“Doucette!” called a female voice from behind him.
North ground his teeth. They’d not rehearsed this bit,line for line, but he knew Isobel intended something like shock and awe.
“Captain Doucette!” she called again.
The pirate stepped around to see Shaw lifting Isobel from the cart, her hands bound in front of her.
“Get off of me, you oaf!” she yelled at Shaw.
Very slowly, North turned to see. His regard for her was meant to be irritation and disgust. It was the most challenging duplicity of his career.
Shaw dragged Isobel forward by the wrists. She staggered, blond hair tossing, skirts fanning out. When they reached Jason, he twisted his expression into extreme distaste and fastened his hand around her arm. He held her out from his body, as if her nearness offended him. She raised herself up to her full five-foot-two-inch height.
In rapid-fire French, the accent so thick Jason struggled to follow, she cried out, “I can give you Peter, Doucette. I know where he is. And when he discovers that thisCoward Aristocrat...” she sneered and pointed at Jason, “...has bound me like chattel and traded me like a mare, Peter will come for me. You know he will. I’ll help you. I’ll do anything if you’ll get me away from these ham-handed Englishmen!”
Doucette’s hard eyes had gone wide, taking in the sight of her. He stepped up and took Isobel by the chin to examine her face. She glared at him, her eyes flashing, and Jason held his breath. She was safer when Jason appeared not to care.
“Never mind the ravings of the girl,” North warned, pulling Isobel from the pirate’s hold. “She’s not yours until I have the Englishmen.”
Doucette glared at North, examined Isobel again, and then shouted something in a language that wasneither French nor English. A pirate jerked open the tavern door and seven men in chains were prodded into the sunlight, staggering, squinting, holding on to each other for support.
Jason almost forgot his panic for Isobel. The men looked wretched, beaten and starving. He searched the bruised, haggard faces for his cousin.
How many times had he retrieved Reggie from gaming hells, brothels, and gentlemen’s clubs of dubious repute? Reggie was frequently drunk or recovering from a fight or both, and he always needed money. This was so much worse.
It was Reggie who spotted him first.
“Jason?” called a stooped man with matted hair. “Jason Beckett? Your Grace?”
Jason followed the sound and finally distinguished Reggie from the other haggard men. His cousin endeavored to wave but the chains prevented it. He tried to make himself taller but appeared too feeble to stand upright. His yellowish pallor and hollow-eyed expression were corpse-like. He was brittle-thin, unwashed, with a bloody nose and open sores on his face and neck.
Panic spiked through Jason like a lance. He’d gotten Reggie, or rather he’d gotten some half-alive version of Reggie, only to deliver Isobel to the men responsible forthis?
She must have sensed his hesitation, because she pulled her arm from his grasp and skittered from him.
Shaw stepped up, but she pointed a finger and said, “Stay back, all of you, or I swear I will fight you to the death.” She looked wild and beautiful and deadly serious.
Shaw took a step back.
“Quiet,” Jason said flippantly, dismissing her.
To the pirate Jason said, “These men have been starved and beaten, Doucette. Is there no honor among thieves?”
Doucette shrugged. “They are weak. Too soft for our way of life. But they are alive.”
“Barely.” To Shaw he said, “Help them into the cart.”
“Give me the girl,” said Doucette.
The next words were the most difficult Jason would ever say. “Take her. She will walk to you as the Englishmen walk to my men.”
Jason nodded to Declan Shaw and the large man gave her a shove. Isobel affected a perfect stumble, righted herself, and then walked, head high, to the pirate captain.
A pirate unlocked the long chain confining the merchants and they trudged in the direction of the cart.
“Jason, you’ve come!” Reggie rasped, his voice a prayer. “You’ve come, you’ve come. Thank God. I said that you would come. But who is the woman?”
Reggie disentangled from the group to watch Phillipe Doucette snatch Isobel’s arm and jerk her to his side.
