“Maddie, why didn’t you tell me about your grandfather?”
At the wounded note in Amy’s voice, Madeline offered a contrite expression. Her cousin had been so gracious, offering friendship to a scandalous woman.
As a child, Amy had been abducted, whisked into the rookeries and presumed dead, but two years ago, she’d returned home. And that’s when Madeline had started believing in miracles. She’d penned her cousin a letter of welcome, not expecting a reply because of her tainted past. But Amy had rebuffed all social constraints. She’d responded to the letter with affection, and since then, their old amity had blossomed once more.
As girls, they’d shared a few familial memories. Their grandparents had been siblings, making Amy and Madeline second generation cousins. But as women, they were confidants.
“You had so much to struggle with: the annulment from Gravenhurst, the wedding to Cousin Edmund. I didn’t want to impose on your kindness.”
“But the risk, Maddie! If anyone other than William had caught you stealing jewels you’d be shipped to the colonies—or hanged!”
“I had to take the risk, Amy. At least, I thought I had to take it. I want to apologize for my behavior on the night of your wedding ball. I should not have pilfered the jewels, placing you and Cousin Edmund in peril. It’s just . . . the old man saved my life. He took me in when I was destitute, loved me despite my sins. I . . .”
“I understand, my dear.” She set aside her teacup and curled her arms around her cousin. “I know love is a powerful force. It drives us to break every rule and take any gamble, however dangerous.”
Madeline admired the young woman’s bravery. Amy would always do what was right. She would always follow her heart. And much to Madeline’s gratitude and good fortune, Amy’s heart had led to their solidarity.
“Maddie, I—” William stilled in the doorway, gathering his features. “Hullo, Amy.”
“Hullo, William.”
He slipped his hands in his trouser pockets, looking vaguely uncomfortable. “I need a private word with Lady Madeline.”
“Yes, of course.”
As Amy headed toward the door, he stepped away, allowing her passage, but she paused and wrapped her arms around his waist, pecking his cheek. “It’s good to see you again.”
She then left the cabin, William’s features tightening even more. The captain was quite uncomfortable now.
Madeline furrowed her brow at the strange exchange. “What was that about?”
“It’s not important.” He shut the door and approached her, his blue eyes as turbulent as rough waters. “You have to marry me.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He sighed. “Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Madeline jumped from her chair. “I understand the question. I mean why do you want to marry me?”
“You might be pregnant. It’s the honorable thing to do.”
His answer, though sensible coming from any other man, riled her.
You’re a damn siren I can’t get out of my head, my blood, my . . .
What? His heart? His soul? Or something crude, like his prick?
She inhaled an infuriating breath.
When he finished that ambiguous sentence, Madeline would consider his clumsy proposal—and not before.
“No,” she said.
“But the babe?”
“What babe? I won’t know for several more days, perhaps weeks. And if I’m pregnant, we can address the convenience of marriage at that time.”
“Convenience?”
She turned away from him, aloof, and collected the tea set.
A growl came up behind her. “There isn’t much time, Maddie.”
She picked up the silver tray, intent on the galley. “I don’t know what you mean.”
William blocked the door. “What if I die in battle?”
She gasped—then slammed the tray on the table, the porcelain ringing. “How dare you threaten me!”
“Maddie—”
“You are the seasoned captain of a battle-hardened crew.” She stabbed him in the chest with her finger. “Your brother is now here with his ship and support. You will find my grandfather, aim your canons at the pirates’ heads, and bring the old man back to me. There isn’t going to be a battle. And you are not going to die!”
She stormed from the room, her innards twisting with dread. She resisted the thought of William’s death. Or that of any other tar. She had come with an armed crew to rescue her grandfather with the full intention of taking the pirates by surprise and avoiding a needless confrontation. And while there was still a risk, a small risk of disaster, William had no right to frighten her with that remote prospect just to assuage his bloody honor.
~ * ~
When William returned to his cabin, his siblings were gathered inside the room: James hunched over the sea chart, Edmund reading the ransom note, and Quincy beside the scuttle, gazing outward. His sister poured herself a glass of rum and downed it like a pirate, rather than a duchess.
The nostalgic scene took him back six years, when they’d last served together aboard their father’s ship, the Bonny Meg. They were all still pirates then, the lot of ’em, but Belle had married the duke soon after, and their lives had dramatically changed course.
