“Not possible,” Boyd disagreed. “I thought you nobles never got locked up for anything.”
“That’s usually the case,” James said. “But Captain Hawke would be.”
“Captain Hawke died in England. I could have sworn you made sure of it.”
“I did,” James said. “But news of Hawke’s demise might not have reached all the islands in the Caribbean, where warrants for Hawke’s capture could still be active. And I’ve been back there and someone who knew me as Captain Hawke might have spotted me. More to the point, Lacross saw me when I helped Drew rescue Gabby and Lacross was captured, so he knows I’m not dead. What I can’t figure out is how Lacross or whoever is behind this plot figured out that Hawke is James Malory. I went to great lengths to keep Hawke’s true identity a secret.”
Warren groaned. “Are we going to have to attack a British prison?”
“No—well, I hope not,” James replied. “I do need to have a talk with that warden, though. However, I can also think of two other men who might have said something similar to what’s in that original note. So many questions remain. Nothing is conclusive other than I’m sailing the morning after that damned masquerade ball I got browbeaten into attending.”
Boyd chuckled, guessing, “Georgie at her finest, eh?”
“On the contrary. I just bloody well hate balls. My George, however, can be enjoyably persuasive.”
“Oh, God, he didn’t just imply—?” Warren started to complain.
Anthony cut in with a snicker. “Course he did, Yank.”
Outside, Jeremy helped Jacqueline to her feet to escort her back inside the house, complaining, “I should have been in that room, but he’s refused to let me participate.”
“You think I didn’t try? He’s adamant that neither of us can go.”
Jeremy snorted. “I understand why you’re being excluded, but I lived in the islands and know the Caribbean like the back of my hand. I would be a real asset and he knows it.”
“Let’s try not to insult me, Brother,” Jack said drily. “You or I would make a perfect hostage that could stay his hand in a battle with his nemesis. So we need to bow out even if we don’t like it.”
“You do, but I still have time to change his mind. When is that ball that he referred to?”
Jacqueline rolled her eyes. Jeremy wasn’t going to win that argument with their father any more than she had. But still smarting over her own exclusion, she wasn’t about to stay there and try to convince him. She had to find Gabby and get her to tell her everything she knew about the pirate Pierre Lacross.
Chapter Four
YOU DON’T SEEM ATall upset that Father will be sailing in the morning without either of us,” Jacqueline said to her mother as she looked at herself in the full-length mirror in her bedroom.
“I do hide it well, don’t I? Though I have every confidence that he will return from the Caribbean triumphant so we can put this nasty business behind us, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to worry every moment that he’s gone.”
“And miss him.”
“Of course I will, terribly. And I know you will, too. And, no, you’re not going to mention again that you’d rather be sailing off with him in the morning instead of staying behind with me.”
Jacqueline grinned. “I wasn’t going to. I know bloody well when I’m outnumbered in the argument, even though I’m more deserving of an opportunity to exact revenge than—”
“Jack,” Georgina cut in warningly.
“That just slipped out, really, it did.”
Georgina tsked. “At least the rest of the Season will be a distraction for you and me.”
Jack hoped that would be the case. She just wished she could be distracted sooner, say tonight, from her father’s departure. At least with her wearing a black wig and a domino no one was going to be able to tell that she was also experiencing emotions—of the vexing sort. Not when on the surface she looked vivacious. And truly, she couldn’t deny she was quite excited about the evening’s festivities. For once she wouldn’t know whom she was dancing with. She loved harmless little mysteries of that sort.
They were both already dressed for the ball tonight. Georgina had surprised Jacqueline with a new emerald necklace to match her pale green ball gown, which she fastened behind Jack’s neck.
“Now, come along. Your father is no doubt anxious to get this over with! He’s waiting downstairs with Brandon.”
“Brandon? When he said he wouldn’t come!”
“He told us you insisted, and we all know that meant you browbeat the dear boy mercilessly.”
