The Sea Rose (7 page)

“
I’ll wait for you here.
You don’t want lightning bolts striking the church, do you?” he
teased.

While he paced, Jack wondered what was
going on in the unnaturally quiet pirate capital. He had noticed
the unusual activity in and around the port area and it concerned
him. Two man-o-war ships flying the British flag were anchored
outside the harbor. Using the spy glass, he’d also seen a British
flag flying from the Fort, and a French ship burned in the
bay.

The quartermaster, Mr. Blake, had also
registered the disturbance but, other than an exchange of looks,
neither of the men had spoken of it aloud. The Neptune’s Revenge’s
flag, a red banner with a black skull wearing a crown, had been
quietly lowered and not replaced with another flag. Jack thought it
best not to announce their arrival too loudly for once. Everything
inside him said stealth and subtlety were the way to go.

He hadn’t seen a single one of his
compatriots since entering the city. Usually Nassau teemed with
sailors and pirates and other unsavory characters. Used to every
street corner being manned by prostitutes and drunks, the city’s
subdued quiet was unsettling, and a sense of dread spread through
him.

“
Jack.”

He spun around at the sound of his
name and saw his friend, Captain Ben Hornigold approaching. “Ben,”
Jack called out. “What the bloody hell is going on? Where is
everyone?”

“
There’s a new Governor.
Some British bloke named Woodes Rogers. He’s here to rout us out.
He’s doing a good job of it too.”

“
Where did everyone go?”
There were so many questions. Jack didn’t even know where to begin.
“Why are you still here?”

“
Charlie Vane set that
Frenchie ship ablaze and then blew out of here, firin’ his guns and
thumbing them off. That was yestereve.”

“
But what of England or
Teach? I can’t believe that they turned tail and ran.” Those
pirates were practically Nassau royalty. Jack couldn’t believe they
would give up all they owned here.

“
That bastard Blackbeard
ran north. England’s not been here, but he’ll run too.” Hornigold
sounded very confident and clearly loved spreading the
gossip.

“
If this Rogers fellow is
so dangerous, what are you still doing here?”

“
He’s got pardons for the
cap’ns who surrender to ‘em. I got nothing left, Jack. My armada is
gone, the traitorous, mutinying bastards.” Hornigold spit into the
street in disgust. “All signed with Blackbeard. What do I have to
lose?”

Jack was aghast. “You
surrendered?”

“
Rogers let me keep my
ship and give me a crew if I go hunt down Vane.” Hornigold
shrugged. “Better’n stretching my neck like those sots at the
pier.”

“
I saw ‘em.” Jack shook
his head in disgust.

“
You go surrender, Jack.”
Hornigold clapped his friend on the shoulder in parting and
continued on his way down the street.

“
I can’t do that….” Jack
did have something to lose, if it wasn’t already lost. “I’ll have
to come up with something else.”

“
Keep your handsome head
on yer neck. You’ll get the same deal as me, I bet.” The turncoat
pirate called over his shoulder when he rounded the
corner.

“
What deal?” Roselyn asked
as she strode down the church steps. She peered down the street but
Hornigold was gone. “I don’t know why you were so worried about me
in this town. There’s no one here.”

“
There are very dangerous
changes afoot,” was all he offered by way of an explanation. He
grabbed the first urchin on the street and gave him urgent
whispered instructions. He sent the boy away with several coins and
a purposeful expression.

Jack offered the lady his arm, and
they headed down the walk. He concentrated on conrolling the urge
to throw her over his shoulder and race back for the ship. But he
knew, as much as he loved and wanted her, he needed to do the best
thing for Rose. He would escort her to the fiancé’s house and prove
to himself that this Rupert was the right man for his
Rose.

They found Rupert’s little, white
house only several blocks away. As they entered the tiny yard, the
front door swung open and two doxies stumbled out of the house,
laughing brightly. Roselyn stopped and stared with slatted eyes at
the two painted women, one with bright-red, hennaed hair and the
other a blond. Their breasts were practically falling out of their
bodices and their faces were done up with powder and rouge. Her
first thought was that Rupert must be ministering to their souls,
but that thought quickly extinguished.

“
Handsome Jack!” the blond
squealed in delight. “We used up the preacher, but we’ve got plenty
left for you!”

“
Come back to Wilhelmina’s
with us, Jack,” the red-head cooed, running her hands up Jack’s
chest in a manner entirely too familiar as far as Roselyn was
concerned. “Everybody else’s gone and me and the rest of the girls
is lonely.”

“
Cora. Prissy.” He nodded
to the two women, and Roselyn was pleased to see he deftly removed
Cora’s hands from his person before the harlot felt the need to
grab anything lower than his belt. With his subtle rejection, the
two prostitutes noticed Roselyn for the first time.

Cocking her hand on her hip, Prissy
asked, “Who’s the fancy lady?”

“
I am Miss Roselyn
Weldon,” her tone was dry and hard. “I am Reverend Merickel’s
fiancée.”

The floozies howled with laughter.
“Good luck with that dry old fart,” Cora crowed.

“
Yeah,” Prissy chimed in,
“I hate to think of the poor woman who has to do him for
free.”

With that horrible recommendation
hanging in the air, the women flounced off, blowing kisses to Jack
as they strode from the gate, laughing with contemptuous
glee.

With newly minted confidence, Roselyn
marched towards the open front door only to find her fiancé
standing in the middle of the parlor buttoning his pants, his shirt
tails still hanging out. Roselyn gasped in disbelief. This was her
fiancé?

“
Miss Weldon!” Surprise
evident in Rupert’s voice as well as his expression. “What are you
doing here?”

