Gold (43 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

“Barry,” she whispered. She backed toward the
window.

Barry took a step toward her. He said nothing and in the darkness she couldn
’t see his face.

A prickle of excitement ran along her arms
even though she told herself she must get him out of the bedroom. It was too early, too soon. Selena
drew her robe together and started for the door
just as Barry came into the room toward her. She m
oved quickly to one side. Only when she saw it
looming beside her did she realize she’d stepped
toward the Louis XIV bed.

Barry reached for her but she held him off, put
ting her hands against his chest.

“
Good heavens, Captain Fitzpatrick,” she said.
“I thought you had scruples about entering a
lady’s bedroom.” The huskiness in her voice belied
the light note she’d intended.

He grasped her wrists and brought her hands
down to her sides. For a moment he stood facing
her, not moving, with his chest lightly touching
her breasts, and then his lips brushed her lips.
Even though she turned her head away, his lips
found hers. She hesitated, then kissed him. As the
kiss lengthened, a tingling coursed through her body. She knew she was seducing him and she
knew why she was doing it. But the knowledge of
her ulterior motive didn’t interfere with her enraptured response.

She kissed him hungrily and heard him draw in
his breath. His hands came up along her sides to
her breasts. His mouth nuzzled her throat as he
nipped her flesh with his teeth. When the tip of
his tongue explored the convolutions of her ear,
Selena gasped with surprise and pleasure.

“
Barry!” she whispered urgently.

He tried to cover her lips with his.

“No, wait. Stop. I heard a sound. Like a car
riage in the street.”

She stood frozen in his arms, listening.

“I hear nothing,” he said.

“
I’m sure I did. It must be Pamela back from the church. And you left your rig outside.”

Reluctantly, he released her.
“I’ll see,” he said.
He stopped at the door and came back, kissing her
quickly. She clung to him. Again he turned from
her and she heard his footsteps on the stairs.

She looked from the window. Still nothing.
How much longer would Danny wait? She sighed,
the taste of Barry’s kisses still on her lips, the ex
citement still smoldering within her. How much
longer could she delay him?

When Barry returned to the house, he lit a
candle in the parlor, holding it in front of him as
he climbed the stairs. He pushed open the door to
Selena’s bedroom. Where was she? Seeing the drawn curtains on the Louis XIV bed, he smiled
to himself. He found the rope next to the wall and
pulled its tasseled end.

The curtains parted to reveal an empty bed.

“Damn,” he said.
Shielding the candle flame with one hand, he
walked into the hallway. Outside he heard the
hoot of an owl and a board creaked somewhere be
low him. He descended the stairs, pausing at the
bottom when he saw a light in the rear of the
house.

When he came to the open kitchen door he
stopped and stared. Selena sat at the table with her back to him. “What in the name of hell are
you doing?” he asked her.

She looked over her shoulder at him.
“I was
hungry, Barry. I haven’t had a morsel of food
since morning. This is cold oatmeal. I love cold
oatmeal.” She raised a spoonful to her mouth.
“Would you like a dish?”

“
Don’t you want to know if that was Pamela coming back?”

“
I can see it wasn’t. It must have been the Mar
rows next door. Would you like something else if
you don’t want any oatmeal? Tea? Perhaps a
brandy?”

He shook his head as he watched her eat an
other spoonful of the oatmeal. “It’s very good,”
she said. “Maria made it this morning.”
He came around the table and his stare made
her look down at her French robe, which had
gaped open. She pulled the thin silk together at
her throat.

When she had eaten the last of the oatmeal,
Selena walked to the larder in the pantry. “I’m
still hungry,” she said.

Barry came up behind her and before she realized what he intended scooped her into his arms.
“So am I,” he said. “But not for food.” He carried
her through the house and up the stairs.

“
Your rig,” she said.

“
I put the rig where no one will see it.”

He kicked open the door to her bedroom.

“Pamela’s late now. She’ll be home any mo
ment.”

“
We’ll lock your door. She’ll never know I’m
here.”

“
You think of everything, don’t you?” she
purred, smiling to herself. Not quite everything,
Captain Fitzpatrick, she thought.

He dropped her on the bed, tugging at the sash
around her waist, freeing it, parting the negligee
and exposing her breasts. Peeling the silk robe
from her arms, he yanked it away. He gathered
her naked body into his arms and she felt his
clothing on her body, tantalizingly harsh. She
writhed against him, pulling him close while she
fumbled at his clothes.

When at last he was naked, he knelt above her,
poised, waiting. She raised her mouth to his, only
their lips meeting. Then his arms drew her up
wards to him.

She felt him against her, his seeking hands, hot
against her legs. She moaned, the trembling be
ginning deep inside her, gathering force. Gently he
lowered her back to the bed and, kissing her with ever increasing hunger, got onto the bed with her. She cried out. He groaned with the pleasure of it.
And then . . .

