That Perfect Someone
Page 23

“I quite agree. Lords of the realm aren"t dealt with in this manner, no matter their crimes.
You do realize that, correct?”
“Of course.”
“Very well. Against my better judgment, I"m going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you actually didn"t know anything about this. I suppose the earl"s son could have been handed over to you with a false name, might even have been unconscious and therefore unable to correct this outrage before it went any further. Although,” James added thoughtfully, “he"s more"n likely to have been shouting who he really is loud enough to have been heard back in London.”
“The guards wouldn"t have believed him,” Cantel said quickly, obviously preferring James"s last version if he had to hand over his prisoner, but he was foolish enough to try one last time not to, adding, “I"ll have the guards questioned immediately. You"ll see that someone has been misinformed over the whereabouts of Lord Allen.”
“And waste even more of my time? I think not. Here are your three options. You can hand Lord Allen over to me now and you might be able to talk your way out of losing your commission when you return home. Highly doubtful, but I"m sure you"ll find that option preferable to being arrested at your next port.”
“You don"t have that authority!”
“Doubt my credentials, do you? Perhaps you haven"t heard of my family?” Then James added in an appalled tone, “Good God, am I actually about to drop names?” Drew almost laughed. But James"s attempt to ease tensions, if that"s what his last comment was intended for, worked.
“That isn"t necessary,” the captain said. “Your family is well-known, Lord Malory. Shall we adjourn to the hold to see if this missing lord was erroneously placed on my ship?” Maintaining innocence to the last? James wasn"t fooled. Lifting one tawny brow, he said,
“Me? In the bowels of a convict ship? Not bloody likely. Allen"s manservant here was brought along to identify him. Issue the order directly.”
The captain nodded curtly and moved to the door to shout for his first mate before returning to his desk. After a few minutes the man arrived.
The first mate stared pointedly at the unconscious crewman on the floor as he entered the cabin. This prompted the captain"s impatient explanation “A disciplinary matter.” Then:
“These gentlemen have come to retrieve an innocent man we may mistakenly be transporting.
If it"s true, he"s to be released immediately. His manservant here can identify him.” Drew was following the first mate out the door when he heard Captain Cantel ask James,
“What was the third option, Lord Malory?”
“That I kill you.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
I THOUGHT I WAS DONE for. You wouldn"t believe some of the punishments those guards taunted us with,” Richard said.
He"d bathed. Ohr had brought along Richard"s bag of clothes so he"d had clean ones to change into. Now all he could think about was food and stuffing himself until he couldn"t take another bite.
He hadn"t had a good meal since he"d been dragged out of that hostelry near Willow Woods more than a week ago. The ship served nothing but gruel before it departed, but at least fresh bread went with it. As soon as they sailed, the bread stopped coming with the gruel, and one guard had laughed that the slop they were being fed would stop, too, as soon as supplies ran low, because of the lack of ports on the last half of the three-month journey where supplies could be replenished. Most of the less hardy prisoners weren"t expected to survive the trip.
That wasn"t even the worst of the guards" taunts of near starvation, backbreaking work, whippings at the whim of the guards, containment in cells so small a man couldn"t even lie supine to sleep. The convicts at the colony killed each other just so they would be hung in order to escape that hell. That"s what the prisoners on that ship had been told they had to look forward to if they survived the trip.
“Did your father really do this to you?” Drew asked.
“Yes, and I"m not even surprised. He used to have servants beat me and lock me in my room.”
“Hardly the same thing,” Drew pointed out in a somber tone. “But how did they even get you on that ship without proper documents?”
Drew and Ohr were the only ones with Richard in the main cabin. Food had been set out on a table for him.
From the moment Drew had appeared in the convict ship"s hold and the chains had been removed from his hands and feet, Richard had been on the brink of laughter. He was still incredulous and overwhelmed with relief. He"d hoped, prayed, to be rescued before the transport ship sailed and had completely given up hope when it did.
“My father is friendly with the local magistrate,” Richard explained. “But worse luck, the captain of that ship was the man"s brother. The captain wasn"t going to take me. They had an argument. But I guess a favor got called in, since I was tossed in the hold with the rest of the prisoners. Don"t think the captain was even told who I was. Don"t think it would have mattered by then. But how did you find me? Did you beat the hell out of my father to get him to confess?”
Richard asked that of Ohr and would have preferred to hear a yes, but Ohr smiled wryly and said, “No, that didn"t even occur to me. After I had your brother search your old home, and he assured me your father was behaving quite normally, I—”
“That man has no emotions,” Richard cut in. “So his behavior wouldn"t have revealed anything.”
“He wouldn"t even be gloating that he was finally getting what he wants?”
“Oh, he would,” Richard said bitterly. “But he"d keep it to himself. He certainly wouldn"t let Charles see it. He knows Charles and I are close. If Charles found out about this, it would sever their relationship for good, pitiful as that relationship is.”
“Well, in either case, I erroneously concluded that your father wasn"t even involved.”
“Wish you hadn"t let my brother know I was missing. I don"t like to think of him worrying.” Drew laughed. “But it was all right for the rest of us to worry?” Richard grinned. “I expected you to rescue me and so you have. But Charles wouldn"t have had a clue how to get me out of this.”
“I didn"t leave him worrying,” Ohr assured Richard. “I told him you"ve taken off on me before and I probably just missed a note you left behind saying so. But he searched that place for me early the next morning, so you must have been taken out of there that same night?”
“Immediately after the interview with my father, yes, straight to jail for the night, then tossed in a coach at dawn for the trip to the London docks.”
“Damn, I checked the jails, too, but not until the next day. And after searching the entire area for nearly a week, I ran out of ideas and returned to London.” Richard frowned. “I don"t get it. How"d you find me then?”
