Categories > Original > Romance > TAKEN
CHAPTER THIRTY
On the morrow, I decided to accompany the wagons down for the midday meal. Etienne greeted me with his usual affection and good cheer.
“My angel of mercy.” He kissed each of my cheeks. “How fares you this day?”
“A little tired.” James had hardly given me more than a quarter hour’s rest between making love to me until after the dark hour of three.
He served himself a shredded pork-stuffed roll, rice cooked with chicken and tomatoes, and three wedges of cheese. I smiled at his appetite, put a second bun on his plate and earned another kiss for my efforts. Some time into my serving the food, I realized I had not seen my lover.
“Where’s James?”
Mr. Street thanked me for his plate, answered, “He has gone to swim.”
I excused myself and rode to his stretch of beach. At once I spotted him out beyond the breakers, brown arms and shoulders cutting the blue-green water. A tall dark fin kept pace perhaps ten paces on the other side of him as James swam parallel to the shore. It did not terrify me as it had before. Having seen him board that British man-of-war, cutting down enemy like God’s thunder, I felt more secure in his ability to preserve his own life.
The gelding liked to play in the surf, so I rode him out into knee-deep water and let him splash. Finally, James turned and struck out for the beach. I waited, watched the shark veer off as James reached shallow water. He stood and I knew the moment he saw me. For a moment I saw unguarded pleasure. Then he controlled himself as he came ashore. I did not let that bother me. I had no plans to tailor around his adjustment period.
“You sit that mount very fine, sweet.” He stood at my knee, water sluicing down his body, and I thought of that first day I had seen him at this spot.
“You look very fine all glistening and golden.”
He gave me one of his rare smiles. “You are a shameless baggage.”
“Indeed.” I removed my foot from the mounting stirrup. May I offer you transport to your office?”
“I intended to run. However, I believe I shall accept.”
He dampened me during the ride. The sun would dry me, I had no doubt. We arrived at his office and I noticed that darkness flitting behind his pale eyes.
“I might not return until late,” he said, bending to kiss my mouth, then my cheek. “Do not hold the meal or wait up.”
“All right,” I answered, fully intending to do both.
#
I fed Gato, sat with him, stroking his soft-rough fur for some long while. As I rose and turned to leave, he remained at my side. His intelligent amber eyes stared back into mine as I gazed down, hand upon the door.
“Where do you think you are going?”
He made a little whine, looked at the door expectantly. Knowing I would frighten the wits out of a great many people, I admitted myself and my pet. Two maids, tending the few remaining men, screamed and all but ran over each other in their haste to escape. Last night those who had served Gamboa and I on the verandah had behaved so skittishly I had smiled. This made me laugh. Gato padded along, curious, absorbing the new sights. I could not fathom why an animal so clearly content and relaxed created cause for concern.
Gato accompanied me upstairs. He sniffed around, whining and making the strangest open-mouthed panting gesture when he smelled something dominated by James’ scent. I half-feared he would urinate upon those items to imprint himself over the other dominant male. As I thought before, males of any species vary not so much.
I had our dinner of sliced beef and fresh vegetables placed under cover in the next room. I bathed, Eza helping me and quite comfortable now around the watchful panther. As she rinsed my hair, I decided to speak to her about contraception.
“Eza, have you made love with Christopher?”
She flinched. “Yes. Yesterday evening after we talked.”
“Did he spill inside you?”
Her reply came in a thin whisper. “No. On my belly.”
“Good. I shall have Walks Softly brew some of what I take. It will prevent a baby, so you can concentrate on enjoying yourself.”
“Isn’t it very wrong?”
I didn’t know if she meant the fornication or averting pregnancy. “Forget what you have been told,” I responded, recalling what Etienne told me. “It is your life, your body. Do as you please and never regret.”
I answered some shyly asked questions, then they became more involved. Finally as I dressed in a nightrail and robe, I quizzed her further.
“Did he hurt you?”
She replied, “A little, but,” she blushed brightly, “I couldn’t seem to care.”
“Did you climax?”
I didn’t think she could blush any darker, still, she attained a new shade. “Twice.”
