A Gentleman By Any Other Name (30 page)

Julia frowned, then tried to concentrate. There was still fighting farther along the track, but there was no more shouting, no more gunshots. Just the sound of metal against metal and, more than once, a scream that chilled her to the bone.

Then a new sound came to her ears, from across the water, and she flinched. Rumble after rumble following hard on each other. She looked to Ainsley, gripping his hand tightly.

“Four pounders. That's the
Respite.
”

Julia clapped her hands to her mouth. “Oh, God.”

There were more rumbles.

“Ah, not the
Respite.
But only three pounders, I'd say, and not fired in tight precision. Brute force and threats may have worked when we were not yet joined in the battle, but they'll have to do better than that to best us. Come along, Julia. You have your spyglass?”

“Yes,” she said, fighting the urge to run ahead of him along the track. Chance was out there, locked in battle. But with whom? The Red Men Gang? Or the Waterguard? And did it matter?

No. It did not. What mattered was that Chance was out there…

“Can't we go closer?”

Ainsley was holding his spyglass to his eye, although it was so dark, she couldn't imagine what he expected to see. “No need. I don't know how he's done it, but he's managed to both acquire one of the Waterguard cutters and herd the Red Men toward the shore.” He chuckled softly. “Not that they can come closer. Look, Julia. Can you see? The Red Men seem to have lost their fore mast.” He pumped one fist into the air. “Fine shooting, boys!”

“What does that mean? That they lost their fore mast?”

He was once more searching the horizon with his spyglass. “It means, my dear, that even the inept Waterguard will have no trouble boarding the ship and relieving us of our problem. Ah, and there's no sign of the
Respite.
She's already drawn away offshore. Now you, Court. Show us that—Ah, and there it is. Come along, my dear, or else Chance will have beaten us back to Becket Hall. I don't think he'd be best pleased to know I've brought you along tonight.”

“But what about Court and the others?”

“Court? The old hen's fears have been ill-founded, I should say. He knows his orders.”

“But aren't they still—”

“Julia, look up, into the sky. Quickly, or you'll miss it.”

She did as she was told, and saw what seemed to be a trailing ball of bright yellow fire racing toward the water. “What is that?”

“Court's signal. Had it been blue, Chance would have known to come to his aid. Yellow tells us all is secure. Two yellow would have meant secure, but with injuries. Now I suggest we return to Becket Hall before Chance beats us there and knows what we've been about.”

Julia turned away from the water and followed after Ainsley. “No injuries? But how is that possible?”

“It's not,” Ainsley told her, taking her hand as the path had become slippery with damp. “But at least we know no one is dead. The rest we'll know when Court returns.”

“And you're so calm,” Julia said, pressing him, because she had begun to shake very badly as reaction to the night's events became more real to her. His sons had been in danger, his friends, his crew, in danger. Men had died tonight, she was sure of that. “How can you be so calm?”

“Calm? Far from that, my dear.” Ainsley turned to her, just a hint of his smile visible in the dark as he said, “The first thing a man who wishes to lead others learns, Julia, is to deceive with confidence.”

J
ULIA AND
A
INSLEY RODE
together in companionable silence, Ainsley pretty much giving the old mare her head, which meant they moved along the narrow track at a slow plod. No clouds obscured the waning moon, so there was enough light to see the darker shadows, the flatter Marsh to their right, enormous grasses and wind-stunted bushes and scrub trees dividing them from any view of the Channel.

Julia, exhausted from the excitement, the worry, had begun to nod off, when Ainsley pulled the mare to a halt and cursed, not bothering to apologize this time as she looked at him curiously. He reached for the half-shuttered lantern and closed the metal door completely.

“Is something wrong? What's wrong?” she asked, then shifted on her seat to look toward the Channel, thinking she might see the
Respite
on its way back to Becket Hall. But all she saw was wild vegetation and darkness. So she looked right, over the flat expanse of the Marsh, and sharply drew in her breath at the shadowy sight of a small group of horsemen silhouetted against the horizon. “Lieutenant Diamond?”

“I think so, yes. Their progress is too orderly to be the Red Men Gang,” Ainsley said, helping her down from the plank seat. “Distances can be deceiving out here, but I believe they're a good mile away.”

“They won't see us?”

“They haven't seen us yet, thank God, with this brush to our back to hide us among the shadows, so I think we're safe. Besides, he's much too intent on riding toward Becket Hall. A man on a mission, I believe. You'd think the idiot would stay where he belongs. I have to warn Chance or he'll be bringing in the
Respite
with Diamond watching him.”

“But how can you warn him?”

“The lantern. If I can just get down to the beach, into the clear, I can signal him.”

