“Not implying, stating a fact,” he replied adamantly. “After what you’ve told me about this pirate, you aren’t getting anywhere near him.”
“But he doesn’t even want the maps,” she said. “I told you that, too.”
“All supposition,” he reminded her. “Hedidask for them, his only stipulation being that you show up to deliver them yourself. So the fake you is present and accounted for, just not leaving my ship, the maps get handed to Lacross, and then your father gets released. All nicely accomplished with no one getting hurt.”
She rolled her eyes. “And if he doesn’t release my father until I’m standing in his presence?”
“He can’t very well renege just because I deliver the maps to him.”
“Like hell he can’t. Don’t for a minute assume he’s honorable. I need to be there in case your plan backfires and he ends up holding you hostage, too.”
“Does that thought…distress you?”
She blinked, then frowned. Was he fishing for a declaration of some sort? That she was worried about him? That she cared about him? She pushed the thought away, didn’t want it in the same conversation that Pierre was in.
So she said, tongue almost in cheek, “Of course it distresses me. If you get captured, then I’ll have two hostages to rescue, won’t I?”
He laughed, pulled her closer, rubbed his cheek against hers on the way to whispering by her ear, “I find it charming that you’d rescue me.”
She slipped her arms around his neck and smiled as she replied, “I’d have to rescue you so I could shoot you for being dumb enough to get captured in the first place.”
He burst out laughing. “Damn, Gabby, you are wonderful for the disposition. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as I have since I’ve known you.”
“I bet you say that to all your sweethearts,” she replied with feigned coquetry.
He gave her that stomach-fluttering smile of his. “No, I don’t believe I have. Only to you.”
Chapter 44
THEY ARRIVED MUCH SOONER THANGABRIELLE HAD EXPECTED,the very next day. They docked on the island of Anguilla late in the afternoon. Colonized by English settlers from St. Kitts back in the 1600s, Anguilla wasn’t far at all from her home, which could have been reached before dark.
One of Drew’s crew told her Anguilla was one of his trading stops, so she figured that was why Drew picked it, since things there would be familiar to him, whereas St. Kitts might not be on his usual route.
She never did summon up enough nerve to broach again with Drew the question of whether he was going to let her men go. If he’d said no, that would have ended their truce right then and there. And besides, she figured, now that he’d agreed to help, he would be foolish not to make use of all available men, particularly those willing to go above and beyond in their effort to free Nathan.
Regardless, she was almost holding her breath, standing there at the rail, waiting to see the hold opened and if her friends would be marched off to a dungeon or given their freedom. She’d been forced to come up with a few alternative courses of action, just in case.
Since it was a British-controlled island, and Drew wasn’t the least bit British, there was a slight, though very slight, chance that she could turn the tables on him, if it came to that. Richard could sound like the veriest English nabob if he had to, after all. And the English authorities would be inclined to believe one of their own before they would an American. But she was praying it wouldn’t come to that. The last thing she wanted to do was land Drew in jail when her truce with him was still in effect.
She’d reason with him before that, rail at him, bribe him, cajole him, even throw the contents of his desk at him again if necessary. She just needed at least one plan in case everything else failed.
And then Richard strolled over to say, “What rotten luck, to be let out now. I was losing to Bixley at whist. Needed a few more hours to break even at least.”
She was too thrilled to see him standing there without a guard to immediately grasp what he was saying. But as soon as she’d given him a relieved hug, she realized he was actually complaining about being set free, and sounded quite serious about it.
“You were given cards to pass the time?” she asked.
Richard chuckled. “We’ve had all the luxuries we could have hoped for,chérie.Cards, dice, some of the best damn food I’ve ever eaten, and still hot, straight from the galley. Nathan needs to steal Anderson’s cook, he really does. We were also given hammocks, and, you won’t believe this one—even a bath.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“Well, there was an old tub down there. Ohr asked for enough water to fill it. He wasn’t really expecting he’d get it, but damned if the buckets didn’t get lowered to us, one by one.” He laughed with the memory. “We drew straws for the order of us all using that single tub. I didn’t do too bad, got it second.”
She’d worried herself sick and they’d been having the time of their lives? A vacation was what it sounded like! Drewcouldhave told her, the bloody sod. So could her friend, for that matter.
She slapped Richard’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me that when you were let out for that dinner?”
He shrugged. “I thought you knew. These Americans, they weren’t treating us like prisoners, well, other than the lock on the hatch, which Ohr was determined to break, by the way, until I was able to assure him you were fine with the new arrangements.”
