The Madman's Daughter (The Madman's Daughter 1)

“I don’t believe you,” I said. He tilted his head, surprised. “Twenty days at sea. No food. No water. No shade. The sole survivor of dozens of passengers. God didn’t save you. You saved yourself. I’d like to know how.”

He studied my placement of the tokens on the board, memorizing it, learning everything over again from scratch. “Montgomery’s first question was about the family I must have lost,” he said. “The grief.” He rolled the dice, a little too hard. His reaction told me I should have had more sympathy, like Montgomery.

I blinked, unsure of myself. I hadn’t meant to be cold. “I’m sorry. Your family . . . were they with you on the Viola?”

“No,” he said, surprisingly flat. “I was traveling alone. My father’s a general on tour abroad now. The rest of my family is at Chesney Wold—our estate. Probably entertaining dull relatives and glad to be rid of me.”

His tone was so cavalier as he scratched his scar with a jagged nail and studied the board. Something felt a little too forced. There was almost a harsh, layered tone that spoke of pain and anger and made me suspect he wasn’t being entirely honest. “But you said—”

He shrugged. “I thought it strange you were more interested in the details of my survival than the dozens who died on that ship.” He started to move his tokens, and I should have thought about how heartless I must have seemed, but instead all I could focus on was how badly he was playing backgammon.

He slid a token slowly around the points. “Montgomery told me you’re to be reunited with your father. A doctor of some sort,” he said.

“That’s right.”

He picked up the token, running his finger over the rough-hewn wood. “It’s odd, don’t you think, for a wealthy doctor to want to live in such a remote place? It makes one wonder.”

I caught the undercurrent in his voice, and it intrigued me. Whatever he was insinuating wasn’t good, and it was awfully bold to speak it aloud. Maybe there was more to him than a sea-mad castaway who’d never worked a day in his life.

I picked up the dice. “What do you mean?”

“What would make a man give everything up to come out here?”

I shook the dice and spilled them out across the deck. “I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Prince. What made you leave England if all your family is there?”

His jaw twitched again. “You’ve come to find your father. I’ve come to get away from mine.” Once more, that subtle layer of anger laced his voice.

“Why? What did he do?” I moved my tokens like an afterthought.

He paused. “He didn’t do anything. I did.” And then he shook the dice and threw them, abruptly, as if he’d said too much. A three and a six. He started moving the token in the wrong direction.

“Captain Claggan isn’t exactly pleased I’m here,” he added, and the change in subject caught me by surprise. “Did you know he came with that first mate of his, last night after Montgomery was asleep, and dragged me to the rail? He was going to throw me over until I told him I had relatives in Australia who would pay dearly for my safe return.”

My hand was frozen in midair. The game suddenly didn’t seem to matter anymore. “Did you tell Montgomery? He won’t let the captain get away with that.” I shifted on the rough floorboards. “Just the same, it’s lucky about your relatives.”

He gave me a guarded look, though something like amusement peeked through. “I don’t know anyone in Australia. I just made that up. I sought passage on the first ship I could from London, regardless of its destination. The Viola just happened to be it.”

“So what happens when you get to Australia and he finds out there are no wealthy relatives?” Once we were gone, without Balthasar and bribery and guns, Edward Prince would be on his own.

His fingers drummed on the wooden board. The last ray of sun slipped below the horizon, casting half of his bruised face in shadows. “I don’t know.”

A cry from the crow’s nest made me drop the token in my hand. The castaway and I exchanged a breathless glance.

“Land ho!” the watchman called.

NIGHT HAD FALLEN QUICKLY that day, obscuring the land the scout had spotted. The sailors sent Edward back to the galley and me to my quarters and told us to stay there. But obedience wasn’t one of my virtues. I found Montgomery on the quarterdeck speaking in hushed voices with Balthasar below the glowing mast light. The captain and first mate stood by the gunwale with a lantern held above the sea charts.

I leaned over the rail and studied the black horizon. Moonlight reflected on the waves like scales of some dark dragon. I couldn’t tell where the night ended and the sea began. Between them, somewhere, was my father.

Montgomery caught sight of me and rushed over, a spark of energy to his movements. I’d forgotten that this place was his home. He pointed to the horizon. “It’s volcanic. Do you see the plume?”

My mind scanned the horizon for dark shapes, but my eyes found nothing to settle on. Then I discerned a faint line, like a column of smoke, rising to the stars.

“I see it. It looks so far away.”

“A league and a half maybe. There’s a sandbar around the harbor, so we’re here for the night. We’ll dock in the morning.”

“What about Edward?”

The boyish excitement on Montgomery’s face faded. He studied the cold sea. “What about him?”

The edge in his voice made me hesitate. “We can’t just leave him here. You said yourself—”

“He can’t come with us.” He cursed under his breath and leaned on the rail. “I shouldn’t have said anything before. It’s impossible.”

“But why? It isn’t safe here. There’s no doctor, and the only reason the captain hasn’t thrown him overboard is because he thinks he can ransom him once they reach Brisbane, which is a lie.”

“You don’t understand. It isn’t safe on the island either.”

I looked back at the island. The plume of volcanic smoke snaked toward the dark sky like tendrils escaping a gentleman’s pipe. My eyes found a single light, halfway up the hill, the only sign of civilization.

“Not safe?” Surely he wouldn’t have let me come if it wasn’t safe.

Montgomery took my shoulder and turned me away from the island. His face softened. “There’s no room, I mean. We’ve one extra bedroom, which you’ll have. He’ll have no place to stay, and there are wild animals in the jungle. Besides, your father is a very private man. He’d be furious if I brought a stranger.”