Christmas Wedding Belles: The Pirate's Kiss / A Smuggler's Tale / The Sailor's Bride. Miranda Jarrett

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СКАЧАТЬ hand. ‘All the things of which you accuse me—the selfishness and the recklessness and the love of danger—they are all true.’

      Lucinda’s eyes flashed. ‘But it is iniquitous for the Admiralty to treat you so when you have worked for them! Justin Kestrel should be ashamed if he leaves you to hang!’

      Daniel’s lips twitched. ‘Your sense of fair play is admirable, Lucy,’ he said quietly. ‘But in your haste to acquit me do not forget that I have ruined you. I am as bad as you have painted me.’

      ‘That’s true,’ Lucinda agreed. ‘You are still a lying, deceitful and manipulative beast, even if you are not a traitor.’

      Daniel smiled at her. ‘Thank you.’

      Lucinda fidgeted and looked away, though she allowed her hand to remain in his. ‘So, if Justin Kestrel will not come to our aid, we have a couple of days of this…this purgatory…until they get word that you are not Mr Jackson Raleigh and then we are both hanged.’

      ‘That’s about the size of it.’ Daniel’s squeezed her fingers. ‘But we shall escape before that.’

      Her eyes flew to his. ‘Shall we?’

      ‘Of course. In fact we are about to do so. It is always best to escape early on, with the element of surprise.’

      Lucinda raised her brows. ‘I see. And I admire your confidence. So how is this cunning plan to be achieved?’

      ‘I am not sure yet,’ Daniel admitted. ‘But I know I will think of something.’

      Her shoulders slumped slightly. ‘How reassuring.’

      He put his arm about her. ‘Whatever happens, Lucy, you are coming with me. You have to now.’

      She looked down her nose at him. ‘I have to do no such thing. Why should I?’

      ‘Because, as you so succinctly pointed out a few moments ago, I have ruined you,’ Daniel said calmly. He had had no time to think anything through beyond an absolute certainty that he had to put matters right for Lucinda. It was the one good thing that he could do—even if it would be the last. ‘You will come with me and you will marry me.’

      ‘What makes you think that I will have you?’ Lucinda said, with a flash of hauteur. ‘You are no great catch.’

      Daniel grinned. ‘Being married to me will be better than trying to marry off the brats of the nobility for a living. Trust me on that.’

      ‘You always had an inflated opinion of your own charms,’ Lucinda commented. ‘I cannot believe that you are using the opportunity of us being locked up together to press your suit. I will not marry you, Daniel, and that is final. You are the least reliable man on earth, and I would have to be mad or desperate or both to accept you.’

      Daniel was thinking quickly. He was sure that if the worse came to the worst he could barter information for Lucinda’s freedom. Justin and Sally Kestrel could help her, if not him. She could go to Allandale, do the work that he had been too weak and too wild to do. At least she would be safe…

      ‘Marry me,’ he said again. ‘Please, Lucy. It is the only way in which I can put matters right.’

      ‘I have no wish to be a pirate’s wife,’ Lucinda said. ‘If we escape I would be obliged to sail with you, and I am the world’s worst sailor. Merely sitting in a rowing boat makes me sick. It is a miracle I was not ill aboard the Defiance.’

      ‘You were too busy quarrelling with me to notice,’ Daniel said ruefully. He spread his hands. ‘You need not sail with me. I inherited Allandale from my cousin just a month ago. You could live there—’

      ‘You are Lord Allandale now?’ Lucinda’s eyes widened.

      ‘Yes. Which is why I need to know there is someone I can trust to take care of the estate.’

      Lucinda’s gaze snapped onto him. ‘You need an estate manager, not a wife!’ She hesitated for a moment, and then looked at him very directly. Her tone changed, turned sad. ‘I cannot wed you, Daniel. Do not press me to it. Oh, I care for you.’ She laced her fingers together a little awkwardly. ‘And ’ tis true that I respond to you—’ Here she blushed, and he wanted to kiss her very much. ‘But I do not trust you. You will always put yourself first. You always have and you always will. And I could not bear for you to break my heart again.’

      She stood up, smoothing her skirts, and crossed to the window. She stood with her back turned to him, her arms folded tight about her as though she was cold, and though Daniel wanted to take her in his arms, to hold her and comfort her, he knew she would not let him touch her. What could he say? That it would be different this time? That he cared for her and would never hurt her? He knew it was true, but trust had to be earned and he had forfeited the right to hers.

      ‘Look!’ Lucinda said suddenly. A note of excitement had crept into her voice. ‘It is snowing outside!’ She paused. ‘You will have observed that there are no bars at the window, Daniel?’

      Daniel had already noticed. ‘Given that there is a drop to the ground of about twelve feet,’ he pointed out, ‘I cannot see that it benefits us.’

      Lucinda ignored this. ‘We are at the back of the building, and all it faces is a wall,’ she continued. ‘And this door is solid, so the guards cannot see what we are doing in here—and anyway, they are away down the corridor…’

      Daniel smiled. ‘An intriguing thought, Lucy. You are putting ideas into my head.’

      ‘Try thinking of escape rather than seduction,’ Lucinda snapped. ‘Mr Chance has been lamentably lax in leaving us so ill-guarded.’

      ‘I think he was rather trusting to the fact that you are a respectable widow,’ Daniel murmured dryly, ‘and that I might actually have been telling the truth when I said you could vouch for me.’

      Lucinda cast him a look. She was ripping a length of material from her skirt, wincing at the tearing noise it made, and then another, which she knotted to the first. This left her with her gown bodice still intact, but nothing but petticoats below. Daniel stared at her shapely garter-clad legs, feeling his throat dry.

      ‘What the devil are you doing?’ he managed.

      Lucinda edged the sash window up.

      ‘If the guard comes in, hit him over the head with the chair,’ she instructed. ‘Only try not to hurt him too much. I do not wish to be accused of murder as well as conspiracy!’

      Daniel raised his brows. ‘Lucinda—’

      She gave him a fierce frown. ‘Hush!’

      She tied the end of the makeshift rope to the desk and gave it an experimental tug. Then, before Daniel could protest, she had thrown the other end of the rope out of the window and climbed out. Forgetting his duty with the chair, Daniel rushed to the window and looked down. Lucinda was standing in the snow, her breast heaving slightly with the exertion of her climb down the rope, her face upturned to his. Flakes of snow were settling on her eyelashes and she brushed them away. Her impatient whisper floated up to him.

      ‘Do you intend to join me, or do you prefer to wait at His Majesty’s pleasure?’

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