The Pirate and the Puritan (42 page)

She trained the glass on his
face, trying desperately to hold back tears that would blur her vision. Below
the black swath covering his eyes, his cheek swelled red and purple, and a cut
from his lip oozed fresh blood. Something had gone terribly wrong after Drew
had left them last night.

“Give me the telescope.”
Solomon’s words were a command.

Felicity slapped the tube in the
quartermaster’s waiting palm, hoping he’d finally do something once he saw with
his own eyes the seriousness of the situation. “We have to act now. I won’t let
him hang.”

“Did you notice the condemned
man’s guard?”

“There was only one by his side,
but I’m sure there are more soldiers around. We’ll need every man if we want to
take Drew by force. Perhaps we should fire a cannon into the crowd.”

Ideas ran through her head like
shooting stars, but all were just as fleeting. The odds were against them, but
she would not give up. She would forfeit her own life before she would watch
Drew die.

Her father gently touched her
arm. “Solomon will handle this. He won’t let anything happen to Drew.”

Solomon took her shaking hand and
wrapped it around the telescope. “Drastic measures will not be necessary. Take
another look at the man beside the prisoner.”

She lifted the telescope to her
right eye and closed her left. The blindfolded prisoner had reached the
scaffold. He appeared to be babbling. Faint jeers from the crowd drifted toward
them on the wind. They appeared to be laughing at what he was saying. She hated
to take her eyes off Drew even for a moment but forced herself to look at the
guard.

He was impossibly thin. Sandy
hair fell limply across his pale face. He bore all his weight on his left leg,
as if his right side pained him. He shifted and grimaced. Recognition hit her
in a wave. In all the turmoil of the past weeks, she’d forgotten to ask if her
patient had recovered. Apparently, he had. “Avery Sneed,” she said to herself
as much as to Solomon and her father.

“I don’t think Mr. Sneed would be
escorting our captain to the hangman’s noose. Do you?”

Solomon sounded as if he’d moved
away. When she turned to find him, her movements were blocked by a solid chest.
Strong arms encircled her waist, closing the distance between them with a
squeeze that robbed her of her breath.

“I’d have Avery whipped with the
cat-o’-nine-tails if he ever even thought about it.”

She squirmed, trying to look into
her captor’s face. An oversized tricorn hat sporting a mauve plume covered the
top of his painted face, but she’d recognize the voice anywhere. She tore off
his hat and long white wig in one swift motion.

Sea-green eyes sparkled down at
her with amusement. “I take it you don’t like my borrowed clothes? Sorry. I had
to loan out the ones I had on.”

She wrapped her fingers in his
hair and pulled him down for a deep kiss. “You scared the bloody hell out of
me.” She kissed him again. “Who’s being hanged?” she asked when she finally let
him go.

Drew kissed her back, quick and
hard. When he lifted his head, he laughed in deep, melodic tones. “I hate to
tell you this, sweeting, but you now have more paint on your face than I do.”

“I don’t give a damn.” She pulled
him down for another kiss to prove it. “Now, answer my question.”

Drew wiped paint from the tip of
her nose and answered, “
El Diablo
. Who taught you how to curse like
that?”

“The Devil,” she whispered
against his lips. Her hands played in his hair.

“What else did he teach you?
Perhaps we should go to my cabin so you can show me.”

She put her palms against Drew’s
chest to push him away from her. “We should leave before that crowd realizes
there isn’t going to be a hanging.”

Drew rested his hand on her
shoulder. “There will be a hanging. But we should still make a hasty departure.
Solomon!” Drew turned away from her. “Are all the men accounted for besides
Avery? He’ll lie low for a few days, then meet us in the Bahamas.”

“Aye, Captain. I’ll be glad to
see the last of Barbados.” Felicity heard the relief in Solomon’s voice and
wondered if he had been as worried as she.

Her father brought the spyglass
to his eye, scanning the shore. “I think they’re going to hang that man, Drew.
I don’t want to see an innocent killed.”

Drew retrieved the wig and hat
from where it had landed on the deck. “You won’t. My brother is getting nothing
less than he deserves. He killed Marley and Beatrice. And my father.”

