Page 32 of The Pirate and the Pagan
She surveyed herself in the old mirror which needed resilvering and longed for rubies to clasp about her neck.
Spencer rode the big bay gelding, taking his sister up before him. Before she entered the hall she took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and entered with all the pride of a cat.
As Mr. Burke took her wrapper he let one eyelid slowly close. She looked at him in disbelief and her spirits dared to rise. By St. Jude the Martyr, he didn’t intend to tell Ruark Helford her secret. They were conspirators and it felt wonderful. She glanced back at her brother and her spirits plummeted again. She could see he was spoiling for a fight. As he surveyed Lord Helford with narrowed eyes and curled lip, he looked like a lean hound with raised hackles.
Ruark came forward to greet her and she prayed that he would not kiss her … kiss her on the mouth as Spider had so quaintly put it. Ruark’s eyes warmed her and told her without words how beautiful she looked. Then he took her hand, turned up the palm, and placed a kiss within.
“Lord Ruark Helford, meet my brother, Lord Spencer St. Catherine.”
The greetings were low murmurs exchanged stiffly as they measured each other warily. Drinks before they went in to dinner were offered and accepted with impeccable politeness, and Summer thought she would scream if this frosty formality went on much longer.
When at last they went in to dine, her heart was warmed by the lovely cream-colored roses Ruark had set by her plate and they exchanged swift, meaningful glances. He tried not to stare at her, but it was difficult. She was exquisite as a cameo. And she had an elusive quality about her that was so hard to define. What was it? Fascination, he decided.
The tension in the air between the two men was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Whatever subject their host broached, Spencer managed to work into his reply that his sister, Lady Summer, had led a most sheltered life and was unused to men and men’s wicked ways. He was more pointedly protective than any parent would have been and Summer was mortified that her brother was making it insultingly plain he was preserving her overripe virginity.
Finally she could bear it no longer and took over the direction of the conversation herself. “Lord Helford, is it true you took possession of two foreign ships this week?”
“So,” he said, his eyes sweeping over brother and sister, “my business is common knowledge in these parts, I see.”
She lifted the corners of her mouth. “The very walls whisper of the exploits of High Commissioner Helford. What will you do with the ships?”
He seemed to weigh his words carefully before he answered. “The Dutchman had been picked clean.” He grimaced. “The work of wreckers. It carried only a skeleton crew, so one or two bodies might soon wash up. I’m sending the ship to Plymouth. His Majesty is building up the navy at last.”
She dared not look at Spider, for they held contraband which would connect them with the brutal, bloody business of wrecking. Quickly she asked, “And the other ship?”
“We caught the raiders red-handed, so her cargo was intact. I’m sending it to London tomorrow.”
“I suppose you’ll make her crew swim back to Brittany?” she jested.
His face became grim and hard. “Piracy carries the death penalty.”
The delicious minted lamb turned to ashes in her mouth. Then almost immediately her brother saw a spark of defiance come to her aid. Her great cat’s eyes hid their fear for an instant under white lids, then flashed out with renewed fire, her sensitive nostrils flaring. “Lord Helford, I wonder if I could impose upon you to carry something to London on that ship?” Spider almost choked on his wine.
“It is no imposition, Lady Summer, to perform a service for you,” he said formally, but his eyes were alive with the sight of her and belied the formality.
“My father left his sister, Lady Richwood, some valuable paintings. If Spencer crates them and delivers the crates to the ship in the morning, would you instruct one of your trustworthy seamen to deliver them to Cockspur Street?”
“Consider it done,” he said, smiling.
Spider marveled at her coolness, but by the set of her chin she wasn’t finished with Helford yet.
“Lord Helford, you were once a pirate yourself, were you not?”
His eyes narrowed. “I served the King as a privateer under command of Prince Rupert.”
Spider’s mouth fell open, all reserve gone completely, as he asked with boyish enthusiasm, “You served under Rupert, sir?”
Summer may as well not have been present after that as the two men warmed to their subject. Rupert the Devil, Rupert the Military Genius, Rupert the King’s Cousin, Rupert the Soldier-and-Sailor Prince, Rupert the Universal Admiral, dominated their conversation.
Summer almost fell asleep as the tales of Rupert began with his birth. “Did you know the first words he ever spoke were ‘goddamn’! He was fully trained in arms by the age of eight and in the army before he was thirteen.”
It was over an hour later that Summer heard Ruark say, “Next time he comes to Cornwall you must meet him. He loves us Cornishmen, says the sea puts a tantalizing tang in our nostrils.”
As her eyes went back and forth between the two she sat stunned as they lifted their glasses high and burst into a sea chanty, “Damn ’em, and ram ’em, and sink ’em to hell.”
Summer got to her feet. “Spencer, it’s very late.”
“Oh, is it?” he asked, surprised, then he saw Summer’s compressed lips and Ruark’s secret amusement and said reluctantly, “I’ll get my horse.”
