Christine Dorsey - [Sea 01] (24 page)

“Fine.”

“Fine? Fine!” Jack faced Henry. “What are you talking about ‘fine’?”

“I had no intentions of your living with her anyway. I don’t care what the hell you do after you marry her. But you
are
going to marry her.”

“God’s blood.” Jack sank into the chair beside the hearth and dropped his head into his hands. “There’s just no reasoning with you. It was the same thing when you came up with this scheme to kidnap your daughter. ‘Take her off for a fortnight. Keep her from going to the constable because I don’t want her to know I’m your partner,’ you said. ‘What could go wrong?’ Well, plenty went wrong.”

“And just whose fault was that?”

“Mine. Mine. It was all my fault.”

“Then, marry her.”

“Nay.”

“You tarnished her virtue.”

Jack’s head whipped up. He wished more than anything he could deny what Henry said. But he couldn’t. He could only stare. And the next time Henry insisted that he marry Miranda, he didn’t protest.

“Good.” Henry nodded curtly. “I knew you’d see the right of it. You’re not a bad sort, even—”

“If I am a disgusting pirate?”

Henry didn’t see fit to respond to that. He pulled on a silk wrapper and motioned toward the door “Let’s go tell Miranda what we’ve decided. I’m certain it will relieve her mind.”

“Oh, she’s certain to be pleased,” Jack said, but was sure the sarcasm was lost on Henry. Things were not working out at all the way he wanted. But in truth they hadn’t since he first set eyes on Miranda Chadwick. And now he was going to marry the wench.

Jack had half a notion to bolt out of the house and never set foot in the Carolinas again. But he guessed Henry had a point. Marrying Miranda probably was the right thing to do. But damn it galled him.

With a sigh of resignation Jack preceded Henry to the bedroom door. He yanked it open and found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol.

“Miranda, put down the gun.” Jack took a tentative step toward her but stopped—abruptly— when she thrust out her arm, aiming right at his chest.

“Miranda.” Henry took up the gauntlet. “What are you doing, child? Give me the pistol. I’ll take care of this disgusting pirate for you.” His voice was soft and placating. “Actually, we’ve already worked out something that will soothe some of the pain he’s caused you.”

“A forced wedding?” Miranda was pleased to see the shocked expressions on both, their faces. “I don’t think so.” She motioned them back with the muzzle. “Now, would you both please be seated? The bed will be fine. Oh, and Captain Blackstone, lay your pistol on the bedside table.”

Jack yanked the gun from his waistband, disgusted with himself. The shock of looking down the barrel of a pistol held by Miranda Chadwick had made him forget he was even armed. Would the woman never cease to surprise him? He laid the weapon aside. It certainly wasn’t as if he would use it on her. Any more than she seriously planned to shoot him... he hoped.

But accidents could happen. And the way she held onto the gun butt, her delicate fingers strained white around the trigger... “Miranda.” Jack tried to keep his voice calm. “I suggest you put the gun down before someone gets hurt. You don’t even know how to use it.”

“Oh, but I do. You told me, remember?”

“
You
taught my daughter to shoot a gun?” Henry twisted on the bed to fix Jack with his incredulous stare.

“We were attacked by a Spanish ship at Snebley’s Creek.” If Jack had ever suspected that Henry had informed the Spanish about the secret cove, his distrust dissipated when he saw the expression on his partner’s face.

“Yes, he taught me.” Miranda brought their attention back to herself and the weapon she held. “But even if he hadn’t, I could have figured it out. Firing a pistol is a rather simple principal actually. The friction of the metal hitting flint causes a spark to ignite the gunpowder which in turn...” Miranda lifted her eyes to see both men staring at her. “Never mind. Suffice it to say, I know how to fire a gun.”

“But knowing how to fire it and killing a man with it are two different things, Miranda.” Jack held her gaze for a long moment.

“I realize that. And I have no intention of shooting anyone.” Again she aimed the gun at Jack’s chest. The motion effectively stopped him from sliding off the bed. “Unless you make it necessary.”

