29. Jonto
Jonto
Jonto paced back and forth in her study.
Guilt at her panicked reaction ate at her insides, and nausea threatened to bring up what little dinner Nico had forced her to eat upon their return.
Her second had dismissed the cook and servants, something he’d never done before, yet an act she appreciated all the same.
“Jonto.” Nico, who’d been trying to slow his friend down enough to get her to listen, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her around to face him. “Sit down and let’s talk.”
“Talk? What’s there to talk about?”
“Sit down.” He shook her shoulders. “Please.”
“Fine.” With a disgruntled huff, Jonto threw herself onto the sofa.
Her blood was up, which only added to her growing agitation.
Unable to keep her thoughts inside any longer, she spewed forth everything she’d been stewing over for the past few hours.
“I’m a God’s damned pirate captain, Nico.
We’ve built up an entire fleet of ships, have amassed more wealth than my parents ever dreamed of, and own land in four different kingdoms, but I can’t help one stubborn, irritating, obstinate, aggravating woman.
Marry her, she says, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world to have the Archduchess ask for my hand in marriage on someone else’s behalf! ”
Nico patiently listened, and when Jonto stopped to take a breath, he quietly said, “Do you love her?”
That brought Jonto up short. “What?”
“I could be wrong, but I watched you on the ship, and I had the distinct impression that what you feel for her is different than what you felt for either Countess Hockenberry or Countess Becket or any of the others for that matter.”
“I’ve only known her for a little over a month and a half, and much of that time, she’s been a prickly, judgmental aristocrat.
How can I love someone I barely know? And it’s a moot point anyway, Nico.
I have too much at stake to chance telling anyone the truth.
” She got up again and resumed her pacing.
“No, don’t even think it, Nico. It’s not worth losing everything, and you know that’s exactly what would happen if she were to talk.
Hell, for all we know, she’d blackmail us into giving her everything we own. ”
“Do you know what Norae told me?”
“What?” The question took Jonto entirely by surprise, and she stopped pacing long enough to stare at her big friend.
“She told me to trust my instincts. Well, my instincts are saying that even though it’s only been a month and a half, you’ve fallen for a prickly yet remarkable woman whom I believe we can trust to keep our secret.
Think about it, Jonto. She has as much to lose as you were she to marry you and the truth come out. ”
That brought a sliver of rational thinking into Jonto’s jumbled, chaotic mind. She hadn’t stopped to think that Isla would be setting her sails to her wind. “That would be true only once we’re married, but I’d have to tell her before. It wouldn’t be honorable otherwise.”
“What was her reaction to finding out Ilona was married to Babette? Did she flinch away in disgust?”
Thinking back to when she’d introduced Babette as Ilona’s wife, she remembered the surprised look of pleasure that had flitted across Isla’s face. “On the contrary, she said, ‘I find their relationship quite refreshing.’”
“Well then, you mentioned to me earlier that she told you she would consider a marriage of convenience. Do you think she would consider marrying you if it would save her estates and her people and keep her and them out of Montfort’s greedy, licentious hands?”
It was all too much. “We’ve survived because we’ve kept the secret between you, me, and Jack. I don’t…know if I’m willing to chance everything to help a woman we barely know.”
“It wouldn’t only be helping her.”
Jonto cocked her head, “What do you mean?”
Nico twisted his lips and scowled. “There are times that I get so angry at myself for ever suggesting you bury yourself in Morgan’s identity.
” He stood and placed his oversized hand on Jonto’s shoulder.
“I didn’t think it through, Luc. I never meant for you to go through life alone, without someone to love.
I want you to take a chance, and if everything falls apart,” he shrugged, “we’ll start again somewhere. ”
Jonto reeled from his words. Her head spun as though her best friend had just hit her over the head with a solid brick.
He hadn’t called her Luc since the day of the tragedy.
That alone gave her pause, but even so, she shook her head.
“No. You always remind me that it’s not just our lives at stake.
I have over a thousand sailors who answer to me.
The people living on my estates back home depend on there being a Lord Jontoreaux.
