A Pirate of her Own (23 page)

“Well, Captain?”

Morgan flinched at Barney’s question as he sat himself down at the table in the crowded

Boar’s Head Tavern. The odor of unwashed bodies, roasting meat, and beer hung thick in the air as Morgan signaled a passing wench and ordered her to bring another round of drinks.

A double round of drinks.

Cookie, Barney, and Ushakii had been waiting here for him while he made yet another inquiry about Serenity.

“Nothing,” he growled as the wench placed eight tankards on the rough wooden table before him. “Not a damn word. No one’s seen or heard of her, or if they have, they won’t tell me.”

His temper boiling, Morgan grabbed the nearest tankard of ale and drained it in one gulp.

His men exchanged wide-eyed gawks, but he paid them no heed. Damn them all, anyway. And damn himself.

He was an idiot, a first-rate moron.

What kind of man let a woman like her sail out of his life?

For fifteen months, three days, and five hours now, he’d been searching for her. He’d even boarded the ship that had taken her home, but to no avail. They hadn’t known anything more than anyone else.

Jake had placed her in a hired coach headed for Savannah, and no one had seen her since. No one.

She’d vanished without a single trace.

Fine, so be it! He’d had enough with this. She was gone and he was glad of it.

“Glad of it, I tell you.”

“Beg pardon, Captain?” Cookie asked.

“Nothing,” Morgan muttered as he seized two more tankards and drained them.

“Well, well, look what the tide washed ashore. What brings you gentlemen back to my part of the world?”

“Lay off, Jake,” Morgan hissed without turning to look at the man who stood directly behind him. “I’m in no mood for humor.”

“Hasn’t been in a mood for humor in over fifteen months,” Cookie said with a nod to Jake. “Never seen anything like it in my life.”

Morgan gave him a hostile glare, but Cookie ignored it.

“We’ve come seeking the lass again,” Barney said. “He ain’t been able to find her nowhere and now he’s about ready to gut the lot of us.”

“You should have seen the face of the colonial captain when he boarded his ship and then took nothing from them,” Ushakii piped in. “He couldn’t believe Morgan had fired on his ship when all he wanted was to interrogate the crew about Miss James.”

Morgan cringed as he remembered what a jack-snipe he’d made of himself that day. He’d terrified the entire colonial crew and had almost lost one of his own.

And for what?

A bloomin’ chit who incensed him.

A bloomin’ chit who…

He tensed as he remembered a vital fact. Jake was the last one to see her.

He reached up behind him, grabbed Jake by the collar, and pulled his face close. “You were the last person to see her. Tell me where she is, or I swear I’ll have your gizzard.”

Jake laughed in his face. “If you were sober, I might take that threat seriously.” He wrenched Morgan’s hand free. “How long have you been in port?”

“A month,” Barney said. “A whole bleeding month and we’ve nothing to show for it. The captain won’t leave until he finds her this time. Says we’ll stay here till we’re dried bones and the ship rots.”

“Oh, Morgan,” Jake said with a
tsk
. “You’ve got it bad for the girl, eh?”

Morgan snorted. “She can’t have vanished. I know she’s somewhere, and sooner or later someone here is bound to hear from her.”

“Very well then, I suggest you wait it out at my place. At least I won’t have to worry about the sorry lot of you getting tossed in the stocks for public drunkenness.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Morgan snarled. “Not until I find her.”

Jake ignored him. “Ushakii, you and Cookie grab him and be ready to hold him, because if he doesn’t come willingly, I’m going to knock him unconscious.”

“Go ahead and try!”

The next thing Morgan knew, the world turned dark.

“You wield a nasty blow, Captain,” Cookie said to Jake as they dumped Morgan into a rented wagon.

“Aye, and it’s not the first time I’ve had to use it on Lord and Mighty Hard-Head.” Jake looked at his unconscious friend and shook his head. “What the hell happened to him anyway? He looks like he just crawled out of a pigsty.”

And he did.

Never had Jake seen Morgan look so disgusting. His unkempt hair hung lankly about his shoulders. Morgan had a thick beard on a face that had never known more than an afternoon’s stubble, and his clothes looked and smelled as though they hadn’t been changed in a long, long while.

