Desire in the Sun (29 page)

Later that day, Lilah and Joss were on the same cliff from which they had watched the rape of the black-haired woman. Lying on their stomachs in the tall grasses that covered the top of the cliff, with the woven canopy of vine-covered treetops shielding them from the brilliance of the afternoon sun, they watched the activity on the beach below them.

The pirates’ careen had been completed two days before. The ship, which Joss identified as a brigantine because of its square masts, was afloat again, anchored in the sapphire waters of the bay. Small rowboats moved occasionally between ship and shore, ferrying men and materials both ways. There was no sign today of the unfortunate woman, or the majority of the crew. The
Magdalene,
the name painted in crude black letters along the ship’s prow, appeared largely deserted. Most of the crew had apparently come ashore early that morning in an all-out search for the missing crew members, which Joss reluctantly admitted worried him. As he told Lilah, no pirate crew likes to prolong their stay in such a small-mouthed bay. A ship at anchor in such a berth was, to all intents and purposes, helpless. Another ship approaching from the sea would have her trapped before she could even get her sails unfurled. The
Magdalene
could be captured without so much as a shot being fired.

For her captain to put his ship in such a position, delaying her departure by days, the missing men must be very sorely needed indeed.

On this day the search seemed to be concentrated on the far side of the island where Joss and Lilah had been living, thus they both felt reasonably secure in their perches, secure enough for Lilah to nearly give in to the heat and nap.

“We done looked up there oncet!”

The surly words brought Lilah fully alert. Joss was
staring behind them, toward where a crude path wound up the overgrown cliffside from the beach.

“Hell, like Cap’n said, you can see the whole beach from up there. Mebbe they fell off a cliff and was washed out to sea. Their bodies might turn up anytime, rolling in on a wave just as neat as you please. And we’d be the ones to find ‘em.”

The voices were nearby, perhaps some twenty feet below. Lilah couldn’t believe that the pirates had gotten so close without either herself or Joss hearing their approach. Disaster loomed. At the realization Lilah’s heart began pounding so loudly that it drowned out the next part of the pirates’ conversation. Panicked, she darted a look at Joss.

He shushed her with a gesture, then turned and slithered to where the nearly flat clifftop overlooked the path. On his stomach, he inched to the edge and peered over. Cautiously, crawling on her hands and knees, Lilah followed him. They both must have been nearly asleep for the pirates to get so close without being heard. They had made love until nearly dawn the night before. They were both tired, and being tired had made them careless. And being careless could cost them their lives. They were lucky, very lucky, that the pirates were taking no pains to be silent. If the pirates had climbed the cliff without speaking, Joss and Lilah would have been easy prey.

“Cap’n Logan is dead set on finding McAfee. Otherwise we’d a set sail yestermorn.”

The speaker was a small man, grizzled, wearing bright yellow pantaloons and an orange-striped shirt. His hair was shoulder-length and scraggly, and he had a patch over one eye. Lilah thought he looked as little like a bloodthirsty pirate as any man she’d ever seen. He was resting his hands on his knees as he stood bent over, trying to catch his breath. The climb from the beach was steep, and his words were punctuated by gasps.

“That log we took off the
Sister Sue
ain’t no good
without someone to read it, is it? And McAfee’s the only one who knows how to read it.”

The second pirate was younger and bigger, less short of breath but no less raggedy. Lilah frowned as she looked down at them. When she thought of pirates she thought of rich plunder and chests of jewels and gold, shared alike by all the crew. But from the looks of the men she had seen, if they possessed any chests of jewels and gold they’d converted none of it to clothing or personal possessions. To a man, the
Magdalene’s
crew seemed something less than prosperous. Or perhaps they just had an aversion to being well-dressed, or even clean.

“So? Who needs to read it? We got along just fine before we took it. Cap’n can steer by the stars. What’s he need a blamed book for?”

The younger of the two started to say something, hesitated, then looked about carefully. Satisfied that he and his companion were alone on the cliff, he continued in a lowered voice. “If I tell you somepin, Silas, you got to promise me it won’t go no further. Cap’n’d have my hide, did he know I listened to him talkin’ to McAfee.”

“What about?”

