Captain Jack's Woman (Bastion Club 0.50)

“Aye.” Noah ducked his head.

“That’s it, then.” Jack scanned the faces, all weatherworn, most expressionless. “We’ll meet again Thursday as usual.”

With grunts and nods, the band dispersed, unobtrusively slipping into the night in twos and threes. The lamp was hauled down and extinguished.

Still Kit sat her crate, head down, her face hidden by the brim of her tricorne. Jack eyed her silent figure. His misgivings grew. What the devil was wrong now? He’d expected her to arrive, but her pensiveness was unsettling. Eagerness was what he’d been expecting after her efforts of Sunday afternoon.

George and Matthew joined him by the now open door.

“I’m heading straight home.” George spoke in a subdued tone, clearly aware Kit was behind in the gloom. He raised a questioning brow.

Jack’s jaw set. He nodded decisively. George slipped into the night.

“You’d best be on your way, too.”

“Aye.” Matthew went without question. Jack watched him mount and head south, through the shielding trees and into the fields beyond.

In the darkness behind Jack, Kit struggled to bring some order to her mind. Jack must have known about this latest “human cargo” since his visit to the Blackbird last Wednesday. Although she’d spent all Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon by his side, he’d not mentioned the fact. He’d not even alluded to it. So much for her ideas of learning of the spies ahead of time. Now, she’d less than twenty-four hours to make a decision and act.

When the silence of the barn remained unbroken, Jack turned and paced inside. He stopped where the moonlight ran out, and looked to where he knew Kit still sat. “What is it?”

At his impatient tone, Kit bristled, a fact Jack missed in the dark. Realizing her advantage, she took a long moment to weigh her strategy. She’d intended dissuading Jack from his treasonous enterprise; it was still worth a try. But the drafty barn, with its loose boards and warped doors, was no place to have a discussion on treason, particularly not with the person you suspected of committing it. “I need to talk with you.”

Hands on hips, Jack glared into the dark. Talk? Was she up to her tricks again? He was getting damned tired of her changes in mood. He’d thought, after Sunday, that their relationship had got itself on an even keel—that she’d accepted her position as his mistress. Admittedly, she didn’t know whose mistress she was, but he didn’t think she’d jib at the change from smuggler to lord of the castle. He didn’t think she’d jib, period.

Then he remembered she’d been watching him avidly when she’d first come in. Her attitude had changed later. An inkling of his problem blossomed in Jack’s brain. “If you want to talk, it’d better be back at the cottage.”

Kit stood and walked forward.

Jack heard her. He turned and strode to the door, not looking back to see if she was following. He went to where Champion stood tethered under a gnarled fir and vaulted into the saddle. He nudged the stallion into a canter, ignoring the horse’s reluctance. Champion’s gait didn’t flow freely until halfway across the first field, when Delia drew alongside.

Jack rode in silence, his eyes probing the shadows ahead, his mind firmly fixed on the woman by his side. Why should she get her inexpressibles in a twist over him smuggling spies? Did she even know they were spies? The road appeared ahead, and he turned Champion onto the beaten surface.

Edging Delia up alongside Champion, Kit glanced at Jack’s stern profile. It wasn’t encouraging. Far from dampening her determination, the observation strengthened her resolution. Matthew was Jack’s servant, George a too-close friend; neither had shown the slightest ability to influence Jack. Clearly, it was time someone forced him to consider his conscience. She didn’t expect him to like the fact she intended to be that someone, but male arrogance was no excuse. She’d tell him what she thought regardless of what he felt.

They turned south and walked their mounts up the winding path to the top of the rise. Kit watched as Jack peered down, automatically ensuring that they hadn’t been followed. The path below remained clear. She saw Jack grimace before he turned Champion’s head for the cottage. Setting Delia in Champion’s wake, she fell to organizing her arguments.

Jack dismounted before the stable and led Champion in. Kit did likewise, taking Delia to the neighboring stall. Having decided on her route of attack, she went straight to the point. “You do know the men you bring in and take out are spies, don’t you?”

Jack’s answer was to thump his saddle down on top of the partition between the stalls. Kit stared into the gloom. So he was going to be difficult. “You’ve been in the army, haven’t you? You must know what sort of information’s going out with your ‘human cargoes.’”

When silence prevailed, Kit dropped her saddle on the partition and leaned on it to add: “You must have known men who died over there. How can you help the enemy kill more of our soldiers?”

In the dark, Jack closed his eyes against the memories her words unleashed. Known men who’d died? He’d had an entire troop die about him, blown to hell by cannon and grapeshot. He’d only escaped because a charger harnessed to one of the guns he’d been trying to reposition had fallen on him. And because Matthew, against all odds, had found him amidst the bloody carnage of the retreat.

Champion shifted, nudging him back to the present. Unclenching his fingers, he grabbed a handful of straw and fell to brushing the glossy grey coat. He had to keep moving, to keep doing, letting her words, however undeserved, wash over him. If he reacted, the truth would tumble out, and, God knew, the game they were playing was too dangerous for that.

When Kit realized she wasn’t going to get any verbal reaction, she plowed on, determined to make Jack see the error of his ways. “Just because you survived with a whole skin doesn’t mean you can forget about it.”

Jack paused and considered telling her just how little he’d forgotten. Instead, he forced himself to continue mutely grooming Champion.

Kit glared in his direction, uncertain whether he could see her or not. She grasped some straw and started to brush Delia. “Smuggling’s one thing. It might be against the law, but it’s only dishonest. It’s more than dishonest to make money from selling military information. From selling other men’s lives. It’s treason!”

Jack’s brows rose. She should be in politics. He’d finished rubbing Champion down. He dropped the straw and headed for the door. As he crossed the front of the cottage, he heard a muffled oath from the stable. As he went through the doorway, he heard Kit’s footsteps following. Jack headed straight for the keg on the sideboard.

Kit followed him into the room, slamming the door behind her. “Well, whatever…” Her voice died as she blinked into the black void left once the door had shut. She heard a muttered curse, then a boot hit a chair leg. An instant later, a match scraped, then soft light flared. Jack adjusted the wick, until the lamp threw just enough light to see by. Then he grabbed his glass, half-filled with brandy, and dropped into the chair on the other side of the table, his long legs stretched before him, his eyes broodingly watching her.

“Whatever,” Kit reiterated firmly, trying to ignore all that lounging masculinity, “you can’t continue to run your ‘human cargoes.’ They may pay well, but you’re running too great a risk.” She glared at the figure across the table, as inanimate as the chair he occupied. In the low light, she could barely make out his features, much less his expression. “What sort of leader knowingly exposes his men to such dangers?”