Chapter 26
Darcy saw the moment Nick noticed Alex. His eyes hardened, and his jaw clenched.
It was a fearsome look to behold. It occurred to Darcy that he must look the same when he was in high dudgeon, but Nick’s hand reaching to his side and the knife flying past Darcy’s nose to plunge into the plank at Alex’s boot tip prevented any further pondering on their likeness.
Alex jumped backward. “What’d ye do that for? These’re me favorite boots!”
Another knife flew by her ear, close enough to make her eyes double in size … then narrow as she reached for her boot.
Darcy moved in front of Nick. Jaffa appeared at his side, strengthening the barrier. “Get outta me way,” Nick seethed between his teeth.
“No.” Darcy blocked Nick’s attempt to get past.
“You will have to kill me first, Cap’n Nick,” Jaffa said.
Given the lethal gleam in his brother’s eye, Darcy added, “I cannot allow you to injure a lady.”
“Ye call her a lady? That conniving viper?” He raised his arm to shove Darcy out of his path, but while he was the same size and very strong, Darcy had a slight advantage in weight, and he used it.
To protect Alex. Why on earth he would protect that woman when she had caused him and Elizabeth and their families so much trouble, Darcy could not say.
But it was the right thing to do, God help him.
“Ye’re one to talk, Nick. Lightin’ off in the middle of the night like a thief, leavin’ yer friends. Yer family.”
“Ye’re not me family, and ye never will be, ye faithless female.” Another shove, another block. “Get outta me way!”
Elizabeth stepped in front of Alex, facing Nick. “Are you going to shout insults and threats at each other all night, or shall we discuss the matter like mature people?”
Nick’s finger jabbed over Darcy’s shoulder, pointing at Alex. “She’s a traitor! I’ll have her hang.”
“Ye no-good deserter!”
“Does that answer your question, Miss Bennet?” Richard teased, walking between them with Uncle.
“I ain’t no traitor!” Alex shouted over them.
Nick shoved his knife back into its sheath, and only then did Darcy let him step around him. “Then why’d ye tell the thief-taker me route? Ye were the only one I’d told me plan.”
Alex took a step back, her fists balled up at her stomach. She sounded breathless when she spoke. “That’s what ye think of me?”
“Ye don’t deny it?”
“I swear on the stars and swells, it weren’t me.” Her voice shook, not in the rage Darcy had heard from Alex before, but with something he had never expected to hear from the hard-as-nails captain.
“Ye didn’t come with me. What else was I supposed to think?” Nick’s voice had lost its edge.
Elizabeth moved closer to Darcy, close enough for their elbows to touch. They exchanged a brief look, and Darcy understood that she did not intend to interrupt, nor would he. It was a time to clear misunderstandings. Richard and Uncle parted, allowing Nick to pass.
Alex flailed her arms wildly heavenward. “Ye came to me with this crazy, grand idea. I wanted to go with ye—I wanted to so bad—but ye asked me to leave everythin’ I’d ever known and go with ye into the unknown. I weren’t ready.”
Nick widened his stance and crossed his arms, his voice decidedly more unsteady than his posture suggested. “Ye didn’t rat on me?”
She shook her head.
“Then, who did?”
“I thought it was me brothers.” Her face twisted. “But I started to have doubts…” She stubbed the toe of her boot into the wood plank and blurted, “…as soon as I broadsided their favorite ship.” She squeezed her eyes closed, her whole face twisted into a guilt-racked wince.
Darcy groaned. Never again would he complain of his or Elizabeth’s family’s faults. They tried his patience, yes, but they had never—not once—attempted to blow him up or evaporate his residence.
“Ye did what?” Nick boomed, the sides of his lips quirking upward. “What’d ye do? Take out a mast?”
Her scowl deepened. She mumbled, “I aimed five cannons at their hold.”
“Five!” Nick’s smile widened.
She dug her toe into the plank at her feet. “Blasted the Sea Queen to bits.”
Nick’s smile was a full grin now. “Ye sunk the Queen? For me?”
Alex shifted her weight, her eyes bright and her fists clenched. “I was angry!” She looked apologetically at Elizabeth. “Elizabeth here’s been teachin’ me to hold me temper and think ‘fore I react. I’m tryin’, Nick, but it’s so blasted hard.”
Darcy bit his lips together. He would not laugh at Alex’s lady-like attempts when her effort was genuine. He would not. He sucked in his cheeks and held his breath for good measure.
Elizabeth was far more gracious than he was, though the glint in her eye was present. Addressing Nick, she said, “Alexandra is an excellent student. She did not even reach for her cutlass when you threw your first knife at her.”
Alex grinned like a child praised before her parents.
“Ye’re right! I only reached for me dagger after the second one whizzed past me ear!
I am learnin’! Oh, Nick, it’s so hard, but I’ll keep tryin’.
I’ll get better, I swear. Just don’t leave again.
Ye took all the life out of me with ye; I had to find ye, and now that ye’re here, I’m not gonna let ye out of me sight again…
” Her words scattered like grapeshot until she looked down and clasped her hands together. “That is, if ye still want me.”
