Wings of the Morning (Kensington Chronicles) (24 page)

horror. "Itwasn't that at all. I just panicked out offearforyou. I

acted without thinking."

"Fear for me?" Dallas' face was now a mask of confusion.

Smokey took a deep, calming breath and began to share.

"We were running behind schedule as you might have already

guessed, or we would have been out of London before you

arrived. We really should have rushed on, but I knew we

wouldn't be back for some time and I wanted to see the folks at

Clancy's.

"I left the back room long enough to take care of a personal

need, and when I came out of Meg's private rooms, a

man grabbed me. I fought, but he held a drug-soaked cloth

over my mouth. Everything went black, and when I woke up I

was on a ship."

The hair stood up on the back of Dallas' neck, and fear

pounded in his chest. He shifted in his chair, his face intense

as he waited for her to continue,

"There was no one with me, and I was lying on the bed

The room was rife with lewd art and paintings, but I wasn't

given much time to look around When the door opened, a

man came in." Smokey wondered how detailed she should be.

She would be horribly embarrassed to repeat all the pirate

had said

"The man was Haamich Wynn."

"The pirate?" Dallas broke his silence.

"Yes. He told me that my capture was deliberate and that

he wanted to get to know me better. He insisted that I put on

that red dress."

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A flicker of skepticism lit Dallas' eyes, but Smokey, thinking

she had imagined it, kept talking. She was babbling

slightly, and some of her facts were getting muddled

"I noticed some fencing swords on the wall, and I told him

I would fight him. He agreed to set me free if I won. I've never

done such a thing before but I cut his face. He actually fainted

at the sight of his own blood. I tied him up and ran away.

"I ran from the ship, but my escape was immediately

noticed, and his men came after me. That's when I ran into

you. I was afraid of your being found with me, so when you

wouldn't let me go, I panicked." Smokey ended with a small shrug and noticed that Dallas looked almost angry.

"I'd heard that Haamich Wynn was a huge man."

"He is. As big as Darsey, if not bigger."

"And you want me to believe that you had a duel with him

and won?" Dallas could no longer hide his doubt.

Smokey's whole body stiffened at his tone. She stood, her

entire being radiating anger.

"I apologized for kicking you, Dallas, but I did not owe you

an explanation."

Dallas stood also. "No, I guess you didn't, but there are

some things that bother me. I'd like to get the entire picture."

"No," she told him. She could see that she had surprised

him. "I've told you all I'm going to, and if that isn't good

enough, then that's too bad. As I said, I owe you nothing, and I

might add that I don't deserve your judgment."

"I'm not judging you." Dallas fought to keep his voice

even.

"So you believe me?"

Dallas hesitated, and it cost him.

"Get out, Dallas," Smokey told him, her voice low with

fury. "Get out and do not come back, not until you're ready to

apologize for believing me a liar."

"Smokey, if you would just tell me again how you came to

be in the dress, I--"

"Get out." Smokey's voice was whisper soft, and Dallas

knew he would have to give her some time.

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It was on his tongue to apologize, but he felt so muddled at

the moment. With regret he moved toward the door. Knowing

that he'd handled the situation very badly, he looked back, but

Smokey was already leaving the room. He noticed that she did

not even turn as she strode back toward the kitchen.

Q/w/fQmie

a

twenty-four hours later the Aramis set sail with a full

crew. Darsey was at the helm when Smokey came topside to

check on the men.

"I want answers, Darsey," she told him as she stood next to

the older man. "I won't be home until I get some."

Darsey, having already read her motive for leaving Willa's,

only nodded.

"You might be asking for trouble," he told her, his face and

voice calm.

"Well, I've never been afraid of trouble," she said logically.

"And since I can't go on as I am, wondering and upset, I think

I'd best do what I can."

Darsey only nodded. The old sparkle was back in her eye.

He knew that she had prayed constantly while they had been

home, but he also recognized as Smokey just had, that she had

been hiding. Now she was facing her fears and acting with the

good sense she normally had

If she had wanted to head out and trade in southern waters

as she had originally planned, Darsey would have been all for

it. But now she needed to fit together the pieces of this puzzle,

and Darsey understood that just as well. He prayed for her and

her responsibility as captain of their vessel. He also prayed for

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Dallas, who was certain to come looking for Smokey again

and find her gone.

"She's not here," Willa told Dallas the afternoon after

Smokey left.

"When do you expect her back?" Dallas asked, never

dreaming that she was on her ship.

