Of Noble Birth (17 page)

“There’s no need to waste
lives.” He squinted across the distance. “We’ll make as though
we’re hit and pull away. Then we’ll follow at a safe distance and
surprise Montague and his crew again before dark.”

Trenton whistled. “That
kind of thinking is why you’re captain and I’m not.”

“Trenton?”

Nathaniel’s first mate
turned back.

“How sure are you about
Anne?”

Trenton shook his head,
then spat. “If you would have asked me yesterday, I would have bet
my life that we had our girl. I still think she could be none
other. She looks like the woman I saw four years ago. And we all
watched her go into Madame Fobart’s.”

“Still, I have a
feeling—”

“Are you sure it’s not
just wishful thinking?” Trenton cocked an eyebrow at his captain.
“I’ve seen the way your gaze trails after her, and I don’t mind
telling you that it’s got me a little nervous. She can be nothing
but trouble for you, Nathaniel.”

“You’ve no need to warn
me. I’m not some love-smitten boy, unfamiliar with the realities of
life.”

Trenton stared at him for
a moment. “Whatever you say,” he replied, and went to deliver the
necessary orders.

* * *

Alexandra paced
Nathaniel’s cabin, out of her mind with fear long after the
explosions had ceased. The duke would stop at nothing to kill
Nathaniel and his men. As pirates, their fate would not be
undeserved. But what about her? Nathaniel assumed she brought them
some kind of insurance she did not. And he was risking their lives
based on that assumption. She had to convince him of the truth, for
his own sake as well as hers.

Nathaniel’s step outside
the cabin made Alexandra bite her lip. He was coming. Now was her
chance. She rushed to the portal and flung the door wide, but it
was not Nathaniel who approached. It was Rat.

“There’s the fair maiden,”
he mocked, putting up a hand to block the door when she tried to
shut it. “I guess yer father cares more for the money in ‘is pocket
than ‘e does about protectin’ ye. Mayhap the cap’n will let us ‘ave
a crack at ye now. Yer not worth much to ‘im anymore.” He forced
his way into the room, closing the door behind him.

Alexandra backed away,
stopping only when she bumped into Nathaniel’s desk. “He’s still my
half brother and your captain,” she pointed out.

“‘
E won’t mind if I ‘ave a
little kiss.”

“He’ll not stand for you
handling me like some common doxy.”

“I don’t see ‘im ‘ere to
protect ye.” Rat bit off one long, jagged nail and spat it at the
wall. “Besides, what can ‘e do after it’s all over? ‘E’s not goin’
to kill a man simply for sampling the sweetness of those virgin
curves. Ye’ll be no worse for the wear.”

“Don’t come near me.”
Alexandra’s heart raced in panic as dread filled her soul. The
others were preoccupied with the ship they fought; she doubted
anyone would hear her scream. And the cabin contained nothing she
could use as a weapon. Nathaniel had seen to that the day they set
sail.

Her eyes flicked to the
door as her only hope. Perhaps she could make it into the passage
before Rat set upon her.

“If yer father cares
naught about ye, there’s no need to keep ye so safe anymore.
Perhaps even the cap’n will take ‘is turn. Or is that where it
lies? ‘As all yer seemin’ disdain been a cover for the two of ye
keepin’ each other busy at night?”

The lustful gleam in Rat’s
eyes nearly turned Alexandra’s stomach, and his words frightened
her more than a little. She darted toward the door, feeling the air
near her arm stir as Rat’s hand shot out to stop her.

He missed. She grasped the
knob and started to turn it, then screamed as she felt his arms
snake about her waist, pulling her back.

Alexandra twisted as they
fell and used her nails to claw at Rat’s face, hoping to gouge his
eyes or any other vulnerable part of his anatomy. But he kept his
face turned away. She felt only the rough stubble of his beard
beneath her hands. Still, a loud curse indicated a small victory as
her nails raked his cheek.

“Ye little bitch,” he
swore. “Ye think ye can stop me?”

