He made that statement as a boast, then waited a full minute for Caine to appreciate his explanation. “I gave myself that nickname. It’s fitting, ain’t it, girl?”
“Yes, Uncle, it’s very fitting. Your heart’s as black as night.”
“It’s good of you to say so,” Harry replied. He reached up and patted her hand. “As soon as me men get back from their errand, I’m leaving for the Wharf. I could use a spot of supper to hold me over.”
“I shall see to it at once,” Jade said. She immediately moved toward the doors, deliberately making a wide path of Caine’s chair. When she reached the entrance to the foyer, she turned back to her uncle. “Please don’t let Nathan and Caine fight while I’m gone, Harry.”
“I wouldn’t be caring,” Harry called out.
“But I would care,” she returned. “Please, Harry?”
“All right then, I won’t let them fight.”
As soon as the door shut behind Jade, Harry whispered, “She’s a piece of work, that one. I should have cut her face years ago. She’s too pretty for her own safety. ’Tis the reason I had to leave her behind so many times. Couldn’t trust me men when my back was turned.”
“She’s so pretty,” Nathan snapped, “that some dishonorable men would take advantage.”
“Let it go for now, Nathan,” Colin interjected. He opened his eyes and looked at Caine. “My brother’s an honorable man.”
“Like hell,” Nathan growled.
Caine wasn’t paying any attention to the conversation now. He’d homed in on Harry’s casually stated comment that he’d left Jade behind. Where did he leave her? Who watched over her when he was away? There sure as hell hadn’t been a woman there, or she would have known a little more about the facts of life.
“What’s all this talk about?” Harry demanded, drawing Caine’s attention again.
“Although it isn’t in your nature, I’m asking you to be patient, Harry,” Colin requested. “There’s been a little misunderstanding, that’s all.”
“Clear it up quick then,” Harry ordered.
“Damn it, Colin, I know all I need to know,” Nathan said. “Your brother’s a bastard . . .”
“You were born out of wedlock, son?” Harry interrupted. He looked absolutely thrilled by that possibility.
Caine sighed. “No, I wasn’t born out of wedlock.”
Harry didn’t even try to hide his disappointment, another fact that made absolutely no sense to Caine.
“Then you can’t be going by that nickname,” he instructed. “Only those born with the stigma can boast of it. A man’s only as good as his nickname,” he added with a nod.
“Or a woman,” Colin interjected.
Caine looked incredulous. Colin tried not to laugh. “Harry? Tell him about Bastard Bull,” he suggested.
“Colin, for God’s sake,” Caine began.
“In time, Caine,” his brother whispered. “I need a little more time to gather my thoughts.”
Caine nodded. “All right,” he said. He turned to Harry then. “Tell me about Bastard Bull.”
“He weren’t a bastard after all,” Harry stated with a scowl. “He just said he was so he could sign on with us. He knew the store I put in nicknames. When we found out he’d lied, we tossed him overboard with the garbage.”
“They happened to be in the middle of the ocean at the time,” Colin drawled out. “Pagan wouldn’t let him drown, though.”
“How very considerate of you,” Caine muttered to Nathan.
“Now there was this other bloke, a good, strong man . . .”
Caine let out a long sigh. He leaned back in the chair, closed his eyes, and decided he was going to have to wait until all this ridiculous talk about nicknames was finished. Colin seemed to be enjoying the conversation and he had asked for time. His brother looked half asleep now . . . and so damned pale.
For a good ten minutes or more Harry continued with his dissertation. When he finally finished, Nathan said, “Jade has a special nickname, too.”
“I’ll be telling it,” Harry stated. “I’m the one who came up with the special name, after all.”
Nathan nodded. “All right, Harry, you tell it.”
Everyone was watching Caine now. If he’d bothered to open his eyes, he would have seen their smiles.
Caine was having difficulty holding onto his patience. “And what is her special nickname, Harry?” he finally asked, his tone weary.
“Well now, me boy,” Harry drawled out. “We like to call her Pagan.”
Chapter Twelve
He didn’t take the news at all well. For the longest time, he simply refused to believe Jade could possibly be Pagan. Only a man could get away with such daring feats, only a man.
Colin, Harry, and Nathan were all watching him closely. When he shook his head in denial, they nodded in unison.
“I can see you’re having trouble accepting this,” Colin said. His expression was sympathetic. “But it is true, Caine. Harry gave her that nickname years ago because . . .”
“I’ll be telling it,” Harry interrupted. “It was the color of her hair, son. As red as hell’s fire it was when she was a youngster.”
It was apparent from the look on Caine’s face that he still didn’t accept. Harry thought he didn’t understand the reason for her special nickname. “She was as wild as the devil back then, too,” he explained. “Just like a pagan baby, she was.”
Caine’s expression slowly turned from disbelief to fury. Both Colin and Harry became uneasy. Only Nathan seemed to be enjoying the moment. “Would a man be apt to leave a rose behind, Caine?” he asked, hoping to rub salt in his wounds. “That’s the work of a woman. It’s amazing to me that no one’s figured it out by now. Don’t you agree, Colin?”
