Darius looked at them a little too shrewdly and smiled, oddly very civil. “I do believe you can,” he said, and with a little salute, he backed out and left, still whistling that God-awful tune.
As they sat down to eat, Daniella still smiling and James itching to take her back to bed, he damned plots and scheming to hell and wished for the day when they could leave it all behind them.
*
Morning arrived far too soon and Daniella found her nerves stretched tighter than the dark sails leading them to their destiny. She fretted over what her father would say. She worried about James and his family and how being married to him would change her life. She hadn’t said yes under false pretences but she would not give up the sea. If he wanted her for his bride, there were negotiations to be had.
For months she’d thought of nothing else other than what it would be like to be forced into a union with a tyrant of a man such as any one of Anthony’s “friends.” Lately she had begun to wonder what it would be like to be joined instead to a man who wouldn’t demand complete control over her every whim and fancy. Yes, James infuriated her, sometimes she even wanted to kill him, but at the heart of everything he did was his instinct to protect those he loved. Of course James didn’t speak out of love or any such similar nonsense. She was just another female to protect—though the previous night had also made it clear he desired her. She was glad of that.
Yawning in the cold light of day, she hugged herself and stared at the ocean—and land, beginning to come into view through the lifting fog. It would be a cold day, not that it mattered whatever the weather. Nothing would change their course now.
Darius had already announced they were to dock and then take a carriage the rest of the way. He was taking them to Kirkcudbright. Her father should have received word about the debacle and be waiting for them. Now all they could do was follow.
James came to stand behind her and draped his coat over her back and arms; the heat from his body enveloped her and calmed her somewhat.
“Do you think it worth attempting escape once we are on land?” he asked. They—she, Hobson, Patrick and James—had been talking over their options since the other two men were brought to their cabin in the early morning.
Daniella and James were dressed in their days-old clothing, waiting, the atmosphere sombre, moods ranging from fury to resignation. They’d made love all through the night, neither wanting much sleep if they were soon to be killed anyway. She knew his touch, his taste, and his desires. She’d behaved shamelessly, even begging for his mouth and hands on her body and then returning the favour with a willingness that stunned him. Long gone was the time for hiding or acting coy. She was free with James to be the woman she wanted to be. He didn’t make her feel shame in the darkness. He worshipped her body again and again and again. Never had she felt this kind of power.
It was intoxicating.
And temporary.
Anything could happen yet. A stray bullet in a fight. The navy appearing out of nowhere and blowing them all to smithereens. This was a part of the planning no one could predict.
“I don’t think we should try to escape,” she sighed and leaned back into him, uncaring that Hobson and Patrick saw. What did it matter anymore?
“Why not, lass?” Hobson demanded with a thump of his hand on the table. “Have you both gone soft? Or has being cooped up addled yer brains?”
James surprised them all with a chuckle. “Never had I thought you would ever accuse me of going soft, Lieutenant.”
Hobson spluttered for a moment and then sat back in his chair. “So you do have a plan then?”
Daniella shook her head. “The only plan is to let Darius take us to the meeting point. Once we are in the township, he won’t be able to kill any of us without causing trouble for himself.”
This time it was Patrick who revolted. “I don’t think he’s going to kill us but to just go meekly to whatever fate does await?”
“Patrick, you didn’t see Darius almost throw me overboard yesterday. We don’t know what he’s capable of. Hopefully I will be sold back to my father and you will all be sold back to James’s family. I will make sure his mother and sister are returned to him if they are still aboard The Aurora. Then you five will be free to do as you please. We do not want to goad him into further action.”
“You are forgetting one pertinent little fact, my dear,” James reminded her.
“I haven’t forgotten,” she replied, a small smile curving her lips.
“Hmm,” he murmured his discontent, the rumble vibrating through her body.
“Well, I fer one don’t like it,” Hobson stated loudly. “Why should we give up now and hand over the control? We should try to escape and negotiate the hostage swap the same as we were going to originally.”
“No,” James told him. “It’s too risky. Just like that day on the boat, when we should have let ourselves be ransomed. Instead we fought and men lost their lives. And their legs,” he added. “I’ll not take any further risk for the sake of control.”
Daniella muffled a giggle with a cough.
“What?” James asked, his arms tightening as he leaned over to intimately place his chin in the curve where her neck met her body. A curve he now knew well.
“If you’d have asked me at the beginning of this week if the Butcher could willingly hand over control, I would have laughed and said not a chance. Look at you now, all grown up into a man.”
“Minx. At the beginning of the week I thought
