For Love of the Earl (17 page)

"Ou est l'homme?" she said, waving the hat in the captain's face.
 

The startled captain responded in English.
 
"I do not know, madame.
 
I will speak with your husband now."
 

The captain made his way towards the door as Sarah followed.
 
Alec grabbed the back of her dress and dragged her back.
 

"I shall speak with you now, Captain," Alec said, tightening his hold on Sarah's dress when she opened her mouth to object.
 
He pulled the fabric so tightly the protest turned into an undignified squeak.
 

"I thought you would," the captain said having reached the door.
 
"You must accompany me to my quarters.
 
Alone."
 

"I'll need a moment with my wife.
 
Alone," he added harshly.
 

"Bon," the captain said and gestured to Harpoon Man.

Harpoon Man stepped forward and closed the door, but the lock was not slid into place.
 

As soon as the door was shut, Sarah rounded on him, but Alec hauled her up and kissed her before anything came out of her mouth.
 
She pushed against his shoulders, but he wasn't letting go.
 
He kissed her hard, forcing her lips open to make her an active partner in this kiss.
 
She was not going to disappear into herself now.
 
He pressed her against the wall, battling with her skirts to grab her thighs so he could pull her legs up around his waist.
 
She obliged him, wrapping her legs tightly around him, holding her up while his hand worked on the fastenings of his trousers.
 

"Alec," she said, encompassing in his name everything she wanted to ask.
 

"I'm not going to leave you, Sarah," he said against her neck, "I am never going to leave."
 

He drove into her and covered her mouth with his to capture the moan that instantly rose to her lips upon his penetration.
 
He filled her entirely with full, strong strokes, attempting to make her believe him by connecting with her in the most basic way possible.
 

He felt the growing tension in her body, felt her orgasm building.
 
Moving one hand along the line of her hip and slipping it between her legs, he touched her.
 
Sarah exploded around him.
 
She buried her face against his shoulder, but he still heard her muffled scream.
 
In that scream was her surrender.
 
Alec felt it in the way her body responded to his, collapsing onto him and holding him up at the same time, giving up, giving in, and still holding her own.
 
And he followed her, emptying himself, body and soul, into her.
 

He didn't know how long he held them there, suspended in what had just happened.
 
He didn't know how he held them up.
 
His entire body had turned to water he was sure, but his legs were solid beneath him.
 
His grip on Sarah's legs weakened though, and he let her feet drop to the floor.
 
He still held onto her, pinning her between the wall and himself to keep her upright.
 
She kept her face hidden in his shoulder as she continued to shake, from the climax or from something else he wasn't sure.
 

"Sarah?" he said, hoping to draw her out, hoping she wouldn't pretend to be invisible right then, hoping that she wouldn't pretend she didn't exist, not when he had stated, in the most carnal way he knew how, how much he loved her and how he was not going to leave her.
 

"Come on, love," he coaxed, nudging her with a playful butt of his nose against her ear, "I need you to tell me you're all right."
 

It was not exactly what he needed to hear from her, but it would do for now.
 

Sarah's arms were around his neck, but they suddenly melted, sliding down his chest.
 
He thought she was going to withdraw physically from him, but instead her arms slipped around his waist, and she snuggled closer to him.
 
Her back came away from the wall, and he was able to get his arms all the way around her.
 

"I'm all right," she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear her.
 

Alec drew in a much needed breath and reached up to tilt her face up to his.
 
He kissed her slowly, lingering in the softness of her lips.
 
He pulled away before he wanted to and fastened his trousers.
 
Sarah straightened her skirts, batting them down when the stiff material wouldn't fall back along her legs.
 

Alec waited until she was decent.
 

"All right?" he asked.
 

Sarah nodded.
 

"I'm not leaving you.
 
I just need to see why Captain Teyssier has Thatcher's hat," he said carefully, no longer brave enough to touch her.
 

Sarah looked like she might break if he so much as brushed a strand of her golden hair behind her ear.
 
So he turned around and opened the door.
 
The captain lounged against the opposite wall, his perfect hair contrasting sharply with his unshaven chin and dirty hands.
 
Harpoon Man wasn't much better looking, and for the first time, Alec worried about leaving Sarah for reasons other than her fears.
 

He might seriously never make it back to this prison.
 

He might never make it back to his wife.
 

And if that were to happen, there was something she needed to know.
 

With his hand still on the doorknob, Alec turned partway, so that he could see Sarah standing dazed in the swinging lantern light.
 
She looked small and utterly alone.
 
His heart constricted even as he knew he was doing the right thing.
 
He had to find out what had happened to Thatcher.
 
Not for the War Office.
 
Not for any strategy against Napoleon.
 
But because Thatcher was his friend, and he was not going to let any harm come to him if he could prevent it.
   

So he was going to have to leave Sarah all alone in their prison.
 

But first he would give her something to think about, so she wouldn't think about him leaving.
 

"Sarah?" he asked, getting her attention even though she was already looking at him.
 
"The first time we met?
 
It wasn't on our wedding day."
 

He didn't wait for her reaction.
 

He closed the door between them.
     

