The Bride of Blackbeard (21 page)

“You look like you seen a ghost!”

“No, no ghost, just...fairies.”

“Well, fairies, then. Ye be careful...they
be
more
troublesome than ghosts!”

Abe shook his head,
what in the world
could Teache want with a book about fairies?
As he downed his
umpteenth glass of ale at the bar, he figured he had suffered
enough. He blew into the whistle baked into the mug to get the
barkeep’s attention.

“Oi, Jim. Let us square up.”

~ * ~

It was midmorning when they arrived at the
circular path that arched in front of StoneWater leading to the
rambling front porch.

“Home,” said Megan, the first word she’d
spoken since her retrieval from the tank.

When Constanza saw the direction in which
Megan was pointing, her heart swelled with an odd combination of
pride, anxiety and hope all at once. She was pointing at their
cottage, not the manor.

Lucian looked down at her, his brown eyes
softening for the first time since last night. “Yes, Meg.
Home.”

Hopkins was on the porch ready to meet them.
Absent was his jaunty step and flashy clothes. Constanza actually
felt sorry for him.

He is in the middle with nowhere to go. He
has no idea what to do with Megan, but I’m certain he wants the
best for her. He is the intermediary between his wicked,
self-centered wife and his disabled child.

There was
no
confusion in Constanza’s
mind as to Sarah Hopkins’ wishes. She wished her child had never
been born, and her way of coping was to put her out of her sight,
preferably miles away, under the guise of expensive housing and
treatment, when what Megan really needed was love. Something the
rich Hopkinses would never be able to give her.

“Lucian, I need a word in my study.
Constanza, take Megan up to her apartment.”

And that was it. No hug, no emotion. Megan
was property.

~ * ~

After Constanza left with Megan, Lucian
readied himself with a huge breath in front of Ian's colossal desk
in the study, preparing to receive a browbeating.

Hopkins paced back and forth behind his
desk. He started to speak several times, but then would abruptly
stop, muttering incoherently.

“Ian, out with it. Just tell me.”

“Lucian, I know you care for Megan, and you
seem to have been able to draw her out in a way I have not, but I
do not know...” He shook his head, then ran his hand over his
stubbled face. “If she continues to be...different...I do not know
how much longer I can put Sarah off from sending her to, at the
very least, a special boarding school.”

“I anticipated this day would eventually
come. Why don’t you give her to me and Constanza to raise? You know
in your heart we can do a far better job of it than any boarding
school, no matter how special. Give her a chance at a normal life,
Ian. We already have helped her to speak.”

Hopkins hung his head. “I don’t know,
Lucian. That is a huge consideration.”

“I know it is, and I do not expect an answer
today or even next fortnight, but consider it. We want no payment
for her either.”

“I would not think of burdening you without
compensation...”

Lucian narrowed his eyes and peered at Ian
across the table. “She is
not
a burden. We want
her
.
We do
not
want your money.”

“There is another matter.” Ian averted his
eyes. “There has been an incident...a woman arrived last night
asking for you...a very beautiful foreign woman. She is upstairs in
one of our guest lodgings. I knew not what else to do with her ‘til
you arrived.”

“What?” Lucian stood to go. When his hand
reached for the doorknob, Ian quickly came up behind him and
grabbed his elbow to turn him around.

“She is probably seven months pregnant, and
she says it is yours.”

Lucian’s legs wobbled and felt weaker with
each step toward facing yet another fiasco. He entered the foyer
proper, searching for his supposed impregnated lover. He was a
victim of someone's impossible, cruel game, but would Constanza
believe him?

He didn’t need to ponder it long for
Constanza stood at the bottom of the stairwell, quivering as she
stared at the dark, exotic woman who, despite being infinitely
round, was—at face value—eminently more beautiful than her.

At the sight of him, Stanzy screamed in his
face, “You liar!” She launched herself at him, poking him hard in
the chest. “I believed
every word
you said to me. I was so
stupid. I should have known it could not be real.”

