The Hellion (The Lady Knights of Barony Book One ) (14 page)

“What of the messenger sent from Barony?”

Her voice now strong and clear, Ava took up the mantle of captain, easily putting herself back into the leadership position. Nell shook her head.

“Dead.”

“So we can assume that King Damien knows nothing about what’s happened, which leaves us on our own. Blake, however, doesn’t know this. He is probably thinking that the palace sentries are closing in on him as we speak and should be leaving for the docks any minute, if he hasn’t already. Blake won’t want to risk being arrested.”

“I think you’re forgetting one thing,” Julian interjected. “Blake’s determination to have you in his clutches goes beyond all reason. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s already aboard
The Raven
, waiting for you to be delivered.”

“How do you know all of this?”

The blond man who had been staring daggers at him from the beginning finally stepped forward and spoke.

“Vernon,” Ava said, pressing her hand against the man’s chest to keep him at bay. “Now is not the time.”

The two exchanged a knowing glance and whatever passed between them was enough to pacify the man named Vernon. He nodded silently and retreated into the group, seeming to trust whatever decisions Ava had made.

Julian frowned. Who was this Vernon and what did he mean to Ava? Jealousy boiled in him and possessiveness caused his hold on Ava’s shoulder to tighten. As his eyes clashed with Vernon’s, he hoped that his thoughts were clear. Ava was his now, no matter what had transpired between her and this stranger. With great effort, he choked back the warning growl simmering in his throat.

“Julian is right,” Ava continued. “When I was doing reconnaissance around Blake’s rented rooms, I found only a handful of his men and a woman. I say she’s the key to finding him. Whoever she is, she must be important for Blake to have left men guarding her.”

“A lover perhaps?”
Julian said. “If she is sharing his rooms then she must be privy his location at the very least.”

“Right then,” said Nell, a slow smile spreading across her face. “Shall we draw straws to determine who gets to play kidnapper?”

All was quiet at the dock. They’d found
The Raven
easily enough with the help of the woman who’d turned out to be Dorian’s sister. The men left to guard her were no match for Ava and her ladies. It hadn’t taken them long to take the woman named Dolly hostage and force her to give them the information they needed. The woman was now bound hand and foot and tossed over the back of Nell’s saddle like a sack of grain. Her face had gone ghostly white behind the thick layer of powder and rouge she wore, causing her garishly dyed hair to stand out like a crimson beacon in the dark night.

As they neared
The Raven
, a great hulking freighter with black sails and a human-sized statue of a raven in flight extending from its bow, Ava could faintly make out flickering lamplight, but not much activity on deck. The shadowy forms of a few men could be seen but from where they sat on the dock, gazing up at the ship, Ava couldn’t be sure if they were armed or even how many they numbered.

They dismounted and Julian lifted Dolly from Nell’s horse, hauling the girl over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a child.

“Keep your hands away from your weapons,” Ava whispered as they moved on silent feet toward the ship. “In this poor light we have no way of knowing if they’ve got guns trained on us. Be ready for my command.”

They fell quietly into formation around her, placing Julian and Dolly at the middle. As they neared the ship, Ava came up short and held up her hand for the others to halt.

“There’s no gangplank,” Nell said, giving voice to Ava’s concern.

Ava turned to Julian. “I thought you said he’d be expecting us?”

Julian shrugged, jostling the trussed-up Dolly. “He should be,” he said, his eyes scanning the ship’s deck.

“What aren’t the two of you telling us?” barked Vernon from the rear.

Before Ava could lash out with a stinging retort, movement from the ship’s deck caught her eye and she held up her hand for silence.

“My lady,” boomed a voice from the ship’s deck. “I’m so delighted to see that you’ve made it!”

“Blake,” Ava hissed as she rushed forward. She reached back to grasp the bow that Nell had given her, unsheathing an arrow and notching it to the string swiftly. The shadows converged into one large mass that, once illuminated by lamplight, turned out to be about fifteen men surrounding a very smug Dorian Blake. With one arm, he held a bound and gagged Mudiwa against his body and with the other, he held a dagger to her slender throat.

Gasps rippled through the formation behind her and one by one they lifted their bows and notched them with arrows. On the ship’s deck, every man drew a weapon and leveled it at their group. Everyone stood as still as death, not moving, not making a sound, locked in a standoff

“Steady,” Ava warned, never taking her eyes from Mudiwa as she lowered her bow. “Keep your arrows ready but do not fire without my consent. I won’t risk Mudiwa.”

“I have something that may be of interest to you,” Dorian said with a chuckle. He turned his head toward
Mudiwa and buried his nose in her braided hair, inhaling deeply.

“She’s not nearly as valuable to me as you are, my lady, but she will most certainly do.”

Ava heard Hanako’s angry gasp behind her and felt Nell stiffen. Mudiwa remained unruffled, her eyes staring blankly off into the distance as Blake fondled her body lewdly. A snarl worked its way up through Ava’s chest and spilled from her lips before she could stop it.

“Let her go!” she screamed. “Give her to me or your sister dies!”

Julian stepped forward and set Dolly on her feet, turning her toward the ship so that Dorian could see their captive. She mumbled incoherently through her gag, but Julian’s firm arm and the bindings kept her from moving.

Dorian glanced silently down at his captured sister. Dolly’s eyes widened as the silence stretched on. She struggled and thrashed in Julian’s arms as the ramifications of what his silence meant hit her. When his demented laughter rang out over the quiet dock, Dolly’s muffled shriek rose to mingle with it.

“Keep the little bitch,” he chuckled. “I have only one interest, my lady knight, and that is you. I’d be willing to trade the African for you. That’s the deal.”

