The pain in Lynna’s head was steady, throbbing with each beat of her heart. She wished the bed would stop its constant swaying for she was beginning to feel nauseous. Becoming slowly aware of her surroundings, she noticed sunlight filtering through a small round hole in the wall.
A porthole. She was on a ship. But how could that be? She had no knowledge of coming onboard. How did Joshua manage to bring her on the Windjammer without her knowledge? Forcing her eyes open, she glanced around the filthy, sparsely appointed cabin. No, she definitely wasn’t on the Windjammer.
Had she been abducted? Had the kidnappers finally found her after all these years? Of course. It had to be the villains from France. She had not dwelled on that horror for years, believing that they had long since forgotten about her. Alas, they had finally discovered her hiding place and succeeded in holding her for ransom. She choked back a sob when the thought crossed her mind that at least her kidnapping might gain her father’s attention after all these years.
Suddenly all of the horror stories that she had heard of women being abducted by pirates came back to haunt her as she lay on the hard, smelly bunk, her head throbbing with each beat of her heart. How did they get her on the ship without her being aware of it? She prayed that no harm had come to Michael and Crystal, that they had somehow escaped this nightmare. Running to the door she found it locked. “Open this door!” she yelled to the top of her lungs. “I demand to see the Captain!” When no answer was forthcoming, she fell down on the bunk crying tears of abject misery.
Hours later, her throat raw from screaming, she at last heard keys rattle against the door and jumped out of the way before it was thrown open to bang loudly against the wall.
“While I am not the Captain, I can answer any questions that you might have.”
“Michael!” she cried in horror. A strong sense of dread seeped through every pore in her body as her husband sauntered in. “Why am I on this vile ship? Where is Crystal?”
Michael strode casually into the cabin, holding up his hand to quiet her. “Let me start by answering the most obvious question. Why you are here?” He sat down on the bunk, brushing away a cockroach from the spread. “I thought it best to drug you.”
“Drug me? That’s why I have no memory. But why? Where are you taking me?” she whispered, apprehension taking a stranglehold on her. The fact that she had been drugged and taken against her will was of little consequence now. What mattered was finding a way off this wretched ship.
“We are going to live on another island,” he replied calmly, moving to gaze out the porthole. “This latest turn of events necessitated our hasty departure from Jamaica.”
“Michael, I must insist that you return me to Jamaica at once. You have no right to keep me here against my will.”
“Oh, but I do.” His eyes were forged of steel as he glared at her. “You forget, Madame, that you are my wife and as such must go wherever I see fit to take you.”
“Michael, why are you doing this?” she cried, more terrified than she could ever remember being. “I don’t understand. Why are you leaving your home?”
“My home!” he spat venomously. “It would have been if that old fool Morrison hadn’t died before I could convince him to make me sole beneficiary of Eden. I knew he had no living kin to claim the plantation. No son could have treated that feeble old man better than I did. I deserved Eden.” He gritted his teeth, slamming his fist on the table. “If I had just had a little more time with him.”
His face was a stone mask of hatred. “After his death, the plantation was sold to Captain Joshua Jordan of Charleston. I wanted to kill him the day he came riding up on a black stallion, announcing that he was the new owner of Eden.” His hand rested on the hilt of his cutlass. “But after years of plotting, and thanks solely to you, I finally conceived of a better scheme to extract my revenge.”
“And what is that?” she asked, trying to steady her quaking voice. She would discover his plan and find a way to warn Joshua. Somehow. But how? The ship was probably well out to sea by now.
Leaving the room momentarily, Michael returned with a metal box. Placing it on the table, he opened it to reveal more gold doubloons than she had ever seen. Coins that she would expect to find on a pirate ship.
Pirate ship! Suddenly it dawned on her. She was on the pirate vessel that had been seen in the harbor. Did that make her husband a buccaneer? “Michael, where did you get all those coins?”
“It is mine by rights!” he raged, coming to shake her roughly by the shoulders. “I am the one who worked and sweated this money out of the land, while the mighty Captain Jordan navigated the high seas without a care in the world, living large on my plantation profits when he never turned a hand to work for it.” A triumphant smile spread over his face. “He has a surprise awaiting him the next time he opens his safe.”
“Michael, he trusted you.” She gasped, unable to understand this startling shift in her husband. How could his personality change so drastically, almost overnight?
“That was his first mistake.” He laughed, placing the box on her lap. “We can start a new life with this, Lynna.”
“I will have no part of such deception,” she cried, rising to her feet and causing the gold coins to scatter noisily to the floor. “Please, Michael, I beg of you. Take me home.”
“Unfortunately, your wants are of little concern to me, my lady.” He sneered the last words as he bent to retrieve the coins. “You will have to accustom yourself to a vastly different way of life. The island we will call home is rather primitive compared to Jamaica. There are no magnificent plantations or doting servants.”
“Whose ship are we on?” The words trembled from Lynna’s lips.
“We sail on the ship of my brother, Sean Devereux.” He watched her face closely for a reaction. Lynna’s face registered only relief that the captain of the ship was related to her husband, even if he was a detestable pirate. “Do you not recognize the name?”
“No, the name means nothing to me. Sean Devereux…” she repeated the name to herself. “I have never…” her voice trailed off, her face taking on a deathly white pallor as she recognized the name.
Surely his words were not true.
Sean Devereux was Michael’s brother? The man rumored to be the most ruthless cutthroat of the band of pirates currently roaming the Caribbean.
They were well known and feared for attacking helpless vessels, looting coastal towns, raping, plundering, and murdering innocent victims. “Why did you bring me here, Michael?” she cried brokenly. “I mean nothing to you. You have made that abundantly clear. You never even cared enough to consummate our wedding vows.”
His answer was final, cutting through her like a knife. “I only wed you to give Crystal a mother. But the life of a pirate is no life for a child. I had one of the men take her to Cliff and Bertie. They will care for her as their own, so you need not concern yourself over her welfare.” He eyed her contemptuously. “As for why I brought you along, the answer is simple. Captain Joshua Jordan. He has always been fed anything his heart desired from a silver spoon, just for the asking. But he will not have that which he desires above all else.”
“And what is that, Michael?” Lynna held her breath, dreading his answer.
“Why you, my darling wife.” He grinned. “He desires you above all else.” Slamming the door, she heard keys rattling as he locked it behind him.
Evidently Michael had discovered Joshua, in her bed.
It was no wonder that he despised her and would make it his personal mission to see that they were never together again. He would also make certain that the remainder of her life was unbearably miserable for having cuckolded him. She threw herself on the soiled bunk pondering her dismal future as her scalding tears soaked the filthy mattress.
Chapter 32