Sapphire

“Certainly not! I told you, Jessup, that was a ruse from the beginning.” She dropped her hands to her lap. “And it was all my idea to begin with. What if something’s happened? I could never forgive myself if—”

“Lucia, listen to me.” He captured her hands again. “Nothing has happened to her. I’m certain there’s a logical explanation and I mean to get to it at once.”

“You’ll find her?” Lucia asked in relief.

Jessup rose and leaned to press a kiss to her forehead. “Of course I’ll find her. Now you sit here and have a cup of tea and I’ll get dressed.”

“I’ll go with you.” She started to rise.

He pushed her gently back into the chair that smelled of him and his pipe tobacco, a comforting scent to Lucia. “No, you won’t. Unless, of course, you’d like me to take you home. You look as if you haven’t slept a wink.”

She shook her head. “I haven’t, but I couldn’t possibly go to bed.” She clasped her hands. “Oh, Jessup, do find her.”

“I will, my sweet.”

After a great deal of jostling, a carriage ride and being carried again like a side of meat for what seemed like hours, Sapphire finally felt Blake drop her unceremoniously onto a bed. The moment he released her, she scrambled free of the tangle of bedclothes. “You can’t do this,” she cried, quickly taking in her new surroundings.

They were in a small room that was crudely paneled in knotty pine and she was resting on a narrow bed meant only for a single person, built into the wall. Beneath her, she felt the floor shift slightly and she knew that what she had been pray

ing wasn’t true was indeed true. The moment he’d stepped foot out of the carriage she had thought she smelled water, and she knew now that she was on board a ship. He was kidnapping her and taking her to America!

“Do you hear me?” she yelled, rising to her knees, ignoring the pain that shot through her right ankle.

Blake stood at the closed door of the small cabin, one side of his mouth turning up. “Honestly, it’s hard to listen to anything you say when you’re putting on such a spectacular exhibition, my dear.”

Sapphire glanced down to see that she had dropped the corner of the blanket to reveal one bare, pink-tipped breast. “Oh!” she cried as she jerked up the blanket to cover herself, so angry that tears welled in her eyes. “You cannot be serious about taking me with you.”

“I am entirely serious.” He walked to a built-in desk and slipped the leather case off his shoulder, dropping it onto the surface. “You wanted a protector, and now you have one.” He raised both hands matter-of-factly.

“I wanted you to acknowledge me as Lord Edward Wessex’s daughter!”

He opened the case and began to remove several books and a worn leather-bound journal. “You know, we would get along much better if you would give that notion up. Obviously I’m not going to fall for it. You are what you are, Sapphire, a beautiful young woman trying to make your way in the world. I’m not the kind of man to see anything wrong with that in a mistress. I congratulate you, in fact. You have the right idea, you know—a man generally treats his mistress far better than his wife.”

Sapphire sat with her back against the bulkhead to relieve the pressure on her ankle. She could not believe what he was saying, could not believe the situation she found herself in. “A fortune hunter! You still think I’m a fortune hunter?”

He considered her words and then nodded. “Yes.”

“Oh,” she cried again, her shoulders slumping against the cool wood of the bulkhead.

Sounds outside the cabin suddenly caught her attention. She could hear shouting, footsteps, and feel the unmistakable sensation of the ship moving. “We’re sailing?” she asked. “We can’t be! I can’t—my Aunt Lucia, she won’t know what’s happened to me. Please,” she begged.

When he made no response, she glared at him. “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” she accused, fighting her tears. “You’re…you’re kidnapping me!”

“Not really. The door’s unlocked. We’ve already pulled away from the dock by the sound of the commotion outside, but you could probably dive over the side and swim to shore. Someone would fish you out, I suspect. You can swim, can’t you?”

“I was raised in Martinique—of course I can swim,” she said, drawing herself up indignantly.

“Then be my guest.” He gestured toward the door.

“But I’m naked,” she protested, staring longingly at the door.

“Yes, you are.”

She looked at the door for a moment and then, with a groan of frustration, threw herself facefirst onto the bunk and drew the blanket over her head.

“It’s fine with me if you take that attitude,” she heard him say, the sound of his irksome voice muffled by the blanket. “It could be a long trip, depending on the winds, but it’s up to you, really.”

Sapphire could hear Blake continue to unload his bags.