Ava dropped her bow and took a step forward. She would not allow
Mudiwa to suffer in her place. If trading places with her sister in arms would assure her safety, then Ava would do it gladly.

“No!”

She heard footsteps behind her as Julian tossed Dolly into Vernon’s arms and rushed toward her. He grasped her arm tightly and yanked her back toward him.

“Ava, what are you doing?”

She turned to face him, struck to her very core by the depth of emotion she found in his eyes. If she ever had any doubts about Julian’s feelings for her, they’d just been laid to rest. She placed her hand over his and shook her head.

“Julian, I have to. She is in this position because of me.”

“No,” he said hoarsely, “she’s in this position because of
me
and you know it. I can’t let you sacrifice yourself like this.”

“I’ll come up with something,” she said half-heartedly. “He won’t have me in his clutches for long.”

“He won’t have you at all,” said Vernon from where he stood amongst the others, holding a now limp and passive Dolly. “Julian is right, Ava. We won’t let you do this. There has to be another way.”

“There is no other way,” she added, pulling away from Julian’s grasp. She turned to Nell.

“Promise you’ll come for me.”

Tears welled up in Nell’s eyes but she nodded. “Nothing but death would stop me.”

Ava turned back toward the ship only to be caught up by Julian’s strong arms once more.

“Damn you Ava, you can’t do this to me, not now. Please.”

“Why do you care, Julian? Are you still worried that I might be with child?”

“I don’t care about that,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you are or not, I still cannot allow you to do this.”

Ava’s heart leapt into her throat and she choked on her next words. “Why not?”

“Because I love you!
Is that what you want to hear Ava? I can’t let you go because I love you and the thought of you in danger would tear me to pieces!”

“Isn’t that romantic?”

Her euphoria at Julian’s declaration was shattered by Blake’s sarcasm. Ava glared at up at him, her fingers tightening around the hilt of the dagger at her side.

“It would seem that you have violated the terms of our agreement Mister Vincent,” he said as he shoved
Mudiwa toward one of his men. The lackey wrapped his arms around Mudiwa and disappeared with her across the darkened deck. Blake eyed Ava with a scowl. “I could have given you everything, yet I can see that you’ve given yourself to this gutter rat like a common whore. Consider your friend as good as mine.”

“No!” Ava cried, lurching toward the ship as she heard the unmistakable clanking of chains signifying the raising of the anchor.
“Damn you to hell, you son of a bitch!”

Julian and Nell grasped her arms tightly, combining their strength to keep her grounded as she kicked and flailed, screaming like an enraged animal. As
The Raven
floated out to sea, all that could be heard were the inhuman shrieks of the enraged lady captain. Between roars of anger, her words could be heard clearly across the water.

“I’ll come for you
Mudiwa! Don’t lose hope! I’ll come for you!”

Julian watched the shattered and hollow shell that was once his Ava retreat farther and farther away from him. The moment
The Raven
had disappeared from sight over the horizon, she’d fallen to her knees on the dock and burst into tears. He and Nell looked at each other helplessly, neither of them quite certain what to do with a tearful Ava. Give him a screaming, clawing hellcat over a sobbing mess any day. Not one of them had known what to do with her.

When he’d knelt to take her in his arms she hadn’t fought him, only buried her face in his chest and sobbed some more.
The force of her cries struck Julian dead in the center of his chest, and by then his guilt was insurmountable. As much as Ava wanted to blame herself, no one knew better than Julian just how much of this had been his fault. He intended to keep his promise to her. Julian would not rest until Mudiwa was found.

Once she finished sobbing she’d gone eerily silent, her shoulders sagging wearily. She’d allowed him to take her up onto his horse and cradle her gently as they’d followed Nell toward the palace of Cardenas’ king. Someone was going to have to do a lot of explaining and fast talking that would end in a ship being provided for the voyage to the West Indies. It would take as long as a week or more to secure a captain and crew, as well as stock an available ship with supplies enough for a long voyage. He knew it was wise to leave the talking up to Nell and Vernon, who were already acquainted with King Serge’s younger brother, but was prepared to do whatever it took if talking failed. There was not a moment to be spared and once Ava had snapped out of her stupor, she would want to be underway immediately.

After they arrived at the palace, King Damien retreated into his study with Nell and Vernon to be updated on the events of the last week. The queen, a stunning woman named Esmeralda, had ordered rooms prepared for them for the night.

“I won’t leave her,” he’d told her, tightening his hold on Ava’s waist.

Queen Esmeralda’s eyes widened knowingly and she’d smiled with understanding. “Of course not,” she said, lifting her hand to stroke a lock of hair back from Ava’s face. “The poor thing shouldn’t be alone right now. Why don’t you follow me to the room? I’ll have dinner sent up for the both of you.”

Ava had refused to take even a single bite of food, and for that reason Julian did not eat either. After penning a quick note to be taken by messenger to Simon—who he’d left behind in his search for Ava—he merely sat beside the bed, watching Ava’s stony face for any sign of life as a flock of maids filled a large bathtub with water. In the note he told his friend in as few words as possible what had happened and urged him to join them in Cardenas.

As the maids filled the tub he clasped her hand and kissed the back of it tenderly.

“Ava, I know that a lot has happened tonight and that you’re feeling shocked. You’re hurting for your friend, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am for all of it. I just…” he sighed, hanging his head over her hand. “I just need you to give me something so that I know you’ll be all right. I need to see that spark, Ava, that fire that I know you carry inside of you. Please.”

After a few minutes of complete silence, a resigned Julian released her hand and leaned back in his chair. Once the maids were finished filling the tub, they left, silently closing the door behind them. Ava’s hand on his knee startled him and he nearly leaped from his chair at the feel of her palm burning through the fabric of his breeches.