“Oh please, I swear, I have never seen this
woman before!” Lucian pleaded, his eyes darting frantically to the
woman’s gargantuan middle. “Constanza, I do not know her and it is
not mine!”

“Ow could you say zat, Lucian? After all ve
‘ave been thru togedder? You promised you vould take care of me and
ze child. I cannot help it if you decided to marry anozer!”

“Leave! Leave now! We do not need you. I
will care for Megan and Will and even Ben if you want me to. Just
get out of my sight, and take her with you!”

“All right, I will go. If a stranger’s word
is all it takes to make you doubt my love for you, then maybe our
love is not what I thought it was. I will be back for Ben.”

The slam of the manor door was so violent, a
piece splintered off and fell to the floor.

~ Chapter Twelve ~

Abernathy again sat, watching. If he never
had to track anything or anyone again, it would be too soon. He
feared he would never be able to stomach bird watching, once a
favorite activity, as it would feel too much like this despicable
situation he found himself in.

I am a voyeur. Brilliant occupation.

Teache sat on his front porch at Hammock
House, slitting open the post that had just arrived. His dark face
was somber for a moment, then lit up like one of the lighted hemp
ropes he so frequently wound into his mangy beard.

His hulking frame stood and he clapped his
hands together like a schoolboy and, as if to second the notion, he
pulled his pistol and rang off a shot into the air in a sort of odd
celebration.

Abernathy’s anxiety reached a new level. He
was no longer on top of this situation and he knew it.

~ * ~

“Faster, Pilot!”

Constanza squeezed the horse's sides with
her legs, urging the stallion on at breakneck speed. He was tired
and she knew it, but cared little. His flanks sweated and he
galloped slower. Her legs moved in time to his ragged breathing.
She kicked him in the sides to pick up the pace. Winding the horse
in and out of the stone paths, higher and higher, she drove him on
until she reached the summit—where StoneWater was visible in all
its glory.

She glared down at the estate as if viewing
an amputated limb. Hatred filled her soul, and she spit on the
ground—the familiar dead, stony feeling encased her heart. It had
tricked her, and nothing had ever tricked her before.

That is what you get for letting your guard
down, you stupid woman. He never really loved you. For all you
know, he has women like that in every port he does business in.

Full of despair, she wrenched the reins
around and drove the horse on again, weaving through dangerously
tight paths. Tree limbs smacked her in the face, but she didn’t
even flinch.

A fallen trunk lay across the path and she
urged the mount to vault it. A momentary feeling of weightlessness
engulfed her before horse and rider thudded heavily on the other
side. The sound of rushing water ahead didn’t give her pause or
make her halt Pilot. She charged the horse through the stream,
feeling the water soak her up to her thighs. On the other side of
the bank, the horse slipped and faltered, sliding backward down the
slope. His hooves made a sucking sound as he struggled to extract
them from the thick mud. She kicked him again, refusing defeat.

“Come on, Pilot!” The horse stutter-stepped
and continued his backward descent.

Panicking, the horse’s ears laid flat to his
head and he reared. Her body catapulted and rolled down the slope,
her leg striking a rock. Wet, hot blood poured out as it ripped
open a gash. She lay still—afraid to move—afraid to assess the
damage. Sitting up, she saw a circle of blood spreading out on her
stockings.

Shaking her head, she fought the tears, but
they came anyway. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rocked
slowly back and forth.

“Oh, Lucian...how could you?”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice
whispered...
he couldn’t and you know it.

She dried her tears and sat up straight.

For an irrational moment, fear gripped her,
like when she’d been a child in the woods at home. Her mother was
full of tales of sprites and goblins, and the woods in which she
now sat with her bottom in the mud would be a perfect residence for
one of them. Somewhere in the distance a branch cracked, and she
thought of her most feared childhood creature, a Spriggan. They
mislead weary travelers until they become lost in the woods and
then lead them to fall into hidden wells—where they stayed
forever.

“All right, enough self-pity.”

Whether Lucian
did
or
did not
,
she had others to care for. At least three children depended on
her—she couldn’t be taking risks such as riding at breakneck
speeds. It was selfish and irresponsible.

