Ransome's Quest (45 page)

“You should fill up the hole, Henry. Fill it up, and they won’t know you came and got the money.”

He set the box on the edge of the porch and bent down to push the large pile of soil back in the hole.

She had one chance—only one. Swiftly, she released her hands from the neckcloth, picked up the chest, and dropped it on his head.

Pregnancy may have made her sick, dizzy, tired, and off-balance, but it had done nothing to disturb her aim. She rolled Henry over so he would not suffocate in the dirt—she made sure he was still breathing—and then she took the gun from his belt and ran back to the main house.

Three lieutenants ran toward her. “Mrs. Cochrane, we’ve been looking for you.”

“There’s a man behind the office building. Take him into custody. Where is Captain Cochrane?”

“He went down toward the lagoon, ma’am.”

Charlotte handed him the gun and then ran through the confused crowd on the lawn and toward the wide path cut between the sugar cane that led to the secluded lagoon.

“Ned!” Her stomach made her sorry for the large breakfast she’d eaten. She slowed and took deep breaths to try to control the nausea. “Ned!”

“Charlotte?”

Relieved to hear his voice, she bent over and braced her hands on her knees, gasping for air. Ned swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the house. He sat on their bed, holding her, rocking her back and forth. “I thought I’d lost you again.”

“It was Henry Winchester. I sent some of O’Rourke’s lieutenants to arrest him.” She told him what had happened.

“Ned, before we buy that little sugar plantation, can we make sure that there are no more Winchester brothers?” She buried her head in the crook of his neck.

“I’ll make that my mission. That, and protecting you and our child. I want to make sure we have a very long life together.”

“Good. Because I’ve decided that if we’re going to become sugar planters, we’re going to need a big family to run the place.” She kissed the side of his neck. “A
big
family.”

Julia Ransome lay in her husband’s arms, admiring the pattern the moonlight made through the billowing lace curtains.

“How can I ever leave you again after what happened today?” William’s breath tickled the back of her neck.

She pulled his arm farther around her and snuggled her back into his chest. “Henry Winchester has been apprehended. He will be charged with piracy. And then we know what happens after that. There is nothing more to worry about.”

“I will resign my commission. Tomorrow. I can tell your father before we go back into Kingston. I never have to leave you again.” He pulled her closer and kissed her neck, her shoulder. “If I love you, how can I leave you?”

“I need to show you something.” Julia untangled herself from him and the covers and got out of the bed. She lit a candle and crossed to the bookcase beside the fireplace. She pulled two volumes off the shelf and brought them back to the bed with her. Sitting cross-legged, facing him, she handed him the candle and opened the older book.

William looked down at the handwritten page. “What is it?”

“This is a journal my mother kept. I’ve found dozens of them, going back to when she was a young bride and her dashing Royal Navy captain was called out to sea. She filled book after book with love letters to my father. Love letters that he has given me permission to read so that I can understand who my mother was and how much she loved my father and Michael and me.”

She pulled that book from his hand and put the newer one in it, opened to the first page. “I’d like you to read that to me.”

He turned the journal so the light shone better on its page and began reading.

My darling William,

To carry on a tradition started by my mother, I am writing these letters not only to recount the daily events at Tierra Dulce but also as an expression of my deep love for you. As a way of holding you near to my heart while duty keeps you far away. As a way of telling you that no matter how far apart we are, we will always be together because we are in each other’s hearts…

“I cannot write dozens of journals full of love letters to you if you are here all the time.”

“You’re daft, woman. Do you realize that?” He closed the book, snuffed the candle, and pulled her back into his arms. “When I became an officer in the Royal Navy, I did it because I wanted to protect my country and fight for my king. But I don’t think that’s as important now as protecting my family and my home. And I need to be here to do that.”

“William, if you were not a naval officer, you would not have been able to protect me—to come after me, to attack Shaw. That threat is over, but there are others out there. Foreign invaders who could attack our country, pirates and privateers who could attack our livelihood. Your mission has not changed. You still fight for king and country. It’s only your quest that has changed.”

“My quest? So I am now a knight errant on a quest for his lady love?”

“If you like. Before, your quest has been to win battles and fight for promotion and prize money. Now, your mission is the same, but you have only one quest.” She twined her fingers through his.

“And what is that, my lady love?”

“Your quest is to return home safely to me at the end of every mission.” She turned to look at him, the moonlight bathing his beloved face in a soft glow.

“I love you, Julia Ransome.” He kissed her until she could no longer think about pirates and missions and quests but until only one thought formed coherently in her mind.

“I love you, William Ransome.”

Tierra Dulce Plantation

St. Catherine’s Parish, Jamaica

April 1844

J
ulia Ransome wiped her tears from her cheeks, hoping none of her friends and neighbors saw her. Most would consider it only natural for a woman to cry at such a time as this, but tears were never natural for Julia.

An embrace from someone wearing a bonnet with an enormous brim almost smothered her.

“It was a beautiful service.” Susan Yates stepped back and used her own handkerchief to dab at the trails of moisture on Julia’s cheeks.

“Thank you, my lady.”

“Would you stop calling me that?”

