Chapter Forty-One
JAMES STOOD ON THE main deck of Damon’s ship, not far from the ladder he’d climbed up. His men were searching the rest of the ship and had already told him prisoners who appeared to be pirates were in the hold. Jacqueline was clinging to his side, where she’d launched herself the moment he’d stepped aboard, she was so happy to see him!
She hugged him again before saying, “We stowed away.”
“We did nothing of the sort,” Jeremy corrected.
James leaned down and kissed the top of Jacqueline’s head and clasped Jeremy’s shoulder. “I’ll have an accounting from you two later. Which of those two do I need to have a talk with?”
James was staring at Damon and Mortimer, the two taller, better-dressed men among the sailors forming a line for inspection across the length of the deck. Although her father cut a forbidding figure, wearing the ship garb he preferred—billowing white shirt open at the neck, tall Hessian boots over black pants—he didn’t seem angry. Maybe he was a little annoyed because he’d come over for a fight but didn’t get one since Damon had directed Mort to hoist a white flag and James and his men had climbed aboard without hindrance.
“That would be me.” Damon stepped forward.
James slowly approached him, and no part of his expression warned that his fist was going to connect so brutally with Damon’s gut, but it did. Once Damon was bent over from that, it was easy for James to follow with an uppercut to the chin.
It happened too fast. Jacqueline screamed, “Father, stop!”
Mortimer snarled, “Bloody hell,” at the first blow and started to interfere, but five of James’s crew were suddenly yanking him back in line, and James didn’t even spare him a glance.
But Jacqueline pushed past her father and dropped to her knees by Damon’s head and tossed back accusingly, “If you’ve broken his jaw, he won’t be able to talk to you!”
“We just had a good talk,” James replied. “When he wakes up, we’ll have it again.”
She growled in frustration at that answer, but her hand was gentle as she patted Damon’s cheek to awaken him. James frowned as he watched her and demanded, “Is that, or is it not, the pirate you named Bastard?”
“It is,” Jeremy answered for her. “But we formed an alliance with him.”
“I gathered something of the sort, since I saw you and your sister on deck without restraints. Which is the only reason he’s still breathing.”
“I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that, but I thought you’d hear him out first.”
“To what point? There was an eyewitness to your abduction,” James said. “Tony caught up with me to give me an account of it.” Then James noticed Percy approaching. “Good to see you’ve weathered this adventure well, Alden.”
“Oh, indeed, Lord M, though I’ve a much better appreciation for my valet now. Going to have to give the chap a raise when I get home.”
“When you get there, do thank your mother and your driver for me. They let my family know what happened near the London Docks.”
Jeremy pulled his father aside to give his own account of that, ending with “Yes, we were utterly foolish to think we could capture him. But he was willing to relinquish his upper hand just to protect Jack from Lacross’s men. And if you have his ransom note, then you know—”
“I don’t have it.”
“Ah, well, that explains it.” Jeremy nodded toward the still-unconscious captain. “He wrote the note this time, requesting a meeting with you in St. Kitts. He took Jack for leverage because he didn’t think you’d cross the ocean again without incentive. Ironically, he wants your help to put Lacross back in prison.”
“This isn’t the way to ask for help.”
“I agree.”
“And I was already going to deal with Pierre.”
“To be fair, he obviously didn’t know that. He got stuck with the pirate’s men this trip, so he had to pretend he was still following the same orders, when he wasn’t—well, he says he wasn’t. I’m not sure what to believe when he never gave any reasons for his own involvement in any of this—though I assume he won’t be so reticent with you. But then the damned pirates aboard wanted Jack for themselves and were making attempts to get at her. The captain was fighting them off, but it was getting close to a mutiny, so he asked for my help in dealing with them.”
“So it was just a temporary truce?”
“To last until you say otherwise.”
James nodded. “Take your sister to The Maiden George. You’re both done with this ship. And try to ignore Tony. He’s been an utter pain in the arse this week since he joined me.”
Jeremy grinned. “I was wondering why he didn’t row over with you.”
“And now you know why I didn’t let him. I know he’s just worried about Judy, but he’s dealing with it by provoking me. Good God, I’m never going through that with Jack.”
“I don’t see how you can avoid—”
“By bloody well denying my blessing to all of her suitors, that’s how.”
Jeremy laughed. “Jack will probably have something to say about that, but at least you won’t find out until next year what a colossal pain in the arse she can be.” Then Jeremy went over to his sister. “Let’s go, Jack.”
She stood up, but reminded him, “I have trunks here that will need to be—”
James cut in, “You packed for your own abduction?”
She swung around to her father. “Of course not. Damon supplied me with clothes and other amenities. He prepared ahead. We didn’t prepare enough. But we’re allies now and—”
“Not anymore.”
She gasped. “Jeremy gave his word!”
“That it would last until I arrived.”
“No, that it would last until Damon gets to talk to you, and then you decide. And not the damned talking you already did with your fists.”
James lifted her chin. “Is this gratitude because he protected you from the pirates on his ship—or more?”
She gave her brother a hard look before she said, “I hated him. I even tried to kill him. But that was before we found out he didn’t really mean us harm. He was just trying to lure you into helping him dispose of Lacross. He didn’t think simply asking you to help would work. Aren’t you the least bit curious why?”
“He’s twice abducted you, poppet. No, there’s nothing he can say to absolve himself of that.”
Despite the endearment, her father’s tone was utterly unrelenting. Even Jacqueline knew not to argue when her father was like this. Yet she still said, “You’ve met him before.”
James glanced down at the unconscious man. “If I have, it wasn’t remarkable enough to remember.”
“It was for him. ‘For reasons better left buried, I don’t like your father.’ That statement of his clearly implies you’ve met before, but he wouldn’t say how he knew you, or from where or when. Yet whatever occurred between you, it affected his decisions in this long chain of events. And as the pawn that was used as the lure, I still want to know why, whether you do or not.” She marched to the railing, climbed over it, and yelled before she disappeared down the ladder, “Don’t hurt his face!”
James tsked before he turned his full attention to Mortimer. “Your captain doesn’t look familiar, but you, on the other hand . . .”