“And goodness knows I can’t be selfish even
for a minute!” she snarled.

Somewhat painfully, she stood, brushed
herself off and went in search of Pilot, who had already crossed
the stream, snorting his disgust at her behavior.

~ * ~

“Nags Head. My favorite town on the Banks,”
the man at the bar slurred, to no one in particular.

Abe watched as the man squinted, evidently
trying to focus his vision, the look on his face like one trying to
decipher a curious puzzle. The young man attempted merrymaking, but
with every guffaw of raucous laughter or bout of singing he seemed
to withdraw further into himself. He cradled his mug in his hands
tenderly.

Abe blew his whistle in his pint. “Oi! Down
ere!”

A young girl tripped past his bar stool, and
proceeded down the bar to stumble closer to the young man. Her
fingertips traced across his wide shoulder blades as she passed
behind him.

“Ooowee, ain’t you a strappin’ one? Wat’s
your name love?”

“Lucian.” He bestowed a most beguiling smile
on the drunken barmaid. He then continued, “Please have mercy, I
cannot take another.”

Her smile vanished. “No more females?”

Tonight, Abe was heartily enjoying his
people watching. Teache was back at Hammock House entertaining, so
he had given himself a night off.

The lad down the bar was drunk to be sure,
but he’d been watching him and was exceedingly amused with his wry
sayings.

The more the dark-haired man poured into his
mouth, the more hilarious the words that leaked out of it. His
expression clearly showed he suffered something...so misery loves
company.

Abe pulled up a seat at the bar next to him.
“Jim, one for me and my new friend here!”

The young man regarded Abe with a critical
eye or presumably as close as he could muster in his current
condition.

Apparently considering him no threat, he
responded blearily. “All right, I’ll be your friend if you like.
Jus’ keep ‘em comin’!”

They both burst out laughing.

“Lucian Blackwell.” He extended his hand to
Abe in greeting.

And throwing caution to the wind, he gave
the man next to him his real name for the first time in more than a
year. “Abernathy Hornigold. Abe for short.”

“All right, Abe. What brings you to Nags
Head?”

“Umm...I am on an assignment.”

“I see.” The young man stared him in the
eye, momentarily becoming serious. “Is it a secret?”

“Why, yes, it is.”

Lucian’s mouth twitched. “Mine, too. But I
will tell ye, ya seem like a nice enough sort. I am here to forget
my troubles, and to complete the mission—become as drunk as humanly
possible.”

“So I observed! What seems to be the
problem?”

And so began a tale which Abe took as
uncharacteristic flippancy for the young man sitting at his side—a
sordid story beginning with Lucian’s hands reaching into the surf
to retrieve a young woman, to slamming the door and leaving her,
and now ending up in this bar.

The bartender made his last call as Lucian
finished his story, and as Hornigold had stopped drinking at about
the third mention of Teache's name, he was beginning to feel quite
sober.

“Well, Lucian, you seem like an upstanding
fellow, but putting it plainly, you have made a very serious enemy
in Edward Teache. If he has set his sights on your wife, and he is
a man not accustomed to being turned down no matter the situation,
I am afraid her safety may still be in question.”

Lucian blinked and shook his head fiercely.
“Even though we are married, you think he is still going to pursue
her?”

“Oh, that means nothing to Teache. Any woman
or object is game to him, regardless of their station in life.
Well, let us reason this out. If what you say is true, and you are
innocent of an infidelity, where do you think that woman came
from?”

A look of amazement dawned on Lucian’s
drunken face. “No! If he did that, he will stop at nothing to
get...and I left her and the children alone! I am so stupid!” he
said, smacking his head to second the notion.

He’d stumbled off his stool and reached for
his overcoat when Abernathy reached for his arm. “Whoa, there,
young fella! You are in no condition to head anywhere tonight.
Where are your lodgings?”

Lucian gestured a finger to the ceiling.

“Then let’s get you to your room upstairs
and I promise at first light, I will wake you and follow you to
StoneWater. I want to ask your wife some questions, if it is all
right with you.”