~

Alec experienced an instantaneous need to be sick upon entering the captain's quarters.
 
Teyssier obviously lied when he had said his accommodations were better than the berth into which he had tossed Alec and Sarah.
   

The room smelled like old cheese and human filth.
 
There were clothes tossed here and there.
 
Plates of half eaten food festered on various flat surfaces.
 
The bedclothes dripped lazily to the floor from the bunk.
 
Wadded pieces of parchment and newsprint littered the floor .
 
And a chamber pot in the corner was dangerously close to spilling its contents everywhere.
 
If he did not feel such a need to help his friend if his friend indeed needed helping, he would have left immediately and returned to the slightly more desirable conditions of the prison he shared with his wife.
 
At least, Sarah was there, and he very much wanted to be with her just then.

He had made love to her.
 

Again.
 

For only the second time.
 

He needed to get back to her.

But Teyssier entered the room close behind him, and he was forced to take a step further into the mess before him.
 

"A chair, perhaps?" Teyssier said, unearthing one from a pile of dirty linens.
 

It was a standard wooden affair and did not outwardly appear to contain any food particles or fecal matter as it were.
 
So Alec sat in it, keeping his back straight, not touching the back of the chair for fear his visual inspection was inaccurate.

Teyssier moved behind the table that took up the center of the room and which consisted of most of the plates of half eaten food.
 
Alec swallowed as the captain rummaged through the plates, finding one that seemed to suit him, pulling it from the pile and settling in to begin eating the remains of whatever it was.
 
Alec closed his eyes briefly and thought only of Sarah.

Thatcher was their only hope for getting out of this before the ship left the port for France.
 
Once they were in the Channel, the chances of being rescued dropped significantly.
 
He couldn't fail Sarah.
 
She would never let him live with that failure and worse, neither would he.
 
He opened his eyes.

"I believe you brought me here to discuss that particular hat," Alec said, pointing to the garment in question, which now lay on the table beside the captain.

The captain spoke around the wad of food in his mouth.
 

"There appears to have been a commotion in the port.
 
I wish you to explain to me what it is about."
 

Alec shrugged.
 

"I've been on this ship with you and your lovely companions.
 
What would I know of a disturbance in port?"

Teyssier set down the plate of food and wiped his hands on his trousers.
 

"There appears to have been two people involved.
 
The gentleman wearing this hat."
 
Here he picked up Thatcher's hat.
 
"And a rather, what is the word?
 
I believe it to say
remarkable
lady."

Lady Cavanaugh.
 
That could be the only other woman who would be in Dover and assisting Thatcher.
 
But what did that mean?
 
Thatcher should have been on his way to London to fetch the entire War Office if he needed to.
 
Why was he still in Dover?
 
And why was he with Lady Cavanaugh?

Teyssier watched him, and Alec gave no indication that any of this meant anything to him.

"The gentleman, he had an accent."
 
Teyssier smiled showing his teeth.
 
"Not one as refined as mine, but an accent, n'cest pas?"

Alec did not agree or disagree.

"They say he is from the Colonies.
 
I do not know what this may mean.
 
A gentleman from the Colonies helping the British?
 
It does not seem to fit.
 
You care to explain?"
 

Alec cared to do no such thing and so did nothing.
 

Teyssier continued.

"The gentleman, he follow your abductor, the one with the absurd gold teeth.
 
He follow through the port and attempt to board the same ship he did.
 
You know about this?"
 

Alec grew tired of all of the questions he could not possibly answer.
 

"I think it best to get to the rest of the story, Captain.
 
I know nothing of which you speak, and I have nothing to add in commentary."
 

Teyssier shrugged.

"I do not know if that is truth.
 
You could be lying.
 
Is this gentleman a part of your plan?
 
Clearly, you recognize the hat.
 
You must know something or you would still be with your cherie."
 

Alec made no motion at the mention of Sarah but said, "What plan?"
 

Teyssier picked up the hat again, running the brim between his fingers.

"Allow me to tell you what it is I think," Teyssier said, and Alec wanted to roll his eyes in relief.
 

If the captain would just talk, he could learn what had happened with Thatcher and get back to Sarah.

"This gentleman, he wait in port to rescue you, only he is not sure where you are.
 
So he follows the last person he saw you with and tries to get information.
 
He needs this information in order to bring help.
 
To bring people to save you.
 
When he is stopped, he flees.
 
And the plan to rescue you does not work."

The captain paused, and Alec did not so much as blink.
 
Thatcher had fled.
 
But did he make it out of Dover?

"But that may not be what all that happened.
 
This gentleman from the Colonies.
 
He may just be a ruse.
 
A distraction.
 
A lie?
 
He may be keeping us from the real truth, n'cest pas?"
 

Alec did not speak.

"I do not like surprises, mon ami, and it will serve you well to tell me the truth of things now.
 
We will be underway shortly, and things can only grow more uncomfortable for you."

Alec's mind flashed to Sarah alone in the berth, and he felt a cold tickle of dread move down his spine.
 
She would be all right.
 
He would get back to her.
 
He would save them both, and everything would be all right in the end.