Chapter 18
“Wherein ghosts are sent to trouble the living.”
For a moment the room was perfectly still, a quiet calm so intense that Henri held her breath for fear of disturbing the silence with something as trivial as breathing.
The earl had gone a deathly shade of white and was staring at Lawrence in disbelief.
“Out!” he shouted suddenly, and the men who had restrained Lawrence looked startled for a brief second before snapping to attention and leaving the room.
The moment hung suspended once more as Lawrence gazed up at his brother, who stood staring, totally still.
When he did move, he turned away and snatched open a drawer in his desk, removing a key.
Then he returned, moving behind Lawrence and undoing the restraints.
The chains fell to the floor with a clatter and Lawrence stumbled to his feet only to be thrown across the room as the earl drew back his fist and smashed it squarely into his jaw.
Henri screamed and ran to Lawrence who was crumpled against the wall, bleeding from his mouth and looking a little dazed.
“That’s for ten years, you bastard!” the earl said, his voice brittle. “Ten years of guilt and misery and regret, for letting our father go to his grave believing he would see you again at last!”
“I’m sorry, Alex.”
Lawrence looked up at him, sorrow in his eyes and Henri watched the earl in turn, remembering now, all the reasons she had felt so very afraid of him.
That cold, proud exterior that made you believe no emotion could ever touch him, except perhaps for a sharp, clean, slice of anger.
And then it all seemed to fall away, and he reached down and hauled his brother to his feet and embraced him with such ferocity she expected to hear the crack of ribs.
“Damn you, Lawrence, damn you, of all the things you could have done, you ran off and became a pirate. When you well know it was the thing I always dreamed of.”
Lawrence laughed, though his voice was a little unsteady. “I know it, Alex, and I’m sorry for it but ... but I thought I’d killed you, I saw you go down and ...”
“And you never thought to check?” Alex raged, angry all over again now as he turned and walked away from his brother. “You never thought to return and see for yourself?”
Lawrence shrugged. “I heard them cry out that Lord Falmouth was dead, I didn’t think much else was required, and even if you weren’t dead, which never crossed my mind, I shot you, Alex! How could you ever forgive me?”
“Because you were a green-headed young fool and you never meant to. I got in the way on purpose, but I couldn’t let you kill a militia man, they would have hanged you and even our father’s name wouldn’t have saved you then.”
“Or now,” Lawrence said with a shrug.
Alex rubbed his face with his hand. “Good God, how are we to get out of this?”
“We don’t.” Lawrence looked at him and shook his head. “I’m Captain Savage and there is nothing to be done, I won’t have you risk the family name for me after all I’ve done. Just hand me over and I’ll take my chances, Alex.”
Alex looked back at him in disgust at the idea, and Henri wondered if perhaps she had been too hard on him.
“Damn the family name,” he raged. “I won’t lose my brother twice.”
Lawrence gaped at him, obviously astonished that his brother should say such a thing.
“B-but, the family honour, our history should remain untainted - that is above all else, no matter what, you always said ...”
“And I was a bloody fool!” the earl exclaimed. “Flesh and blood should come before all else, the living are what matter. I should never have been so hard on you, you were just a boy. It was all my fault.”
Henri watched this exchange with astonishment though hers seemed to be mild compared to the shock in Lawrence’s eyes. He looked dumbstruck.
“I need to think,” Alex continued. “For now I will have to allow the men to take you to the hold in chains, though I am sorry for it. However I cannot see what else is to be done for the moment. I will make sure you are not ill-treated but I need time to think of a way out of this.”
Lawrence seemed to be trying to say something, but the words wouldn’t come. Henri grasped his arm and gave a little squeeze.
“You were right,” she said, nodding towards the Earl. “About your brother, now do as he says and let him help you.”
Lawrence shook his head and looked back up at him. “If anyone discovers you let me go, there’ll be hell to pay, Alex. I can’t let you risk it. I won’t after all I have done!”
Alex turned on him then, and his anger was something to behold. Henri held her breath as the Earl’s rage hit them like a furnace.
“Let me? You won’t let me? Damn you, Lawrence.
I saw the bullets hit you, three bullets!