“Well …” The man again hesitated, clearly of two minds whether or not to reveal his secret.

“C’mon, Speare, you know you can trust me. Silas Hanks tells no tales, and never has.”

“Aye. Well, seems Cap’n’s heard tell of a treasure. It’s supposed to be hidden in a cave on an island marked in that log. That’s where we was headed when we finished the careen. Only now McAfee’s gone, and nobody else can make heads nor tails out of the scurvy book. That’s why Cap’n’s looking so bloody hard for McAfee.”

“Treasure, eh? Cap’n’s a mighty covetous man. I shoulda known it was somepin like that. I did know we sure weren’t lookin’ for Sugar-lips. That red-headed son-of-a-gun
ain’t no loss to nobody. If he ever did an honest day’s work in his life, I never saw ‘im at it.”

“Nah. All he was good for was diddlin’ the wimmin, and braggin’ about it afterwards.”

The two men looked at each other, and chortled. Then the older one, Silas, suddenly sobered.

“What you reckon happened to those boys, anyhow? We been over every blasted inch of this island twice. It’s like they just disappeared with nary a trace.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know as I want to know.”

“No.”

Both men glanced around uneasily.

“You don’t suppose as there’s headhunters on this island, do you? Or cannibals?”

“Damn it all, Silas, you think I know? All I know is I ain’t seen none. Yet.”

“Mebbe they hide during the day. Mebbe they’re watching us right now. Mebbe they ate McAfee and ole Sugar-lips, bones and all, and that’s why we ain’t found so much as a hair.”

Both men shifted closer together. Despite the danger of her position, Lilah could not repress a smile at their hypothesis and the nervousness that resulted from it. Joss was grinning, too, clearly enjoying the flights of fancy that were going on below. If the situation were not so deadly serious, it would have been funny to let out a war whoop and watch how fast those pirates hightailed it back to their ship. Cannibals, indeed!

“C’mon, let’s go up there and get it over with. Cap’n tole us to search the point again,” Silas said.

Joss slithered back away from the edge, and Lilah followed suit. Or at least she tried. As she pushed against the scrub grass at the edge of the cliff, a large hunk of earth became dislodged. She watched with horror as it fell down, squarely at the pirates’ feet. For just an instant Lilah’s hand showed over the edge, and then she snatched it back.

“What the hell …?”

“Somebody’s up there! And it sure as hell ain’t McAfee or Sugar-lips!”

The two pirates came charging up the path, drawing their pistols. Lilah and Joss had only an instant to stare at each other in horror. There was no time to run, no place to run to. If they fled along the path that led to the forest they would be heard, seen, and chased. Once the pirates knew that there were others on the island besides themselves they would be pursued relentlessly, and caught in a matter of days. …

Joss grabbed Lilah, swung her around, shoved her to her knees and then her belly in the leafy thicket behind him.

“I don’t care what the hell you see or hear, or what happens to me, you stay put and be quiet, do you hear me?” It was a quick, fierce whisper. Then Joss was stepping out into the middle of the clearing, drawing the pirate’s pistol that he’d worn in his waistband. Lilah had time to do no more than blink up at him in terror before the pirates exploded into the clearing, pistols drawn. At the sight of Joss, tall and bronzed and stripped to the waist, formidable enough without the pistol he leveled at them, standing with feet apart and cool challenge in his eyes, they came to a sudden, bumbling stop. Silas, who’d been slightly to the rear, almost bumped into the other man. Both pistols wavered, were snapped up to point at Joss threateningly. He met their wide-eyed stares, his own pistol trained on Speare’s heart.

“Well-met, gentlemen,” he said calmly. Despite her fear, Lilah felt a small, wanning spurt of pride in him. He looked and sounded as calm as if he had run into a neighbor while on a Sunday stroll. He had to be afraid, he would not be human if he wasn’t, but even she who knew him so well could not detect the slightest sign of it. This was a man to spend a lifetime with. … As quickly as it came, she banished the thought.

“Who the bloody hell are you, and where the bloody hell did you come from?” Speare spluttered. Behind him, Silas suddenly took three steps to the side. For a moment Lilah couldn’t imagine why. Then she guessed. With such a space between the two pirates, Joss couldn’t hope to kill them both. At least not without offering at least one of them an excellent chance at killing him first.

