JAKrentz - The Pirate, The Adventurer, & The Cowboy (6 page)
Kate struggled to find another exit. "No. My husband and I talked about it a few times, but he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea. Kept saying we should wait, and then one day he was gone altogether and that sort of changed my plans." She scowled at him. "Are you going to eat all my fried plantains?"
Jared glanced down, apparently surprised to discover the inroads he had made into the stack of chips. "Sorry. Again. I seem to be saying that a lot tonight. Want some more? On the house?"
"No, thanks. I'm finally getting full." At least the overly intimate mood was broken, Kate thought in relief. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way." She stood up and reached for her purse.
Jared got slowly to his feet. "Look, if you're rushing off on account of me…"
"I'm not," she said flatly. "I'm rushing off so I can take a walk around the resort gardens. I'm supposed to be doing relaxing things. As I explained to Sharp Arnie, I've been under a lot of stress lately. I'm here to unwind. I assume it's safe to walk around at night?"
"Sure, it's safe." Jared was clearly offended. "You can even go down to the beach. The path is well lit. Just don't try to follow any of the paths that lead into the jungle or up to the castle ruins. They're not lit, and unless you know where you're going you could get lost at night."
Kate's attention was riveted instantly. "There really is a castle here?"
Jared's expression was edged with humor. "Yeah, there's really a castle. But no one is allowed up there except on guided tours. The place is crumbling to pieces and it's extremely dangerous."
"I wouldn't be able to see much at night, anyhow. But I'll certainly want to see it while I'm here."
"We schedule regular tours once a week."
Kate nodded absently, thinking it would probably be far more interesting to explore the place on her own. She had never been enamored of tour groups. "Fine."
"And you'll probably want to see about a costume for the masquerade ball the night after next," Jared added quickly as Kate turned to leave.
She halted and tilted her head inquiringly to one side. "What masquerade ball?"
"In honor of the pirate who discovered this island and built the castle," Jared explained. "The day after tomorrow is supposedly his birthday and the resort makes a big deal of it. We also use his wedding date and the date he arrived on the island and Christmas as excuses to hold the damned ball three more times during the year. The masquerades have become an institution. The guests get a kick out of them. Everyone dresses up in early nineteenth-century costumes."
"I don't have a costume."
"A lot of the regulars bring their own, but for those who don't, the gift shop rents them."
"How nice for the resort's bottom line," Kate observed.
"We try to be a little more subtle than Sharp Arnie, but the goal is similar."
"To part the tourist from his dollar? I understand. I'll check with the gift shop tomorrow. I've never been to a masquerade ball. Wouldn't want to miss anything on my vacation. I have friends at home who will expect a complete report. Good night, Mr. Hawthorne."
"Good night, Ms Inskip." He echoed her mocking formality with a courtly inclination of his head that seemed to suit him.
The
Jared stood where he was for a long moment, watching the unconsciously elegant swing of her hips as she walked out of the bar. Then with a small rueful sigh, he headed back to his stool.
"Did you dig yourself back out of that pit you were in the last time I saw you?" the colonel asked as Jared sat down.
"She didn't dump her chowder or the drink over my head, did she? Payoff time, Colonel." Jared held out his hand.
The Colonel sighed and reached into the till for a five-dollar bill, which he reluctantly dropped onto Jared's palm. "I'm not sure you really won that bet fair and square."
"Hey, you can't back out of this, pal. You bet five bucks I'd get the chowder or the drink dumped all over me, and you lost."
"But you did not precisely charm her, did you?"
Jared shrugged. "I wouldn't go that far, but I think I made some progress."
The Colonel poured a glass of whiskey and set it in front of his boss. Then he picked up a cloth and began to polish bar ware with fine precision. "I thought you said she wasn't your type."
"True." Jared took a sip of his whiskey.
"You don't usually get involved with paying guests."
"For a lot of good reasons."
"Granted. So why do I get the feeling you're about to break a few of your own rules?"
"There's something different about this one, Colonel. Something that interests me. I can't quite figure out what it is."
"A man who allows himself to get overly curious about a woman is a man headed for deep water."
"I can swim." Jared raised his glass in an ironic salute. "But as usual, you speak words of great wisdom, my friend."
"And as usual, I'll probably be ignored," the colonel said. "But you might want to watch your step around that lady. You yourself saw what happened to Sharp Arnie"
"Sharp Arnie got what he deserved. But I'll bear your warning in mind."
"Do that."
"Besides, what's the worst that can happen to me?" Jared asked with a nonchalance he didn't really feel. "She's only going to be here for a month."
"What if she doesn't go home when she's supposed to?"
"The tourists always go home, Colonel. You know that. Sooner or later they all get back on a plane and leave."
"What if that turns out to be the worst that can happen?" the Colonel asked quietly.
Jared slanted him a derisive glance. "You worried about me getting my heart broken?"
"Should I?"
"Nope. Like I said, she's definitely not my type. She just happens to interest me, that's all."
"But not seriously."
"Not a chance."
The colonel planted both hands flat on the bar and leaned forward. "Want to bet?"
"You just lost five bucks. Haven't you learned your lesson?"
"Jared, my friend, we both know you've been looking for a wife for the past couple of years. In all this time I haven't seen you get this
interested
in any of the other ladies who've caught your eye. Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to write her off as an unsuitable candidate."
