The shadow backed away, lifting a hand.
“No closer, milady. No closer.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I hear you’ve been prowling about tonight, asking what ships lie in the James, seeing if any man knows about a pirate. A rogue ship, out in the river.”
“Yes! Do you know about her?” Skye stepped forward again in her excitement. The man blended against a tree. The streets were always lit well by lamps, but the trees afforded such deep secretive shadows that the lamps could help little against the night.
“Stay where you are!” the voice commanded.
“Let’s get out of here!” Mattie urged her in a whisper. “Let’s go home. Please, child! You can be the fine lady wife, kneel down by his side, and pretend it was an accident—”
“An accident!” Skye whispered in turn. “I struck him over the head with a rum bottle—by accident?” She shook her head. “Mattie, no! I must find the Silver Hawk. He can save Father.”
“Hey!” called the man from the shadows. “Are we negotiating here or are we not!”
“We’re talking—” Skye said quickly, coming forward.
“Stand still!”
“I’m standing still,” Skye promised, stopping. Mattie hovered unhappily just behind her. The breeze stirred, sweeping unease along her spine.
“I’ll tell you where to find the Silver Hawk.”
“Where?” Her heart thundered quickly. Perhaps she was on a fool’s errand. She was coming to know Roc Cameron well, and he would not take kindly to her betrayal. Maybe she should run back and throw herself upon her husband’s mercy. Maybe it would be much, much better than leaving the one man behind to seek out a rogue and enter into a world of tempest and temptation. She clenched her jaw, realizing anew that she was coming to love her husband. To love the man that she had betrayed. She had to move forward. Her father was out there, Logan’s prisoner.
She almost screamed aloud with the thought, and she cast her guilt from her shoulders with a shrug. “Where!” she cried out to the man in the shadows.
“Not so fast, milady. You wear an emerald around your neck. I will have it.”
“What?” Skye murmured. Her fingers came to her throat and she realized that she still wore the emerald pendant she had found among her things at Bone Cay. She had worn it the first night that she had been with the Silver Hawk. She had worn it when she had cast aside all else, all clothing, all inhibitions.…
Her fingers closed around the pendant. She carried gold to give to the Silver Hawk. She could afford to give this man the pendant.
She snatched it from her throat and started to cast it forward. “Wait!” the voice cried. “Come forward, and drop the pendant.”
“No!” Mattie called out. She stepped forward, taking the pendant from Skye. “I’ll drop it, and if this man is a reputable liar and thief, then he’ll have his pendant and you’ll have your information, child.”
Skye would have protested casting Mattie into danger, but Mattie gave her no chance to do so. She hurried forward to the tree and cast the pendant down as the shadow slunk back. Mattie sniffed her opinion of the man loudly, and came back to Skye.
A hand reached down and scooped up the emerald.
“The Blackhorse Tavern. It’s south on the river. Speak softly and subtly, and you’ll find the Silver Hawk.” The shadow turned from the tree and went racing toward the rear of the tavern. Skye followed after him and found him leaping atop a sleek bay horse. “Wait! Wait, please! I still don’t where this tavern is! I—I haven’t followed the waterfront that often—”
She stopped, gasping. She recognized Robert Arrowsmith, the Silver Hawk’s first officer aboard his pirate ship. “Robert!”
“Milady!” He doffed his hat to her, then swore. “Come! Come with me now!”
She didn’t have time to agree or disagree. He urged his mount quickly forward and reached down to her, sweeping her up before him on his mount even as the bay pranced and prepared to bolt.
“Skye!” Mattied shrieked, coming after her.
“Tell her it’s all right,” Robert warned her.
“Mattie! It’s fine. He’s a—friend.”
Mattie’s tense and worried features as they rode into the night gave Skye a second seizure of guilt for the evening. Mattie would understand, surely. Mattie loved Theo Kinsdale as much as Skye did. But she would worry. She would worry horribly.