“Yes,” Colin answered, his gaze directed on his brother. “Amazing.”
It was the last remark anyone made for a long while. Harry and Nathan waited for Caine to come to terms with the truth.
Colin knew his brother far better than his friends did. He patiently waited for the explosion.
Jade was in the dining room helping Sterns set the table. As soon as the butler took one look at her face, he knew something was wrong. She looked as pale as the linen tablecloth.
She wouldn’t tell him anything but explained that her uncle had arrived and that he and his four men would require supper before they left. She also insisted upon using the finest crystal. Sterns went into the kitchens to order the meal, throwing both the cook and her assistant, Bernice, into a frenzy, and then returned to the dining room.
He found Jade examining a large oval silver platter. “Uncle would like this,” she remarked. “The design is quite magnificent.”
Sterns nodded. “A gift from the King,” he explained. “When the Marquess was knighted, Colin threw quite a bash in his honor. The King showed up and gave him that platter. If you turn it over, you’ll see the inscription.”
Jade shook her head. She thrust the platter into Sterns’ hands. “Hide it.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Hide it, Sterns,” she repeated. She looked around the room, then asked, “Are there any other special things Caine would rather keep?”
“The silver tea set on the side bar,” he said. “I do believe it has special meaning to mi’lord.”
“Did the King give him that, too?”
“No, the set came from his grandmother.”
“Hide it as well, Sterns. Put the things under Caine’s bed. They’ll be safe there.”
“Mi’lady?” Sterns asked. “Are you feeling ill?”
“No.”
“You look ill,” Sterns announced. “And you’re walking around as though you’re in a trance. I know something’s wrong . . .”
Jade walked over to the door, then turned back to Sterns. “You have been very kind to me, sir. I will always remember that.”
Sterns looked startled. Jade was about to close the door behind her when Caine’s command reached her.
“Jad
e!”
The bellow made the crystal goblets rattle. Jade showed no reaction to the summons, but Sterns jumped a foot.
“I believe your employer has just heard some distressing news,” she said. “I had hoped that my uncle would wait . . . it doesn’t matter.”
Sterns followed her into the entrance. When she started up the stairs, he called out to her. “I believe mi’lord would like you to go to him, Lady Jade.”
She continued up the stairs. “I would be happy to stand by your side,” he promised. “I know his temper can be frightening at times.”
Sterns waited until she was out of sight, then rushed inside the drawing room.
The butler had difficulty maintaining his steely composure when he spotted Colin. “My God, is that you, Colin?” he stammered out.
“Hello, Sterns,” Colin said. “It’s good to see you again. Are you still ordering your lord around?”
Sterns was slow to recover. “I give it my best,” he whispered.
“Is this one a servant, Caine?” Harry asked.
“He’s a dictator, not a servant,” Colin announced with a grin.
Sterns turned to the older man with the obvious poor eyesight. He tried not to gape.
“Is me supper ready yet?” Harry bellowed.
Sterns decided this one had to be Jade’s uncle. The stranger sitting next to Colin was too young. “It is almost ready,” he told him before finally turning to Caine. “I must speak to you at once in the foyer, mi’lord. It is a most important matter.”
“Not now, Sterns,” Caine said, his tone weary. “Talk to me later.”
“Perhaps you didn’t hear me,” Sterns countered. “There is a problem that must be resolved immediately. It concerns Lady Jade.”
Caine wasn’t at all surprised. “What’s she burning now? The kitchens?”
“Mi’lord, this isn’t the time for jests,” the butler snapped.
“Do I look like I’m jesting, Sterns?”
The butler folded his arms across his chest. “Lady Jade isn’t burning anything at the moment,” he said. “She’s leaving.”
That announcement got just the reaction Sterns was hoping for. He moved out of his lord’s way when he bounded to his feet, and nodded with satisfaction when Caine roared, “The hell she is!”
The butler waited until his employer had left the room, then turned back to Jade’s uncle. “Dinner will be served in just a moment,” he announced, his haughty tone of voice fully restored.
Caine took the stairs two at a time. His heart was pounding. The thought of her leaving him was untenable. For the first time in his life, he was in a panic. He didn’t like the feeling at all.
As soon as he threw the door open to her bedroom, he saw her. The panic left in a rush. He slammed the door shut behind him and leaned against it.
He took a deep breath to try to calm himself. She was pretending he wasn’t there. She stood by the side of the bed, folding a gold-colored gown. Her satchel was open and nearly filled to the top.
“You might as well quit packing,” he said, amazed that his voice sounded so forceful. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
Jade turned to confront him. She was determined to give him a piece of her mind before taking her leave, but when she caught his expression, her heart fell to her stomach and she couldn’t remember any of the words she wanted to say to him.
He was so furious, the muscle in the side of his jaw flexed. She stared at it in fascination while she tried to find her courage again.
“I’m never going to let you leave me, Jade,” he said. “Never. Do you hear me?”
She thought everyone in the village was hearing him. Her ear rang from his roar. It took all her strength to stand up to him. She slowly shook her head. “You called me a whore,” she whispered.
The anguish in her voice got through to him. Some of his anger eased away. “No, I did not call you a whore.”