“But…but you can't do that, at least not quickly enough,” Julia told him, desperately holding on to her calm with both hands, when she felt such a strong need to scream, to cry, to deny this new danger. “I'll have to do it.” She reached for the lantern. “Quickly, sir. What's the signal?”

“Julia, I can't ask you to do this. Damn! This will teach me to be arrogant. The note was to be enough to keep him where we wanted him. I didn't set up sentries, anyone to warn Chance.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “But Chance will remember. He'll be watching and he'll remember the signal, take the
Respite
back out to deep water.”

“Yes, yes, he will, I know he will,” Julia said as she reached down between her legs to catch on to the back hem of her gown. Then she stood again, pulling the back of her skirt through her legs, tying the bunched material fast to the ribbons that hung from the high waist of her gown, as she'd seen women in Hawkhurst do when they scrubbed their floors.

“Julia, if Diamond sees you, if he catches you out while you're down there warning the
Respite
away, you'll be hanged right along with them.”

“I know that. Dear God, I know that. Please, Ainsley, the signal.” She stole another look toward the lieutenant and the troop of dragoons making their way slowly through the dark night. “Ainsley. Tell me the damn signal! Oh! I'm so sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. Open and shut the door quickly three times. Then once, holding it open to the count of three. Wait, then repeat the process until Chance returns the signal. Watch closely, as he'll only do that once, because anyone on shore will be able to see. And then he'll be gone.”

Ainsley handed her the lantern. “As soon as he answers, Julia, you are to leave the beach, come back to me. I have a way to get us back inside Becket Hall.”

“You have the key to the door under the terrace?” Julia asked before she could think to deny her knowledge.

Ainsley managed a smile. “It's a very good thing, Julia, that you've aligned yourself with us and not the good lieutenant. Now, three short, one long, repeat until Chance answers you.”

“I understand. Say a prayer, Ainsley.”

“I will if you wish, but my son has you. You're as good as a prayer. Now go.”

Keeping low, Julia slipped and slid her way through reeds, taller than her head, that slapped at her skin, stung her bare legs and cheeks as she ran. Oblivious to the scratches, some that had already drawn blood, she kept on toward the beach, no more than one hundred yards away…although it felt like miles and miles.

Out on the water, Chance stood with both hands on the wheel as he grinned at Jacko and Billy, who had been doing a little celebratory jig on deck, their elbows locked together as they swung each other in circles. “A fine example you two set for my authority,” he told them, shaking his head.

The men stopped their foolery, Jacko laying one beefy arm over the slighter Billy's shoulder. “It's wrong to feel alive, boy?” he asked, his eyes twinkling as he smiled. “And here we two were, worrying if you'd remember fore from aft.”

“Very amusing,” Chance said, looking toward the shore, because he was anxious to be back at Becket Hall. Anxious to be with Julia. “I suppose you both want me to take her out, swing her wide before we take her in. Maybe find us that Frenchie who's been hanging out there, taunting us.”

Billy pushed Jacko's arm off his shoulders and stepped forward. “Cap'n wouldn't want that.”

“No, I suppose he wouldn't. It is, after all, his ship. A man can be pretty particular about what goes on aboard his own ship. All right then, men,” he called out, “we're taking her in now. Everyone—”

Jacko hitched up his breeches. “Everyone what, son? You forget the words? Pitiful, that's what that is. Billy, I don't know what we're going to tell the cap'n. The boy is rusty, that's what it is.”

“Look to the shore, Jacko,” Chance commanded tersely, his blood running cold. “Tell me you see what I see.”

Both Jacko and Billy had already turned to squint into the night. “Jesus,” Billy whispered. “I'll fetch a lantern.”

“Yes. Do that,” Chance said quietly, then looked to Jacko. “Hand signals from now on. Pass the word, Jacko. Not another sound from anybody. Where the Christ is Billy?”

“Here,” the seaman said, returning to the deck at a run.

“Give the signal—and watch your head for the mainsail,” Chance ordered. “We're coming about now.”

“That we are—but the wrong way. Last thing we want is to get closer to shore. What are you doing, boy?”

Chance was already stripping off the black cape with one hand as he gripped the wheel tight with the other. Damn cape, all it did was get in a man's way. “Just take the helm, Jacko.
Do it.
”

Jacko sprung to, and Chance dropped to the deck, Billy already helping him out of his tight, high boots.

Billy tugged with all his might. “You think there's trouble on shore, boy?”

“I don't know, Billy, but I'm about to find out.” He got to his feet, hesitating with one hand on the rail, waiting for the
Respite
to draw a little closer to the shore. “Take her out now, Jacko, and keep her out until the crew has switched sails. Get it done before dawn, Jacko, or the
Respite
will be defenseless if the Frenchie shows up again.”