How can you even suggest I put that at risk for a woman we’ve only just met? ”
“Because my instinct tells me it’s the right thing to do and because I trust Norae’s second sight. I’ve never known her to be wrong, Jonto.”
Jonto shook her head and said more quietly this time. “No.” Could she? She shook her head a second time and repeated, “No.”
Thunder sounded in the distance, and hearing rain pelting the window, Jonto absently looked outside while considering her options.
She did a double-take when a dark figure hurried up the hill from the direction of Windsong Hall.
“Isn’t that Lily?” She stood and rushed for the door. “What’s she doing out in this weather?”
Grabbing a tarpaulin from the coat rack, she hurried outside to intercept Isla’s maid.
The wind had folded Lily’s umbrella into a twisted, useless mess, so Jonto held the coat over her head and hurried her toward the back door.
She had to shout to be heard over the driving rain.
“What are you doing coming here in this weather?” He led her inside and guided her into the study, where Nico was already stoking the fire into a warm, healthy blaze.
Instead of moving closer to the heat, Lily immediately rounded on Jonto. “Is she here? Please tell me she’s here. I can’t find her, and I’m afraid she’s going to do something drastic because she won’t—well, Montfort stopped by this afternoon, and she refused to speak to him, but?—”
Jonto took her by the shoulders. “Who? Isla? What do you mean? Do what? What do you think she’s going to do?” She had a pretty good idea, and the thought of Isla doing herself harm was more than she could contemplate. “Tell me what happened.”
“I thought she was in her room, but after Montfort left, I went in to see if she was all right, but she was already gone and had left an envelope on the bed. She’d written her will, Jonto.
It’s so insane.” She looked around frantically.
“I’d hoped she’d come here to beg for your help, but that was stupid because we both know she’d never beg for anything. She’s too proud to?—”
Jonto released her with a light shove and pulled on the coat she still held in her hands.
She spoke more to herself than anyone else.
“Where would she go?” The answer was immediately apparent, and she turned to stare into Nico’s eyes.
They’d long ago learned to communicate without words, so she raised her brows, asking the question that had the potential to change their lives forever.
Nico nodded once, tacitly giving his Captain and friend permission to do whatever she felt needed to be done.
With her mind made up, she strode to him and placed her hand on his upper arm.
“Take a carriage, go to Judge Riordan’s, and ask him to accompany you to Archduchess Pierpont’s mansion.
I’ll meet you there….” Now that she had a plan, her innate confidence returned, and she knew exactly what she wanted and what she had to do.
“Pray to God I’m not too late.” With that, she ran out into the night.
The rain and mud slowed her progress, but she eventually slipped her way up the rocks leading into the cave.
Hurrying through the tunnel, she whispered a silent prayer of thanks when she rounded the corner and found Isla standing in the opening, looking out over the bay.
Like Jonto, she was soaked through to the bone, but even more worrying was how close she was to the rock’s edge. “Isla?”
Startled, Isla turned too quickly and had to steady herself by grabbing onto the side of the opening. “What are you doing here?” Irritated pride poured off her in waves as though Jonto had interrupted something she had no business interrupting.
Jonto took a hesitant step forward, sensing that normality would go over better than worry or pity. “You’re standing on my side of the cave. Perhaps I should be asking you that question instead?”
“Please leave, Lord Jontoreaux. You made your stance perfectly clear to Lady Pierpont and me, just as the King and Montfort have also made their intentions known.”
Another step brought Jonto closer, but not close enough to make a grab for Isla should it become necessary.
“I’m afraid I didn’t make anything clear, Isla.
In fact, in my panic, I made everything worse.
” She indicated the flat rock she’d found Isla sitting on during her earlier visit to the tunnel.
Was it only a few short weeks ago that she’d seen this beautiful woman walk into the Stately Yew Inn?
Had she fallen for her then and not realized it?
That didn’t seem possible, but the ache in her chest was telling her that’s precisely what had happened to her lonely, love-deprived heart.
“Will you please come sit and let me explain?”
“There’s nothing to explain. I saw the horror on your face when Lady Pierpont asked you to marry me. I debased myself for the sake of my people. I literally begged a man to marry me.” Her voice cracked on the last shouted words.