“Now, Miranda, this thing has gone far enough. As your father I demand that you put down that weapon and listen to reason.”

“What reason is that, Papa?” The gun didn’t lower so much as an inch.

“Well I...” Henry sputtered, then started again, “this wedding, I suppose. Though how you know of it is—”

“I listened at the door of course.”

“Miranda!” Henry ran his hand over his sparse hair. “That is not something a lady does.”

“Perhaps not. However, after having been subjected to this mockery of a kidnapping, I thought it only—”

“What are you talking about mockery? Why I—

“Give it up, Henry.” Jack let out his breath on a sigh. “‘Tis obvious she knows.”

“Of course I know.” Miranda tried to keep her anger from spilling into her words. “Who with any intelligence and using Frances Bacon’s theory of inductive reasoning couldn’t have figured it out?” She began pacing the room but turned abruptly when she sensed movement on the bed. Jack lifted his palms in submission.

“What’s she talking about?” Henry wanted to know.

“I have no idea. But knowing your daughter, I’m sure she’ll explain it to us.”

Miranda lifted her chin. “Perhaps I won’t.”

“No, please, enlighten us.” Jack didn’t try to hide the sarcasm in his tone. “Perhaps the knowledge will help the next time I stage a... what was it? Ah, yes, a mockery of a kidnapping.”

The smile Miranda gave him was too sweet to be sincere. “I simply made a generalization based on specific observations.”

Jack’s golden brow lifted. “Such as?”

“First of all you two obviously know each other and, more to the point, seem to be friends. How could you not have known he was a pirate, Papa?” Henry sputtered again, but Miranda gave him no time to respond. “It’s not logical to assume you didn’t.”

“So I’m kidnapped from my own home, and my own father does nothing to stop it.” She caught Jack’s eyes. “The story about tying him up was convincing at first...”

Jack gave a slight nod to acknowledge her remark.

“However, taken with everything else it didn’t reason true.”

“What else gave it away?” Jack couldn’t help being impressed by her figuring out the ruse... even if she did have a gun trained on him.

“The ransom for one thing. First it was to be collected at the creek, then not. Your concern for the money seemed incidental. I don’t think in a real kidnapping that would be true.

“You also seemed overly concerned with my well-being. Granted I’ve had little experience with pirates—you and your men are the only ones I’ve known—but I doubt that my safety would be a pirate’s main priority if I’d been abducted only for the coin.”

“Perhaps I was merely protecting my investment,” Jack offered.

“Perhaps. Of course, I really began to wonder after we forni—made love. You appeared so distraught.”

“God’s blood, I was not distraught!” Jack jumped off the mattress despite the pistol. How in the hell could she bring that up?

Miranda merely shrugged. “You seemed so to me.”

“Do you see what I’ve had to contend with?” Jack faced Henry, who still sat perched on the bed. “Do you see?”

“It appears to me that
I
am the one who has had to withstand adversity... and at both your hands.”

”Miranda, I’m your father—”

“Which is probably why what you did to me hurts the most. All those years while I was in England I imagined you here wanting me with you... loving me—”

“I do love you. I do.” Now Henry joined Jack beside the bed. “I just couldn’t bare for you to know... to know the truth about me.”

“That you have a partnership with a pirate?”

“Dammit Jack, you told her!”

“Nay, I didn’t tell her anything.” Jack crossed his arms. “Haven’t you discovered by now there is little that escapes your daughter... especially when she listens at doors.” His golden head turned. “I think the question now is what you intend to do?”

“I’m not certain.” Miranda wished she had some time, some quiet, solitary time to think this problem through. She was sure of one thing. “I have no intention of marrying you.”

“If you were listening carefully through the keyhole, you must know that wasn’t
my
idea.” She didn’t have to act as if being his wife was the worst fate she could imagine.

“That’s fine, because I will not do it. Though perhaps it would be a just punishment for you.”

