Addicted to the Duke (Imperfect Lords #1)(61)
“Then it seems pointless making a choice to marry when we reach Corfu. I’m not really any safer.”
Jacob turned from the railing to look at her. “You’re a brave woman. You fought off Connor, never giving up. Love is the grand prize, and if there is a chance Alex can erase his ghosts and leave his terrible past behind him, then your heart’s desire might be in your grasp.” He looked her in the eye. “Is he worth waiting for—fighting for?”
A smile formed on her lips. She didn’t even have to think. “Oh, he’s worth it.”
“That’s my girl. Don’t let Foxhall or Bedford decide your destiny, or Cary for that matter.”
Jacob was right. She’d been looking at this wrong. She was letting men dictate her life. First her father, then her experience at the hands of Murad, then Fredrick, and now Alex.
“Are you married?” she asked.
Jacob turned back to look at the sea. “Only to the sea. She’s a tough mistress. Just look at her beauty. But every now and then, if you take her for granted she punishes you.”
“You don’t get lonely?”
He let out a dry laugh. “It’s hard to be lonely on a ship full of men.”
Hestia sighed and looked down at the deep blue sea below her. “I’ve been alone most of my life. I hate it.” She didn’t care who heard her when she yelled into the wind. “I want to share my life with someone who wants to share it with me. Someone who can put me first.”
“Someone who loves you,” Jacob ended for her.
“Yes.”
Jacob nodded. “Very wise. There is nothing worse than living with someone and still feeling alone.”
She gazed up at the old and wise sailor standing beside her. “I think we need a plan to ensure Alex survives his reckoning with Murad.”
“I do have some ideas,” he said.
“I knew you would.” She slipped her arm through his and suggested, “Let’s take a stroll around the ship and you can share them.”
—
David stood looking through the small grill, his lantern affording him very little detail of the captives held within, although the smell told him the state they were in.
He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one had followed him into the deepest recesses of the bilge where Connor was being kept under lock and key.
Suddenly a bearded face peered at him through the grill in the sturdy oak door. Straining against the chains at his neck, hands, and feet—virtually helpless—Connor could only snarl at him.
“I don’t need no doctor, unless of course you’re here to free me.”
David stood looking at the man, more animal than man, and tried to feel pity. He had taken an oath to preserve life, but his hands itched to strangle the sneer off Connor’s face at the thought of what he would have done to Hestia if he’d managed to abduct her.
He bent down and opened his doctor’s bag and withdrew a scalpel before standing and approaching the door.
“I’m not here to free you. I’m here for information. Either you can give it to me freely, or I know exactly where to cut, jab, and poke to make your pain unbearable.”
The sneer vanished from Connor’s face.
“I’ve already told Jacob everything I know.”
“Why don’t I believe you? Besides, I’m not sure Jacob asked the right questions. I, however, want some specific information that I don’t think you’ve shared with anyone.”
In less than half an hour, with Connor minus one eye, David had what he needed.
—
In the end, Hestia refused to go ashore while they went after the sloop. Alex had to admit she was probably safer on the Angelica anyway.
As soon as the sloop ascertained the Angelica’s intention, it tried to tack away, heading to hide in a group of smaller islands near the northern tip of Corfu. But Jacob positioned the ship to block their attempts by firing a few cannons over their bow.
Hestia watched the action from inside her cabin, peering through the tiny porthole. The standoff lasted almost four hours before Jacob managed to land a cannonball so close to the sloop that the white flag ran up the mast as a sign of surrender.
To her utter disappointment, when they drew up alongside the sloop and boarded her, Fredrick Cary was not on board.
She watched Jacob’s men drag the captain of the sloop on board. She stepped away from the porthole and tried not to think what they would do to the man for information.
This is why she hated the Mediterranean. Honor and fairness slipped away on the currents. Men became the creatures of nightmares.
She hoped that Jacob’s plan could keep the nightmares at bay.
Chapter 17
Alex sat through dinner like a lion with a thistle in its paw. He wanted to roar every time Hestia bestowed that special smile on David and not him.
Tomorrow afternoon they’d reach Corfu and she’d make a decision.
He might have to watch her walk away from him, and even though he knew that was for the best, it was killing him.
He had yet to tell David what he’d done, or why he should be the one to marry Hestia. It would strain their friendship, and if she chose Alex he would never have to admit to his actions. What would be the point of upsetting his friend if she picked Alex?
Just then her eyes met his and the look of longing and love in them took his breath away.