Chapter 9

They were just rising from the table when there came a pounding at the side door. Fearing it was Finster come to pester her again, Eden was relieved to find young Willie Moffet, the lad who took their milk cow to pasture every morning and back again each evening. This morn, however, he was running late collecting the animals.

As she opened the door to him, she asked, “Is it payment time already, Willie?” It seemed she’d just issued his due for the chore.

“No, ma’am, er, Miss Eden,” he answered excitedly, fairly dancing into the house. “I jest had to stop and see if ye’d heard the news yet.”

“What news?”

“Why, ’tis all over town!” he declared, his eyes sparkling with delight at being the first one to relate this juicy bit of gossip. “They found six fellows tied up down at the wharf this mornin’, all bound and gagged and laid out in a row like hogs at the market! And ye’ll never guess what else! They was naked, each an’ every one!”

“William Moffet!” Jane reprimanded him sharply, coming forward to give a tug on his ear. “Watch your tongue, young man, or I’ll be advising your mother to take lye soap to your mouth!”

The boy grinned up at her, then gaped. “Miz Winters! Ye’re walkin’!”

“So I am,” Jane agreed simply. “Now, please go on with your story. What were these men doing tied up as they were? Do you know who they were?”

“Oh, yes, ’m! Know’d all o’ them! Know ’em even better now!” He giggled. Jane wagged a warning finger at him, and Willie sobered somewhat, though not by much. “There was Mr. Smythe, and Mr. Browning, and Danny Everett’s pa.”

As he went on to list three others, Eden recognized them all as the men she’d dismissed from employment the day before, the same men who’d been involved in the confrontation on her lawn last midnight. She turned to look at Devlin and found him leaning casually against the window frame, listening with obvious amusement.

Willie was not yet done recounting the delicious details. “They was a-layin’ there tied up tighter’n Christmas geese, each with some sort o’ tool or somethin’ laying next to ’im, and they all had big printed signs hung round their necks, tellin’ why they was there.”

“Could you read what the signs said, Willie?” Eden wanted to know.

“No, but Ned Travis could, an’ he told me. They said something like ‘I took up this weapon agin’ defenseless women. Now you use the same agin’ me.’ An’ folks was doin’ it, too, they was!” he added gleefully. “Old Ed Browning got a good wallop with ’is own shovel, an’ the Widow Gooding took the end o’ Mr. Everett’s axe handle to his noggin! Oh, but was that a sight to see!”

“I can imagine it was,” Eden replied, struggling to hold back a chuckle. Beside her, Jane was coughing delicately into her handkerchief, her eyes sparkling with merriment.

“Well, we must thank you for relating the latest news, Willie,” Eden went on. “But the cows await you, and I think you’d best run along about your usual business now, or ’twill be time to bring them back before they ever reach the pasture.”

“Yes ’m. Oh, an’ Miz Winters, I sure am glad to see ya on yer feet agin’. Wait’ll I tell Ma!” He dashed off, happier than a dog with two tails at having yet another morsel of gossip to add to the first.

“That lad is worse than an old woman!” Jane declared, laughing and shaking her head. “He’s turning out just like his mother, and I vow her tongue is hinged at both ends!”

She turned to find Eden doubled over at the waist, clutching her stomach with both arms and emitting strange squeaking sounds. “Eden? Are you all right?” “Ooh! Ooh!”

“She’s fine, or she will be as soon as she quits cackling fit to lay eggs!” Devlin announced on a snicker of his own.

It was several minutes before Eden could recover enough to speak. Wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks, she heaved a tremendous sigh. “Heavens! I can’t recall when anything has struck me so silly!” 

“Nor can I,” Jane concurred wryly. “Am I correct in assuming those were the same men who created all that fuss outdoors last evening?”

“The very same.”

“Then I’m glad to see that they’ve all been taught their lessons, and quite appropriately. Captain Kane, did you apply those measures, by some chance?” 

