Charlotte worked at the knot in the silk neckcloth whenever Henry Winchester had his back turned. The office building blocked them from view of the main house and yard, where the guests milled, and the pistol he had tucked under his belt kept her from crying out.
“Your families ruined the Winchesters, and you’re all going to pay, starting with you.”
Not only did Henry have an edge of insanity in his voice, he looked as though he had been out in the wilderness, chased by animals for months. And the fact he’d had to bring one of Ned’s neckcloths to tie her to one of the porch posts while he dug for something in the small garden meant he had not planned this. He was acting on emotion, not intellect.
“I planned everything. My brother did not trust me. He did not believe I could make plans and follow through with them. He believed he was better than everyone else and smarter than everyone else. I’ll show him that I can make a plan and follow through with it.” He kept muttering to himself as he dug.
She almost had the knot loose.
“What are you doing?” He jumped to his feet and tightened the knot at her wrists, as well as the one around the beam. “I will kill you, Charlotte. You could have married me, but instead you chose to jilt me for who? For a sailor, a nobody.”
A biting retort readied itself on Charlotte’s tongue, but then she thought of the baby. Th at one thought was what had made her walk calmly out of the house with Henry, had made her stay quiet and not call out when he led her down to the office and around behind it. She had to do whatever it took to save herself so she could protect her child. And that meant not inciting Henry to do anything worse than he had already done.
He knelt, picked up the spade, and started digging again. “This was my garden. She thought she was so clever, making the steward keep his own garden and cook his own food instead of eating in the big house like Jeremiah. He’s not worthy to walk in my footprints. Why should I want to eat at the big house with the likes of him?”
Charlotte started working on the knot again.
This time the more vigorously Henry dug, the more he babbled. About his brother. About Jeremiah. About Julia. About his mother and sisters.
She could move her hand—oh, yes! Her right hand slid free from confinement. The cloth fell away just as Henry’s spade hit something hard.
Charlotte wrapped her hands in the cloth to make it look as though she were still tied up. Hopefully he would not notice how loose her binding was now.
He pulled a small iron lockbox out of the hole he’d dug under the corner of the porch. Taking a key from his pocket, he opened the box.
Inside was more money than Charlotte had ever seen in one place.
“Ten thousand pounds,” Henry murmured. “All mine. Now I don’t have to share with Arthur. He never shared anything with me. Made me look the fool in front of Julia Witherington.” He looked around, wild-eyed. “They can’t know I have it. They’ll keep chasing me. They’ll never stop chasing me.”
“You should fill up the hole, Henry. Fill it up, and they won’t know you came and got the money.”
He set the box on the edge of the porch and bent down to push the large pile of soil back in the hole.
She had one chance—only one. Swiftly, she released her hands from the neckcloth, picked up the chest, and dropped it on his head.
Pregnancy may have made her sick, dizzy, tired, and off-balance, but it had done nothing to disturb her aim. She rolled Henry over so he would not suffocate in the dirt—she made sure he was still breathing—and then she took the gun from his belt and ran back to the main house.
Three lieutenants ran toward her. “Mrs. Cochrane, we’ve been looking for you.”
“There’s a man behind the office building. Take him into custody. Where is Captain Cochrane?”
“He went down toward the lagoon, ma’am.”
Charlotte handed him the gun and then ran through the confused crowd on the lawn and toward the wide path cut between the sugar cane that led to the secluded lagoon.
“Ned!” Her stomach made her sorry for the large breakfast she’d eaten. She slowed and took deep breaths to try to control the nausea. “Ned!”
“Charlotte?”
Relieved to hear his voice, she bent over and braced her hands on her knees, gasping for air. Ned swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the house. He sat on their bed, holding her, rocking her back and forth. “I thought I’d lost you again.”
“It was Henry Winchester. I sent some of O’Rourke’s lieutenants to arrest him.” She told him what had happened.
“Ned, before we buy that little sugar plantation, can we make sure that there are no more Winchester brothers?” She buried her head in the crook of his neck.
“I’ll make that my mission. That, and protecting you and our child. I want to make sure we have a very long life together.”
“Good. Because I’ve decided that if we’re going to become sugar planters, we’re going to need a big family to run the place.” She kissed the side of his neck. “A big family.”
Julia Ransome lay in her husband’s arms, admiring the pattern the moonlight made through the billowing lace curtains.
“How can I ever leave you again after what happened today?” William’s breath tickled the back of her neck.
She pulled his arm farther around her and snuggled her back into his chest. “Henry Winchester has been apprehended. He will be charged with piracy. And then we know what happens after that. There is nothing more to worry about.”
“I will resign my commission. Tomorrow. I can tell your father before we go back into Kingston. I never have to leave you again.” He pulled her closer and kissed her neck, her shoulder. “If I love you, how can I leave you?”
“I need to show you something.” Julia untangled herself from him and the covers and got out of the bed. She lit a candle and crossed to the bookcase beside the fireplace. She pulled two volumes off the shelf and brought them back to the bed with her. Sitting cross-legged, facing him, she handed him the candle and opened the older book.
William looked down at the handwritten page. “What is it?”
“This is a journal my mother kept. I’ve found dozens of them, going back to when she was a young bride and her dashing Royal Navy captain was called out to sea. She filled book after book with love letters to my father. Love letters that he has given me permission to read so that I can understand who my mother was and how much she loved my father and Michael and me.”
She pulled that book from his hand and put the newer one in it, opened to the first page. “I’d like you to read that to me.”
He turned the journal so the light shone better on its page and began reading.
My darling William,
To carry on a tradition started by my mother, I am writing these letters not only to recount the daily events at Tierra Dulce but also as an expression of my deep love for you. As a way of holding you near to my heart while duty keeps you far away. As a way of telling you that no matter how far apart we are, we will always be together because we are in each other’s hearts…
“I cannot write dozens of journals full of love letters to you if you are here all the time.”
“You’re daft, woman. Do you realize that?” He closed the book, snuffed the candle, and pulled her back into his arms. “When I became an officer in the Royal Navy, I did it because I wanted to protect my country and fight for my king. But I don’t think that’s as important now as protecting my family and my home. And I need to be here to do that.”
“William, if you were not a naval officer, you would not have been able to protect me—to come after me, to attack Shaw. That threat is over, but there are others out there. Foreign invaders who could attack our country, pirates and privateers who could attack our livelihood. Your mission has not changed. You still fight for king and country. It’s only your quest that has changed.”
“My quest? So I am now a knight errant on a quest for his lady love?”
“If you like. Before, your quest has been to win battles and fight for promotion and prize money. Now, your mission is the same, but you have only one quest.” She twined her fingers through his.
“And what is that, my lady love?”
“Your quest is to return home safely to me at the end of every mission.” She turned to look at him, the moonlight bathing his beloved face in a soft glow.
“I love you, Julia Ransome.” He kissed her until she could no longer think about pirates and missions and quests but until only one thought formed coherently in her mind.
“I love you, William Ransome.”