He grunted as they rolled
together. Alexandra kicked and flailed, but her blows only seemed
to prolong the inevitable. Finally, panting with exertion, she lay
immobile beneath the weight of Rat’s body while he undid his
pants.

“Ye like it rough, eh?” he
cackled, slapping Alexandra hard across the face.

Alexandra’s ears rang from
the blow that left her face numb, but she revived to some degree
and began to fight again, this time more desperately than before as
Rat tried to wrench up her skirts.

Then the door swung open.
Nathaniel filled the portal, a look of stunned surprise claiming
his features right before rage descended and his fist sent Rat
flying across the room.

“How dare you?” he
snarled, crossing to pick the smaller man up by his disheveled
clothes.

Rat cowered in the corner,
the pallor of his skin white beneath the dark stubble that covered
his cheeks, his lip bleeding. “It’s not what ye think, Cap’n. I was
just givin’ ‘er a good scare, is all. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it.
Look. She’s not ‘urt.”

Nathaniel threw a glance
over his shoulder, surprising Alexandra with the murderous intent
etched into the lines of his face. “I’ll hang you from the yardarm
if I so much as see you look at her again. This is my cabin, and
what’s inside belongs to me. Do you understand?”

The biceps of Nathaniel’s
good arm bulged as he slammed Rat against the wall again to
punctuate his words.

The small man nodded,
swallowing audibly. “Aye, sir.”

“You deserve a good
flogging. Fortunately for you, as well as her, I got here in time.
Still, you’ll be confined below with nothing but bread and water
for five days.” Nathaniel dragged him across the floor and threw
him out into the hall with the promise that he would deal with him
later.

Alexandra was still
shaking when Nathaniel turned to help her up.

“Are you all
right?”

“Yes,” she replied, but
she felt far from fine. Her heart still hammered against her ribs,
and her legs were too rubbery to stand.

Bending, Nathaniel picked
her up, bearing the brunt of her weight with his good arm. He
carried her to the bed where he laid her down and smoothed the hair
out of her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Rat’s not one of my men. I
can’t trust him like I can the others.”

Alexandra nodded, afraid
her voice might crack if she tried to speak.

Nathaniel knelt next to
the bed and lightly caressed the welt on her cheek. “I need to know
something,” he said when silence stretched between them. “Are you
the duke’s daughter?”

Alexandra stared back,
willing herself not to glance away from the intense blue eyes that
probed her face. Only moments before, she had felt it paramount
that Nathaniel know the truth. But Rat had changed that. The memory
of him attempting to force his sweaty body upon her made her
shudder. Nothing was worse than leaving herself vulnerable to
animals like him—nothing.

“Yes,” she
whispered.

Nathaniel’s fingers
tightened almost painfully on her chin. “Are you my sister?” he
asked again, anger flashing across his face.

Alexandra licked her lips
and swallowed. She could lose herself in his eyes, forget any
earlier existence, forget everything beyond the moment. Rat’s
attack had left her frightened and confused, yet Nathaniel provided
an anchor with which to ground herself. He was so confident, so
capable. She couldn’t lie to him any longer. The mere force of his
will brought the truth to her lips.

“No,” she admitted. “I’m
not.”

Alexandra wasn’t sure what
she expected at that moment. She felt as though she hung suspended,
waiting to fall.

“Alexandra.” She heard him
use her name for the first time as his arm circled beneath her,
half lifting her to him. He crushed her mouth with his lips, and
she drank passion from his kiss until it filled all her senses. The
rocking of the ship fell away, the cabin’s four walls fell away.
There was only Nathaniel.

His tongue gently parted
her lips, and she opened herself to him like a flower yawning
before the sun. The heat of his body warmed her skin, yet burned
within her. The thickness of his hair filled her hands.

Soon she began to crave
something she could not identify. She wanted to press her body to
him, to unite with him in some ancient yet indescribable way, as
natural as when the snow melts on the mountains to run down into
the sea.