“Indirectly. My men did the actual work of it.”

“But it was your devious brain that derived the scheme,” Jane surmised.

“Aye.”

A slow smile crept across her face. “Sir, you have earned my profound admiration. I can only add that I am sincerely grateful that you are aligned with us and not against us.”

Among the three of them, it was decided that Eden and Devlin should go to Dudley Finster’s office to tender repayment of the loan. At Jane’s suggestion, they would take an impartial witness with them, to verify that the debt was paid in full, and the canceled note and receipt collected on the spot.

“Since we and the Finsters all attend his church, perhaps Reverend Johnston would be a good choice,” Eden offered.

“Excellent,” her mother agreed. “There is not a more respected or honest man in Charles Town.”

“Mama, now that you are walking again, shouldn’t you be the one to do this?” Eden asked.

“No. Finster has been dealing with you for some time now, and you deserve the reward of seeing the look on his face when you hand over the money. Also, it would not be a bad idea if Devlin were to be seen escorting you, boldly visible to one and all.”

“Oh?” Eden and Devlin spoke simultaneously.

“My, yes! Can you imagine Finster’s bafflement, should he suddenly find another man courting his chosen bride?” Jane asked, a sly smile curving her lips. “Why trounce him with one blow, when you have two at hand? The loan paid and a rival for your affections, all at once.”

“Oh, Mama! You are so wicked!” Eden marveled.

“Aye,” Devlin agreed. “And might I return your compliment by saying I’m heartily glad you are not my adversary, madam?”

“You may. And do keep that thought foremost in your mind, Captain.”

Before they could put their plan into action, Eden thought it best that Devlin launder his clothes and himself. “If you are to play the part of my suitor, you will present a well-kept image,” she announced firmly. “I refuse to be seen about town with an unkempt beau. ’Tis enough that people will soon discover you are a pirate.”

“I wouldn’t be quite so high and mighty if I were you, Miss Priss,” Devlin advised. “This pirate is still holding the purse strings.”

She answered with a pert wrinkle of her nose. “Release them long enough to wield a bar of soap for a change.”

He agreed, not to please her or to let her have the upper hand, but because he truly needed the scrubbing. Jane did her part by creating an extensive list of errands for Dora, which would keep her conveniently away from the house for an hour or more. Devlin dragged a big tin washtub into the kitchen, and the two women set about filling it with hot water.

“ ’Tis not as if I never bathe, you know,” he informed them grouchily. “Truth be told, I’m cleaner than most. You wouldn’t smell like roses either, were you forced to wear the same clothing day in and day out. Which presents another point. Since I’m to be fully visible today, I could very well do so in an altogether different suit of clothes, and save all this fuss. ’Twould be a treat to vary my wardrobe from time to time.”

“As long as Eden doesn’t let loose of you and have you disappear, with only your clothing left behind,” Jane pointed out.

“That’s fine with me,” Eden put in, “but you can’t apply clean clothing on a filthy body. Besides, your invisible apparel still needs washing, for those times when you need to remain undetected. Unless you intend to stroll about in your bare skin,” she added. “However, the way your luck has been running, I wouldn’t risk it. You would undoubtedly encounter some other poor soul who could discern you, and embarrass the daylights out of both of you.”

“Unlike someone else I could name, I am not ashamed of my body,” Devlin retorted.

Eden gave an indignant sniff. “I don’t doubt that you are as vain as a peacock, but that’s not to say the rest of us need to see you strut your feathers.” She tossed a bed sheet at him. “Use that to cover yourself once you have washed your clothing.” The tub now filled, she started from the room.

“What’s this?” he called after her with a gruff laugh. “Aren’t you going to stay and scrub my back for me, sweetling?”

“You are a crude lout!”

“And you are a chicken-heart!”

