Chapter 23 #2
But the hesitant look on Hargraves’s face made it clear that even he didn’t believe that.
Suddenly, another interpretation of her leaving the locket behind occurred to him, an interpretation so painful he could hardly stand to think of it.
“Or maybe,” he said coldly, “she never intends to return at all. Maybe this locket is just a ruse to keep me from going after her and taking her brother’s ship. ”
Alarm flickered in Ann’s face. “Nay, you mustn’t believe that, captain. Her brother brought plenty of men and arms with him. If he’d wanted to destroy you and your men, he could have. But he didn’t. She wouldn’t let him. She begged him not to fight with you, and he agreed.”
“Aye, he agreed because he knew he and his merchant seamen would be no match for me! The coward! To creep onto Atlantis and steal away my intended wife without even attempting to take up arms against me! If I’d been in his place, I wouldn’t have given in to Sara’s pleas so easily!
I would have willingly fought any man who dared to—”
He broke off, remembering suddenly what he’d said to Sara only two nights ago.
I wouldn’t let him take you from me, if that’s what you mean.
I’ll fight any man who tries to take you away.
Obviously she’d remembered them as well.
She’d taken them quite to heart and had made sure that Gideon never got the chance to hurt her brother.
Rage surged up in him, a rage as mighty as any tempest the sea could produce. That’s all she’d cared about—protecting her brother, who was probably some fop with a lame sword hand and a fear of pistols!
No matter how Ann or Hargraves tried to defend her, the truth was, when given the choice between him and her family, Sara had chosen her family.
She might talk of reforming the world and making Atlantis into a colony they could be proud of, but it was just talk.
Otherwise, she would never have left him for her brother.
Clutching her locket tightly, he scanned the faces of the people standing around the fire.
What about them? What about the other inhabitants of Atlantis, the ones she’d claimed to care about?
She’d fought for the women and offered to teach the men.
They’d all trusted her. But when her chance for freedom had come, she’d seized it without looking back, without even staying long enough to say good-bye.
She’d talked of giving the women a choice, but she hadn’t taken them with her. Instead, she’d sneaked off the island with her coward of a brother, leaving the rest behind. A curse upon the woman! He’d been wrong about her from the beginning!
These noblewomen were all of the same cloth—deceitful, weak, and determined to do whatever they must to return to the arms of their rich and powerful families. How could he have ever believed differently?
“Please, Captain Horn,” Ann’s gentle voice broke in to his thoughts, “you must believe that she intends to return. You know Miss Willis would never promise such a thing if she didn’t mean it.”
He faced Ann with a grim expression. “You may believe that if it gives you comfort, but I know better. She left without a care for any of you, and certainly without a care for me. She won’t be back. And Atlantis is better off without her.”
“But it wasn’t like that—” Hargraves began to protest.
Gideon silenced him with a dark scowl. “As for you, Mr. Hargraves, I don’t want to hear another word out of you.
I gave you more gold than you’d ever seen in your life to get you away from here, and you repaid me by bringing the wolves to my door.
” An awful possibility occurred to him. Striding up to Hargraves, he took hold of him by the shirt.
“And now they all know where this island lies, don’t they?
I suppose the earl was just waiting until he got his sister safely off the island before he sent in His Majesty’s Navy to rout all of us.
We are as good as dead now, thanks to you. ”
Hargraves shook his head furiously. “His lordship kept the Navy out of it to save Miss Willis’s reputation.
I swear it. He told his men naught about who lived on this island for fear they’d jump ship in Santiago at the sound of your name.
And the little miss refused to leave unless he promised to continue keepin’ his silence about Atlantis. ”
Gideon stared hard at the monkey of a man who’d nonetheless always managed to stand up to him. “And why should I believe you?”
“If I thought the island was to be taken by the Navy boys any minute, cap’n, why would I have stayed? I could’ve left on the Defiant and taken my lady with me.”
The man had a point. Gideon was still rational enough to realize that.
His gaze flitted from Hargraves to Ann, whose face showed every bit of the fear that Hargraves tried so bravely to mask.
“Please, sir,” she said in a voice wrung tight as a spring.
“Don’t hurt Petey. He stayed here for my sake.
He believes in Atlantis as much as I do.
I couldn’t bear it if . . . if somethin’ happened to him. ”
“Don’t you worry, Miss Ann,” Silas put in. “The cap’n ain’t gonna hurt Mr. Hargraves none. Not as long as your man intends to behave himself on the island.”
“Stay out of this, Silas,” Gideon warned. He stared at Hargraves another long moment and fleetingly thought of what pleasure it would give him to see the man flogged for having a hand in Sara’s leaving.
But he’d never approved of flogging, and he certainly couldn’t do it while sweet little Ann stood there, her heart in her hands, begging for mercy. Besides, Hargraves had only done what he saw as his duty. It was Sara who’d betrayed them all, Sara who’d abandoned him.
With an oath, he thrust Hargraves away from him. “Fine. You and Ann do as you wish. But you’ll stay out of my sight if you know what’s good for you.”
He’d turned toward his cottage, his bleak, empty cottage, when another voice stopped him.
“And what about the weddings?” Queenie asked. “Do we still have to choose a husband in two days time?”
He leveled Queenie with a cold stare. He wanted so badly to tell her she’d have to choose a husband in two days. It would serve the impudent tart right to be forced to the yoke of one of his men.
But even before Sara had left, he’d seen the foolishness of trying to dictate who married whom, especially if he wanted the men and the women to have genuine affection for each other.
That was one thing Sara had taught him. Not even desire could replace respect and affection in a marriage, and those could never exist when people were forced into the union.
He’d forced her into being with him, and now he was paying dearly for it.
“There will be no weddings except for those of you who wish to marry.”
As astonishment struck the women, Louisa stepped forward. “Thank you, Captain. That’s good of you. We appreciate your kindness.”
“Kindness? I don’t do it out of kindness! I do it because it’s what Atlantis needs. That’s all I’ve ever cared about. That won’t change just because Sara is gone. She may have left us, but this place will go on . . . we will go on.”
They would make Atlantis a place to be envied, by God, with or without Sara.
Then one day he’d find her and throw it up in her face, show her what she had left behind.
Because this time he wasn’t a little boy who had no say in what happened after a woman abandoned him.
This time he had all the say in the world.