You were bathed in your own blood, and I saw you fall into the sea.
I have lived and relived that scene in nightmares for a lifetime.
Do you seriously think I could live with seeing you hanged?
Do you think I can contemplate it and keep my sanity intact?
For God knows I feel I’ve had little grasp on it for the last decade! ”
The earl took a breath and she saw the cold demeanour he wore like a cloak slip neatly into place.
“You will go now, Captain Savage, while I consider what to do with you. As for you, Miss Morton, you must be tired. I will give you my cabin for the voyage, a meal and someone to assist you will be sent shortly. I believe you will find some of your belongings in that chest,” he said, gesturing to a small box at the side of his desk.
He opened the door and shouted, and two men came smartly at his call.
“Take the prisoner below. See he is fed and unharmed, he is to reach the gallows without a mark or you will feel my wrath, do I make myself plain?”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Henri watched with uncertainty as Lawrence was led away, and Alex’s cold eyes met hers.
“Miss Morton,” he said by way of taking his leave, and nodded his head, pulling the door closed behind him.
Henri stood there for a moment and then took a breath.
She had the strangest feeling that she hadn’t actually breathed since the ship she now stood on had been sighted.
She walked a little unsteadily to the bed and sat down, suddenly aware of the slightly nauseating motion of the ship, the creak of wood and rigging, and the muffled steps and calls of men both above and below her.
Until this point her mind had been totally consumed with fear, with shock, with wonder - with Lawrence, and her surroundings had all been caught up with that fact.
But now she was sat here, still and alone with her thoughts and her surroundings seemed to want her to take note, for try as she might she was struggling to make sense of what had just happened.
The Earl of Falmouth was, indeed, a good man.
A man who had been bowed by grief at the loss of his brother.
The charismatic pirate captain who she’d come to care for was going, somehow, to be saved from the gallows.
Though at this point she could not conceive of how such a thing could be arrived at.
But there had been an air about the earl that made her believe he would think of something.
She lay back on the bed and decided she would take a moment to rest before she changed her damp clothes, even though the cold, wet material around her made her shiver.
But then she closed her eyes and sleep had begun to beckon when there was a frantic knocking at the door.
Frowning she hauled her protesting limbs upright and hastened to answer it.
“Who is it?” she called.
“Henri?” cried an ecstatic voice from behind the wood and Henri was almost bowled off her feet as the generous figure of Annie burst through the door and enveloped her in a hug.
“Oh, Miss Henri!” the lady sobbed, running hands over her Mistress’ face and arms, as though ensuring everything was, indeed, in the correct place and quite as it should be. “Are you alright? Did the brute hurt you?”
Henri beamed and hugged her maid with quite as much enthusiasm. “Oh, Annie, I am so glad to see you, you cannot imagine!”
“Whatever were ye thinkin’, child?” she scolded, for once in her life overcome with an excess of maternal instinct. “If I hadn’t followed ye, oh, Lawd, I dread to think what may ‘ave befallen ye!”
“You sent Lord Falmouth?” Henri exclaimed, as all became clear. She frowned as questions crowded in her mind. “Papa? Is he well, is he here?”
Annie shook her head. “No, my lady. Your papa is well, but his lordship insisted he stay home and carry on as usual. No one is to know ye are missin’ see. You’ve gone to stay with a cousin in the north, that way he said, if we found ye, none would be the wiser and yer reputation quite safe.”
“Oh.” Henri nodded, thoughtful, wondering why this didn’t seem to be as much as a relief as perhaps it should be. She had the diamonds, though, she thought. She need not marry the earl now and if Lawrence was freed ...
But she was getting ahead of herself, Lawrence was currently in irons and a long way from freedom.
Annie looked at her young charge and pulled a face. “Look at the state of ye. Now get them wet things off this minute. We’ll get ye warm and dry, and ye can tell me what the devil you’ve been up to. For if I know you, there’s mischief brewin’ here somewhere.”
Henri smiled, reassured by Annie’s familiar nagging tone, and allowed herself to be wrangled out of wet cloth and into a warm bed, with tea and crumpets, and a rapt audience to hear tell of her adventure.