There was a collective holding of breath now as the eavesdropping sailors watched the scene intently.
With a loud whoop, Nick wrapped his arms around Alex’s waist, picking her up and twirling in circles while he peppered her face with kisses.
“Call Boone! I’ll marry ye here and now with the crew—and me brother—as our witnesses.
” He set her down, looking between Darcy, Richard, and Uncle Matlock.
Pressing his hands together, he wrung his hands and bowed his head.
“Perhaps ye’d agree to be me best men. If ye have no objection to me asking ye. ”
Richard’s reply was swift. “I would be honored.”
Darcy nodded, dumbfounded at how quickly the tide had turned.
Alex hopped at his side. “We can have a double weddin’!”
Darcy would be lying if he said the thought had not occurred to him. But Elizabeth’s eyes were windows into her soul, and the conflict he so plainly saw was answer enough for him.
After their long conversations over the past few days, he knew she was not as indifferent as she had once claimed to be. Perhaps she even loved him.
But it was too soon for declarations, and Darcy would not damage the progress he had made inching his way to her heart by losing his patience now. “While I have family here to witness what shall surely be the most joyous day of my life, Elizabeth’s family still thinks she is in danger.”
She smiled at him, biting her bottom lip and nodding. He had guessed correctly. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Darcy had felt his chest fill with pride on numerous occasions before, but those were nothing compared to the pride he felt that moment. He understood her, and she appreciated his understanding.
Uncle Matlock’s commanding tone cut through Darcy’s reverie. “Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner are on their way. The gig is waiting for us to return, and it would be a kindness to be at the inn when the gentlemen arrive. We should leave immediately.”
Several sighs were heard, some from the crew. Where Darcy had once considered jumping overboard and swimming to shore days before, he was now stunned to feel hesitation.
Uncle continued, “Under the circumstances, I think it would be best if Miss Bennet accompanied us to shore, where I shall secure a room and a maid to attend to her.”
Darcy felt Elizabeth lean closer, and he tucked her hand in his arm.
They both knew what needed to be done. Uncle was right.
When Darcy looked up from her, his eyes met with Nick’s.
His brother’s gaze darted between him and Alex, his brow furrowing at the choice he must make.
The family he had chosen or the family he had only just found.
It was too soon to part ways. Darcy had a brother! A brother he wanted to know. There were so many questions he wished to ask Nick—twenty-eight years of catching up to do. “Will you consider staying with us for a while? Your family shall want to meet you … and your wife.”
Alex looked up at Nick with a smile. “The men’ll be happy for some shore leave. They can sell the spices and see to the fresh water and food supply.”
“But the press gangs—”
“They’ll be careful and carry their letters. Won’t ye?” she asked around, and received several eager nods and affirmations.
“But if ye’re found out—”
She interrupted, “I’ll use me new name. Nobody knows Alexandra Blackburne, and few have seen me likeness on this side of the Atlantic. So long as nobody calls me Lafitte, I’ll be safe enough.”
Richard, who had been quietly observing the proceedings, added, “We are near Devonshire. We might find some clues to what happened to separate you at birth.” Looking between Nick and Darcy, he asked, “Would you not like to resolve that mystery?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
Uncle lifted his chin, his deep voice resonant, “Then it is decided. We stay together until we are satisfied justice has been served.” He placed one hand on Nick’s shoulder.
“While you are a grown adult in command of your own life, as my nephew and one in need of the protection of my name, I would like to speak with this young lady before I extend my protection to her and give my blessing on your union.”
Leave it to Uncle Matlock to take over command.
Alex had sense enough to look nervous. For a second.
Before her features twisted into a rebellious expression.
She squirmed away from Nick and Uncle, crossing her arms over herself defensively …
or, maybe it was defiantly. Jutting her chin toward Elizabeth, Alex asked, “What about her? Don’t ye need to inspect her, too? ”
Uncle turned to Elizabeth with a chuckle and took her free hand gently in his own.
“I have not had the privilege of formally meeting Miss Bennet until this moment, but I have met her father as well as her aunt and uncle. They are upstanding people I shall be happy to call friends … and perhaps something more in the future. Besides that, I have heard of little else but her from my nephew and his sister over the past months.” He cast a wry look at Darcy that made him blush.
He kissed her hand—the old rascal—and turned back to Alex.
“You, however, I have read about in the newspapers and broadsides. They sing songs about you in the lowest taverns.”
Alexandra scowled. “Invented stories, the lot of ‘em. Mostly. Well … some of ‘em.”
A shout from the watch overhead broke the stillness of the night. Men shuffled over the deck, all looking up to see where the danger came from.
Boom! Then a whistle, a high-pitched shriek getting louder.
Darcy wrapped his arms around Elizabeth, shouting, “Uncle, Rich, get back!” Cradling Elizabeth, he ran away from the noise.
“Man yer stations!” Alex shouted, already moving. “It’s an attack!”
Darcy felt the crash, the jolt shaking the timbers under their feet, the deafening blast of cannon fire.