“It is your rightful title now that Collin is an earl.”

Susan turned and gazed at her husband. “His brother’s death was quite unexpected. And to have died a bachelor at
his
age…” She shook her head.

A pair of warm hands settled on Julia’s shoulders. “Yes, not everyone can be so blessed as to fall in love at a young age and be pursued by that woman until he finally marries her.”

Julia rapped her fan against William’s knuckles. “He will never let me forget that I proposed to him. Of course, if I’d waited for him to get around to it, we would not be standing here today.”

Both Julia and Susan turned to gaze upon the young couple standing at the top of the porch steps receiving congratulations and wellwishes from the wedding attendees.

Susan turned and hugged Julia again. “Now we are truly sisters.”

Julia laughed and extricated herself from the embrace of her dearest friend in the world. “You said that twenty-nine years ago when Frederick was born and we came for the christening, and again two years later when you came here for Edward’s. Just as becoming godparents to each other’s children does not make us sisters, becoming mothers-in-law to each other’s children does not make us sisters either.”

At fifty-seven years old, Susan Yates could still pout and simper like a debutante. “Will you not even pretend it does for my sake?”

“Is there anything that could make us closer than we already are? You are the sister of my heart,
my lady
”. Julia arched a brow at her.

Susan laughed.

“Does that mean I have to call her sister, also?”

A distinguished man with thick silver hair and a neatly trimmed mustache joined them. The only thing that kept him from achieving true perfection was the scar that ran diagonally across his forehead into his left brow.

Julia tilted her head to receive her brother’s kiss on the cheek.

Susan narrowed her eyes at him. “I still have not forgiven you for taking my daughter away from me.”

“I
? I do believe you have me confused with someone else named Michael Witherington.” He quirked a smile at Susan and leaned closer to Julia. “Namely, my son, the scoundrel, who stole Lady Marianne away and forced her to live in Philadelphia.” He straightened. “Besides, you still have a daughter remaining at home.”

“And you’re getting even with Michael through us, Susan. Your Frederick is taking my Eleanor away.” Julia smiled up at William when he gave her shoulders another quick squeeze.

“There were times I never thought it would happen.” Susan sighed. “Frederick takes after his godfather.” She cast a glance at William around the eight inches of hat brim that stuck out beside her face.

“’Twas your idea to send him here to apprentice to Julia and learn how to run a successful business.” William settled his arm around Julia’s waist. She leaned into him, enjoying every moment she got to spend with him.

“I only did so because you were still at sea most of the time when he came. I thought, under Julia’s influence, he might turn out to be sensible like her rather than taciturn like you.” Susan’s eyes twinkled.

Oh, how Julia would miss Susan when she and Collin returned to England in a few days. Though steamships made the crossing safer and shorter, she still did not get to see them often enough. Another tear escaped. And Eleanor. Her dear, sweet girl would be leaving also. Sailing with her new husband to New Orleans for their wedding trip before returning to England.

Tenacious as ever, Susan returned to one of her favorite topics—at least, a favorite on this visit to Tierra Dulce once Michael and Serena arrived. “If you do not send Marianne and your son home—to England, I mean—for a visit soon, I shall have to speak with Sir Edward and have him intervene.”

Michael pressed his hand to his chest as if experiencing heart pain. “Oh, no! Never that. My father is still finding ways to make me suffer for spending most of my youth as a pirate who took gold from him to subsidize liberating slaves.”

“And let us not forget kidnapping innocent young girls.” Charlotte Cochrane slipped her small hand through the crook of Michael’s elbow and smiled up at him.

“And forcing them to marry the sea captains who rescue them against their brothers’ wishes.” Michael cast a sidelong glance at William.

As usual, William refused to let Michael rile him. Sometimes Julia thought that if William had known marrying her would result in discovering her brother was still alive and would become part of the family once again, he might not have been so quick to go through with it.

“I am happy that if she had to marry someone against my wishes, it was Ned Cochrane.” William inclined his head to his sister. “It seems to have worked out well for her.”

Julia stifled a laugh. Yes, with seven children—the eldest, Charles Lott Cochrane, born almost nine months to the day after their wedding—and with a sugar plantation successful enough to rival Tierra Dulce, Julia would agree that the marriage, started on such ill-advised terms, had worked out well.

Charlotte, complaining of hunger pains, cajoled Michael into escorting her to the food table. William excused himself to join Collin and speak to the officers who had driven out from Fort Charles to attend the wedding of Admiral Ransome’s daughter.

Due to being under his father’s command, Captain Edward Ransome, their oldest son, had come home for his sister’s wedding. Nathan, newly made a commander under his uncle Philip’s command, was on his way to India, so he could not come home.

Julia dashed the tear away and scanned the groups milling about the lawn. A booming laugh caught her attention and brought a smile to her face. Retired Admiral Sir Edward Witherington, with Maria at his side as always, held court under the arbor near the food table, leaning on his cane and no doubt telling stories of his adventures. And, naturally, there with them, the delight of Julia’s life: eighteen-year-old Margaret Jane Ransome. Of their four children, Margaret was most like Julia in looks and in temperament.