Felicity caught the edge of anger
in his voice, but suspected the hurt and betrayal that went deeper. She slid
her hand into his. “I’m so sorry. Did he hate you so much?”

Drew shrugged. “I don’t think he
cared about anyone else enough to actually hate them. We all just got in his
way. My father recognized me in his will, and my brother didn’t want that.
Marley met his fate because he tried to blackmail the Duke of Foxmoor.” Drew
glanced across the water to the distant shore. The expanse was too great to see
what transpired with the naked eye, but she suspected Drew could easily picture
his brother’s demise. “I’ve discovered there are worse things than being a pirate.”

Felicity turned to face him. “So,
you switched places with him. Did Samantha help you?”

Drew met her gaze with a slight
rise of his eyebrows. “Samantha? I didn’t know you two were on a first name
basis.” He kissed Felicity’s forehead, she guessed to reassure her for
something she no longer needed reassurance about. “I didn’t want her further
involved. I know my way around the Linley plantation very well on my own.
That’s where Solomon and I spent some miserable years toiling in the fields. We
still have a few friends there who were eager to help.”

“Precisely why I’m more than
ready to leave,” Solomon interrupted. “I haven’t let Hugh on deck since we’ve
been in Carlisle Bay. Shall we raise anchor?”

“Absolutely. Sam told me the duke
has a valet and secretary who travel with him, but everyone is used to his long
disappearances. I left Linley Hall in disguise before most of the staff awoke,
but I imagine someone will become suspicious before the day is out.”

“What if they discover they
hanged the wrong man?”

Drew smiled. “They won’t. They’ll
be happier believing the Duke of Foxmoor drowned than admit they hanged him in
place of a notorious pirate. Just to be sure, some witnesses will come forward
with some of the clothes he left on shore when he went for a swim.” Drew hooked
his arm through Felicity’s and started dragging her toward the companionway
that led below. “I need to talk to you. Solomon, get us out of here.”

“Aye, Captain.” Solomon eagerly
disappeared to follow Drew’s orders.

Before Felicity could dreamily
follow Drew below, her father blocked their path. The way he dropped his gaze
and cleared his throat burst her bubble of happiness. “I know Felicity is a
grown woman, but she’s still my daughter.

“Hold on, Ben. Let me talk to
Felicity in private, and I’m sure we can straighten out everything.”

Felicity pulled away from Drew.
If she followed him below, she’d surely lose her head. She didn’t doubt he
loved her—his actions had proved that—but how that love would be viewed by
society hadn’t occurred to her until now. She might have broken free of the
strict moral shame she’d been subjected to for most of her life, but the look
on her father’s face told her that loving Drew on Drew’s terms would be harder
than she expected. Even so, she’d not go back to her former life. Being
condemned as a fallen woman would be worth it to spend her life with Drew.

“It’s all right, Father. I love
him. I want to be with him.”

Drew grinned at her as if he
hadn’t expected her to defend him. “That’s good to hear.”

“At what price?” Her father
hooked his arm with hers and tried to pull her away. He looked at Drew. “We
survived this, but the life you lead is too dangerous for Felicity. And what if
there is a child?”

Drew’s gaze swung to Felicity.
When she shook her head no, he seemed to relax. Unfortunately, her father
brought to light consequences she hadn’t fully considered. She untangled
herself from her father’s grasp. “Let us speak in private.”

“I can settle this. Of course, I
preferred to do it in private so I didn’t have to make a fool of myself in
front of the crew.” Drew dropped to one knee. He glanced at her father. “Am I
doing this right?”

Her father nodded, the grin on
his face telling her he realized what Felicity could hardly believe. Drew took
her hands in his. A few sailors had stopped what they were doing to gape
openly.

“You’re ruining your bloodthirsty
reputation, Drew. You’d better get up before your crew thinks you’ve gone mad.”
Felicity’s voice sounded calm, though her insides were jangling uncontrollably.

“That’s all right. We’ll have to
get a new crew when they find out I’m leaving piracy. All except for Solomon
and Hugh, of course. Will you mind being a boring merchant’s wife?”

“Boring sounds wonderful to me.
But what about you?”

Drew glanced at Ben. “Can I get
up now?”