Willa was as unflappable as ever when she answered. "It

could be weeks, but I'm thinking it probably will be months."

"You mean she's left on the Aramisr Dallas asked in

astonishment.

"With Darsey and the whole crew. I'm not sure how much

trading they'll do, but Smokey needed to find some answers."

Distracted, Dallas ran a hand through his hair and stood in

frustration. He turned to leave, barely remembering to bid

Willa goodbye.

Willa shut the door and then watched from the front room

window. "That Darsey's got me to answer to when he returns!

Why didn't he ever tell me that Dallas was in love with her?"

"He's good, Darsey; I'll give him that," Smokey told her

first mate some seven weeks after they had set sail.

Darsey could only shake his head. Their search to know

more about the pirate Haamich Wynn reminded him of the

night that Smokey was taken. One dead-end lead after another.

They had been to London, France, the Netherlands, and

even up into Norway and Sweden, and had still come up

empty. They weren't discouraged, but more curious than

ever.

Smokey was wondering if this wasn't God's way of telling

her to let the matter rest. She was quite certain of this and

praying about heading home or doing some trading when the

weather stepped in and answered for her.

A storm hit hard and fast, and the Aramis and her crew

found themselves stranded just off China Island making

repairs. They had plenty of stores to survive, as well as to fix

the ship, but it was going to take time. Time that Smokey

would rather have spent doing something else.

When Smokey did not turn up in the first two ports Dallas

visited, he knew he would have to go back to work. He simply

did not have the finances to keep searching for her. He was

able to trade and deal with great profit in the days that

followed, but he never stopped looking for Smokey or asking

every merchant he met about her.

Never had he had so much to say to someone. How could

he have treated her that way after all she had been through?

The story seemed outrageous to him, but he had been around

long enough to know that didn't make Smokey's words false.

Had he stopped and thought about that rather than verbally

attacking Smokey in her own home, he might have her with

him now, rather than having to confess his anxiety to the Lord

with nearly every breath he took.

"Ready for me to take her, Cap'n?" Dallas' first mate asked,

effectively breaking into his thoughts.

"Sure, Cliff. I've set a course for China Island. Well dock

there tonight and head out in the morning. We're not due in

Denmark for over a week."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n."

Dallas headed to his cabin to check the charts and work

on his books. His heart and mind dwelt on Smokey again, and

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how much she meant to him. After just a few minutes though,

he forced his mind back to the business at hand

Smokey would ask herself for years to come how they got

the drop on them. It might have been the stealthy way they

approached, or the fact that the entire crew had been concentrating

on the repairs, or possibly a combination of the two.

Nonetheless, the facts remained

Night was falling fast on the second day of repairs when

Smokey heard a knock on her door. She called entrance and

froze in her desk chair when Haamich Wynn walked in, looking

and acting as calm as ever.

"Did you really think I would give up on you, my dear?"

the pirate asked, seeming genuinely glad to see her.

"Come on, Smokey," he went on smoothly. "Come topside.

I have a few things I want you to say to your men."

Standing on legs she was sure wouldn't hold her, Smokey

moved out the door. She couldn't repress a shiver when she

felt Haamich close behind her. Her heart pounded as she

prayed Her only fear at the moment was for the safety of her

men.

"Cliff sent me down, Cap'n," the bos'n told Dallas some

hours later. "He said you should come up right away."

Dallas left his cabin without question. He took the glass

from Cliff's hand the moment he was up top and looked in the

direction Cliff had been gazing. His heart plummeted over

what he saw.

The light of the full moon clearly displayed the Aramis,

but anchored beyond her was another ship. There was nothing

patently obvious to warn Dallas that the Aramis was in

trouble, but the fact that neither of Smokey's flags were flying

caused him to believe that something was amiss.

He handed the glass to his bos'n and spoke quietly to Cliff.

Just minutes later the two men left the ship in a longboat,

moving silently toward Smokey's ship and praying that they

could be of help.

Smokey's eyes moved over the deck of her ship. She knew

she had never been so helpless. Darsey and Robby, the biggest

men of her crew, were already bound The rest were scattered

around under close watch of the pirate's men, who seemed to

be everywhere.

They were a scurvy lot, Smokey concluded swiftly, without

a trace of moral fiber to their names. Of course, she asked

herself, ufoat should I have expected after meeting their captain?

"Now," Haamich Wynn spoke expansively, 'let's get right

down to business. I regret that we have been parted this long,

my dear, but you've been moving around so much that I

couldn't get ahold of you."

"You've been following us," Smokey stated with anger.