“Don't tell me my job, boy,” Jacko said. “It's not me abandoning my ship.”

“Haven't used your brain in a while, have you, Jacko?” Chance wanted to be gone, and it didn't occur to him that any awe he'd ever had of Jacko had disappeared, that he was now truly, at last, the one in command. He kept his gaze on the spot where he'd seen the signal, waiting for the
Respite
to draw closer to the shore. “Who else knows that signal, Jacko? Who else would risk his skin to give it?”

“The cap'n,” Billy said, whirling to look at Chance. “Should have known he couldn't stay out of this.” He took an evil-looking knife from his waist sash and handed it to Chance. “Go, son.”

Chance slipped the knife into his own waistband, climbed onto the railing, held on to a bit of rigging for a moment to steady himself, then dived into the inky-black water.

He broke the surface again, gasping at the cold that was so unlike the warm waters surrounding the island, then struck out for the shore and whatever he might find there, the strength of both his strokes and his fears moving him swiftly forward.

Julia had seen the signal, then left the shuttered lantern on the shingle beach before heading back through the brush and grasses, stopping only when she heard voices. She dropped to the ground, praying no one had heard her mad scrambling.

“…and so I say again, sir, what would a man be doing out alone on the Marsh in the middle of the night if it was not in aid of something nefarious.”

Lieutenant Diamond.
Julia bit her bottom lip to keep from saying the man's name aloud. He'd seen them. Ainsley had been wrong, their cover had not been sufficient, and the lieutenant had seen them.

Seen Ainsley. Not her.

“Lieutenant, I am a man of peace,” she could hear Ainsley reply evenly. “A quiet man, retired to the country with my family. But it would appear that I will have to be firm here. This is my property, Lieutenant. What I do on my property and when I choose to do it is my own prerogative. And you and your men are trespassing.”

That won't work,
Julia thought wildly.
He'll just say he's on the king's business What should I do? What should I do?

“Mr. Becket, I apologize yet again, sir,” Lieutenant Diamond said, the edge in his voice even more apparent now. “But I am about the king's business this night and I go where I go in the commission of that business. Your son would understand.”

“Really. And what, may I ask, is the king's business tonight?”

“Freebooters, sir, if you must know. If you don't already know.”

“I'll ignore the insult, as it's late and you and your men look as if you've been riding hard. But freebooters? Tonight? Really? I've heard or seen nothing. Have you caught anyone, Lieutenant?”

“My men have taken charge of quite a few of them, yes, about two miles east of here. The losers, I would think, in some falling-out among them.”

“Is that so? Then I must consider myself lucky I didn't stumble into the middle of any such bloody fracas, shouldn't I?” Ainsley said, a slight nervous tremor in his voice now, just as if the thought had terrified him. “That will teach me to drive out at night.”

“Yes, sir. To do what?”

Should I get up? Should I join them? Would that make things better or worse?
Julia didn't know what to do.

“Again, Lieutenant, I owe you no explanations. However, since I see you don't plan to go away on your own, I will give you one. I had the headache, Lieutenant. I often have the headache and I find that a solitary drive up behind this tired old mare often helps to clear my head.”

“With no accompaniment? No lanterns?”

“Beulah knows the way, and the light hurts my eyes. You will pardon me for not first alerting you when I choose to drive on my own land. Now if we're done here, shouldn't you and your men be out looking for the victors?”

“Pardon?”

“The victors, Lieutenant. You already said you've located and contained the losers.”

“Yes, sir, we did. Unfortunately anyone else has managed to elude us.”

Julia closed her eyes, sighed in relief. Courtland and the others were safe. Hopefully Chance was safe. But she and Ainsley most definitely were not. And she didn't know what to do about that.

“Which is why I've decided it necessary to search Becket Village, sir. It is possible, sir, that they've taken refuge there, putting your villagers in danger. The king's business, you see, includes protecting the safety of his subjects. Therefore, with or without your permission, sir, and much as it pains me to do so, my men and I are going to search the village.”

A village peopled only by women, children and those too old to fight or sail.
That's what Lieutenant Diamond and his men would find, Julia knew. She had to do something—anything—to keep the lieutenant here until at least the men with Courtland had made it safely back to Becket Hall.

Loosening the ribbons she'd knotted around her skirts, Julia was just about to rise—to do what, she didn't know—when a hand clapped over her mouth and Chance's face was inches from hers.

“Shh, sweetings,” he whispered, smiling into her wide eyes. “He's handling it. But even Ainsley couldn't hope to explain
you.
”

Julia pulled his hand away from her face as they lay side by side on the damp ground. “How…?”

“So helpful of you to leave the lantern behind,” he told her. “I'm only glad I got here before you martyred yourself.”

“I was not going to—listen. They're leaving.”