“I want your promise.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Surely I am. It is a day for favors. I’ve given you your Cookie back. I’ve given you my name. What do I receive in return? A debt to be paid. Your word. Your honor. Your promise.”
Devon felt the sting of a blow across the back of his neck. He swung around. He advanced toward the perpetrator, but pulled up short.
“Get away from my niece. You bastardly spawn of a bitch.”
Devon gave his master a sardonic smile. “No. That would not be accurate. My mother assured me that I was legitimate. Not that my ancestry has done me a lick of good.”
Jarvis raised his quirt. “I’ll teach you to know your place. Why are you not in the fields?”
Claire gasped, grabbing her uncle’s arm. “He is here at my request. Pray leave him be. He is a physician, and I ordered him to attend Cookie.”
“Umph. Off with you then,” said Jar vis.
“Forgive me,” Devon bowed. “It was pleasant to meet you again, sir, but I’m afraid I have another engagement−” With a calm, deliberate glance, he passed onto Claire a disconcertingly charming smile. “I beg your pardon.”
“I will walk you out,” Claire said. She might be terrified, or whatever it was she was feeling, but she seemed able to conceal her feelings from Jarvis.
He paused at the garden gate. “Your uncle must have been nursed on vinegar.”
“You’ll not say−” she couldn’t finish.
“A scene would be fatal.”
“A monumental deception such as this is impossible.”
“Well you’re obviously stuck with me. You’ll learn to accept defeat graciously. That is, when you decide to be a woman. Anything else, I consider lacking.” He made her the grandest bow. “Your servant, Madame Blackmon.”
Claire ran to her room and slammed the door. “He’s alive.” Claire raked her fingers through her hair, uncertain whether she was on the verge of hysterical laughter or tears. “What am I going to do? Who could have imagined such a fate?” She had bought her own husband off the docks!
Claire paced, her stomach in knots and her thoughts in wild disarray. If her uncle discovered the felon was her husband he would eliminate him and waste no time in marrying her off.Why had fate determined this disaster?Was she being punished for the lie she told to a condemned man? He expected her to fulfill her promise. Ridiculous. She was not the sort to drive men wild with lust. So why did he see fit to pursue her? Was it because life had diminished for him that he wanted to make her suffer?
Claire looked down at the ring on her finger. She dreaded the gold, the symbol of her bondage, the symbol that turned her ordered existence on its head. She wanted to pretend that the last hours never happened. Claire attempted to pry off the offending jewelry, but it would not budge. She cursed. Of all the bad luck in the world−that he would be on this very island.
“What is wrong, Claire?” Lily closed the door behind her.
Claire turned and faced the mirror, fingers trailing the edge of her silver handled brush. Lily’s eyes searched hers in the reflection. There was no escaping Lily. “Disaster, Lily. Remember the felon I married in Newgate−he’s here−on this island.”
“Impossible. We saw to his grave.”
“Our greedy Mr. Goad lied to us. The physician is Devon Blackmon.”
Lily sat down, digesting the revelation. “I knew no good would come from your marriage at Newgate. Can you trust him? How will you manage?”
“I could weep.”
“What does he want? Food? Money? Freedom?” Lily paused. “I think there’s something more. Something you are not telling me. What really happened in Newgate?”
Claire swallowed a hard lump in her throat. Devon Blackmon emerged a dangerous aspect of her life, a threat to her new found independence. There would be no peace when he was around. He was reckless enough to bring them all down. “I made a promise, that’s all.”
Lily pulled her spectacles down her nose and glared at Claire. “What kind of promise?”
Claire cheeks burned. “I can’t say. I mean, it’s nothing, really.”
Lily folded her hands in her lap. “I’ve finished giving broth to Cookie. She is resting well. The good physician saved her life. We are indebted to him. Whatever promise you made him, I believe you have a moral responsibility to keep.”