“Pirates are normally hung, not imprisoned.” Jack spat out the words, but as he saw the color drain from her face, he wished them back. Despite the gun,
and
that she seemed to view marriage to him as a fate worse than death, he didn’t want to hurt her. Besides, he supposed she had a right to feel the way she did about this whole thing. Jack just wished he weren’t in the middle of it.

Especially when Henry continued to play the outraged father.

“I still think marriage between the two of you is the solution,” Henry said before shuffling barefooted to the window. “It’s the only way to right the wrong Jack did to you.”

“It wasn’t entirely Captain Blackstone’s fault.” Miranda had her reasons for being angry, but she also intended to be honest.

“It sure as hell was,” Jack insisted. He was going to be gentleman enough to take the blame for his seduction. Though he certainly hadn’t set out to ravish Miranda, the result was the same.

“This arguing is getting us nowhere.” Henry lifted pleading hands toward his daughter. “I just want what’s best for you. And I want to know if you can ever forgive me.”

Miranda opened her mouth to speak, though in truth she didn’t know what she planned to say. But a pounding on the downstairs door startled her. She swirled around and, in the same moment, felt the pistol yanked from her grip.

“I don’t think you’ll be needing this anymore,” Jack said, before slipping the gun into his waistband.

“Who in the hell could that be?” Henry padded into the hallway and looked over the banister.

“Scar’s the only one who knows I’m here,” Jack said, racing down the stairs. He wanted to get to the door before the noise woke the entire street. “And he wouldn’t come here unless there was trouble.”

Jack rounded the newel just as Chloe came shuffling out from the back of the house. “What’s all this racket?” the old black woman mumbled. “Loud ‘nough to wake the dead.”

 “Don’t you worry yourself about it.” Jack headed her off as she reached for the doorknob. He turned her, giving her plump shoulders a hug. “You go on back to bed.”

“Mister Jack! Shoulda know’d ya had somehin’ to do with this,” she said, before retreating back to her bedroom.

Jack jerked open the door to the piazza, ran across the wooden porch and yanked on that door—so quickly that Scar’s shocked expression seemed frozen on his face as Jack dragged him inside.

“What the hell are you doing? I thought I told you we were sneaking Mistress Chadwick back to her home.”

“That’s just it, Cap’n. They knows about it. And they’re comin’ for ye.”

“Who’s coming? What are you talking about?” Jack had Scar by the lapels of his scruffy jacket and was lifting him till only the toes of his salt-crusted boots touched the flooring.

“Joshua Peterson, the king’s revenuer.”

Jack lowered Scar and sliced a quick glance toward Henry.

“He’s still in Charles Town. You didn’t stay away long enough. I told you a fortnight.” Henry scurried onto the piazza, followed by Miranda.

“But that doesn’t explain why he’d come after me. Unless...” Again his eyes found Henry’s. “Did you tell people your daughter was kidnapped?”

“No. I said she was down with the fever. There was never any question that she was anywhere but in her room.”

“The servants?”

“Didn’t know the truth. Besides, they’re all loyal.”

Jack couldn’t argue with that. But if Henry didn’t tell, that left... Jack’s eyes narrowed and fixed on Miranda. “Is that why you were holding me there at gunpoint? Were you waiting for the king’s men to get here?”

“No.” Miranda couldn’t help squirming under that green gaze of his, even though she knew she was innocent. “I was with you, remember.”

“Not after I brought you home. You were sent off to your room.”

“And listened at the door instead, except for when I ran downstairs to get the pistol from Papa’s desk,” Miranda reminded him.

Jack dug his fingers back through his hair and let out an exasperated breath. “All right.” He addressed this to Scar, who was still busy straightening his clothes. “Tell me what you saw.”

“Didn’t
see
nothin’ ‘ceptin’ some tars down at the Rusty Pelican. But I done
heard
me an earful. Word is that someone done seen the
Sea Hawk
in the harbor and sent for the customs officer and the constable.”

“What in the hell for? We dock in the harbor all the time.”

“Kidnappin’.” Scar spit the word out. “They was all talkn’ ’bout it. Knew ‘bout her ladyship bein’ with us and ‘bout Henry here, too.”