Blue Velvet

Kate?'

'When I left her, she was curled up asleep.' Beau paused deliberately. 'In my bed.'

There was a flicker on Brenden's face that might have been pain and then it became totally impassive. 'I see.'

'Is that all you've got to say?' Beau could feel the fury blazing up in him and made a futile effort to control it. 'Is it such a common occurrence that you don't even raise an eyebrow? Aren't you even going to ask if I enjoyed her?'

'No, I'm not going to ask you that,' Brenden said heavily, turning back to stare out to sea. 'That's between the two of you. It's none of my business.'

'Funny, I thought it was very much your business. Kate was willing to throw herself into my bed to bail the three of you out of the mess you'd gotten yourselves into. Evidently that kind of commitment only goes one way.'

Brenden was silent, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

Beau drew a deep breath. 'I don't know what the devil I'm getting so hot about. If her so-called friends don't care that she's willing to make a prostitute of herself, why should I?' But he did care and the fact that it did matter made him even angrier.

Brenden's glare was glacier cold. 'Kate's not a prostitute. Before you throw that first stone, you might consider you were willing enough to take advantage of her generosity yourself and no doubt will again at the next opportunity. Julio's been having a chat with the crew and what he heard about your way with women doesn't make you sound like an angel.'

'I never claimed to be a celibate,' Beau said, his eyes smoldering. 'But I'm no pimp either.'

'And neither am I,' Brenden snapped back, obviously stung. 'If I'd been myself I would never have let her do it.'

'But you're not rushing down to my cabin to pull her out of my lecherous clutches,' Beau said sarcastically. 'You seem amazingly complacent about the whole business.'

'Not complacent,' Brenden said, his voice heavy with weariness. 'But for once in my life I'm trying to be practical. What's done is done. It's up to Kate if she wants to stay where she is. If she doesn't, I'll find a way to help her.'

'It's not likely she'd make that choice, once she'd made a bargain,' Beau said with a sardonic smile. 'Even I know her well enough to know that and you sure as hell should.'

'Yes, I know that.' Brenden's eyes met his. 'And perhaps it's just as well in the long run.'

'For you?'

Brenden shook his head. 'For her.' He smiled sadly. 'You've just taken pains to tell me what a lousy protector I've been. Maybe it's time I let somebody else have a shot at it.'

'You're absolutely astonishing,' Beau said blankly. 'You've never seen me before in your life, yet you're willing to trust Kate to me. What's to prevent me from using her any way I please and then kicking her off the ship at the next port?'

'Nothing,' Brenden said. 'Except for the fact that since the minute you saw me, you've been reading me the riot act for treating her so badly. It doesn't seem likely you'd do that and then go off and do the same thing yourself.' He shrugged. 'And when you get tired of her, I think you’ll be generous. You're obviously a very rich man from what Julio gathered. You'll see she's secure until she is able to take care of herself.'

'You're speaking as if I'm some Regency buck offering an obliging mistress carte blanche.' Beau shook his head dazedly. 'Kate was right. You're something from the eighteenth century.'

'It takes one to know one.' Brenden's brown eyes were narrowed and shrewd. 'I think you may be something of a throwback yourself, Mr. Lantry. There aren't many men who wander around the Caribbean on a sailing ship entangling themselves in situations like the one at Alvarez's last night.'

'Don't depend on it.'

'I learned a long time ago not to depend on anything,' Brenden said. 'But I still find it difficult not to hope.' He suddenly looked much older. 'Particularly when it comes to Kate. She's always given so much to everyone. I'd like to think that there's justice somewhere in this god-awful world.' His hands closed tightly on the rail. 'She sure won't get it as long as she sticks with me. She could have gotten herself killed last night. Despard doesn't play around, he goes straight for the jugular.'

Beau tried to hold on to his anger. Damn it, he would not be sorry for the appealing old reprobate. 'I doubt if it's the first time. Why this sudden attack of conscience?'

'Maybe I'm getting too old to fool myself anymore, ' Brenden said. 'Time has a way of fraying our illusions around the edges.' His lips twisted. 'It has a habit of transforming dashing pirates into shabby petty criminals. Anyway, I've decided to opt out of the dreams game,' he said gloomily. 'I'm going to reform.'

Beau's eyes narrowed suspiciously on the other man's face. 'Reform?'

Brenden nodded. 'There's a nice little widow who owns a coffee plantation on Santa Isabella, an island not too far from here. I've been keeping company with her off and on for the past five years.' His mouth curved in a rueful grin. 'She doesn't understand about pirates and smugglers either. A very practical lady, Marianna.' His face softened. 'But loving, very loving. I think I'll just have you drop me off at Santa Isabella and see if she's still interested in a more permanent relationship.'

'And what about your friend Julio?'

He shook his head. 'He'd never leave Kate. He puts up with me, but Kate makes his world go around. It's been that way since she yanked him out of the guerrilla army four years ago in El Salvador.'

'Guerrilla army?' Beau asked. 'She said he was eighteen now. That would have made him only fourteen.'

Brenden nodded. 'The guerrillas raid the villages and round up all the able bodied males and 'draft' them into the army.' His lips tightened grimly. 'Some of them aren't over eleven or twelve years old. The other side is almost as bad. Julio was a big strapping kid even then, so he was a prime candidate. He'd been running errands and doing the shopping and cooking for us for about three months and Kate took a real liking to him. She was almost wild when she heard what happened to him.'

'So she went after him.' It was a statement, not a question. It was the kind of impulsive action Kate would inevitably take.

'We went after him,' Brenden said. 'And almost lost our scalps in the process. We ended up taking off in a hail of machine-gun bullets. Kate was afraid the civil authorities would try the same thing so she wouldn't even let us stay in the country. ' He shook his head. 'Pity. I had to scratch the caper I was putting together.'

'How unfortunate,' Beau said ironically. 'I imagine revolution-torn countries are very conducive to your line of work.'

'They are rather,' Brenden agreed. 'All that turmoil…' He trailed off and straightened briskly. 'Well, I'd better hunt up Captain Seifert and ask him to set course for Santa Isabella. He says we're just outside Castellano territorial waters so it shouldn't take more than a few hours to reach there.' He arched an eyebrow. 'With your permission, of course.'

Beau nodded curtly. 'I said I'd take you wherever you wanted to go. It was part of the bargain.'

Brenden flushed. 'Ah, yes, the bargain. Well, at least you appear to be a man who keeps his promises.' He started to walk away, then paused, his wistful gaze returning to the wild free beauty of the billowing sails. For a moment his expression once again revealed that he was full of the dreams he'd said he'd abandoned. 'Did you know that John Hancock was rumored to be a smuggler, Mr. Lantry?'