Tobias reached for the bottle between them. He held it poised over the tumbler and hesitated. Without warning, he came out of the chair with the energy of a man half his age and hurled the bottle against the far wall, the best brandy that could be stolen or bought running down the side wall of the ship.
"You're mad! You know that, don't you?" He turned on Zach. "Bringin' her aboard will see us all hanged! What in God's name were you thinkin'?"
In all the years he'd known Tobias, Zach couldn't remember seeing him quite so angry, drunk or sober. "This will bring the Crown down on us. Barrington will come at you with everything he has."
Without so much as drawing a breath, Tobias continued his tirade, jabbing the air as if he were striking at somebody or would like to. Zach had no doubt as to the target.
"Suicide! Plain and simple. That's what it'll be. Don't you know that Barrington has ships and men in damned near every port? He controls everything. He gets things done with just the snap of a finger." Red-faced, he then turned on Zach and leaned against the edge of the desk, bracing his weight on white-knuckled hands.
"Where can you hide?" he shouted.
"I don't intend to hide. I want him to find me."
Tobias stared, dumbfounded. He was quickly finding out he didn't know Zach Tennant at all. He had once, when they'd begun this voyage. Could the man have changed so much?
Zach's voice was low, deathly quiet. "He has to be stopped."
"And you're using that girl for your revenge," Tobias accused.
"Yes!" Zach bit off. "Charles murdered their father, but Alex paid the price!" He came crossed the cabin. "He paid with his life, with everything he valued. Exiled, a criminal sent to Australia! Made to pay for a crime he didn't commit. But even that wasn't enough for Charles Barrington. He had to haveher."
Felicia Seymour.
"She was nothing but a possession to him." Zach was losing control. He could sense it but couldn't stop it. He stood, hands gripping the desk. "He took her just as he took everything else. She didn't love him! He knew it, but it didn't matter. And, in the end, he destroyed her too."
"And now you want revenge, no matter who it hurts," Tobias finished for him.
Zach never looked at him. "Someone has to pay for what they did to him."
"Well, I won't be part of it," Tobias announced. "That girl is innocent. She had nothing to do with this, and I won't be part of your scheme. Neither would your father if he were alive." Tobias turned toward the cabinet. Opening it, he seized a bottle of brandy and tucked it beneath his arm.
"I'm going to get drunk, very drunk. And I hope like hell you've come to your senses when I'm sober again."
The cabin door slammed hard as Tobias left. In frustration, Zach doubled his fist and drove it against the cabin wall. He welcomed the pain.
Then he dropped his hands to his sides. Tobias was right. For hours he'd refused to go near the cabin just across from his, unwilling to face her and confront what he'd done. He'd used one excuse after another.
Coming away from the wall, he seized the key from his desk and crossed the companionway. Key in the lock, he hesitated. Then, thinking better of this move, he called down the companionway for Tris.
Elyse worked the rope binding her wrists to the sideboard of the bed. Then, she laid back as she tried to breathe around the gag that cut into her mouth. The motion of the ship had changed. Locked in the cabin, she still sensed they'd encountered stronger waves. That could only mean they must have put to sea.
She thought of her grandmother and Cedric. Dear God, what must they all think? Her grandmother was a strong woman, but she'd already suffered the loss of a husband, a son, and Elyse's mother.
Tears of frustration streamed down her cheeks. She remembered how happy Regina had seemed on the ride to the church.
The ceremony at the church! Elyse thought of Lucy Maitland. She could almost imagine Lucy might have had something to do with all of this. She'd been so opposed to her marriage to Jerrold. But Elyse had to admit, even Lucy wasn't capable of so elaborate a scheme.
Her thoughts were scattered. How long had she been in that cabin? How long since they were at sea? What was St. James going to do with her? She stared at the single lamp that swung overhead as the sound came again. A key in the lock?
The door swung open, and a tall man was briefly illuminated in the doorway. Then he turned toward the narrow bed. Elyse instinctively shrank back into the shadows.
He leaned over her briefly, his large hands scraping against her skin as he untied the ropes. She was too stunned at the sudden freedom to pull away from the heavy odor of sweat and salt sea air about him.
Trying to rub feeling back into her wrists, Elyse cautiously sat up. Clad only in the thin, silk chemise she grabbed for the coarse woolen blanket and clutched it against her.
"Get out of here!" she ordered indignantly. Then as the man turned, seemingly to follow her request, she came up off the bed.
"Wait!"