The tub was too small for his large frame, requiring much twisting and turning, until Devlin thought surely he was tying himself into knots, but at last he was as clean as a whistle. He then set about laundering his clothes. Once he’d finished, he carted them outdoors, draped them over a drying line stretched between two small trees, and dumped out the tub of dirty water—completely unconcerned that he did so without a stitch covering him. After all, who was to see him but Eden? And she was cowering in the parlor with her mother.

Except that Eden was not hiding in the parlor. Upon hearing the kitchen door slam, she’d gone to investigate. Finding Devlin and the tub missing, she failed to notice the bed sheet tossed into the corner. Whereupon, she erroneously concluded that he’d ventured outdoors draped in the huge white sheet which anyone might chance to see floating across the yard. Rushing to the window, she peered out, inwardly cringing.

It was not what she’d expected to see. Oh, no, not at all! There he stood, in all his glory, the sun shining down upon him like a blessing—and the sight literally stole her breath away. Where before, trapped beneath him on his bed, she had carefully avoided looking below his chest, she now found she could not tear her eyes from him.

He was magnificent! Until now, the only nude male forms Eden had viewed were those in books, pictures of stiff, lifeless statues, many with hairless bodies and their private parts shadowed or covered. There was nothing in the least lifeless about Devlin Kane! His whole being practically shouted of bold vitality. Tall, perfectly proportioned, beautiful enough to put Michelangelo’s David to shame!

Below the waist, his powerful body was pale, his long limbs darkened with only a sprinkling of tawny body hair. Above, his skin was sun-kissed to a rich, warm bronze, his broad chest carpeted with a wide vee of shimmering gold, which trailed a thinner line over his taut stomach. As he moved, a symphony of muscles played in perfect accord with one another, stretching along his calves, his thighs, his buttocks, rippling across his sleek back and sinewed arms.

As Eden watched him, unable to make herself turn away, a feverish heat sizzled through her, turning her first hot, then cold, then hot again. Her flesh tingled and burned. Her breasts seemed to swell, as if seeking release from the confines of her bodice, their suddenly sensitive tips protruding against the soft fabric of her chemise. Her knees felt like pudding, her mouth as dry as cotton, and her heart determined to gallop away with itself.

He shifted his stance, turning more fully toward her, his leg no longer hiding his manhood, and Eden nearly choked. There it was, cradled in a nest of thick, amber curls. Even as she watched, it lost its flaccid state, growing in size and strength before her stunned eyes. “Oh, my stars!” she whispered, her hand flying to her heaving chest.

Her gaze flickered upward, gooseflesh forewarning her, and she found herself staring straight into Devlin’s blazing black eyes. Never had she seen a look so brash, so challenging, so blatantly sensual! His eyes were like glowing polished ebony; his nostrils flared slightly, as if to catch her scent; the flesh was drawn taut over his strong cheekbones; his teeth gleamed in a smile as brazen and beckoning as sin itself. Even at this distance, it jolted through her with lightning force.

With a muted cry, she stumbled backward and ran from the kitchen.

Eden was hiding in her room, wondering how she was ever going to look him in the eye again, when her mother called up the steps to her. “Eden? Darling, could you come to the kitchen, please? Devlin is in need of your help.”

Devlin was in need of a good thrashing!

“Eden?”

She sighed. She was going to have to face him sooner or later, so it might as well be now, with her mother there between them. “Coming, Mama.”

She stopped just shy of the kitchen entrance. There she took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and tried to arrange her features into placid lines. But the moment she entered the kitchen to find Devlin grinning at her like a cat stalking a mouse, her composure slipped. However, it did help somewhat that around that arrogant grin, he had shaving soap lathered all over his cheeks. And the sheet was now anchored firmly around his trim waist, at least covering the lower half of him.

“You were supposed to wear the cloth over your entire body, Captain, not just the lower portion,” she snapped.

“And go about looking as if I were on my way to a Roman feast? Not on threat of death, duchess! You’ll simply have to ignore my hairy chest, if it disturbs you.” His look said that he was fully aware of how much he disturbed her—and where—and in precisely what manner.

