Page 60 of A Siren for the Duke

I’m so sorry, Jemima. I wanted to tell you, but we never had a moment together,” he explained, his voice desperate.

“All that time on the ship wasn’t enough?” she asked bitterly.

He shook his head. “I was in the middle of loving you again before I knew it had begun. I did not know.”

Jemima shook her head, the hot tears beginning to run down her face.

“I hope you all are satisfied with yourselves. I never want to see any of you ever again.” She turned on her heel and fled the room, her feet carrying her anywhere but that room. The voices crying after her were distant as she made it down to the balcony, into the garden, and finally onto the beach, where she sunk to her knees and sobbed in the sand. She stayed like that until her tears dried, and she wiped them away with the edge of her netted shawl.

At least the sea did not judge her. The tide was slowly coming in, and she found herself mesmerized by the pattern, as well as utterly uncaring that her gown—Eliza’s gown—was getting wet. She did not care. Everyone she loved or was close to had betrayed her. If she ruined it all, so be it.

Lady Jemima, is it?” she heard an oddly familiar voice beside her. She snapped her head up and scrambled to her feet to find herself face to face with Gervase Dartmouth, the smuggler Lionel had warned her about.

“Oh, Mr. Dartmouth,” she said, sniffling and curtsying. “I apologize. I thought I was alone on the beach.”

“No trouble. The sea welcomes all of us.”

“It does indeed,” she said softly, wondering for a moment if she had misjudged him.

“Trouble in paradise?” he asked, his hands clasped behind his back as he sidled up to her.

“I suppose you could say that.”

“Well,” he said, grinning like a wolf, “very soon, you shan’t have to deal with such trouble.”

Before she could ask what he meant by that, or even back up, a hood was roughly placed over her head. She tried to scream, but something hard hit her on the head, and she descended into blackness.

* * *

The sheer hatred and hurt in Jemima’s eyes was enough to wound Lionel for a lifetime. He had not betrayed her once but twice, and it was unforgivable. But right now, he was too angry to be sad—and he unleashed that anger on Ferdinand.

“Jemima was right!” he hissed at Ferdinand. “Your self-interest pushed her to extremes!”

“My self-interest? That is the pot calling the kettle black. You were ready to trade her for financial gain!” Ferdinand shouted.

“And I explained myself and apologized! You have yet to do either!” Lionel shouted back, balling his fists.

“When you’re the head of a family, you will understand. But right now, you are nothing more than a tar, running from your responsibilities!”

“I am the head of my family!” Lionel thundered. “Or have you so quickly forgotten my brother’s recent funeral?”

“Your father is still alive!” Ferdinand barked. “Mine is in the ground, and it is all up to me!”

Lionel lunged at Ferdinand, unable to keep his anger at bay, but the calm, confident Eliza stepped in between them and pushed Lionel back with a strength that surprised him.

“Both of you, stop it right now! I have been gravely misinformed by both of you and now it is falling to me to figure it out. Ferdinand, do not be so harsh on your sister. Remember, you rocked the ton with a scandal of your own; don’t think that just because I live in the Caribbean, I do not know. I have eyes and ears everywhere.”

Lionel enjoyed this moment, seeing the control wrestled away from Ferdinand for a moment, but then Eliza turned on him next.

“And you!” she shouted, pointing a finger. “You claim to love my niece, yet you kept her in the dark about your true intentions and did not reveal them until too late, never mind the scandal between the two of you.”

“There is more to that,” Lionel protested.

“How could there possibly be more?!” Ferdinand cried in disbelief, but Eliza glared fiercely at him.

“Yes, we saw each other in secret for nearly two years. Yes, we kept it from you because you’ve made your thoughts known about those who serve in the Royal Navy. But I did not abandon her,” he said with strong resolve.

“You ignored her for two years!” Ferdinand cried.