The Pirate's Jewel (25 page)

He got off the bed. “I was honest with you. I told you about
Bellamy because I wanted to make the best of a bad situation. You agreed to
marry me, and now you act like a petulant child.”

Jewel scrambled up, clutching the sheet to cover her body.
“A petulant child? A bad situation?” She paused, shocked. “Is that all I am to
you, a bad situation?”

Nolan yanked on his pants. He was still fully aroused, and
Jewel thought she saw his jaw jump as he fastened the last button at his waist.
“It started off like that. But…I want to make this work. Why can’t we just pretend
the past never happened?”

Jewel tugged at his arm as he tried to pull on his shirt.
“Because I’m hurt. Why can’t you understand that?”

“Don’t you think I’m hurt? No. I can’t argue with you any
more. There are things I should be doing on deck. We’re going to put into port
tomorrow.” He reached down and picked up her nightgown, tossed it to her. “Get
some sleep. It’s been a long day.”

“Don’t walk out on me. Let’s talk about this.”

“You don’t want to talk. You just want to condemn me,” he snapped.

“Because you won’t tell me what happened. Explain things
to me, so I can understand. Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding, an
accident.”

Nolan held Jewel’s gaze. The slow shake of his head reflected
the finality in his fathomless blue eyes. “It wasn’t an accident. I’m not going
to tell you about it, because you don’t need to know.” He raked his hands through
his hair. “You can’t even touch me anymore because of what I told you. Do you
think I’m going to give you more details?”

Jewel glanced down at her curling toes, unable to take the
look of rejection in his eyes. She had lost her father, and now she was losing
Nolan. The broken quality in his voice told her she had pushed him too far. She
glanced up. She wanted to go to him and wipe away the hurt she saw in his eyes,
but she couldn’t. She had too much hurt lingering in her own heart. “Well, are you
sorry you did it? Are you at least sorry you killed my father?”

Nolan’s face became a mask. “No.” He turned and walked out
the door.

***

Nolan let the breeze cool his heated body. His loose shirt
billowed against him, even its light fabric teasing his charged lust. He cursed
himself for rushing Jewel; he had lost his head. But she was his bride. His
wife. It was his right to lose himself in her body, and he had been drunk with
the knowledge.

He had conveniently pushed aside the rift between them in
anticipation of gorging himself on her flesh. But she hadn’t forgotten. She
wouldn’t. She couldn’t stand his touch, and it ripped a hole through his heart
more efficiently than Bellamy’s blade could ever do. Jewel’s father had won,
and the stolen ring on his daughter’s finger gloated in victory.

Nolan stared off across the water. Would Bellamy Leggett
ever die?

Seeing Wayland sitting on the companionway, his feet resting
on the ladder’s top rung, stopped Nolan short before he reached for the ladder
leading above deck. He glanced around, looking for a way to avoid him. Ever since
they had stopped for supplies on St. Martin, the old pirate had been watching
his every move. No doubt Wayland was up to no good, but Nolan had too much on
his mind to care.

He’d been avoiding Jewel, sleeping in a hammock on deck.
Not that he’d been an inattentive husband. He’d gone out of his way to try to
make sure her meals were better than usual. When Wayland had inadvertently caught
a lobster one night, he’d had it prepared especially for Jewel. Though he had
dined with her, eating the usual fare of salted meat and biscuit stew, she’d
been sullen, eventually admitting she was menstruating.

Which meant she wasn’t pregnant. There was less of a need
to continue with this miserable ordeal that was their marriage. The wedding had
yet to be recorded anywhere except in Nolan’s log. It would be just as easy to
dissolve the private union as not. Yet that knowledge only alerted Nolan to how
much Jewel had come to mean to him. He wanted to make things right with his
wife—and before they found any treasure and she decided she wanted out. Getting
her with child was the surest way.

Wayland leaned his head between his knees to yell down at
him, distracting Nolan from thoughts of bedding Jewel. “Are you coming up?”

There was no escape. “Are you moving?” he responded.

“Actually, Captain, I’ve been meaning to have a word with
you, and this seems like as good a time as any.”

Nolan grabbed the ladder. He would force his way through
even if he had to step on Wayland. “I’m busy.”