“I might ask the same.” Joss still sounded unruffled, but a hard note had entered his voice that seemed to make the pirates uneasy. Silas sidled another step to the left. Lilah, watching, was not certain that Joss even noticed. She longed to cry out a warning—but he had told her to stay still. If she did reveal herself, and her disguise proved inadequate after all, she could be signing both their death warrants. Biting her lip, she remained silent, her eyes huge as, with a sense of helpless horror, she watched events unfold.

“Blimy, Silas, did you hear that? The cheek of ‘im!” Speare’s pistol steadied, its muzzle pointed squarely at Joss’s chest. “I’ll ask ya once again, mate. Who be ye?”

Joss was silent for a moment. Lilah held her breath. The answer he finally gave caught her by surprise.

“The name is San Pietro, Captain Joss San Pietro, late of the
Sea Belle.
My ship went down in a storm off these shores a week or so ago. I’d be much obliged if you’d take me to your captain so I can claim the hospitality of the sea.”

The two pirates were evidently as startled by the calm audacity of Joss’s words as Lilah was. They looked sideways at each other, then back at Joss with suspicion plain in their faces.

“What should we do, Speare?” Silas asked.

“Blimy, Silas, how should I know?” He looked Joss over. “We’re missing two shipmates. You seen aught of them?”

“I’ve seen many of your shipmates over the past few
days. Hell, they’ve been all over the island, and I’ve been watching them. But as to two in particular, no, not so as I noticed. Now, as I mentioned, I’d like to talk to your captain.”

Silas and Speare glanced at each other again. Then Silas shrugged, “Hell, let Cap’n Logan sort it out.”

Speare nodded. “Come on, then, you. But I warn you, try any kind of trick and you’re a dead man.”

“You’ve no need to fear me, gentlemen,” Joss said placidly, lowering his pistol and then, to Lilah’s horrified astonishment, tucking it carelessly in his waistband. The two pirates seemed to relax slightly, though they still regarded Joss with extreme wariness. Their pistols never left him.

“You go on ahead.” Speare motioned to Joss to precede them down the trail. Joss complied, with Speare right behind him. It occurred to Lilah that in a matter of seconds she would be left totally alone! Before she could decide what, if anything, she should do, Silas fell in behind Speare and they were marching Joss away down the trail.

XXXV

W
hen the men were gone, Lilah remained motionless for a few minutes, not knowing what to do. What would they do to Joss? It was inconceivable to her that they would at any point just let him go. Maybe he meant to overpower Silas and Speare farther down the trail, before they got in sight of the
Magdalene?
But he had put his pistol in his waistband, while both of the pirates had theirs trained on his back. It did not seem likely that even Joss could get the better of two armed men in the space of time it took to descend to the beach.

The question was, what could she do to aid him? Showing herself would achieve nothing. There was nothing she could do, and that was the hard truth.

When the voices had receded sufficiently, Lilah squirmed out from beneath the sheltering undergrowth and made her way cautiously to the edge of the cliff. The men were already out of the range of her vision. She moved to the opposite side of the promontory overlooking the beach. And she was still crouched there when Joss emerged from the cliff path, followed by the two pirates, who still kept him carefully covered with their pistols.

If Joss was going to try anything, he had at best only a few more minutes to make the attempt.

The trio headed toward the bay. The distance was too
great to permit her to hear anything of what was said, but the pirates motioned Joss toward another man, who sat under a palm at the edge of the beach. At the trio’s approach, the man rose, fumbling for his pistol. When Joss and his captors stopped walking, the four men appeared to exchange only a brief bit of conversation. Then the fourth man picked up a scarlet flag from where it had been lying beside him in the sand, and by waving it overhead seemed to be sending a signal to the brigantine. A short while later a small punt with two men at the oars headed from the ship to the beach. As it approached, Joss was herded into the surf and pulled aboard the punt. Silas and Speare followed. The oarsmen reversed directions, pulling for the
Magdalene.
Joss sat in the stern as though he hadn’t a care in the world while Speare’s pistol kept him under guard. Not by the slightest gesture did Joss reveal any nervousness, though he must have feared for his life.