"She said herself we've got nothing in common, and she's right. Take my word for it, Colonel. She'd be all wrong for the job."
"Because she's not like Gabriella?"
"You know, little Ms Spitfire Inskip isn't the only one around here with a big mouth," Jared growled. He was about to change the subject when a movement at the edge of his vision gave him the excuse he needed to end the uncomfortable conversation with his bartender.
He turned his head slightly to watch as a bulky man impeccably dressed in a white straw hat, white slacks, white sandals and a white shirt settled heavily into one of the fan-back chairs. The candlelight glinted on the many rings on the pudgy fingers.
"Butterfield's here," the colonel noted, his aristocratic voice turning cooler than usual.
"I see him." Jared reluctantly pushed himself away from the bar. "Guess I'd better go say hello."
"You want to take him his drink?" The colonel was already pouring out a hefty portion of straight rum.
"Sure. Why not? Save him the trip. You know how Max feels about exercise. Make it a double."
Picking up the rum, Jared left his own whiskey on the bar and made his way through the gloom to the table where the portly man sat. Max Butterfield had removed his hat, displaying a pink scalp surrounded by a fringe of gray.
The overweight man looked up expectantly as Jared joined him. He took the glass of rum and downed a swallow before saying a word. Then he beamed, displaying dimples. "Ah, manna from heaven. Just what I needed, my boy."
"I figured it might be." Jared took the other seat. "Is it still on for tonight?"
"Most definitely, most definitely. I've been counting on this little inspection tour you've arranged." Max lifted his glass in a toast. "To our successful completion of this project."
"The sooner it's over, the better, as far as I'm concerned."
"Such impatience, my boy. You must learn to control it. Everything in due course. Matters will be resolved soon enough."
"How soon?"
"Oh, I'd say sometime during the next month. The fish have taken the bait. It's just a matter of time."
Forty-five minutes after she'd left the hotel, Kate rose from the moonlit rock where she had been sitting and started slowly back toward the lights of the resort. She thought she would be able to get back to sleep now, though her body still seemed confused.
It wasn't just her body that was mixed up, she reflected. Her mind was definitely off track, too.
She'd been sitting on the dark beach dwelling on the subject of Jared Hawthorne, of all things, and for the life of her, Kate could not figure out quite why. It was disturbing because the man was clearly not her type.
She was wise enough to know she did not
have
a real-life type when it came to men. The man she longed for existed only in her dreams and between the covers of her books.
On some intuitive level, Kate had always accepted that she would never actually meet her fantasy hero. She frequently joked to Sarah and Margaret that she probably wouldn't like him if she did happen to meet him. He would be too arrogant, too proud and infuriating and much too macho for a twentieth-century woman to tolerate.
When she had eventually decided to fall in love and marry at the age of twenty-nine, Kate had deliberately chosen the sort of man modern women were supposed to covet. Harry had appeared to be a sensitive, supportive, intellectually stimulating male. There had been poetry and candlelight, art films and a shared interest in writing. What more could any woman realistically want, Kate had asked herself.
But things had gone steadily wrong, and after the divorce, Kate had been consumed for a time with a sense of failure and guilt. She knew in her heart she should never have married Harry in the first place. It had been wrong for both of them.
To exorcise the demons, she had turned to the one true love she could always count on—her writing. She knew now that Sarah and Margaret had been right when they said she had allowed her work to consume her these past two and a half years. One needed balance in life if one was to survive and stay sane.
Amazing how clear that was tonight, Kate thought with a smile. Perhaps her friends had been right. A vacation was exactly what she had needed.
Holding her sandals in one hand, she trudged through the sand toward the path that led up from the cove. It was an easy, well-lit walk, and she would have been back in her room within fifteen minutes if she'd stayed on it.
But she didn't stay on it because she came across a fork in the path. One branch was barred with a heavy chain and a sign that warned trespassers not to proceed any farther unless accompanied by an approved guide from the hotel staff.
Kate knew instantly that she had just found the path that led to the mysterious private castle.
There was no way in the world she could resist taking a peek. She was no fool, however. She certainly wouldn't risk her neck exploring the ruins alone at night. But she couldn't see the harm in catching a glimpse of the castle. An old pirate fortress drenched in moonlight was more than any romance writer worth her salt could possibly ignore.
She slipped under the heavy chain that barred the way and managed to get several feet along the steep, dark path before she heard the soft, masculine voices behind her. She froze, recognizing one of the voices instantly.
Discretion, at times, was the better part of valor, Kate decided as she ducked into a clump of thick ferns.
She could not really explain, even to herself, why she decided to hide rather than confront Jared Hawthorne. Kate just knew that in that moment she really did not feel up to defending her reasons for flagrantly violating his edict.
Besides, it would be embarrassing to be chewed out in front of a stranger, and she could hear the second man quite clearly. She was fairly certain that Jared would have no compunction at all about reading her the riot act in front of others for daring to climb the castle path.
The rich, humid jungle scent of the ferns enveloped her as she crouched motionlessly. She smiled as Jared and an overweight man dressed all in white went past within a yard of where she hid. Jared was moving easily, but the portly man was breathing heavily. Kate hugged herself and grinned. She suddenly felt as if she were involved in a small, delightful adventure.
It wasn't until the two men had vanished along the trail and Kate had quickly escaped back toward the resort that she found herself wondering why Jared was breaking his own house rules.