we are right.”

“I am not so sure I was right.” Lianne went to look out the window. The wind was rocking the tree branches, obscuring her view of the harbor. “But I do know I cannot let the wounds my words caused fester and cause more damage.” She faced her great-aunt. “I may deplore what Bryce did to my thousand stories box, but he did it because he cares about this family.”

“And you.”

She nodded, not surprised that Great-Aunt Tildy knew exactly what had happened to the thousand stories box. “I hope you are right. I think it is time I found out.”

“Yes, it is.” Holding out Lianne's cloak, she said, “Hyett said something about the
Pacific Shadow
.”

Lianne took it, smiling. Trust her great-aunt to wheedle information out of Hyett. “Thank you, Great-Aunt Tildy.”

Her great-aunt kissed her cheek. “Maybe you are learning at last, child.”

In spite of herself, Lianne flinched as she looked at the drawer where the papers from the thousand stories box were hidden. The young man had learned what he needed to and had won the love of the fox's daughter. Maybe she could still win Bryce's heart.

Lianne shivered as she went out into the raw day. Leaves clung to the ground as she hurried down the street, skirting the puddles. Although Hyett had offered to have the carriage brought around when she had hurried down the stairs, she did not want to delay even the time it would take for that. Pulling her cloak's hood over her bonnet to keep her head from being pelted by the drips from the trees, she was not surprised that she met few people. Today was a good day to remain inside and warm.

The wind was unmerciful as she neared the harbor. Even in the sheltered cove, white caps topped each wave. The ships swayed to the frantic rhythm. She bent her head into the wind that sought to force her back up the hill.