Chapter 16

Hestia leaned against the rail and let the sun wash her face with heat while the sea breeze and spray cooled her down.

She faced an impossible choice. She could marry Alex and hope one day he might grow to love her. However, he would have to battle Murad to achieve peace, and she might end up a widow.

Then there was Mr. Foxhall. David was handsome, kind, and wanted a family. But her heart belonged to Alex, and it was not fair that a man who had waited to find love should be saddled with her. She might not ever be able to love David as he deserved.

So lost in the conundrum of her situation, she didn’t notice Jacob by her side until he coughed.

“Troubles?” he asked with sympathy in his eyes.

“Alex is going to face Murad. He’s going to get himself killed, isn’t he?”

Jacob’s lips firmed and he looked out to sea for a few moments. He sighed and finally said, “Most likely. This is Murad’s territory, and due to his injury, Alex is not fighting fit.”

“There is no way to dissuade him?” His eyebrows rose and she whispered, “Of course not.”

“I don’t think I would try to stop him even if I could. There is something eating him up inside, and if Alex doesn’t get it out I’m not sure he’ll survive.”

She pondered Jacob’s words. From the little Alex had told her, Jacob was most likely right.

“The one thing I will swear to is that we will stop Fredrick Cary regardless of whether we find your father. I won’t let him hurt you.”

She patted Jacob’s hand where it sat curled tightly around the ship’s railing. “I’m only safe if Fredrick is dead or I’m married. Neither option is one I like. To wish a person dead…” She shuddered.

“Let’s see what happens when we go after the sloop. If we are wrong and Fredrick is not on it, then a marriage, and you quickly returning to England, would be the safest bet. Out here Fredrick could ensure a wedding notice does not make its way to London.”

Cold, clammy fear gripped her. “Are you saying even if I marry, Fredrick could still kill me and deny the marriage took place?”

“It’s a possibility. If Alex dies, Foxhall dies, who would society believe—me or the Earl of Pembrokeshire, as Cary would then be?”

Even on this sunny day the sky darkened in her vision. However, it made Hestia realize marriage would not necessarily save her. Only a marriage in England would.

“Then it seems pointless making a choice to marry when we reach Corfu. I’m not really any safer.”

Jacob turned from the railing to look at her. “You’re a brave woman. You fought off Connor, never giving up. Love is the grand prize, and if there is a chance Alex can erase his ghosts and leave his terrible past behind him, then your heart’s desire might be in your grasp.” He looked her in the eye. “Is he worth waiting for—fighting for?”

A smile formed on her lips. She didn’t even have to think. “Oh, he’s worth it.”

“That’s my girl. Don’t let Foxhall or Bedford decide your destiny, or Cary for that matter.”

Jacob was right. She’d been looking at this wrong. She was letting men dictate her life. First her father, then her experience at the hands of Murad, then Fredrick, and now Alex.

“Are you married?” she asked.

Jacob turned back to look at the sea. “Only to the sea. She’s a tough mistress. Just look at her beauty. But every now and then, if you take her for granted she punishes you.”

“You don’t get lonely?”

He let out a dry laugh. “It’s hard to be lonely on a ship full of men.”

Hestia sighed and looked down at the deep blue sea below her. “I’ve been alone most of my life. I hate it.” She didn’t care who heard her when she yelled into the wind. “I want to share my life with someone who wants to share it with me. Someone who can put me first.”

“Someone who loves you,” Jacob ended for her.

“Yes.”

Jacob nodded. “Very wise. There is nothing worse than living with someone and still feeling alone.”

She gazed up at the old and wise sailor standing beside her. “I think we need a plan to ensure Alex survives his reckoning with Murad.”

“I do have some ideas,” he said.

“I knew you would.” She slipped her arm through his and suggested, “Let’s take a stroll around the ship and you can share them.”

David stood looking through the small grill, his lantern affording him very little detail of the captives held within, although the smell told him the state they were in.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one had followed him into the deepest recesses of the bilge where Connor was being kept under lock and key.

Suddenly a bearded face peered at him through the grill in the sturdy oak door. Straining against the chains at his neck, hands, and feet—virtually helpless—Connor could only snarl at him.

“I don’t need no doctor, unless of course you’re here to free me.”

David stood looking at the man, more animal than man, and tried to feel pity. He had taken an oath to preserve life, but his hands itched to strangle the sneer off Connor’s face at the thought of what he would have done to Hestia if he’d managed to abduct her.

He bent down and opened his doctor’s bag and withdrew a scalpel before standing and approaching the door.

“I’m not here to free you. I’m here for information. Either you can give it to me freely, or I know exactly where to cut, jab, and poke to make your pain unbearable.”

The sneer vanished from Connor’s face.

“I’ve already told Jacob everything I know.”

“Why don’t I believe you? Besides, I’m not sure Jacob asked the right questions. I, however, want some specific information that I don’t think you’ve shared with anyone.”

In less than half an hour, with Connor minus one eye, David had what he needed.

In the end, Hestia refused to go ashore while they went after the sloop. Alex had to admit she was probably safer on the Angelica anyway.

As soon as the sloop ascertained the Angelica’s intention, it tried to tack away, heading to hide in a group of smaller islands near the northern tip of Corfu. But Jacob positioned the ship to block their attempts by firing a few cannons over their bow.

Hestia watched the action from inside her cabin, peering through the tiny porthole. The standoff lasted almost four hours before Jacob managed to land a cannonball so close to the sloop that the white flag ran up the mast as a sign of surrender.

To her utter disappointment, when they drew up alongside the sloop and boarded her, Fredrick Cary was not on board.

She watched Jacob’s men drag the captain of the sloop on board. She stepped away from the porthole and tried not to think what they would do to the man for information.

This is why she hated the Mediterranean. Honor and fairness slipped away on the currents. Men became the creatures of nightmares.

She hoped that Jacob’s plan could keep the nightmares at bay.