It pleased me my brother’s cavalier attitude did not extend to sexual matters. “Good to know he isn’t entirely a lost cause.”
After she left, I settled myself in the chair by the bed, Gato stretched at my feet, and waited.
#
A single hours candle burned showing the night had aged two after midnight. I had taken Gato down to the courtyard once after his circling and scratching at the door. That quickly he understood he must go out to relieve himself.
I had long since sent our dinner down to the kitchen, as well as abandoned my place in the chair. The pacing had agitated the cat at first. After an hour, he lie sprawled and snoring, slumbering heavily as only still growing things do.
I heard James upon the stairs. My heart lurched sideways, my palms tingled and I nearly forgot to breathe as the door opened. The moment I saw him I knew he had spent hours drinking. Although his movements did not give it away, the rather dangerous glittering of those pale eyes did.
His voice held a rough edge. “I told you not to wait up.”
Keeping my tone even, I responded, “I didn’t realize that was an order. And, if I had, the outcome would have remained the same.”
He glanced at Gato, closed and locked the portal. “Beauty has tamed the beast?”
Something in the words, a faint sneer mayhaps, made me cautious. “Kindness and a consistently full belly tamed him.”
He went to stand before the chest-of-drawers, removing weapons in the same methodical manner he did each night, placing them there with easy reach, arranged the same precise way. He removed his shirt, sat down upon the bed to pull off his boots. My belly fluttered a little watching the muscles ripple and flex across his tanned back. I could still see the marks my nails left the night before.
Wishing to fill the silence, I asked, “Is Gamboa nearly ready to sail?”
“I had a very interesting conversation with him this evening.”
My heart jerked again. “Truly?”
He sat there, gaze fixed upon the wall. “He seems to think I do you disservice in a variety of ways.”
I almost opted to flee and hide from the storm I sensed about to burst upon me. Instead, despite my trembling, I said, “At this juncture, I am inclined to agree. My hope is that it does not continue.”
“What if naught changes?” He turned his head and looked at me then. The black fire I had seen before burned, its flames fanned by the rum.
“I have more faith in you than that, James.” I remained where I stood, with a dozen paces between us all the same.
“Your faith is ill-advised.” He rose, came toward me with a particular predatory aura that turned my trembling to shaking. “Deep down, you know it. I can smell it. You’d do well to heed your instincts, Lili.”
“You are not a villain,” I returned, holding my ground. “Your motivations justify your actions. I took up arms in the same battle.”
“I am exactly what I made myself.” He stared down at me from his menacing height. The scent of his skin mixed with the tang of the spirits he’d consumed.
“If you’re attempting to frighten me,” I whispered, suddenly unable to let his eyes meet mine, “you are succeeding admirably. If you are trying to scare me away, you misuse your time.”
He stood there, taking up the air and space until I felt ready to bolt. “What holds you?”
With tremendous effort, I raised my gaze to his. He had never appeared more terrifying than in that moment, with his scrutiny flaying me to my bare soul. “Love.”
For the barest breath, stunned surprise flared, transformed his expression. Then that terrible iron wall raised with a palpable clang. “If yours holds you, that’s your misfortune. If it is the wish for mine, I can save you much wasted time. I’ve forgotten how, Lili.”
“I do not believe that.”
“I wish nothing more from you than use of your sweet body.”
“Gato.” He rose at the sound of his name, perhaps already roused by the charged atmosphere. When he arrived at my side, I spoke through unshed tears. “You shall not be having that tonight.” I turned, opened the door and met his seething stare once more. Almost unable to speak, I said, “Your mother would be ashamed.”
I closed the door as the sound of splintering wood shattered the nighttime quiet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I slept in a room down the hall. Once in the night, I heard a man’s step in the hall. I would have recognized Christopher or James, therefore determined it Gamboa’s. Before dawn I stood watching the eastern sky, waiting for the sun, needful of warmth and light. When I opened the door, Gamboa stepped passed me inside and closed the door.
“Do not fear me,” he commanded, low and intense. “My intentions on this errand are honorable.”