Ben nodded, but continued to
stare at them both with a grin on his face.

Drew stood and pulled Felicity
against him. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to provide all my excitement from
now on. New Orleans doesn’t have much in the way to offer for entertainment,
but it’s a young city. And more importantly, it’s not British. A good place for
all of us to start over.” Drew wrapped his arm around her waist and urged her
against him. “Fortunately, keeping me in a constant state of...” Drew glanced at
her father, then cleared his throat. “Keeping me entertained seems to be a
specialty of yours.”

Her father’s cheeks flushed. He
bowed politely. “I’ll leave you two alone now.”

The sails unfurled in a
protesting flap before they caught the wind and pushed the
Rapture
away
from Barbados.

“Are you sure about this, Drew?
As much as I love you, it’s hard for me to imagine you as the domestic sort.
And for you to settle down with one woman…” She let her sentence go unfinished
and shoved on his shoulders so she could gaze into his eyes. If she witnessed a
hint of regret there, she’d have to find the courage to let him go.

He didn’t relinquish his tight
embrace. “Oh, no. You’re not getting away from me this time. You’ve ruined my
taste for other women. No one has ever seen through me as effectively as you
have. Nor loved me despite it.”

The honesty she glimpsed in his
sincere gaze left her mouth dry. She touched his lips with her fingers. “How
could I not love you? You’ve done the same for me.”

He grabbed her hand and kissed
the center of her palm. “So, are we settled? It will be Monsieur and Madame.”
He paused. “There’s one problem. When we reach New Orleans, who shall we be?”

“All I want is to be your wife
and for you to be yourself.”

Drew took her arm and dragged her
into the relative privacy of the companionway in front of his cabin. Alone at
last, he kissed her with slow, possessive adoration. When he pulled away, they
both had trouble breathing. “I’m counting on you to help me figure out exactly
who that is. In the meantime, I’ll discover the rest of what you’ve been
hiding, my passionate little Puritan.”

She reached down and toyed with
the top button of his breeches. “Let’s start now. I think I have a few freckles
you’ve missed.”

He dipped down and swept her up
in his arms. After he wrestled the portal to his cabin open, he grinned
wickedly, then nipped her shoulder through her clothing. “Freckles suit you. If
I have my way—and I will—that’s all you’ll be wearing for a very long time.”

She buried her face in the crook
of his neck. This time, she believed every word.

IMPROPER PLEASURES

By

Cheryl Howe

Lady Astra Keane
ruins herself a second time by seducing her late husband’s younger American
cousin when he arrives in England to inherit a title and the estate she loves.
Discovering she has no funds to start a new life, Astra justifies her
proposition to secretly become James’s mistress in bed, in addition to his
estate, as the only hope of providing a stable environment for her daughter.
Her arrangement with James Keane allows Astra to remain the mistress of her
home while she explores her long denied passions with a man she finds
irresistibly attractive . Though warned not to fall in love with her paramour,
Astra soon discovers she’ll never make a proper mistress to James. Her heart
has become involved but she refuses to give up the affair.

James Keane knows
Astra is hiding secrets about her past, but he finds he can’t resist her offer
to become his mistress. He makes it clear that he’ll be returning to America as
soon as he turns around the bankrupt estate he’s inherited. Though he has no
reason to trust her, James doesn’t believe Astra could be involved with the
string of accidents that have befallen him since his arrival. Rumors of the
Keane Curse leads James to believe his misfortune has a human source, one that
he intends to uncover. He only hopes his investigation doesn’t reveal he has
fallen in love with a woman who wants him dead.

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Other
Books by Cheryl Howe

Secret
Pleasures

After
the Ashes

The
Pirate’s Jewel -coming July 2013

Cheryl Howe writes sexy
historical romance novels with strong characters in sensual settings. She is an
avid reader and would rather bury her head in a book than do just about
anything else. She published her first novel in 2003. When she’s not reading or
writing, she tries to balance her time between cooking healthy gluten-free
meals, not ignoring her husband, and catering to her menagerie of house pets.
She lives in Southern California with an understanding husband, two spoiled
dogs, a demanding cat and a bright yellow parakeet.