“Perhaps he ignored you and you retaliated with your ill-thought-out plan?”
Damn him. That’s exactly what she had done. Desperate measures for desperate times. Still, she couldn’t very well tell him that. “I am not five years old, sir.”
His long sigh floated across the desk. “Yet you behave as though you are.”
*
Pressing a finger to his temple to ease the growing pain there, James stared at her across the table, trying his hardest to ignore the flash of her ankle as she tucked her feet beneath her. “How do you even know your father hears of your antics?”
So far Miss Germaine had been quite free with her answers, more than he would have been if captured, but this time her gaze shuttered and only her anger showed. “He has me watched.”
“How do you know that?” James barely suppressed his eagerness. Maybe her brother had already been informed he had her?
“Because I’m not a simpleton. Send Hobson here to have a look around. I’d wager there is at least one man watching the house.”
“Aye, don’t even have to look. Felt his eyes on me when we came up the walk. Good at his job too. Didn’t realize on the road that we were being followed.”
He flicked his gaze from the smugness in Daniella’s to the certainty in Hobson’s. “And you didn’t think to mention something like that?”
“You want the captain to know the miss is with us, don’t you?”
“You two seem far too casual with what happened here tonight. Hobson, pirates are dangerous criminals. I should like to know when one loiters around my home. And you, Miss Germaine, had better hope you’re right. Without a sure way to inform your father I have you, we could be stuck together riding up and down the coast for the better half of the month.”
“Or we could go straight to him.”
He leaned forwards once again. “You said you had no way to contact him.”
“I don’t—he and my brother made sure of that—but I do know where he docks The Aurora, and I happen to know what times of the year he makes for home and how long he usually settles in.”
“And where is that?” The chit was a liability. He wondered if that’s why her father got rid of her. She talked far too much.
“First, what is the plan? You said you had one.”
He nodded. “One I may need to rethink now depending on how far we are to travel.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell you where he is. I might yet decide to escape.”
James laughed. As much as he didn’t want to, he admired her tenacity. “Escape? Not likely.”
“You haven’t completely convinced me you know what you’re doing.”
“Convinced you?” No, this was the reason the captain had dropped her off and sailed away. She was far too cocky.
“You’ve barely told me anything. In fact, you still haven’t told me what my father has that you want back so desperately.”
“And nor shall I.” He stood and walked around the desk, or rather, stalked. When he was close enough, he reached out and dragged her chair so she faced him, his large hands on the arms to trap her there. “Just so we’re clear on the details, Miss Germaine, I am in charge here. You are my prisoner. There will be no escape. There will be no quarter so long as your father has what is mine. If I have to use you to get his attention, believe me, I will do whatever I must to achieve my ends. Do you understand?”
She gulped once, the smooth line of her throat giving her away. But then she firmed, her back straightened and she rose nose to nose with him, her bare toes sinking into the rug under his feet. “You may think you’re in charge, my lord, but you have no idea who you’re dealing with. You work on the assumption that my father will care that you have me, though he has in fact abandoned me, and may simply consider you a happy solution to my unmarried state. You can clearly not rely on me as bait, but I have his location and you have the means to travel there. Could an agreement between us not be mutually beneficial?”
James stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you remember a fight two years ago, on the Channel, just off the coast of Calais? Your father flew French colours and took an army vessel disguised as a cargo ship?”
She paled.
“I rather thought you would. Your ship sustained damages as did your captain.”
“You were there?”
“I was.”
“You stabbed my father in the leg? That was you?”
“It was.”
“If he finds you, he’s going to kill you.”
He rather doubted that. “I assume that’s why he stole from me.” Why he toyed with him now.
Curiosity flashed in her eyes while she thought about that. “He’s drawing you out? But why?”
The last part of her question he imagined she asked herself but he answered anyway. “I hurt his pride. I escaped his capture and therefore cost him several ransoms. Several very lucrative ransoms. I would be upset with me too.”
“But he didn’t need the gold and we don’t hold to pride the way you English do. He would have admired you for escaping if it hadn’t been for…”
“For what?”
She had her head down but he could practically hear her thoughts. “If it hadn’t been for what?”
“I can’t be right. There must be something else you’re not telling me.”
He shook his head. He nearly shook her. “There isn’t.”
“Then you have to tell me what he took of yours. Otherwise it just doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?” he roared and leaned towards her. His mother and sister depended on him to save them and she was the key. He didn’t have time for guessing games.
“Revenge,” she whispered, her green eyes wide.
“For escaping? You said he didn’t have pride.”
“I did not.” She slipped past him to lean against the mantel. “I said hurt pride wouldn’t make him do something like this.”
“But revenge would? I