“He’s been a raving loon,” Barney said, stepping up to take the driver’s seat of the wagon. “We stayed for a day at Santa Maria and then the captain decided it was time we went to find the lass.”

“Then that storm hit,” Cookie interrupted. “Knocked us off course so that we had a time finding the Colonials.”

“And by the time we did,” Barney finished, “you and Serenity had already gone ashore.”

Barney shook his head. “I haven’t seen him so grief-stricken and angry since Penelope died.”

Jake swallowed at his words. He remembered that time in Morgan’s life only too well.

Poor Morgan. His pride had always gotten the better of him, and this time…

“I think I know something that might help him out.” Jake retrieved his horse from the nearby hitching post, then returned to the wagon. “Follow me.”

He mounted his horse and led them the ten miles to his plantation home just outside of Savannah.

No sooner had they entered the stable than Lorelei came rushing out, holding baby Nicholas in her arms. Jake smiled at his wife. Her red hair was swept up around her head in an intricate braid and the color was high in her cheeks.

She was every bit as beautiful as she’d been the first day he’d met her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, enunciating each word in such a way as to convey her pique.

“’Tis my good deed for the year.” He dismounted and handed his horse over to one of the stable boys.

She cuddled the cooing baby up to her shoulder and narrowed her gaze on him. “You can’t bring him here, you promised.”

“I promised I wouldn’t say anything, I never said I wouldn’t bring him.”

“Jacob,” she said in warning.

“Lorelei,” he responded with a laugh. “Trust me.”

She rolled her eyes as she patted the baby on the back. “I don’t even want to think about what happened the last time you said that to me.”

Jake gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “Go on with you now, wench. I’ve some nasty things to do to make him presentable.”

“I’m not your wench,
knave
, and I would beg you to reconsider, but I know firsthand how very obstinate you are.” And with those words spoken, she turned about and took Nicholas back to the house.

Jake motioned for Ushakii and Cookie to drag Morgan out of the wagon and up toward the house. “We’ll need to bathe and sober him,” he said half to himself and half to them.

“That’ll be a task,” Cookie said. “I’ve not seen him sober since she left.”

“Me, neither,” Barney agreed.

Well, that didn’t matter, because Jake knew a surefire way to sober Morgan.

The man was in for the shock of his life.

Morgan sputtered and cursed at the thick, smelly concoction Cookie was forcing down his throat. “I’ll kill the lot of you,” he snarled.

But as before, his threats went unheeded.

“Quit your blustering,” Jake said. “You ought to be grateful to us. You’ve no idea what a chore it was cleaning you up. I ordered your clothes burned, by the way. I swear I’ve seen rags in better shape.”

Morgan glared at him. He’d strangle the man, but at some point the four of them had tied him to a chair and he wasn’t able to do more than curse them all.

And that was the one thing he was doing admirably well. “You better pray I never get free from this.”

Jake just smiled at him. “C’mon, men. I think we’ve earned a break from the good captain. Why don’t we go below and get a good stiff drink.”

They left the room, with Jake trailing behind.

“Don’t you leave me here, Jack,” Morgan shouted.

Jake stopped and turned to face him. “The name’s Jake,” he said, then pulled the door closed behind him.

Morgan rattled the chair with his fury and effort to break free. The Lord better take a liking to them, because when he got out they would suffer for this betrayal.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming down the hallway outside.

“It’d better be one of you come back to free me,” he muttered between clenched teeth.

The door handle rattled an instant before the whitewashed door swung open.

“Lorelei, I was…” Serenity’s voice trailed off as she looked up from the watch pin she’d been checking and met his gaze.

Morgan froze, too stunned to even breathe.

Could it be?

Her own face mirrored shock. “What are you doing here?” she gasped.

He held his hands up so that she could see the ropes that held him in place. “I’m sitting in a most uncomfortable chair,” he said, and for the first time in a year, he felt the corners of his mouth lift up into a smile.

Bless Jake’s soul.

But curse his twisted sense of humor.

Serenity arched one brow. “I suppose you think I’m going to free you.”

His smile grew wider. “I would be obliged.”

“And I would be a fool to do such a thing. Good day, Captain Drake.”