James had turned the Bonny Meg into a trading rig, William had captained the Nemesis as a privateer. Edmund and Quincy had served aboard the Nemesis for a time before they’d both discovered other passions: one as a Bow Street Runner, the other a doctor.
And as William stood in the middle of the room, nostalgia quickly withered into something darker: the fact that there would be no more family reunions, that he soon wouldn’t see any of them anymore.
William gathered a weighty breath, capping his uncharacteristic emotions. He confessed, “She won’t marry me.”
“Yes, we heard the shouting next door,” said James. “Pregnant or not, she can’t take the chance since you’re . . .”
“Dying?” supplied William.
The others remained silent.
“You have to marry her,” insisted James. “You have to tell her the truth.”
“Aye, the truth. I’m sure she’ll jump at my proposal when I tell her she’s going to be a widow—perhaps saddled with a babe—in a few months.”
A rancid bitterness climbed up his throat at the thought of leaving Maddie and possibly his child. He trembled with an uncontrollable pressure in his chest, and he wanted to roar like a trapped bear being bated by a sadistic fate.
“There isn’t much furniture left in the room,” quipped Edmund, glancing at the broken table and chair, sensing his brother’s eminent outburst. “You’ll have to pummel the bed.”
“Piss off,” snapped William.
“The wedding will have to wait,” from James. “I have an idea about the pirates.”
William clenched his palms. “You are not taking on the pirates.”
The very thought triggered a dull, pulsing ache in his head. He wasn’t dead yet, damn it! And he refused to be cast aside like a bloody invalid. He had promised Maddie he’d rescue her grandfather, and he’d every intention of keeping his word!
“No, I’m not,” returned James, strangely cool-tempered. “I’ll leave that to you, Will.” He pointed at the chart. “I will stay a league away with the women aboard my ship. As you approach the sheltered bay, the unexpected sight of your guns and my shadow on the horizon should be enough to force a surrender. Quincy and Eddie will remain on board the Nemesis with you; they both know the vessel well after serving aboard her for so many years. If we time the attack just right, in the early morning hours, we won’t have to fire a single canon.”
His brother’s logic was sound, and William offered a brusque nod of approval.
“Are you sure her grandfather is alive?” asked Edmund. “The ransom note is vague and written in a lazy hand.”
“Or an illiterate one,” offered James. “There’s still the matter of the ring that accompanied the letter.”
“Dead or alive, Maddie wants her grandfather home.” said William, ending the debate.
“Well, then, I bid you goodnight.”
Edmund dropped the note on the desk and left the cabin, Belle at his heels. She hadn’t said a word during the conversation, nor looked in his direction once, making his gut churn with remorse.
James soon followed her out the door, leaving Quincy and William alone in the room. As the frustrating seconds elapsed, and the treacherous pup still lingered, William snarled, “Get out.”
Quincy turned from the scuttle. “I’m sorry, Will.”
“Well, I don’t forgive you for breaking your word.”
“Oh, I’m not sorry about that,” he returned, flippant. “The family deserved to know the truth.”
His fists balled again. “Then what the hell are you apologizing for?”
“I cursed you, you know?”
William’s heart rammed against his chest. “You cursed me? To die?”
“What? No! I would never do such a thing.”
“Not even after I forced you to marry Holly?”
A short time ago, Quincy had found himself in a compromising situation with a viscount’s daughter, and while innocent of the charge of seducing the girl, he’d still refused to follow proper etiquette and marry the woman, saving her reputation. It was then William had intervened, threatened Quincy with banishment if he didn’t propose to the lass and set things right.
“I was furious with you at the time, I admit,” said Quincy. “It’s why I cursed your stone heart, willing a tempestuous wench to one day storm your life and wreck it to bits.”
“You’re a bloody ass.”
“I am apologizing, don’t forget.”
“Get. Out.”
Quincy sauntered toward the door. “I also want to thank you, Will. Holly is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
William’s heart quivered, then spasmed. As the door shut behind his brother, he heaved a giant breath, strapped for air.
God, what he wouldn’t give to have a long life with Maddie. She, too, was the best thing that had ever happened to him, curse or no curse.