Gato sat at my feet, still sleepy. Gamboa’s sudden appearance had made my pulse trip. Here stood I, nightrail and robe, hair tumbled from sleep. “What is it?”
“Are you all right, Lili?”
“You can see better than I,” I snapped a bit irritably. “You tell me.”
“When I heard him begin destroying things..” He closed his eyes briefly, seemed to gain control of himself, and took a chain from his neck with a key upon it. “This opens my quarters aboard the Folly. I have two men on guard, watching for you. If you must hide from him, go there straight away and I shall get you, your brother and your pet from his reach.”
I did not need him to clarify that ‘his’. He put the chain over my head and lifted my hair from under it. The familiarity surprised me. “I am certain no such elaborate action shall be required.”
“Take my words to heart. James is a man in the grip of his demons. Use extreme caution.”
He opened the door a crack, checking the hall, then melted away before I could reply.
I walked down to James’ room, seeing a few men carrying out what I could only consider debris. I hardly recognized the splinters and chunks. Without speaking to anyone, I went through to the door leading to the sitting room and bathing chamber with Gato trailing, and closed that door behind us. I dressed, brushed my hair, packed my underthings, the masculine parts of my wardrobe and my personal effects into a small trunk and hefted it under one arm. I carried it to the room I had chosen last night, caught the attention of a maid and requested it be attended as such until further notice.
I took Gato downstairs and outside to have his personal time. When he finished, I sent for Walks Softly. He must have returned to duty, for he arrived far swifter than if he’d remained at home.
He examined as much of my body as possible and yet allow me to retain my dignity in public. “I feared finding you black and blue. Etienne and I wish for you to stay with us until his foul temper clears.”
“I’ve moved down the hall.” I turned as a girl from the kitchen arrived when my cat’s meal. I thanked her, took the bowl and placed it down for him to break his fast.
“That is not enough. Gamboa has spoken to me and told me of his offer. Perhaps you should accept.”
Stunned, I demanded, “What is this conspiracy of mistrust? James is your brother. How can you think to betray him?”
“It would save him in the long term,” he replied, tone as dark as his black opal eyes. “It would save you now.”
“I do not believe he would harm me.” I meant it. Of all the times I called down his wrath, he had never hurt me. I settled myself in a chair under the shade of the verandah’s roofed portion. “Last night I told him his mother would be ashamed of him.”
“Lili, you didn’t.”
I continued, “If that didn’t push him into some rum- and rage-induced violence, nothing shall.”
He came to kneel at my feet. “This will become worse for a long while before it becomes better. If you remain, one of you shall do harm to the other. You are both too passionate and strong-willed for it to proceed otherwise.” He picked up my hands, held them to his chest. I could feel his heart beating faster than the steady, slow rhythm I had come to expect. “I beg of you. Leave him.”
It proved too much. Tears welled and spilled. I fell forward into his arms, weeping. He murmured to me in Algonquin, stroking my hair and back. I heard a half-growling whine and Gato shoved his head into my side. Walks Softly sat back, crossing his legs close to his body as was his fashion, turning me sideways in his lap so the cat could situate itself upon mine. What an odd knot of concern and suffering we made as I cried out my doubts and fears.
“I love you, Lili,” he said in English as my tears slowed. He turned my face to look in my eyes. “I love James. Seeing the two of you on this collision course with Fate and each other terrifies me. My heart breaks for you both. You two, and Etienne, are my family. I would never divide it did I not see dire need.”
“I cannot just surrender,” I argued, “I love him.”
The stark grief in his voice almost sent me into weeping again. “I know.”
“I shall speak to him after he sobers. Make a case for myself and attempt to make him understand his own actions.”
“Cry to the moon you wish it for a light beside your bed. For if what you intend resolves this tangle, you shall surely have your lunar lamp.”
His complete lack of optimism made my stomach clench tighter. I swiped my cheeks with my knuckles and set Gato from me that I could stand. “I refuse to simply give up. I will try to speak to him, then we shall resume this conversation.”
He pushed to his feet. “Swear to me, no baiting, none of your provoking him.”