“You thought it,” she countered. “You were about to shout it to the world.”
“I wasn’t,” he returned. “Jade, we have more important issues to discuss now.”
She let out a gasp. “More important than calling me a whore?”
He moved away from the door and started toward her. She immediately backed up a space. “Don’t come near me. I never want you to touch me again.”
“Then you’re going to be damned miserable for the rest of your days, Jade. I’m going to be touching you all the time.”
“You don’t really want me,” she shouted. “You want the vulnerable, weak woman I pretended to be, Caine. You don’t know the real me. No, you don’t,” she continued when he shook his head at her. “I’m really very strong, determined, too. I just pretended to need you, you daft man, so that you would feel honor bound to stay by my side. I used all the ploys a weak woman would use, too. Yes, I did! I complained at every opportunity, and I wept whenever I needed to get my way.”
He grabbed hold of her and jerked her up against him. “I’m leaving,” she cried out. “Can’t you get that through your thick . . .”
“You’re staying.”
“I hate you,” she whispered before she burst into tears.
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “No, you don’t hate me,” he whispered.
“I hate everything about you,” she wailed between racking sobs. “But most of all I hate the way you contradict me.”
“Jade?”
“What?”
“Are your tears a pretense now?”
She couldn’t quit crying long enough to give him a clear answer. “They most certainly are,” she stammered out. “I never, ever cry,” she added a moment later. “Only weak women cry.”
“But you’re not weak, are you, love?” he asked. His smile was gentle, his voice as well, but his grip continued to be as strong as iron, even after she quit her struggle to get away from him.
He wanted to hold her in his arms for the rest of his days. “Jade?”
“What now?”
“I love you.”
She didn’t respond to his vow, but started trembling. He knew he was terrifying her. “You’re the most confusing woman,” he whispered on a sigh. “God help me, I do love you, though.”
“I won’t love you,” she stammered out. “I don’t even like you. I won’t trust you either.” She ended her list of what she wouldn’t do with a loud hiccup.
Caine wasn’t the least upset by her denials. “I love you,” he said again. “Now and forever.”
He was content to hold her while she wept. Lord, she did have a store of tears locked inside her.
They must have stood there a full ten minutes before she was able to regain her composure.
She wiped her cheeks on the lapels of his jacket, then pulled away from him. “You’d better go back downstairs,” she whispered.
“Not without you,” he countered.
“No,” she replied. “Nathan and Harry would know I’d been crying. I’m staying here.”
“Jade, you can’t put off . . .” He stopped in midsentence, then asked, “Why does it matter if they know you’ve been crying or not?”
“I wouldn’t be what they expect me to be if I cried,” she answered.
“Try to explain what you meant by that remark?” he asked gently.
She gave him a disgruntled look. “Appearances have to be kept up, Caine.”
She walked over to the bed and sat down. “I don’t want to talk about this.” She let out a sigh, then added, “Oh, very well. I’ll meet you downstairs . . .”
He was shaking his head at her. “I’ll wait for you.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No.”
He waited for her temper to explode. She surprised him, however, when she merely shrugged. “Good,” she said. “Don’t trust me, Caine. I’m going to leave at the first opportunity. I won’t stay here and wait for you to leave me. I’m not a fool.”
He finally understood. She couldn’t hide her fear or her vulnerabilit
y from him now. “And you’re absolutely certain I would leave you, aren’t you, Jade?”
“Of course.”
She replied with such candor that he wasn’t certain how to proceed. “Even though I’ve just told you that I love you, you still . . .”
“Nathan and Harry love me, too,” she interjected.
Caine gave up trying to reason with her now, guessing it would do his cause little good. He decided he’d have to wait and find another way around her shields.
Caine suddenly wanted to go downstairs and kill both Nathan and Harry. He sighed instead. He couldn’t undo the past for her. No, he could only give her a secure, safe future.
“I would never abandon . . .” he stopped himself, then said, “Very well, Jade. You may leave me whenever you want.”
Her eyes widened over that announcement. She looked like she was going to start weeping again, too. Caine felt like an ogre. “Any time you want to leave, do so.”
She turned her gaze to her lap. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he drawled out. He walked over to her, pulled her to her feet, then tilted her head up. “Just one other little detail,” he added.
“Yes?”
“Every time you leave, I’m going to come after you. There isn’t any place you can hide, Jade. I’ll find you and drag you back here. This is where you belong.”
She tried to push his hand away from her chin. “You’d never find me,” she whispered.
He could hear the panic in her voice. Caine leaned down and kissed her. He missed her mouth completely when she jerked away from him, then captured her soft lips by cupping the sides of her face and holding her still.
His tongue took possession then. He growled low in his throat when she pinched him, then deepened the kiss. Her tongue finally rubbed against his own, her resistance spent. She wrapped her arms around his waist and melted against him.
“I love you,” he told her again after he’d lifted his head away from her.
She promptly burst into tears again. “Are you going to do that every damned time I tell you I love you?” he demanded.
He was more amused than exasperated with her. She shook her head. “You don’t understand yet,” she whispered. “It hasn’t settled in, Caine.”