Chapter 5 #2
“Oh no.” He shook his head, smiling and rubbed at the stubble on his chin with a calloused hand. Henri looked away, wondering why those hands held her attention so. “I asked first after all,” he said, “and you still haven’t answered.”
She huffed and turned away from him with annoyance. “Yes, I have,” she snapped. “If you had only listened.”
Henri sipped at her drink, enjoying the warmth that burned in her throat at least and hugged her arms about herself. The freezing temperature was biting now, and she shivered. She was tired, cold to her bones and dismayed by how badly things had gone wrong.
Perhaps the men were right, she should have been happy with her lot.
Maybe she should have put her own desires and ambitions aside and been content to sit and sew and paint, to make polite conversation and marry and have children as she was supposed to, fighting it had never bought her anything but trouble and dissatisfaction.
She would have been happier if she’d just done as she’d been bid.
She hadn’t heard him move, and so his voice when it came directly behind her made her jump.
“You mean to tell me you long for adventure, that you want to be free?”
She turned to find him standing far closer than was comfortable. To her surprise there was no mockery in his tone, and only curiosity in his eyes. She blinked and looked away from him. She was unwilling to tell him she no longer knew what she wanted.
“Doesn’t everyone?” she replied, hearing her own despair and knowing the weight of hopelessness was evident in her answer. How many people in the world were truly free, men or women?
He gave a bark of laughter. “No.” He gave an emphatic shake of his head and she frowned at him. “Most people do not wish to be free. They like the security of the confines of society. It makes them feel safe. Everything in order and in its place.”
For a moment she dared to stare at him, to stare into those cool blue eyes and try to see what it was he truly thought.
Again, she saw no condemnation, no scorn for the idea of a woman wanting to be free, independent of a man.
He looked interested though she was no fool.
That interest was most likely laid in the best way he could profit from her.
She turned her back on him. “Please, take me home.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” His voice was cool and unyielding, and she turned around to demand he explain and staggered as the ship lurched sideways.
Her glass slipped from her hand and smashed to the floor.
He grasped hold of her arms, steadying her and tutting in irritation at the broken glass on his cabin floor.
“Where are we going?” she demanded as she realised the movement had been steadily increasing while they spoke.
He grinned at her, and this time the wickedness that was illustrated in the tales of his exploits was only too clear. “Far away from here,” he said, showing a row of even white teeth.
Henri tried to wriggle out of the grasp of his hands.
“Let me go!” She figured it didn’t really matter whether she meant from his hands or off the ship, either way she needed to get away from him, for so many reasons.
“Please, you must let me go, surely you do not want to add kidnapping to your list of crimes?” she raged at him.
She gasped as he pulled her closer, one arm snaking around her waist to hold her body flush against him. Putting her hands flat on his chest she pushed him away, but both his grip around her and his chest were hard and immovable.
“You really think I care what they hang me for?” he demanded, his tone just as angry. “If I’m caught, I have enough crimes to condemn me, do you think it matters if I hang for piracy or the kidnapping of Lady Henrietta Morton? Dead is dead.”
“The only reason you’re not swinging from the end of a rope right at this moment is because I saved you,” she said, her voice full of fury as rage outweighed terror.
“There was no way out of that shop, and you know it. I saved your life, the least you can do is return me to land before you make your escape.”
She was uncomfortably aware of his hard body pressed tight against hers, and of just how far she had fallen into his power. She was on a ship bound for God alone knew where, and no one was even aware she was missing.
“Lady, if you had not sought to blackmail me, we would likely never have set eyes on each other again.
I was indeed grateful and would have kept the memory of you as something to be cherished.
I thought you a delight, a sweet little innocent and was glad to have stolen nothing more from you than a kiss.
It was you who came after me, it was you that tarnished that memory, and it was you who tangled yourself into my life. You said you wanted adventure,” he said laughing at her, though he looked just as angry as she was. “It appears you should be careful what you wish for.”
“You unfeeling bastard!” she said, flailing her fists and raining down blows on his chest in a rage.
“What do you know of my life? I told you I was desperate - it was my only choice. Surely you of all people can understand that? And it only serves to show how desperate I am now that I would willingly return to that life just to get away from you!”
He caught hold of her wrists before she could do any further damage. “Well I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you won’t be getting away from me any time soon.”
He released her hands and pulled her closer, crushing her against him and pressing his lips against hers. For a moment she was so stunned she couldn’t react. When her senses finally returned to her this time however, she decided to make him sorry that he’d been foolish enough to release her hands.
She raked her nails down his neck until he hissed with pain and grasped hold of her hands once again.
She then raised her knee with a sharp, angry movement that clearly took him by surprise.
He groaned and staggered away from her to lean on his desk, but her moment of triumph was short-lived.
To her surprise and fury, he began to laugh.
“Well I suppose I deserve that,” he said clutching at the injured part of him with both hands and wincing.
“Damn right,” she said, gasping for breath and sparing a moment to thank her foolish, self-centred father for the one sensible thing he’d ever done in hiring Annie to raise her.
For it was her lady’s maid who had instructed her on the swiftest way of telling a man no and making sure he was left in no doubt she meant it.
He got to his feet and her heart thudded in her chest as he crossed to his berth. She watched with trepidation as he pulled a blanket off the bed and moved towards her. He paused, holding up the blanket like a peace offering.
“You’re cold,” he said, offering the blanket once again.
With reluctance she allowed him to get close enough to lay the blanket across her shoulders. She grasped hold of the corners, putting it tightly around herself and moving as far from him as the confined space of the cabin would allow, stepping carefully around the broken glass.
“Calm yourself, lady. You have my word that no one upon this ship will harm you in any way. Myself included,” he added with a wry smile.
“However,” he added, a steely note in voice.
“You must get used to the idea that you are now my guest, and you remain my guest at my pleasure. I may change your status to prisoner at any time it pleases me.”
Henri gritted her teeth, glaring at him but keeping her counsel.
She watched him, like a cat cornered by a ferocious dog.
She might be outmatched, but she would use her claws at the slightest provocation.
To her consternation he began to move closer to her once more and as she was already pressed tightly into the corner of the room, she found herself with nowhere to go.
She tensed, not believing his earlier promises for a moment.
He stopped barely inches from her and reached out to curl a lock of her hair around his fingers.
“You liked it when I kissed you before,” he said, his voice low and husky.
Henri felt herself grow hot at his accusation, she could do nothing to deny it. He leaned a little closer to whisper in her ear and she could feel the warmth radiating off him.
“You kissed me back.”
“I thought I would never see you again,” she countered, leaning harder against the freezing wood of the cabin wall and wishing she dared reach for the blade at his hip as he laughed again.
“How very unladylike,” he said, apparently delighted. “To only kiss a man you are certain you will never see again.”
“I hate you,” she said the words with venom, meaning it, and not caring that she sounded childish.
“Good,” he said, and she tried hard not to grind her teeth as the insufferable man grinned at her again.
“I do like a challenge. And I promise you this...” He leaned down once more, placing his hands on the wall either side of her head, caging her in as his breath fluttered warm against her neck, making her shiver.
“By the end of this voyage, you’ll be begging me to kiss you. ”
Before she could think of an adequate retort to his outrageous suggestion, he had turned on his heel and left the cabin, and once more she heard the key turn in the lock.