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Aidan strode away, headed north up the harbor, to where he’d docked his sloop.
“Where are you going?” Farquharson shouted after him.
“To stop a wedding. ”
Chapter 34
The reality of Elspeth’s situation was upon her. Traveling by boat was a horrid affair, nothing like what she’d experienced with Aidan on his sloop.
At least the mystery of the man with the black pearl was finally solved. She stared at Captain Will. She’d expected the most fearsome of pirates, but he was average. Neither tall nor short. Not particularly hideous, nor was he so very well formed. The only thing that stood out was the black pearl dangling from his right ear.
And somehow it was this lack of exceptionality that was the root of his menace. His eyes were cold but his smile came easy, and she had the disturbing sensation that a horrible secret lay cloaked behind that placid mien. If she found him so unsettling, what must a young boy like Aidan have felt?
A howl echoed from the ship’s hold, and she flinched. Even seated in the captain’s quarters, she smelled the Endeavor’s stink of pitch and mildew, and the cries of men locked below carried clearly to her ears, making her blood run cold.
Even more chilling was the knowledge that she was traveling on the very ship that’d stolen Aidan away, so many years ago.
Aidan. He’d come for her. She knew it. He’d arrive, greater than any hero from any book. Sailing alongside, he’d toss grappling hooks into their rigging and swoop on deck like the most fearsome of Barbadian raiders. He’d create choices where there were none, revealing some pirate treasure he’d buried away.
Captain Will had been staring at her and apparently saw something in her expression that he found distasteful.
“Damnable situation,” the captain muttered. He stood and closed the distance to where Fraser sat. He approached too closely, towering over the merchant, forcing him to crane his neck upward. “You’ll pay for this little detour. I’m not in business to take you out for a honeymoon sail. ” He cast a thoughtful look at Fraser’s heavy suitcase, stroking the pearl in his ear all the while. “And I don’t like having a woman aboard. The men fear naught but ill fortune can come of it. ”
Fraser leaned back, affecting amiability. “Not superstitious, are you?”
The captain glared, freezing Fraser’s easy laugh in his throat.
Elspeth watched the captain carefully. The way he tightened his jaw ever so slightly, set his shoulders ever so stiffly, showed him in a new light. She’d wager he was superstitious indeed. Very much so.
“No good comes of a woman on board. ” Again, he absentmindedly rubbed his earring, and she wondered if the strange trinket weren’t actually some sort of talisman. His good-luck charm. “And it’s Friday. One never begins a voyage on a Friday. ”
“We’re almost there, and no evil has come to pass,” Fraser assured him. “Your superstitions are for naught. Such are merely the misguided notions of fishwives and aging sailors. ”
Will’s expression cleared, and though he once again made himself unreadable, Elspeth fancied it was only a ruse. He gave a cool nod. “As you say. You are the man with the money, are you not?”
She didn’t believe his acquiescence for one moment and studied him, looking for more clues. He was well kempt, but not a dandy, and she imagined that his innocuous mask made it as easy for him to wend his way through the wealthiest drawing rooms as to skulk into the grittiest of dockside pubs.
“You stare,” he said, walking toward her.
She startled, caught in the act, and quickly looked away. “Do I?” She had the wild hope that some shipboard emergency might call him back above deck. He might appear utterly average, but she was more afraid of him than of any man she’d ever met. “I apologize. ”
“No need for apology, I assure you. But I wonder. Is it that I’ve caught your fancy?” He took her chin in his fingers, tilting her face to the light. It had the effect of illuminating him too, highlighting a clean overcoat of decent fabric and a full head of combed but graying hair. “For I find you’ve caught mine. ”
He grew silent, studying her. “How unusual—you’ve yellow in your eyes. But of course you already knew that. ” Their eyes connected, and gooseflesh crawled across her skin. He seemed to look deeply into her soul. “Yellow eyes … I wonder, what could that augur?”
So he was superstitious. She prayed that yellow eyes signaled something lucky, because she didn’t want to find herself walking the plank. Her eyes flashed again to the pearl in his ear. She imagined he’d be lost without it.
He smiled, and for an instant, he looked no more menacing than a benign uncle. But then his eyes went flat, like a snake’s. “Pity you’re to be wed to my partner. ” He raised a brow. “Unless you’d change your mind?”
She gave a shy shake to her head. Captain Will was infinitely more frightening than Fraser ever could be.
He chuckled. “Not interested in becoming a pirate bride?”
Just not your pirate bride. For once, she had the words ready on her tongue, but chose not to speak them.
But then a wild notion struck her. Her gaze skittered over that shining pearl, and she gave a coy shrug.
“Could it be? Our maiden is uncertain?” The captain leaned closer, his eyes locked with hers. “Yellow,” he murmured, the whispered word hot on her mouth. “Perhaps for the blue and yellow of fair skies …”