Nathaniel’s breathing was
rapid as he moved away from her lips to trail kisses down her
throat. She pulled the tail of his shirt from his trousers and
reached beneath to feel the muscles of his back, as she had longed
to do. They rippled smoothly beneath her touch, thickening as her
hands climbed to the full width of his shoulders.

“Alexandra. Beautiful
Alexandra,” he murmured, making her shiver at the butterfly touch
of his mouth on her skin. “How I have wanted to hold
you.”

Alexandra closed her eyes
at the sound of his voice. It was thick with desire, deep, throaty.
She felt his mouth upon the swell of her cleavage, the heat of his
breath. Then his hand closed around one breast, gently teasing the
nipple through the fabric of her dress, until she pulled
away.

His eyes were the color of
the sea after sunset. He didn’t speak, but his gaze fastened to her
face like that of a hungry wolf who watches the movements of a
darting hare.

“I must not do this.” She
shook her head, trying to rein in her emotions. She felt giddy,
eager, deprived all in the same moment.

“Why? You want me as badly
as I do you. Do you think I am so naive that I can’t recognize a
woman’s desire?”

“What I want has nothing
to do with it.”

“Desire has everything to
do with it.” His brows lowered darkly, and he looked as though he
would reach out and pull her to him despite her
objections.

“Not if you’d known the
sadness my mother carried with her all her days; the life she was
forced to live.” Alexandra kept her distance, scooting across the
bed as that part of her brain responsible for rational thought
rallied from the blow her dazed senses had dealt it. “I’ll not make
the same mistake. I won’t settle for anything less than a husband,
a home, and children. And you can’t give me that.”

She saw Nathaniel’s Adam’s
apple bob as he swallowed. He stared at her for a long time as
though trying to master his own emotions. Slowly, he stood. “No,”
he said. “I can’t give you that.” Then he turned and
left.

* * *

It was midafternoon when
Nathaniel ordered his crew to open fire once again on the
Eastern Horizon.
The
brig turned to fight with seemingly more determination than before,
but she was no match for the
Vengeance.
Obviously unprepared for
further hostilities, the
Horizon’s
carronades managed only two shots for their every
five. Still, she lasted longer than Nathaniel had expected, and he
was relieved when a white flag finally ascended her main
mast.

“What do you think?”
Trenton came to stand beside him.

“I think we might be in
trouble,” Nathaniel admitted.

His friend looked up at
him in surprise. “You think it’s a trap?”

Nathaniel shrugged. “It
doesn’t smell right. Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean? Ships
are like women. If they give up too easily, you’d be a fool to
trust them.” Trenton grinned, then sobered. “Although I’ll be the
first to admit that it’s strange the duke would fire upon his own
daughter.”

“She’s not his daughter,”
Nathaniel said.

“What?” Trenton rounded on
him in alarm.

“She’s a seamstress from
Manchester, like she said.”

“But how could she
be?”

Nathaniel shook his head,
then ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. But she isn’t Lady
Anne.”

Trenton looked sheepish.
“I’m responsible for the mistake. Perhaps if we’d detected it
sooner... I just couldn’t imagine another woman emerging from that
dress shop wearing the same clothes, with the same height and
build. It’s uncanny.”

Nathaniel nodded. He
didn’t blame Trenton. How could he, when he’d suspected their
mistake for some time? Maybe, on some level, even from the
beginning.

“You stay here,” he said,
staring across the water toward the
Eastern Horizon.
Regardless of
Alexandra and the poignant emotions any thought of her evoked, it
was time to find out why his father had sent a ship to the Black
Sea. “If I don’t come back, blow that damned boat out of the
water.”

Trenton nodded. “That’s a
bloody promise.”

Nathaniel’s long legs
carried him quickly to the side, where his men lowered a boat. He
checked the seven-inch knife he kept in his boot and primed the
pistol at his belt, then climbed down, dropping into the
lighter.