“I swear, I shall not provoke him. But I cannot swear to his actions.”
Walks Softly braided my hair for me and offered to sit with Gato while I sought James. However, the cat would have none of it. Sooner or later I would have to try him out, we supposed. He rubbed the cat’s ears and then offered to accompany me. We cut through the dining room and departed through the side door out onto the lawn. As we headed toward the road to town and the harbor, movement caught my eye. The men I had seen upstairs loaded the ravaged furniture into wagons, presumably for removal and burning.
My friend said nothing. Nonetheless, the evidence of carnage disturbed him, I knew. Mr. Levit came riding up the road and Walks Softly hailed him.
“Where might we find the captain?”
Mr. Levit looked at me, obviously as uncomfortable as a man could appear. “Might we speak in private?”
Walks Softly glanced at me. “You may speak freely before her.”
The other man flushed. “Captain’s down at the tavern. Having his … needs met.”
I hardly heard Walks Softly calling after me as I bodily hauled Levit from his mount and swung astride. The Indian tried to grab the horse’s bridle, but I kicked the animal’s sides and it leaped ahead. Halfway to the tavern I realized Gato ran beside me. My rage kept any other thoughts from my mind.
I slid the steed to halt outside the tavern, not bothering to secure it. Already frightened by the smell of Gato, the horse bolted. I strode toward the tavern door. As I approached a man exited. His shocked expression told me how unexpected I was. Taking advantage of his stun, I yanked his sword from its scabbard and continued with the cat at my side. I threw open the door and stepped inside. A ripple of outcry swelled then died to dead silence.
My eyes adjusted to the dimness and I saw James seated at a corner table with a small, slender woman in his lap. Her eyes widened and she scrambled from his grasp. I felt strongly I had intercepted his intentions before they could become deed.
I stood there, sweeping the common room with my gaze until I had met that of every female in the place.
“You know who I am.” Fury crackled within me and my blood felt hotter than it had in battle. “Bed him and answer to me. No one, not even him, shall be able to protect you.”
I pivoted and stalked from the establishment, Gato growling as he trotted at my leg.
On the morrow, I decided to accompany the wagons down for the midday meal. Etienne greeted me with his usual affection and good cheer.
“My angel of mercy.” He kissed each of my cheeks. “How fares you this day?”
“A little tired.” James had hardly given me more than a quarter hour’s rest between making love to me until after the dark hour of three.
He served himself a shredded pork-stuffed roll, rice cooked with chicken and tomatoes, and three wedges of cheese. I smiled at his appetite, put a second bun on his plate and earned another kiss for my efforts. Some time into my serving the food, I realized I had not seen my lover.
“Where’s James?”
Mr. Street thanked me for his plate, answered, “He has gone to swim.”
I excused myself and rode to his stretch of beach. At once I spotted him out beyond the breakers, brown arms and shoulders cutting the blue-green water. A tall dark fin kept pace perhaps ten paces on the other side of him as James swam parallel to the shore. It did not terrify me as it had before. Having seen him board that British man-of-war, cutting down enemy like God’s thunder, I felt more secure in his ability to preserve his own life.
The gelding liked to play in the surf, so I rode him out into knee-deep water and let him splash. Finally, James turned and struck out for the beach. I waited, watched the shark veer off as James reached shallow water. He stood and I knew the moment he saw me. For a moment I saw unguarded pleasure. Then he controlled himself as he came ashore. I did not let that bother me. I had no plans to tailor around his adjustment period.
“You sit that mount very fine, sweet.” He stood at my knee, water sluicing down his body, and I thought of that first day I had seen him at this spot.
“You look very fine all glistening and golden.”
He gave me one of his rare smiles. “You are a shameless baggage.”
“Indeed.” I removed my foot from the mounting stirrup. May I offer you transport to your office?”
“I intended to run. However, I believe I shall accept.”
He dampened me during the ride. The sun would dry me, I had no doubt. We arrived at his office and I noticed that darkness flitting behind his pale eyes.
“I might not return until late,” he said, bending to kiss my mouth, then my cheek. “Do not hold the meal or wait up.”
