Page 78 of The Pirate and the Pagan
“You’re right, of course, Mr. Burke. Tell Daisy I shall need hot water for a bath.” Since the morning was on the cool side, she decided to wear the cream velvet walking suit with braided black frogs. She carefully took the high-crowned hat with its saucy black ostrich feather from its box, along with the black kid gloves, vizard mask, and enameled fan. As a last touch she clasped her ruby bracelets over the long black kid gloves and surveyed the result in her mirror. There! With a touch of lip rouge she’d be able to order even the pope about, not to mention some red-faced sergeant with a taste for vengeance in his pea-sized brain.
When she emerged from Helford Hall, the carriage, Mr. Burke, and the attendant servants were awaiting her ladyship’s convenience. For one moment Mr. Burke felt sorry for the unfortunate Sergeant Oswald, for he was surely about to reap the whirlwind.
The large black carriage rolled up to the door of the Falmouth prison and the liveried footmen jumped down and opened the carriage door for Lady Helford. News of Summer’s arrival reached Sergeant Oswald long before she strolled in to the guardroom with her servants in tow. She moved with the assurance of a prideful Siamese cat, and when he saw her, Sergeant Oswald knew a terrible moment of disquiet.
She raised her voice when she saw him and hailed him from across the room as if he were the meanest lackey. In a voice as richly plummy as Lil Richwood’s she drawled, “Sergeant, I believe you’ve held Lord St. Catherine for questioning just a little too long. I’m here to see that any charges are dropped and I’ve come to escort him home. Oh, and Sergeant Oswald, you will be sharp about it, won’t you?”
Actually Oswald’s face lost some of its ruddy color. The woman would hardly walk in claiming to be Lady Helford when Lord Helford had arrived only moments before. When he hesitated, and seemed at a loss, Summer gave him an order. “Release my brother, Sergeant Oswald.”
“I can’t,” he said lamely, “he’s gone.”
“You mean you have released him?” she questioned.
“No. Last night he was transferred to a more secure prison … because of his escaping last time … I thought … that is, it was decided to move him.”
Her eyes narrowed. “To where, Sergeant Oswald?” Her voice had gone deadly quiet.
“Newgate,” he mumbled.
For a moment Summer didn’t quite understand. “Newgate? You don’t mean Newgate in London?” Oswald nodded, grim-lipped.
Summer began to scream. A red mist formed before her eyes and she was fast losing control of herself in hysterics. Mr. Burke tried to soothe her, but knowing the horror that was Newgate, he doubted he would be able to comfort her.
An authoritative voice demanded, “What the hell is going on down here?” Ruark Helford descended the stairs from an upper floor of the prison.
Summer looked up in disbelief. His face was tanned from being at sea somewhere, but the uniform cut of the navy blue coat and the severely clubbed-back dark hair emphasized his ironclad authority.
“You swine! If this is your doing, you bastard, I swear I’ll get my pistol and shoot you!”
“Must I remind you, Summer, that you are supposed to be a lady?” he demanded in a voice cold as steel.
“No, Sergeant Oswald told me last night what I was … your whore I believe was his exact word. Would you mind telling him once and for all that I am also your wife?”
“This is indeed Lady Helford, Sergeant, though for how long is a moot point,” he said between clenched teeth. “Would someone enlighten me about what is going on here?”
Summer took a deep shuddering breath. “Allow me to enlighten you. This pig arrested my brother and stole ten thousand pounds from me.”
“Your brother’s been arrested again? Christ Almighty, what are you two up to now?” he demanded furiously.
With narrowed eyes and bared teeth she said in a dangerously quiet voice, “My brother took the money to London to discharge the mortgage on Roseland, but discovered some scheming bastard had bought the place out behind our backs. This bastard has magnanimously offered to allow me to live at Helford Hall until my marriage is annulled and thereafter will allow me to reside at Roseland. To top off everything this bastard’s lackey has shipped my young brother off to Newgate.”
Mr. Burke stood staunchly beside Summer with a condemning look upon his face.
“Newgate?” asked Ruark with disbelief. “There’s been some mistake. Though I have no jurisdiction in London, I’ll look into it and rectify matters.”
“You, sir, have done enough. I neither want your help nor need it! Charles is a personal friend of mine. What the hell do I need a lord for when I can get favors from a king?”
They glared into each other’s eyes with unconcealed hatred. She knew she had wounded him with her last words. He knew a strong urge to flog her and fuck her, and if they’d been at home, he would have done both.
She raised her vizard to her eyes and said to Oswald, “My ten thousand pounds, Sergeant … please don’t expect me to believe you sent that to Newgate.”
Ruark glared at him furiously and he took an involuntary step backward. Then he unlocked a drawer and produced the money belt. Mr. Burke took it from Oswald and Summer turned upon her heel and swept out. In her ears, as she left, her husband’s deadly voice ordered, “Sergeant Oswald; in my office!”
Summer threw herself into the vigorous activity of packing everything she and her brother owned both at Helford Hall and Roseland. She realized she must seek Rory Helford’s assistance and asked Mr. Burke if once again he would contact Black Jack Flash. When she had seen to every last detail, and not before, she threw herself full length upon the bed and sobbed her heart out. Her nerves were at breaking point. She was worried sick for Spider, incarcerated in the bowels of Newgate, surrounded by horrors she could only imagine.
She cried bitter tears for her lost love. She had been so much in love with Ruark Helford she had allowed him to become her whole world, her whole reason for being. That love had been shattered into so many pieces she knew it could never be restored. Each encounter with him now deteriorated from bad to worse. She swore never to see him again. And she was being forced to leave her beloved and familiar Roseland. Even Cornwall was to be left behind as she moved forward to make a new life for herself in London.
She was not naive enough to think a pirate would take her to London without her having to pay a price, but she must look on the bright side. Rory was a magnificent lover and he treated her with tender concern. She was willing to pay the price if he insisted. She was not quite so willing to pay King Charles’s price. She hoped she could offer something else of value to him in return for the release of Spider, but in the end, if there was no other alternative, she knew she would pay any price to save her beloved brother.