“How tedious,” James said as he walked in. “You could have fed him in his cabin, not mine.”
Richard leapt to his feet, his body tensing instinctively in preparation for another pounding at Malory"s lethal hands. “Your cabin?”
“Relax, Richard,” Drew quickly intervened. “We couldn"t have done this without his help.
The captain of that ship would have laughed at us if we"d demanded your release. A member of the nobility put you on that ship, and it took another lord to get you off of it.”
“Actually,” James said as he crossed over to sit on the edge of his desk, “as soon as I mentioned the illegality of his transporting an English lord in his hold, Captain Cantel tried to deny he had you. Could smell his guilt, though. So I merely mentioned a few consequences to get his cooperation.”
Drew burst out laughing. “You do manage to get your points across quite—unusually.” James shrugged. “A knack.”
He"d left the door open. Gabrielle rushed in and, with a shriek of gladness, leapt at Richard and hugged him. Laughing, he swung her around in his arms. Damn, it was good to be back among his friends. He"d begun to think he"d never see them again.
“My God, Richard, don"t ever do this to me again!” Gabrielle exclaimed at him.
“You?” He chuckled.
She backed up and slapped his chest lightly. “I"m serious! This was as bad as LeCross putting my father in his dungeon just so he could get his hands on me. But that pirate was an evil man and I wouldn"t have thought twice about blasting him out of the water. But this was a British ship. We couldn"t fire on them to get you back without starting another war!”
“And I"m glad you didn"t! Don"t think I would have liked going down with that ship if you"d managed to sink it.”
“Well, there was that consideration, too,” she huffed.
Then Richard glanced at James and mumbled, “Bloody hell, I suppose I must thank you.”
“Don"t,” James replied. “You and I know where we stand. I wouldn"t be here if my wife didn"t have a soft heart.”
Richard started to beam in delight that Georgina had intervened to help him, but thought better of it. He didn"t really want another beating at Malory"s hands. But he was still confused.
Even if Abel Cantel had experienced a pang of conscience about stepping outside the law as he"d done, and Richard couldn"t think of anyone else who would have set this rescue in motion, Cantel wouldn"t have known who Richard"s friends were to tell them about it.
“I"d still like to know how—?” he began, but stopped cold.
Julia had appeared in the open doorway. Looking at her, he felt a strange mixture of anger and desire. She was still the quick-tempered hellcat he remembered, but she had other tools at her disposal now. Her luscious body. Damn, that woman had grown some nice curves, and he resented how much he actually wanted her. But then his eyes met hers and the anger took precedence. It always came back to her, the reason for his father"s greed and why he"d nearly died for it this time. He didn"t doubt that would have been the final outcome.
“How—unexpected,” he said sardonically. “Hoping for a different resolution, Jewels?” She frowned. “What are you implying?”
“I know we got a bit carried away the last time we saw each other.” His eyes swept over her suggestively. “But I guess I should have also remembered that you told me you were going to have me declared dead—or pay someone to kill me. Don"t tell me you paid my father to do your dirty work for you?” At her shocked look, he added angrily, “No? Never mind, just stay out of my sight. This wouldn"t have happened if not for you and your damned money.” She turned about and left. Absolute silence followed her departure. He glanced around uncomfortably to see his friends staring at him appalled.
James said contemptuously, “What a bloody ass.”
But it was the disappointment in Gabby"s eyes that made Richard defensive. “What? You have no idea what has passed between her and me. She"d be delighted if my father"s form of punishment had ended in my demise.”
“Actually, Richard, I have heard both sides of that childhood feud,” Gabrielle said in disgust. “A feud that got out of hand because you couldn"t really fight it out. Had she been a boy, you two would have broken each other"s noses when you were children and laughed about it when you were adults.”
“She did break my nose,” Richard said, stabbing a finger at the small bump on the bridge of his nose.
“Pity,” James interjected. “I"d hoped I"d done that.”
Neither Gabrielle nor Richard acknowledged James"s drollery as she continued to berate Richard. “Yes, and because you wouldn"t hit a girl, you held her over balconies instead.” He flushed, embarrassed that she knew about that. He wasn"t proud of what he"d done. He"d just been sick to death of bleeding every time Julia got near enough to bite him. But Gabrielle wasn"t done with making him feel guilty.
“We wouldn"t have had a single clue where to find you, Richard, if Julia hadn"t come and told us what your father had done. And she did that because she didn"t want this to happen to you.”
“She spoke to my father?” Richard said incredulously.
“Yes, she"s the one who asked James to rescue you. Ohr, Drew, and I just came along in case we could help in some way. Does that sound like a woman who wants you to die?” Richard sighed. “It sounds like I owe her an apology.”
James couldn"t resist saying, “D"you think?”
But again he was ignored as Richard said on his way out of the cabin, “Excuse me while I go eat some crow.”
Chapter Thirty
JULIA NO SOONER SLAMMED shut the door to her cabin than her eyes filled with tears. Again, anger and hurt were tearing her apart. Unable to control her strong emotions, she felt like a little girl again, helpless, weak, and never able to win when it came to him. How could Richard still be so nasty after what she"d done for him?
Wiping tears on her sleeve wasn"t effective when the tears kept coming. She picked up a towel from the washstand to dry her face when she heard the doors in the hallway opening and closing. She glanced behind her and stared at the doorknob, then suddenly rushed forward to turn the lock—too late. The door was pushed open.
“You would have to be in the last cabin I checked,” Richard said as he walked in and closed the door behind him.
He didn"t ask for permission to enter her room. That was so like him. And he sounded aggrieved. But all she could think about was hiding the evidence that he"d made her cry. She turned her back on him and swiped the towel over her eyes and cheeks.