The Captain of All Pleasures (Sutherland Brothers 1)

Although her whole body weakened before his eyes, she spoke with increasing fury. "You know because you're responsible."

"I'm responsible?" He bit back a laugh as he rose off the bed and walked across the cabin. "I have no reason to hurt anyone's ship," he said with amusement, and poured a glass of brandy from the all-but-empty bottle on his desk.

"You hurt my ship," she countered while he took a large drink.

"It was dead before I even got there because you'd gutted it in the straits," he said. "You should be thanking me. If I hadn't plucked you off that sinking ship, odds are you would be dead by now."

She was silent as she obviously sought to remember and decide whether he was correct. Finally, she replied, "It's true you saved my life. But I can assure you that I didn't hit anything."

"I suppose the Bella Nicola just sank itself."

She exhaled in impatience. In her condition, it sounded more like a sigh. "She sank because someone sabotaged her."

"You're planning to stick to this ridiculous story? So be it." He lifted his glass to her in a mocking salute. "Here's to veracity."

She glared at him. "Will you let me go with my crew at the Cape?"

"No." Another drink as he made his way back over to the bed.

"That's kidnapping," she cried out hoarsely. She weakly moved farther away when he sat back down.

"No, it's justice, you conniving little witch." He saw her aversion and shot off the bed again. "After what you did to my crew, I have every right to punish you."

"What I did to your crew?" she asked in confusion. She feebly massaged her temples.

It was too easy to see her as an innocent young woman, alone after a tragedy. But he knew what she really was. She was the daughter of his most hated adversary, and he himself had dragged her out of his storage room right after she'd poisoned their water.

Disgusted, he turned to leave. Just before he reached the doorway, he looked back, angry and wanting to hurt her as he'd been hurt. But she appeared completely bewildered, and when a single tear trailed down her cheek, he cursed himself for a fool and stalked out. Though not before he heard her rasp, "And to think I was worried about you!"

Nicole woke again hours after her confrontation with Sutherland, too weak to move. A cursory survey of her body told her that she was badly off. She had never thought she'd bruised easily, but there lay her body, black and blue. And though she seldom cried, when she thought of the Bella Nicola scattered along the bottom of the ocean, the tears spilled forth, easily and unimpeded. She told herself she'd broken down because of the shock and injuries. The truth was that she cried because the life she had always known, had always wanted, was lost to her and her father and Chancey forever.

For what seemed like hours, she lay conjuring up memories of her ship and trying to freeze them in her mind. Her reveries were interrupted when a slim man with a crop of light-blond hair and a cherubic expression entered the cabin.

"Oh, I'm so very sorry for not knocking. I thought you'd be asleep," he said as he approached her bed. "I am Dr. Bigsby, the ship's surgeon, and I've been caring for your more serious injuries."

"How bad am I?"

"You gave us a little scare when you didn't wake for the first three days. But now that you're up and speaking, I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"Three days...I was out for three days?"

"That's correct. The rest is helping you mend." He took a small glass lens out of his medical bag and moved it to her eye. "Now, if you will look up...to the left, and right. Very good, with the other eye, please."

When he'd put away the tool, she asked, "What's happened to my crew since we were taken?"

He answered reticently as he took her pulse, "Well, there was that, um, trying-to-take-the-ship incident, but none of them were gravely injured. I made sure they were given adequate water and food. When you woke, I was able to assure them that you were doing much better."

"I can't believe they mutinied."

"Yes, though close, the coup was not a success."

"And Chancey? Is he all right?"

"He's prowling the hold like a caged tiger, but calmed a bit when I told him how well you're being treated."

She grabbed the doctor's hand in an anxious grip. "Oh, thank you, Dr. Bigsby. Thank you so much for that."

At that moment, Sutherland entered the room, his cold gaze settling on their hands like frost.

"Bigsby--outside. Now," he barked. The doctor looked from Sutherland to her before bravely patting her hand in encouragement. "I'll be back," he said, then followed the captain out.

She couldn't make out what they said, but Sutherland returned alone.

"You will not need the surgeon's help anymore." He shut the door on the doctor still standing in the corridor.

She flinched. His voice was so severe and gravelly, so different from the placid voice of Dr. Bigsby. She eyed him warily as he started moving around the cabin gathering dry clothes. No matter how hard she fought it, how much she wanted to be on her guard with him in the room, sleep overcame her again.

Then wood crashed down against wood--her body jerked in response, but there was nowhere to run....

Her eyes flew open. She wasn't on her ship? She was warm, dry...safe?

The door to the cabin had been thrown open. A sickly boy with ashen skin brought in a food tray and plopped it on the floor, causing the contents to slosh out over the tray.

Through locks of straggly hair that fell over his eyes, he looked down at the spilled food, mumbling something about how she "shouldn't even be given a cursed crumb."

At the doorway, he turned to give her a hostile glare with his sunken eyes before slamming the door. Then, just as Sutherland had done that morning, he locked it behind him.

What? Did they think she could escape the ship? Idiots!

After some time, she slowly levered herself up in the bed to determine whether she could bend down for the food without passing out. In the end, she decided she wouldn't even try, and not just because of her injuries. She couldn't eat when a boy she'd never seen had looked at her with such spite. She reasoned that, at worst, he would give as good as he thought he'd gotten and put something dangerous in the food. At best, the little cur would probably spit in it. The effort to raise herself was just too daunting, and her strength ebbed away as sleep returned.

They made Cape Town four days later. Nicole still suffered headaches and slept for most of the day. Derek had hoped she'd sleep through their docking and the jettisoning of her crew.

As he watched his men steering the tied-up sailors on the deck, he understood that wouldn't be happening.

Because Chancey began to yell.

"Nic, be strong--yer a Lassiter!"

As he drew breath to yell again, the sailor in charge of Chancey looked askance at Derek, who nodded in reply. So when Chancey began, "Get away from him in Sydney and I'll come for--" he was interrupted by several blows to his stomach.

Derek cast an uneasy glance at the companionway. The commotion might have woken her. She could hurt herself attempting to get up. Not a minute later he yanked open his cabin door; as he'd expected, she lay crumpled on the floor, just as she'd dropped.

He swiftly scooped her up and winced at how light she'd become. She'd lost weight in the last few days. He vowed that he would make her eat more.

His thoughts were distracted when she grabbed at his collar with both hands and whispered, "Don't do this, Sutherland. Please don't do this." Her face was drawn, and it looked as if those words cost her a great deal of pain.

But he wouldn't be swayed. He couldn't. The sooner he had that crew off his ship, the safer his own men would feel. He had to think of them first.

"I have no choice."

"Then please, please, don't let them be hurt." Her gaze was fierce as she visibly put on a strong front, but he could see that she faded. The tension rapidly left her body, and she passed out again.

Chapter 16

O h, yes, yes. She's up a

nd about," Dr. Bigsby bragged a week later to anyone who would listen. "She has blooms in her cheeks again. Strong girl, that one."

Derek marveled that the man could miss the threatening looks and harsh glares from the sailors, newly recovered themselves. They weren't exactly waiting on tenterhooks to hear about her rally.

"Captain Sutherland, there you are!"

Derek inwardly groaned when the surgeon turned his attention to him.

"How is our patient today?" Bigsby asked in a cheery tone.