The old pirate scrambled out of his path. Once Nolan set
foot on the main deck, he made long strides to the quarterdeck. The sun beat
through the thin cotton of his shirt, sending a trickle of sweat down between
his shoulder blades. Fat cumulus clouds hung suspended in the sky, unruffled by
even the slightest breeze, warning that the fierce heat had no intention of
abating.

Wayland stayed on Nolan’s heels, unaffected by Nolan’s
desire to be rid of him or the oppressive temperature that silenced even the
ship’s caged hens. “Got something to talk about, and I don’t think ya want the
whole crew hearing.”

Nolan stopped abruptly. There were several things Wayland
knew that he would rather forget. And several more he didn’t want anyone else
to know. “What is it? Be quick. I want to see if the island’s been spotted
yet.”

“That’s just what I wanted to speak to you about. That and
your wife—or lack of one, you might say.”

Nolan’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

Wayland smiled. “Ya make the perfect pirate captain with
those dark brows and your wicked scowl.”

Nolan had stopped fooling himself he had any willpower
left where Jewel was concerned. His present situation proved that. “Tell me
what you know about my wife.”

“Nothing about the girl. You’re the problem. Not many
females warm up to a husband who would rather sleep with his crew than his
wife.”

“You don’t know anything about it.” Nolan shaded his eyes
and studied the progress of a crewman who’d climbed into the rigging to free a
tangled line. The man quickly completed the task, and the sail coughed, and then
inhaled enough wind to fill its belly. Nolan glanced back at Wayland.

Sometime over the last months, the old salt’s weathered
visage and mismatched eyes had again become familiar, almost comforting. Not
that, even back when Nolan was a lad on Bellamy’s ship, Wayland could have ever
been called anything close to a guardian; it was just that Nolan knew he could
always come to Wayland and ask for the brutal truth. Even after Bellamy had
stolen his map and assured Nolan it was for his own good, Wayland had told him
he’d just been duped. If only Nolan had had the insight to ask whether
Bellamy’s friendship could be relied upon, he had no doubt Wayland would have
steered him true. “Jewel can’t forgive me for killing her father, and—”

Wayland cocked his head and studied Nolan. “I don’t
believe that. That girl’s too much in love with you to think straight. It’s you
who won’t forgive yourself.”

Nolan swallowed hard. “I wish that were true. But I’m glad
I ended Bellamy’s reign of terror. My only regret is that I didn’t do it
sooner.”

“That’s what I mean. You’re not guilty ’cause you did
Bellamy in. You feel bad because you’re glad about it. All that Bible schooling
your father gave you doesn’t work in the life we lead. You’re judging yourself
by a preacher’s standards. Well, a preacher wouldn’t have survived a day on
Bellamy Leggett’s ship.”

Nolan almost laughed, but his humor quickly soured.
“You’re wrong about that. Bellamy would have taken great pleasure in ruining
such a man’s soul.”

“That’s what you think Bellamy did to you, eh? I don’t
believe it. You’re too strong for that. You did what you wanted and blame
Bellamy for leading you there.”

Nolan’s smile faded. “I never wanted to end up like him.”

“You didn’t. But you ain’t no choirboy, either. Accept that
about yourself, and get on with it. You’re decent enough. Bed your wife. Make
things right before it’s too late.”

“‘Decent enough’ coming from you makes me fear I’m in
worse shape than I thought. And as far as my wife is concerned…I don’t intend
to force her.”

Wayland cleared his throat and spit on the deck. “Enough
of that talk, lad. Don’t think I don’t remember the fights you and Bellamy got
in over the treatment of our women passengers. You wouldn’t hurt any woman, I
know. But you don’t have to. Sweet Jesus, why do you think just because you got
a little fire in your veins that you’re the devil himself? Just show her you’re
interested. Show her that fire.”

Nolan crossed his arms over his chest. As much as he longed
to believe Wayland, he couldn’t trust the man any more than he could his own
lust-clouded thoughts. Especially not on the subject of bedding his wife. “I
don’t need moralizing from you. What do you mean, before it’s too late?”

Wayland poked him hard in the chest. “You better set things
right with your woman afore we get to the island. There are ghosts there, and
they’re liable to haunt you more than Jewel.”