One side of the bed collapsed, tumbling them in
a heap against the wall.

Selena giggled. The giggle grew, turned into a
laugh and she laughed until tears ran down her
face.

Barry scrambled out of the bed, went to the
dresser and lit a candle. When he returned, Se
lena, quiet now, was lying in the crevice between
bed and wall with her fingers laced behind her
head.

“
Oh, Barry,” she said.

“
I’ll see if I can repair the damage.” He put the
candle holder on the floor and peered under the
bed.

Selena sat up.
“No, Barry, you don’t have to.”
Alarm crept into her voice.

“
What in God’s name is this under here?” he
demanded.

***

Danny heard the crackle of flames, a series
of loud pops, and then a thunderous roar. He
watched a rocket streak into the sky to burst in a
star-like explosion over the bay.

My God, he thought, we
’ll have the whole city
here. I didn’t know there would be rockets.

“
What’s that?” The voice came from the deck
above him.
“Fire,” he called back. He put as much alarm
into his voice as he could. “Fire! Down along the
docks!”

He heard more questioning voices from the
Argonaut.
This was a critical moment, he knew,
the first of many. Would the five guards leave their
posts on board the ship? He had assumed they
had been ordered not to. There was no way he
could be sure.

“
It’s the Chinaman’s warehouse,” one of the
guards said. “He must have fireworks stored in
there.”

Another explosion rocked the dock area. Good
old Charlie Sung, Danny thought. And Pamela, since the money, after all, was hers. He saw that
the curiosity seekers on the street had left to hurry
to the fire. When Danny glanced covertly up at
the ship, all five guards were ranged along the rail.

All right, Mac, he thought, it
’s up to you.

At the sound of the first explosion three men
had slipped out of the shadows of a warehouse
adjacent to the ship’s starboard side. Abe Greene
led the way, a spade over his shoulder. McSweeney
came next, a sledgehammer gripped in both
hands. Jed followed. All three carried coils of
rope looped to their belts.

When Abe came to the first of the pine supports
propping up the ship on the bay side, he dug furiously in the loose earth next to it. Each of the
four-by-fours, he discovered, was buried a foot or
more in the soggy ground and toed against a
stake. After a few minutes Abe had bared the
base of the timber and moved on to
the next.

Positioning himself, McSweeney swung the
sledgehammer and struck the first post near its
base. The timber shifted an inch at the most. He swung again. Another few inches. McSweeney raised the hammer a third time, swung in a great
arc, the sledge thudding against the wood and
sending the timber bursting from the ground. Mud
spattered him. He ignored it.

As McSweeney moved on, Jed grasped the
loosened post in both of his huge hands. He
shifted from side to side. The timber was still
spiked to the ship’s side. Grunting, he swung it
back and forth like a pendulum, twisting it in his
hands. The timber came free. Jed let it fall to the
ground.

Before he went on, Jed glanced up at the dark
deck of the ship. He saw no one. Through the rigging the sky glowed a dull orange and from a dis
tance came the pop-pop-pop of fireworks. A
rocket rose in a red arc and erupted over the city.

Abe and Mac worked their way along until
they had dislodged all eight of the timbers. Jed
wrenched each from the side of the ship save the
two in the center. These he purposely left spiked
on.

“
Get back,” McSweeney warned. The three
men trotted away from the ship. When they
reached the warehouse, McSweeney took a pistol
and fired three times into the air. They waited. Would the guards hear the shots above the sound
of exploding fireworks?

A light appeared on deck. Good, McSweeney
thought. When he fired again, they heard shouts
and saw men rushing to the railing on their side.
The three men held their breath.

“
She’s not going to topple,” Abe muttered.

“
Jed,” Mcsweeney said, thrusting the pistol
back into his belt, “
it’s up to us.” The two men ran
toward the ship, grasped the ends of the two
middle timbers and lifted them to their shoulders.

A shot came from the deck of the
Argonaut.

“
Now!” McSweeney shouted. The two men
strained forward. They felt a give. Were the spikes
pulling free? No. With a shuddering wrench the ship slowly began to fall toward them.

“
Here she comes!” McSweeney shouted.

They dropped the timbers and, amid cries and
curses from the ship, ran. The dark form of the
Argonaut plunged at them as they scrambled back
against the side of the warehouse. With a great
crash the ship hit the ground.

“
Now remember,” McSweeney said, “there’s
five of them.”

They charged ahead, guided by the curses and shouts of the guards. They found four of them at
once, either stunned or lying injured so that they gave no more than token resistance. With their
ropes, they tied and gagged all four. But the fifth
man was nowhere to be found.