“What do you want?” she asked irritably.

“A leading question, if ever I’ve heard one,” he answered glibly.

“Your pirate is having a bit of trouble handling his razor,” Jane explained. “He keeps cutting himself, and unless you want to be escorted by a man with half a face, it might be best to lend a hand. I’d offer to do it, but I fear I’d be as lacking at it as he, for neither of us can see more than a smear of shaving soap. Whereas you, dear, see the whole of him.”

“More than you know,” Devlin said on a soft chuckle, low enough that only Eden caught his words. He winked at her.

She glared at him. “He’s not my pirate, Mama. And what makes either of you think I’d do a better job than he can? I’ve never attempted to shave a man before.” She gave him a simpering look, though her eyes continued to shoot daggers at him. “Why, I might end up slitting his throat—entirely by accident, you understand. And what a pity that would be!”

Devlin stared at her with narrowed eyes, as if gauging the extent of her malice. “I think not,” he decided, relaxing once more. “I’m willing to wager you will be extremely careful with my person. At least until Finster has his gold.”

She shrugged, feigning disinterest. “ ’Tis your neck.”

In short order, Devlin was half-reclined on a kitchen chair, a towel draped around his neck, and Eden bent over him with the shaving brush. When he attempted to bring up a hand mirror to watch what she was doing, she shoved it aside. “I’m novice enough at this, without you making it more difficult.” Before he could argue the point, she slapped a glob of soap onto his face, landing the brush squarely in his open mouth.

Sputtering and spitting, he reared up. “You witch! You did that on purpose!” he accused, swiping at his tongue and teeth with the towel.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby! Besides, if anyone’s mouth needed washing out, ’tis yours!”

By this time, Jane was openly chuckling at their antics. “Now, children,” she admonished. “Let’s get on with this, shall we? Dora will be home soon.”

It was a trial for the wary pair. In order to keep her balance, Eden found she had to lean into him. Feigning assistance, he helped to steady her with a hand at her waist, his wandering fingers caressing her there. The contact sent a hot quiver through both of them, and Eden’s fingers were visibly trembling as she raised the razor to his face. “Easy now, lass,” he told her, his dark eyes burning into hers. “I like my nose the length ’tis.” 

“So do I, actually,” she admitted tightly, taking a short, quick breath.

All in all, it went fairly well after that. He sat as still as the statue with which she’d mentally compared him earlier, and she managed to control her trembling enough to execute the deed with moderate success. She nicked him only twice. Once near his right ear, and once while trying to negotiate around the deep crevice in his chin.

Both heaved audible sighs of relief when it was finished. At which Jane commented laughingly, “To hear the two of you, one would think you’d just gained reprieve from the gallows!”

“An apt comparison,” Devlin allowed, paler than usual. “Mayhap I’ll consider growing a beard, until such a time as I regain normalcy.”

“Oh, pooh!” Eden grinned cheekily at him, feeling perky now that she’d gotten a bit of revenge on him. “And just when I was beginning to get good at it!”

When Devlin returned from his room a short time later, Eden was surprised, and impressed, by his improved appearance. He was attired in a snowy-white shirt, with wide sleeves and ruffled cuffs, over which he wore a black brocade waistcoat, beautifully embroidered at the edges with rich red trim. Encircling his waist was the scarlet sash, his cutlass tucked into it; at his throat lay a white satin cravat, perfectly tied. His knee breeches were also black, and fitted him so faithfully that they were just short of indecent. Indeed, they left no doubt that he was definitely a man—and well-endowed into the bargain!

He’d foregone shoes in favor of his jackboots, which were now shined to a high gloss; and in his hand he carried a cavalier-style hat, complete with waving scarlet plume. Other than the fact that he sported no outer coat over his waistcoat, Eden could find little fault with his appearance.

“Well, milady,” he queried, turning about for her perusal, “will I do?”