“All right,” I answered, fully intending to do both.
#
I fed Gato, sat with him, stroking his soft-rough fur for some long while. As I rose and turned to leave, he remained at my side. His intelligent amber eyes stared back into mine as I gazed down, hand upon the door.
“Where do you think you are going?”
He made a little whine, looked at the door expectantly. Knowing I would frighten the wits out of a great many people, I admitted myself and my pet. Two maids, tending the few remaining men, screamed and all but ran over each other in their haste to escape. Last night those who had served Gamboa and I on the verandah had behaved so skittishly I had smiled. This made me laugh. Gato padded along, curious, absorbing the new sights. I could not fathom why an animal so clearly content and relaxed created cause for concern.
Gato accompanied me upstairs. He sniffed around, whining and making the strangest open-mouthed panting gesture when he smelled something dominated by James’ scent. I half-feared he would urinate upon those items to imprint himself over the other dominant male. As I thought before, males of any species vary not so much.
I had our dinner of sliced beef and fresh vegetables placed under cover in the next room. I bathed, Eza helping me and quite comfortable now around the watchful panther. As she rinsed my hair, I decided to speak to her about contraception.
“Eza, have you made love with Christopher?”
She flinched. “Yes. Yesterday evening after we talked.”
“Did he spill inside you?”
Her reply came in a thin whisper. “No. On my belly.”
“Good. I shall have Walks Softly brew some of what I take. It will prevent a baby, so you can concentrate on enjoying yourself.”
“Isn’t it very wrong?”
I didn’t know if she meant the fornication or averting pregnancy. “Forget what you have been told,” I responded, recalling what Etienne told me. “It is your life, your body. Do as you please and never regret.”
I answered some shyly asked questions, then they became more involved. Finally as I dressed in a nightrail and robe, I quizzed her further.
“Did he hurt you?”
She replied, “A little, but,” she blushed brightly, “I couldn’t seem to care.”
“Did you climax?”
I didn’t think she could blush any darker, still, she attained a new shade. “Twice.”
It pleased me my brother’s cavalier attitude did not extend to sexual matters. “Good to know he isn’t entirely a lost cause.”
After she left, I settled myself in the chair by the bed, Gato stretched at my feet, and waited.
#
A single hours candle burned showing the night had aged two after midnight. I had taken Gato down to the courtyard once after his circling and scratching at the door. That quickly he understood he must go out to relieve himself.
I had long since sent our dinner down to the kitchen, as well as abandoned my place in the chair. The pacing had agitated the cat at first. After an hour, he lie sprawled and snoring, slumbering heavily as only still growing things do.
I heard James upon the stairs. My heart lurched sideways, my palms tingled and I nearly forgot to breathe as the door opened. The moment I saw him I knew he had spent hours drinking. Although his movements did not give it away, the rather dangerous glittering of those pale eyes did.
His voice held a rough edge. “I told you not to wait up.”
Keeping my tone even, I responded, “I didn’t realize that was an order. And, if I had, the outcome would have remained the same.”
He glanced at Gato, closed and locked the portal. “Beauty has tamed the beast?”
Something in the words, a faint sneer mayhaps, made me cautious. “Kindness and a consistently full belly tamed him.”
He went to stand before the chest-of-drawers, removing weapons in the same methodical manner he did each night, placing them there with easy reach, arranged the same precise way. He removed his shirt, sat down upon the bed to pull off his boots. My belly fluttered a little watching the muscles ripple and flex across his tanned back. I could still see the marks my nails left the night before.
Wishing to fill the silence, I asked, “Is Gamboa nearly ready to sail?”
“I had a very interesting conversation with him this evening.”
My heart jerked again. “Truly?”
He sat there, gaze fixed upon the wall. “He seems to think I do you disservice in a variety of ways.”
I almost opted to flee and hide from the storm I sensed about to burst upon me. Instead, despite my trembling, I said, “At this juncture, I am inclined to agree. My hope is that it does not continue.”
“What if naught changes?” He turned his head and looked at me then. The black fire I had seen before burned, its flames fanned by the rum.