To his astonishment, she left the room.

“Wait!” he roared.

But she was gone.

A few seconds later, the door opened again and Jake rushed in. “All right, Morgan, both our hides are in jeopardy.”

Jake slashed the ropes holding him to his chair. “She’s headed for the study downstairs. If you have any decency in you at all, you’ll make her see reason or we’ll both be drunken fools looking for a new place to live.”

“Why didn’t you tell me she was here?”

“Because I promised her and Lorelei I would never, under any circumstances, tell you she came here.”

He hardened his stare. “You’re supposed to be
my
friend, Jake.”

“If I wasn’t your friend, I wouldn’t have put my neck in the noose by bringing you here today. Now get down there and smooth this over.”

Morgan wasted no more time sprinting downstairs and into the study where Jake had told him Serenity would be waiting.

As soon as he opened the door, Serenity spun around to face him. Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, I swear I hate you, Jacob Dudley,” she said under her breath. “All I want is Lorelei and he keeps sending me to
you
.”

Morgan frowned at her hostility. “Why are you so angry?” he asked, moving to stand in front of her. “I’ve come back for you and this is how you greet me?”

Her face was a mockery of anger and astonishment. “You’ve come back for me? Oh, how delightful. Shall I put on my best gown or should I just fall down on my knees in gratitude that you
finally
remembered I exist?”

Morgan couldn’t help it, he laughed. “You never could react the way you were supposed to to anything.” He took her face in his hands. “God, how I’ve missed you.”

She stepped back from him. “This isn’t a game, Morgan. And I find nothing amusing about the fact that—”

“But I’ve been looking for you. Didn’t anyone tell you?”

She turned her head to the side and eyed him skeptically. “Aye, you took your own, slow time getting here. Then you went to my father’s shop, asked him and Douglas if I’d made it safely home. When they told you they didn’t know where I was, you immediately left and set sail. Forgive me if that amount of care for my well-being doesn’t impress me.”

Morgan was aghast. “Lord, woman, I’ve done nothing but look for you since the day you boarded that ship. There was a storm, do you remember it?”

“Aye.”

Hallelujah, mayhap there was hope for her forgiveness after all. “It knocked us off course which delayed me in getting here the first time. When I left your father’s shop, I went to find that Colonial ship, to ask them what had happened to you. When they told me nothing, I came back here as soon as I could and I’ve been here ever since. Didn’t anyone tell you
that
?”

“I—”

“And just what are you doing here anyway?”

She put her hands on her hips. “I started to go home, Morgan, but on the way back, Jake convinced me to stay here for a while. After my sister’s public disgrace and disappearance, my father agreed that I should stay away from Savannah.”

“But why didn’t they tell me where you were?”

“I didn’t want them to.”

“Then why are you mad at me for not getting here sooner?”

“Because you weren’t supposed to give up so easily. You were supposed—”

“Serenity, I—” Lorelei broke off her words as she entered the study and saw them standing just inches apart. Stopping in place, she stiffened her posture and eyed him coldly. “Good afternoon, Captain Drake.”

Morgan was taken aback by Lorelei’s hostility as she adjusted the small baby in her arms. He’d always considered her a friend, and they’d never once in all these years had a disagreement.

“Hello, Lorelei.”

Smiling, he walked over to her and brushed his hand across the baby’s black hair. “Is it a boy or girl?”

“A boy. Nicholas is his name,” she said, her tone still icy.

“Where did he get all this dark hair from?”

“He takes after his father.”

“Lorelei,” Morgan said with a note of warning. “Jake’s blond.”

“Who said
I
was his mother?” Her gaze slid past him and focused on Serenity.

His heart stopped as he realized who the mother was, and his brain quickly calculated the baby’s approximate age and how long it’d been since he last saw Serenity.

Serenity stepped forward and took the baby from Lorelei’s arms. “I hope he wasn’t a bother.”

“No,” she assured her. “He’s been wonderful, but I think he may be hungry.”

True to the prediction, the baby let out a loud wail.

Lorelei looked at Morgan and arched an imperious brow. “Goodness, Serenity, I think the shock of baby Nicholas killed Morgan.”