Nolan ignored what would have been a physical challenge
from any other man. How did Wayland know so much about his marriage? He knew
things Nolan hadn’t even admitted to himself.

Nolan forced himself to ask his next question with a trace
of mockery, though he secretly hoped for a real answer. “And how do you suggest
to make things right with a woman who abhors my touch? My mere presence makes
her think of her dead father.”

“Bah. That’s in your head.”

Nolan raked his fingers through his hair. “Believe me, it’s
not.” Whenever he was around Jewel, rational thought escaped him. A more
aggressive and demanding part of his anatomy took over, driving him to be all
the things he hated. His passions ruled. But still he saw her fear, her
loathing.

“Make your wife yours, lad. Don’t let Bellamy come between
you. Stop looking for Jewel to forgive you for something you had to do. Force
her hand. Take her guilt away.”

Nolan shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Wayland put his hands on his hips. “Be ruthless. You got
it in you. Seduce her. Be firm with her. Just do what you have to do. And don’t
let her take on the guilt for something she had nothing to do with. Of course
she feels bad about lying with her father’s killer. She’s a softhearted woman
with way too much love and forgiveness.”

Nolan stared at the deck. “You’re right. I don’t deserve
her.”

“At last we agree on something. You don’t deserve her—not
the way you’re acting now, so you better start being a better man. It’s obvious
the chit loves you, though why is a mystery to me. We both know Bellamy was a rotten
father. He’ll only hurt the girl more if you give him the chance. You, on the
other hand, are her husband. And you could be a good one. Give her what she
wants—a man who loves her. She wants to love you. Let her. Be man enough to
take on the guilt, and love her till she’s too senseless to even think of the
no-good father who deserted her.”

Nolan’s head reeled with Wayland’s words. He had been
wanting Jewel’s absolution. The realization left him feeling small and selfish.
It wasn’t Jewel’s responsibility to absolve him from the guilt that still crept
upon him every time he thought of what he had done to Bellamy.

Yet Wayland’s advice sounded too good to be true. And
since it was coming from Wayland, it probably was. In the past, Wayland had
always championed Bellamy. Suspicion clouded Nolan’s burst of hope. “
Don’t
let Bellamy do more harm to his daughter?
What happened to not speaking ill
of the dead?”

Wayland grinned. “A sudden interest in the living.”

Nolan didn’t ask for any more information. He didn’t care.
The old pirate had helped him open his eyes, no matter his motives. At his
first opportunity, Nolan would make Jewel his wife in reality. He would no
longer expect her to come to him without doubts. He would kiss away those
doubts. He would no longer expect her to turn against her childhood image of a
man who didn’t exist. He would give her one who did.

Nolan felt he’d just been released from a gibbet. “Climb
up to the crow’s nest with me and let’s see if our course is right,” he said to
Wayland. He started walking in the direction of the main mast.

The bustle of excited shouts reached them before they found
their destination. Nolan quickened his pace to discover the cause for
excitement. He hadn’t expected to find the island just yet, but there were some
narrow straits that could point them in the right direction.

Parker had climbed a quarter of the way up the mast. He
held on to a step and leaned out. A spyglass was fixed to his eye, and he
focused on something left of the horizon.

“What is it, Mr. Tyrell?” Nolan called.

Parker lowered the glass. “I hoped the watchman was wrong.
It’s a ship. Take a look yourself.”

Parker tossed down the telescope. Nolan caught it in one
hand and brought it to his eye. The ship was a sloop, faster than the
Integrity
but surely not as well armed. He didn’t see any reason for concern. Even if it
were British, he doubted it would be bold enough to attack. Nolan scanned the
length of the vessel. His gaze stopped at the black-and-white flag flying on
her stern.

Pirates!

As the hours passed, the pirate ship’s approach went from
a slow creep on the horizon to the speed of a dolphin slicing through the
water. Sunset was upon them. The other vessel would be at their side before the
turquoise sea extinguished the sun’s last fiery rays. Nolan rubbed his bristled
chin. His beard itched, but his gruff appearance would help his plan. He prayed
he wouldn’t see the approach of another  ship in the distance. He could handle
one. Two might defeat him, and he couldn’t be defeated.