“I have more faith in you than that, James.” I remained where I stood, with a dozen paces between us all the same.
“Your faith is ill-advised.” He rose, came toward me with a particular predatory aura that turned my trembling to shaking. “Deep down, you know it. I can smell it. You’d do well to heed your instincts, Lili.”
“You are not a villain,” I returned, holding my ground. “Your motivations justify your actions. I took up arms in the same battle.”
“I am exactly what I made myself.” He stared down at me from his menacing height. The scent of his skin mixed with the tang of the spirits he’d consumed.
“If you’re attempting to frighten me,” I whispered, suddenly unable to let his eyes meet mine, “you are succeeding admirably. If you are trying to scare me away, you misuse your time.”
He stood there, taking up the air and space until I felt ready to bolt. “What holds you?”
With tremendous effort, I raised my gaze to his. He had never appeared more terrifying than in that moment, with his scrutiny flaying me to my bare soul. “Love.”
For the barest breath, stunned surprise flared, transformed his expression. Then that terrible iron wall raised with a palpable clang. “If yours holds you, that’s your misfortune. If it is the wish for mine, I can save you much wasted time. I’ve forgotten how, Lili.”
“I do not believe that.”
“I wish nothing more from you than use of your sweet body.”
“Gato.” He rose at the sound of his name, perhaps already roused by the charged atmosphere. When he arrived at my side, I spoke through unshed tears. “You shall not be having that tonight.” I turned, opened the door and met his seething stare once more. Almost unable to speak, I said, “Your mother would be ashamed.”
I closed the door as the sound of splintering wood shattered the nighttime quiet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I slept in a room down the hall. Once in the night, I heard a man’s step in the hall. I would have recognized Christopher or James, therefore determined it Gamboa’s. Before dawn I stood watching the eastern sky, waiting for the sun, needful of warmth and light. When I opened the door, Gamboa stepped passed me inside and closed the door.
“Do not fear me,” he commanded, low and intense. “My intentions on this errand are honorable.”
Gato sat at my feet, still sleepy. Gamboa’s sudden appearance had made my pulse trip. Here stood I, nightrail and robe, hair tumbled from sleep. “What is it?”
“Are you all right, Lili?”
“You can see better than I,” I snapped a bit irritably. “You tell me.”
“When I heard him begin destroying things..” He closed his eyes briefly, seemed to gain control of himself, and took a chain from his neck with a key upon it. “This opens my quarters aboard the Folly. I have two men on guard, watching for you. If you must hide from him, go there straight away and I shall get you, your brother and your pet from his reach.”
I did not need him to clarify that ‘his’. He put the chain over my head and lifted my hair from under it. The familiarity surprised me. “I am certain no such elaborate action shall be required.”
“Take my words to heart. James is a man in the grip of his demons. Use extreme caution.”
He opened the door a crack, checking the hall, then melted away before I could reply.
I walked down to James’ room, seeing a few men carrying out what I could only consider debris. I hardly recognized the splinters and chunks. Without speaking to anyone, I went through to the door leading to the sitting room and bathing chamber with Gato trailing, and closed that door behind us. I dressed, brushed my hair, packed my underthings, the masculine parts of my wardrobe and my personal effects into a small trunk and hefted it under one arm. I carried it to the room I had chosen last night, caught the attention of a maid and requested it be attended as such until further notice.
I took Gato downstairs and outside to have his personal time. When he finished, I sent for Walks Softly. He must have returned to duty, for he arrived far swifter than if he’d remained at home.
He examined as much of my body as possible and yet allow me to retain my dignity in public. “I feared finding you black and blue. Etienne and I wish for you to stay with us until his foul temper clears.”
“I’ve moved down the hall.” I turned as a girl from the kitchen arrived when my cat’s meal. I thanked her, took the bowl and placed it down for him to break his fast.
“That is not enough. Gamboa has spoken to me and told me of his offer. Perhaps you should accept.”
Stunned, I demanded, “What is this conspiracy of mistrust? James is your brother. How can you think to betray him?”
“It would save him in the long term,” he replied, tone as dark as his black opal eyes. “It would save you now.”
