Chapter 27
Ethan was furious.
‘You have no idea what you have done!’
Lochranza ignored his thunderous expression and kept her temper. ‘I think it’s rather lovely. He’s in love with her and she’s in love with him. Giving Venus her freedom is a very fitting wedding present from you to me. Surely you can see that?’
No matter that she had prepared to meet him looking her very best his fury was undiminished.
Towering over her as he was, she refused to buckle to his intimidating stance. The man who had made love to her in Fort Charlotte and on the banks of the river, the man who had leapt from one rock to another – that was the vision she kept in her mind.
The vision faded in the thundering of his voice.
‘How dare you meddle in things you do not understand!’
Reality was his deep-set eyes black with anger, his jaw hard as iron.
‘Ethan, if you would just calm down and be sweet to me… it would be a lovely wedding present. Romantic!’
‘Romantic? A wedding present!’ He looked about to explode. ‘You had no right to help her get to Belmont.’
‘To escape you mean. She was your slave. You owned her and I helped her escape.’
The way he glowered filled her with foreboding. ‘You stupid woman! You know nothing of the matter, nothing of what Venus is to me!’
A big question mark suddenly erupted over her feelings for him. And that was it! He’d practically admitted that Venus meant more to him than as a slave! All the jealousy she’d harboured before Fort Charlotte burst to the surface.
‘So! Now we have the truth. You didn’t want Venus to marry Lester because you wanted her for yourself! I’ve heard you plantation owners think of your female slaves as your personal harem!’
Never had she seen him look so angry. His eyes had turned glassy and a vein throbbed in his temple. ‘That is not true!’
‘Well I think it is.’
‘You’re wrong!’
‘I won’t be marrying you,’ she shouted, driven by hurt, anger and all sweetened with the beautiful memories of their time together in the forest.
‘Then don’t!’
The vehemence with which he said it drew her up short, though not for long. They would go on slinging hurt at each other until something broke – her. Him. Both of them.
‘I’m leaving this place. I’m going to Jamaica.’
‘Hah!’ he exclaimed, jerking his head back like a stallion about to rear up and come crashing down on her. ‘Your dream. This obsession to go back there, all because of an old black nurse! You’ll find nothing there! Nothing at all!’
‘I think I will.’ She paused, a sudden thought entering her head. She eyed him accusingly. ‘Unless you know otherwise.’
Was it her imagination or had he been affected by her accusation? The change in his features was fleeting – if indeed it had happened at all.
‘If you are determined not to marry, I shall write to your uncle and have him make arrangements for your return to England.’
Lochranza shook her head, defiance glowing in her face.
‘I can’t do that,’ she said solemnly. ‘And I don’t want you to write to my uncle.
It would take too long to receive a reply.
I would prefer arrangements are made for me to return to Jamaica, though not until I’ve spoken to Captain O’Neill.
He was there with me. He saw what I saw.
Ethan,’ she said, more softly now. ‘I want to find out why anyone would torture an innocent old woman to death.’
Ethan’s response was abrupt, without emotion. ‘Perhaps merely because of her colour. People do that.’
Lochranza was taken aback. Her eyes glowed fiercely. ‘They should be horse-whipped!’
‘They seldom are. It’s one rule for white and one for black.’
‘Then it’s time things changed.’
‘I know enough of law to know that there is only black and white. No grey areas.’
‘But sometimes—’
‘In law,’ he said, holding up one finger like a schoolmaster, adding intensity to the knowledge he imparted.
‘Yes, there are likely to be extenuating circumstances, but the rule of law seldom recognises human frailty behind the committed crime. Judgement has to be seen to be done. Anyway, I’m not quite sure where this discussion is going.
You said you intended going to Jamaica and I say you cannot go. ’
Lochranza’s defiance stiffened, her face becoming as grave and immobile as a carved statue. ‘I will go with or without you or my uncle’s blessing. I must find out whether someone paid for the crime that a child, myself, carried like a lead weight at the back of my mind. I have to know.’
The effect was not lost on him, but although he winced inside, he was resolute. She must not – she could not – go to Jamaica. He knew only too well what awaited her there and he’d sought to protect her.
Outright opposition had been a grave error.
Lochranza was naturally obstinate. Neither was it good practice to adopt sweet words and platitudes.
Reasoned diplomacy was the way forward. Bridges needed to be rebuilt between them and that would take time.
Dissuading her from going to Jamaica would be an uphill battle.
During the coming month, they would be married and then everything would change again.
For now, he had to play for time and it was slowly running out.
Sighing in the manner of one who has given in to great pressure, he resisted the urge to gather her into his arms. ‘I’ll send word to Captain O’Neill to come here and enlighten you. Will that suit?’
‘It would suit me very well, but…’ She lowered her chin, her eyes all the more intense for that. ‘I will not wait forever. Please know that, Ethan. And Venus?’
There was no mistaking the closed expression that came to Ethan’s face. The matter of her assisting Venus to escape had wounded him deeply. Because of that, she sensed that their relationship had changed. Could it be salvaged? Only time would tell.