Page 70 of The Pirate and the Pagan
She suddenly remembered her saddlebags and wondered if she dare risk asking Mr. Burke to retrieve them. “My saddlebags are down in the garden behind the flowering rhododendrons. Could I trouble you to carry them up to me, Mr. Burke?”
“It is no trouble whatsoever, my lady.” He went immediately.
“No trouble,” she repeated his words to herself. “Every time I turn around I run into trouble.”
Once her saddlebags were safely in her chamber she gratefully accepted a posset of camomile tea to soothe her fever and help her sleep. It was three days before she felt well enough to get out of bed.
Spider had climbed in her window a couple of times, but seeing how poorly she did, he did not press her about money and London. After three days in bed she felt amazingly well and rested, and after she had bathed and dressed she found enough courage to open her saddlebags and learn exactly how much money she had accumulated.
She took out the two purses she had snatched from the Duchess of Buckingham and the Countess of Lauderdale and was slightly disappointed that between the two of them they had only a thousand pounds. Wild Harry’s strongbox added another three thousand, which wasn’t too bad, but nowhere near the sixteen thousand she would have won if that bastard Helford hadn’t snatched away her victory at the last moment. Mentally she added what she had taken dressed as the Black Cat to the money she had secreted away. It came to a glorious total of ten thousand pounds. That was half of the mortgage debt. She must get Spider on his way to London without delay and perhaps with any luck at all Solomon Storm hadn’t sold Roseland.
When she opened Killigrew’s jewel case, she was both surprised and delighted. There was a full set of sapphire shirt studs, another set of ruby studs, a man’s diamond ring, an emerald ring, and an opal and onyx ring. There was a set of shoe buckles made from diamond chips and another pair of turquoise and pearl. Also there was a heavy silver knife with amethyst stones set in the haft. Summer decided to keep it. Whenever she rode to the beach at dawn, she carried a knife in her belt and this was a decided improvement over the plain little knife she used to gut fish. She also decided to keep the ruby studs. Castlemaine wouldn’t be the only one with a collection of rubies. She quite enjoyed wearing a man’s finespun shirt sometimes and the rubies would be a fine touch of defiant elegance.
She was the proud owner of a magnificent collection of jewels, though she hadn’t the vaguest notion what any of them was worth. If she was lucky and if she could find a buyer, it just might take care of the other half of the mortgage.
She spent the next couple of days with her brother. They fashioned a money belt for him to wear beneath his clothes and his wily mind gave him the idea to fit a false bottom to the small trunk he would carry with him. She gave him their aunt’s address in Cock-spur Street and gave him a letter addressed to Lil Richwood, asking that she take the ten thousand to Solomon Storm and tell him the balance of the money owed was on the way.
She admonished him to keep a sharp eye out at all times, for the City of London was a wicked, vile place akin to hell and it was populated by people who lived by their wits.
“Oh, that reminds me,” he said. “Black Jack Flash is in these parts again. His ship, the Phantom, was seen up the Helford River. If you encounter the ship, for God’s sake get the hell away quickly, for he’s in hiding and won’t hesitate to slit your throat if you discover his hiding place.”
She shuddered thinking of Bulldog Brown’s ugly face.
“Cat, when I come back from London, I’ll try to arrange a meeting with him to see if we can do some business together, but you must have a contact who’ll vouch for you or he’ll cut you up and use you for bait,” he warned.
“Spider, I don’t want you worrying about me; just look after this money, that’s all you have to do. Here’s a hundred pounds for your expenses—far more than you’ll need.”
“I’ll guard it with my life, Cat, you know that.”
She smiled and hugged him. She realized he’d grown taller than she in the last few weeks. “We’ll ride to Falmouth at dawn. You can ride Ebony and I’ll ride the pony, then I’ll bring them back,” she offered generously. She realized with a pang that at fifteen he’d become a man. It was only fitting that he ride the Barbary.