“Quite nicely, indeed,” she answered by way of a compliment. “Is the lack of a coat an oversight, or merely a personal preference?”

“Preference, sweetling. An overcoat is cumbersome, and often in the way when one is trying to draw one’s sword.”

“I would think ’tis also much too warm in the summer,” Jane added. “My late husband shed his as often as he dared.” She sighed sadly in remembrance. “I loved him so dearly, and letting go of him has been most difficult for me, but ’tis best now to put my terrible grieving aside and hold only to the warm memories. I think I am ready to do that at long last.”

“I’m glad, Mama. I want to see you happy again.” Eden rose and kissed her, then turned and took Devlin’s arm, thus affording her mother her first full look at him, inside of all his finery.

“Ah, that is much better!” Jane said on a watery laugh. “You can’t know how peculiar it is to see a set of clothes wandering about with no body within them! ’Tis enough to send shivers up one’s spine! Just see that you keep a firm hold on him, Eden, for all our sakes!” 

Eden started for the door, only to be drawn to an abrupt halt as Devlin refused to budge. “What is it now?” 

From inside his waistcoat he withdrew two finely carved tortoiseshell hair combs. He handed them to her. “The gift I promised you yesterday,” he explained.

Then he reached out and swiftly pulled the bonnet from her head. Next, the pins from her hair, where she had it bundled into a tidy knot at her nape. Her tresses fell in a shimmering brown mass across her shoulders. “Oh, Devlin! Now see what you’ve done!” she wailed. “It shall take me a good quarter hour to repair it!” 

“Nay,” he corrected. “’Twill take but a minute or two to draw up the sides with the combs, and let the rest fall free.” When she would have argued, he shook his head sternly. “If I am to appear the suitor you wish me to, then you ought be the sort of lady I would fancy courting. Fair is fair, Eden.”

“But ’twill look horrid!” she lamented.

“Nay. ’Twill be most lovely. Trust me.”

With a pleading look toward her mother, Eden sought support. “Mama, tell him.”

Jane smiled, her face more alive with tenderness than Eden could recall since her father’s death. “Wear it down, Eden,” she said softly. “He’s right, my dear. When you were small, I used to love arranging it that way for you.”

Off Eden flounced, to return once more with the bonnet atop her head, though her hair was now streaming out behind it. She was three steps inside the room when Devlin again snatched the hat from her. “If you require some means to keep the sun from darkening your fair skin, pray employ a parasol until we can purchase more fashionable headgear for you.” He eyed the hat with distaste. “This god-awful thing looks as if a ragman’s wife would turn her nose up at it. For that matter, I prefer to see your hair in all its abundant splendor, not just a swatch of it hanging down your back like a horse’s tail.”

“I don’t give a whit what you prefer, Captain!” she railed at him, her eyes smoldering. She made to grab the hat back from him, but he held it out of reach. Much to her dismay, he then ripped it in half and tossed the remains over his shoulder with blatant disregard, while Jane sat staring at them in gleeful anticipation.

“You should care, Eden,” Devlin insisted, “as my sense of style seems far superior to yours.”

“You wouldn’t know fashion if it perched on your nose, you oaf!”

“I know when it’s perched on your head! Or not, as in this instance.”

“Eden, please!” Jane implored. “All this shouting is ridiculous. And for what? If he can go without a coat, then surely you can go without a bonnet for once. And it does make your hair look ever so much better this way. After all, ’tis not as if you were bald!”

Shooting a glare at both of them, Eden snatched up a parasol and swept from the room, and might have kept on going if Devlin had not caught her arm and slowed her to a more dignified pace. With haughty aplomb and a devilish twinkle in his black eyes, he bowed and offered his arm toward her. “If you please, duchess,” he said with a broad grin. “I am ever at your service.”

She grabbed at his arm, grumbling irritably. “You’re ever a thorn in my backside, Devlin Kane! That’s what you are, you wretch!”