“
I sent a letter informing
you I was coming. Father died and I had nowhere to go.” Rupert
stood there blinking at her so she continued speaking to fill the
silence, inane, stupid words she wished she could stop. “I wrote
you I was coming. I sent a letter when he died.”

“
I never got any post. We
aren’t to be married for another year.” Rupert had clearly snapped
out of his shock. “You need to return home posthaste.”

“
Home? I just got
here.”

“
Don’t get smart with me,
Roselyn,” he snapped at her. He seemed to be hitting his stride
now. “And just what in tarnation are you wearing? You look like a
whore.” By now his clothes were put to rights, even the clerical
collar was tucked neatly in place.

“
I guess you’d know,” she
hissed back at him.

Behind her, she heard Jack slowly
approach the doorway. He snorted at her comment.

“
How dare you talk to me
in that manner. You know nothing of men’s needs.” Rupert was in
fine minister mode now. All he needed was his pulpit.

“
My horizons are being
broadened,” she retorted, dryly.

“
By this man?” Rupert
demanded, gesturing to Jack who leaned on the doorjamb watching the
scene unfold before him with great interest. “Do you have carnal
knowledge of this man? Your father is spinning in his
grave.”

“
Never mind about my
father. Aren’t you the hypocrite?” Roselyn planted both hands on
her hips. She barely recognized the man before her. She had never
loved him, but she thought she had at least respected him. She had
believed the man to whom she’d been engaged to be a pious man of
the cloth, a harsh critic of pleasure in any form. The judgmental,
hypocrite before her was not the man she thought she knew. Even if
he did still want her, she would refuse to marry him
now.

“
I will not take a ruined
woman to wife,” he roared at her. “You have lain with this filthy
pirate. No one will have you now.” He lifted his hand as if he made
to strike her.

Rupert was still screaming at Roselyn,
his face turning puce, before he noticed too late that the giant
pirate was almost on top of him.

Before the weasely, little man could
even get up a good head of steam, Jack pushed away from the door
jamb and purposefully strode through the room, tossing furniture
out of his way in order to make a straight path to the man. He
picked up the pasty skinned bastard by the throat and slammed him
up against the wall, the minister’s toes dangling a good inch from
the floor.

“
You will apologize to the
lady,” Jack spoke with a quiet, terrifying voice. There was no need
to yell. He could smell the acrid stench that proved the minister
had already pissed himself.

Rupert gasped for air. “I can’t marry
a fallen woman. I’m a man of the cloth.”

“
You will refer to her as
Miss Weldon,” Jack spoke clearly and slowly, “and you will
apologize to her.” He squeezed his hands a little tighter around
the minister’s neck. “I can’t hear you.”

Point in fact, Rupert did make a
little squeaking sound when Jack gave him a shake and waved the
minister’s soft body about.

Roselyn placed her hand on his arm.
“You’re killing him, Jack.” She was thrilled that he had come to
her defense, no one had ever intervened during her father’s rants
and punishments, but she couldn’t allow Jack to kill the man in her
name. “Let him go. He won’t hurt me now.”

Jack released the pathetic man from
his grip and the minister fell to the floor in a heap, dragging in
ragged breaths.

“
I’m taking Miss Weldon
with me,” Jack told the cowering vicar. “Consider your arrangement
terminated.”

Her pirate took her by the hand and
headed for the door, but she pulled her hand free. She smiled to
reassure him, and then strode back to her ex-fiancé with a gleam in
her eye.

Rupert watched her approach with a
leery expression, and visibly flinched when she knelt down next to
him on the floor. She pulled back her arm and slapped him with an
open hand leaving a very satisfying palm print across his cheek.
“That’s for all the women you’ve humiliated, Rupert.”

Behind her Jack roared with laughter,
his approval of her revenge evident.

Chapter Ten

Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her
from the tawdry little house and the spectacle of her fiancé
splayed out on this rug. Roselyn couldn’t suppress a giggle that
bubbled in the back of her throat. She couldn’t even tamp it down
when she realized she had nowhere to go and no means to support
herself now that she found herself stranded in the Caribbean. Jack
grinned at her as they rounded the picket fence and burst through
the little gate, his teeth white and gleaming under the sensual
mustache. Roselyn stomach tightened recalling the tactile knowledge
of exactly how that mustache felt against her skin.

“
I cannot believe your
father wished you to marry that useless prig.” Jack’s scalawag grin
drew down into a scowl. “I can’t imagine a man less fitting for
you, Rose.”

Roselyn didn’t wish to disrespect her
father, even from the grave, but she couldn’t agree more. She was a
changed woman, and not just because she’d lost her virginity to a
famous pirate. For the first time, she had control over her life.
She wasn’t marrying that “prig” as Jack called him, a more fitting
description she didn’t know. She had no idea what she was going to
do with her life, or what other outlandish twists were in store,
but she was filled with excitement at the possibility like she’d
never been before.

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed
him full on the lips. “Thank you.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist
and pulled her tight against him. “For what?”

“
Standing up for me.” She
kissed his lips again, this time lingering a little longer than
before. “No one’s ever done that for me before. Ever.”

“
I am forever at your
service,” he grinned at her. He took her hand and continued with
her along the narrow, dirt lane. “I have a few things to do before
the tide this evening.”

Roselyn considered her own situation.
Right then and there, she vowed her life from this moment forward
would be an adventure. “I do, too,” she admitted.

Jack raised their clasped hands to his
mouth and pressed a quick kiss to her knuckles, then pulled a
leather pouch from a pocket and wrapped her fingers around it.
“You’ll need some clothes. You won’t be able to run around in just
that frock, as lovely as you are in it, forever.”

She looked at him with a hopeful
glance. “I’d hoped to see what other dresses you had in the hold
that might fit. You said there were trunks of them down
there.”