Summer cherished the freedom of her days, although she admitted with shame the nights were inconsolably lonely. She arose each morning while it was still dark and rode upon the beach as the day dawned.
Two weeks had gone by since she had seen her husband and she never gave him a thought. Never a thought until she was in her lonely bed at night and then he dominated the long, dark hours. Where was he? What was he doing? Did he think of her as often as she thought of him? Did his body cry out for her? What a ridiculous thought; the moment his body demanded pleasure, he would take it; she had no illusions about that. He wouldn’t even pay lip service to being faithful.
She wondered if he had taken steps yet to annul their marriage. She hoped he had; she wanted desperately to be free of him, she told herself fiercely!
She had done nothing about the jewels, for she knew that in the small port of Falmouth there were no jewelers. There was possibly a small demand for such things in the lurid little seamen’s taverns and brothels that were part of every port in the world, but she knew the jewels were of the best quality and wanted a good price for them.
The thought of Black Jack Flash lured her to ride along the Helston River each afternoon, but rumors of the pirate in these waters must have been just that, for she never even glimpsed a vessel. After two weeks of idleness she was frankly bored and sought to fill the hours of the day with anything which would take up time.
She washed her hair and tried on one of Ruark’s fine lace shirts and inserted the ruby studs. She laughed into the mirror as she admired herself in her tight black breeches, for she looked like a lady pirate. She went up on the widow’s walk to finish drying her hair, up among the twisted chimneys and sailboat weathervanes. She gazed east over the sparkling seas, shading her eyes to watch some passing whales far out to sea, then idly she walked around to look west along the Helford River. Was it a trick of the light or were her eyes deceiving her? she wondered. No, there was definitely something there tucked into a cove, beaneath the trees. Her heartbeat quickened. Could it be a ship? It was a possibility; one she would investigate. She put the lovely silver knife into her belt and ran down to saddle Ebony. As she rode she wondered if the ship had been there awhile and was only visible from the top of Helford Hall.
She dismounted a distance away and tethered her horse in a thick stand of trees where he wouldn’t be easily seen, then by stealth made her way to where she thought the vessel lay hidden. It was a ship! She lay full length on her belly in the grass to look it over carefully. It was smaller and much lower to the waterline than the usual sailing ship. All sails were furled tightly and it was painted a shade of gray which blended into sea and sky in a successful attempt to make it invisible. It flew no flag, had no name or figurehead, yet she knew it was the Phantom.
She was so close she could hear voices and laughter. She could not make out what the men were saying for they seemed to be speaking in a foreign lingo. On her hands and knees she crept closer and saw two men who seemed to be splicing lines. They were very dark and foreign looking. They wore no shirts, only wide canvas pants and bright red scarves about their heads. She was most hesitant about making contact with the ship. She was dying to meet Black Jack Flash but at the same time a danger signal was ringing in her brain. What if he spoke no English? What if they slit her throat the moment she tried to board?
Suddenly the decision was taken out of her hands as a coarse sack was thrown over her and she was lifted bodily from her hiding place. She cursed and screamed and kicked to no avail. Whoever carried her was both massive and strong and took no more notice of her struggles than he would have a child’s. Even though her head was covered, she knew she was being carried aboard. She heard men laugh and shout foreign words, then felt herself being taken belowdecks.
“You filthy swine! You son of a whore! Let me go!” she raged.
She was dumped unceremoniously upon the floor of a cabin, where she struggled inside the grimy sacking which encased her.
“It’s a good thing Pedro doesn’t speak English or you’d have him blushing with that salty language,” a lazy, amused voice said.
“I know this ship belongs to that bastard, Black Jack Flash. I demand you take me to him,” she said, finally emerging from the sacking. Her words died on her lips as she stared in surprise at the dark, bronze face. He had wildly curling black hair. At one temple there was a zigzag of white exactly like a flash of lightning. He was unshaven and wore a black patch over one eye. The other was bright green.
“Good God, you’re a Helford!” she accused.