“I do not believe he would harm me.” I meant it. Of all the times I called down his wrath, he had never hurt me. I settled myself in a chair under the shade of the verandah’s roofed portion. “Last night I told him his mother would be ashamed of him.”
“Lili, you didn’t.”
I continued, “If that didn’t push him into some rum- and rage-induced violence, nothing shall.”
He came to kneel at my feet. “This will become worse for a long while before it becomes better. If you remain, one of you shall do harm to the other. You are both too passionate and strong-willed for it to proceed otherwise.” He picked up my hands, held them to his chest. I could feel his heart beating faster than the steady, slow rhythm I had come to expect. “I beg of you. Leave him.”
It proved too much. Tears welled and spilled. I fell forward into his arms, weeping. He murmured to me in Algonquin, stroking my hair and back. I heard a half-growling whine and Gato shoved his head into my side. Walks Softly sat back, crossing his legs close to his body as was his fashion, turning me sideways in his lap so the cat could situate itself upon mine. What an odd knot of concern and suffering we made as I cried out my doubts and fears.
“I love you, Lili,” he said in English as my tears slowed. He turned my face to look in my eyes. “I love James. Seeing the two of you on this collision course with Fate and each other terrifies me. My heart breaks for you both. You two, and Etienne, are my family. I would never divide it did I not see dire need.”
“I cannot just surrender,” I argued, “I love him.”
The stark grief in his voice almost sent me into weeping again. “I know.”
“I shall speak to him after he sobers. Make a case for myself and attempt to make him understand his own actions.”
“Cry to the moon you wish it for a light beside your bed. For if what you intend resolves this tangle, you shall surely have your lunar lamp.”
His complete lack of optimism made my stomach clench tighter. I swiped my cheeks with my knuckles and set Gato from me that I could stand. “I refuse to simply give up. I will try to speak to him, then we shall resume this conversation.”
He pushed to his feet. “Swear to me, no baiting, none of your provoking him.”
“I swear, I shall not provoke him. But I cannot swear to his actions.”
Walks Softly braided my hair for me and offered to sit with Gato while I sought James. However, the cat would have none of it. Sooner or later I would have to try him out, we supposed. He rubbed the cat’s ears and then offered to accompany me. We cut through the dining room and departed through the side door out onto the lawn. As we headed toward the road to town and the harbor, movement caught my eye. The men I had seen upstairs loaded the ravaged furniture into wagons, presumably for removal and burning.
My friend said nothing. Nonetheless, the evidence of carnage disturbed him, I knew. Mr. Levit came riding up the road and Walks Softly hailed him.
“Where might we find the captain?”
Mr. Levit looked at me, obviously as uncomfortable as a man could appear. “Might we speak in private?”
Walks Softly glanced at me. “You may speak freely before her.”
The other man flushed. “Captain’s down at the tavern. Having his … needs met.”
I hardly heard Walks Softly calling after me as I bodily hauled Levit from his mount and swung astride. The Indian tried to grab the horse’s bridle, but I kicked the animal’s sides and it leaped ahead. Halfway to the tavern I realized Gato ran beside me. My rage kept any other thoughts from my mind.
I slid the steed to halt outside the tavern, not bothering to secure it. Already frightened by the smell of Gato, the horse bolted. I strode toward the tavern door. As I approached a man exited. His shocked expression told me how unexpected I was. Taking advantage of his stun, I yanked his sword from its scabbard and continued with the cat at my side. I threw open the door and stepped inside. A ripple of outcry swelled then died to dead silence.
My eyes adjusted to the dimness and I saw James seated at a corner table with a small, slender woman in his lap. Her eyes widened and she scrambled from his grasp. I felt strongly I had intercepted his intentions before they could become deed.
I stood there, sweeping the common room with my gaze until I had met that of every female in the place.
“You know who I am.” Fury crackled within me and my blood felt hotter than it had in battle. “Bed him and answer to me. No one, not even him, shall be able to protect you.”
I pivoted and stalked from the establishment, Gato growling as he trotted at my leg.
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