The Raider (Montgomery/Taggert 9)

Alex didn’t know whether to laugh or be enraged. He’d been hating his father these many weeks, yet his father had known all along. “You kept your secret well.”

“Can’t say the same for you. If it hadn’t been for some of us in this house protecting you, you’d have been long dead.”

“Jess helped me a few times, but she was helping a man other than her husband. She has no idea I’m the Raider.”

“She does, too!” Nate said, then subsided under Sayer’s glare.

“What?” Alex gasped. “Nathaniel, I’ll raise blisters on you if you don’t tell me the truth. Does Jessica know I’m the Raider?”

Sayer put his hand out to his son. “Of course she does. She’s known since you kissed her in this room. I thought you’d been tormenting her long enough and I wanted an end to it. Jess is a good girl and she didn’t deserve what you were doing to her.”

“But she said my kisses weren’t—And that my hair—” He stopped and shook his head. “I’ll get her for this.”

“She was prepaid,” Sayer snorted. “Can you forget your bride for a moment and concentrate on the pearls? You think Pitman believes the cove is full of pearl-bearing oysters?”

Alex told of seeing Pitman. “He’s offered Jess four times what the cove is worth.”

“My money,” Sayer muttered. “Tell Jess to hold out for more money. I’ll get all the Montgomery money back yet.”

“I didn’t know you knew of his embezzling.”

Sayer gave his son a cold look. “What was I to do? Accuse my own son-in-law? Haul him before the courts? You may have no loyalty to your family, but I do.”

Alex just smiled. He was so pleased that his father didn’t believe he was a weakling and a coward, that nothing could make him angry. He toyed with the lace at his sleeve. “How many pearls did you plant and how many have been found?”

“With this one and the one Pitman found tonight, I’d say there are three left. If Jess waits, he’ll raise his offer.”

“And what happens if he finds out he’s being played for a fool?”

“He’s too greedy to see that. Now, the two of you may be young enough to do without sleep, but I’m not. Go on and go to bed. And you, boy,” he said to Alex, “go in to your wife and stop this charade. You can trust her.”

“Yes, probably,” Alex said noncommittally. “To bed, Nate,” he ordered and followed the boy to the door. Then, on impulse, he turned, hugged his father and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for believing in me.”

“Humph!” Sayer snorted. “When I make a son, he stays a son and doesn’t change.”

Alex smiled. “I’m as good as Adam and Kit?”

Sayer looked as if Alex had lost his mind. “When I see those two I’ll let them know what I think about their not coming to help us when we needed them. I’ll tell them about leaving you here all alone to save an entire town.” Sayer took Alex’s hand. “And I’ll tell them what a goddamn fine job you’ve done of it, too.” Sayer chuckled. “Even won the hand of a beauty like Jessica without so much as removing your wig. You’re a Montgomery all right, boy, and one of the finest.”

Alex left his father’s room feeling twenty feet tall.

* * *

Eleanor was laughing at Jessica as her sister struggled under the weight of two buckets of hot water.

Jess gave her sister a malevolent look.

“It’s your own fault,” Eleanor hissed at her. “You’re the one who continues playing the game. Tell Alex you know he isn’t ill.”

Jess shifted the buckets. “He thinks I think he’s dying. Until he trusts me enough to tell me the truth, I cannot tell him what I know.”

Eleanor threw up her hands in despair. “You’ve made it nearly impossible for him to tell the truth. All right, have it your way. Wait on him until your fingers fall off, for all I care.”

“Thank you,” Jess said and started down the hall with the hot water.

“He knows,” Sophy said. “Alexander knows she knows he’s the Raider.”

“Of course he does,” Eleanor said. “But let them play their lovers’ games.”