Pirate's Golden Promise Read online

  Clutching his hand when she reached his side, she murmured, “Papa, I’m here.”

  Slowly Walter opened his eyes. “My pet, my pretty pet,” he mumbled. “So sorry. Forgive me.”

  “I have nothing to forgive you for, Papa. Everything is fine. I told Adam the truth, and he still loves me, wants to marry me.”

  Debra let out an audible groan, and Lucy clutched her throat with a white hand as they exchanged glances.

  Walter shook his head. “That’s not it—” He grabbed at his chest and gasped for air. “Will—will—” he repeated, until a huge choking sound rent the air, and then silence. His hands slipped from Wynter’s.

  “Papa, no! Don’t die!” Wynter cried.

  “He’s gone, my lady,” Maddie said and gently pushed her from the room when two house-servants appeared to care for Walter’s body. “He’s with his Sara and very happy now. You must believe that.”

  Wynter looked dazedly at her but was aware that Debra and Lucy had departed.

  “I loved him,” Wynter said. “They didn’t care for him at all.” Her voice broke and tears streamed down her cheeks, as Maddie led her to her room.

  “Shall I send for Lord Somerset?” Maddie asked her. “Maybe he can offer you some comfort.”

  Wynter shook her head. She felt unable to speak to anyone then or to be around people, no matter how considerate.

  Her heart was breaking, and she cried for her pain, and for her father’s pain at never marrying her mother. Through her watery tears, she saw the image of Cort Van Linden and remembered the way he had kissed her with mind-drugging passion, how alive she had felt. And she cried anew because she doubted that she’d ever feel so alive again.

  Adam held Wynter’s hand throughout the burial service in the chapel and the interment. Walter’s body was placed in the crypt beside the remains of Neville McChesney, and Wynter thought this would have pleased them both if they had known.

  Debra shed not a tear. To Lucy’s credit, she did cry a bit, but only because she felt her father had never loved her.

  When the service had ended, Wynter was surprised to see Estelle Montgomery and Cort Van Linden waiting in the rear of the chapel. She hadn’t expected anyone other than family members to be present and was touched when Estelle paid her respects to her first, rather than to Debra.

  “I know he loved you a great deal, Lady Wynter. My sympathies are with you.”

  “Thank you, Lady Montgomery,” Wynter said.

  Estelle spoke to Adam. “Congratulations on your betrothal. Take special care of Lady Wynter, as I know you will.”

  Was there some sentiment lurking behind Estelle’s words to him, an undercurrent of suppressed emotion between them, Wynter asked herself, hearing Adam’s short response that he would.

  Estelle moved off to speak to Debra and Lucy. Wynter knew this was a terrible slight to Debra, who as Walter’s widow should have been paid first respects, but the whole countryside knew that Walter had doted on Wynter and she was his special child.

  When Wynter’s gaze settled on the broad, dark chest in front of her, she shook a bit as she gave her hand to Van Linden for an obligatory kiss.

  “Accept my deepest sympathies for your loss,” he said. “Though I met your father only once, I found him to be a kind and intelligent man.”

  “Thank you for your kind words, sir,” she said and felt Adam stiffen beside her. Apparently he hadn’t gotten over the humiliating incident with Van Linden when he had been forced to back down.

  “If I can be of service—”

  “Good of you,” Adam ground out, “but Lady Wynter shall not need your assistance. I am taking over the running off the estate now.”

  “Ah, Lord McChesney’s passing has heaped considerable responsibility upon your shoulders. I hope you’re up to it, young pup.”

  “Shall I prove to you with the point of a rapier that I am?”

  Wynter didn’t care for this exchange of words. After all, her father had just been buried, and now Adam wished to duel with a cocky sea captain as a point of honor. If only Van Linden would learn to keep his comments to himself and not always rile Adam.

  “Please,” Wynter said, her voice filled with weariness and pain. “There is no point to such a challenge. For my sake, I suggest you both desist. And, Captain, though I appreciate your sympathies, I’d rather you didn’t call on me again.”

  Cort stiffened to an imperceptible degree, and the corners of his eyes crinkled into a polite but distant smile. “As you wish, and I hope you both shall be happy together.”

  He bowed, and Estelle turned from Debra and took his arm. Then they left the church and climbed into her carriage.

  Wynter and Adam left the chapel just as the Montgomery coach pulled away.

  “I’ve a good mind to silence that Dutch blackguard forever,” Adam grumbled.

  “Forget him. We must prepare for our future. Papa would have wished us to go on living.”

  He nodded. “Yes, you’re quite right.”

  They walked back to the house together, and Lucy watched them leave.

  “I hate her so!” she blurted out lowly to her mother.

  “I know, as do I, but there’s nothing to be done at the moment. We must bide our time and trust in God that things will turn in our favor.”

  “Mother, stop dreaming. Adam and Wynter will be married before Father is cold in his grave.”

  Debra pursed her mouth in a thoughtful expression. “I think not, though Somerset owes a great sum of money. I’m afraid the man you love, my dear, is quite mercenary. But that is in your favor.”

  Lucy shook her head in perplexity. “I don’t understand.”

  Debra didn’t totally understand either, but Walter’s last words kept whirling through her mind. “Will—will—” he had repeated. At first she hadn’t known what to make of it, but now a small light dawned, and she was determined to take advantage of the situation as quickly as possible.

  “We must send for your father’s solicitor in all haste, Lucy,” Debra said, and for the first time in years she smiled a dazzling, happy smile.

  CHAPTER

  4

  “Have you seen Lord Somerset this morning?” Wynter asked Maddie two weeks after her father’s death. “Usually he’s up and about by now.”

  “Aye, I saw him after he ate a hurried breakfast,” Maddie replied and finished filling the porcelain tub behind the silk screen in Wynter’s bedroom for her morning bath. “Didn’t say where he was off to.”

  “How very odd,” Wynter murmured and tied her hair atop her head with a ribbon. In fact Adam had been acting oddly all week, ever since he and Debra were cloistered in the library with her father’s solicitor. Wynter had asked him if there were any problems concerning the estate, and he had replied that he would take care of everything, so she put the thought from her mind. But if something were amiss, she decided she’d like to be informed. After all, the estate was her legacy.

  “Have Debra and Lucy breakfasted yet?”

  Maddie shook her head. “They were up and about early, too, and took off shortly after Lord Adam left. Lady Lucy asked me to curl her hair and iron her best dress.”

  Wynter laughed. “Lucy wished her hair curled? Indeed, something is afoot.”

  She didn’t think any more about their early departure and climbed into the warm tub. When she finished bathing and was pulling on her calico dress of a pink-and-green print which her father had ordered for her last year from China, Lucy entered the room.

  “Wynter, I’m shocked at you,” Lucy said, a catlike gleam in her brown eyes. “You’ve put away your mourning clothes before it’s proper.”

  “I’m wearing colored dresses in the house, but in public I shall still wear black. I don’t think Papa would have minded. He did like me to wear pretty things.”

  “Yes, he did, didn’t he? But you were always his pet and must look like a princess.” Lucy flounced around the room, her green gown swishing with her movements. “How do you lik
e my dress? I’ve decided to put away my black things for good. I think Father would understand, too. We never were very close.”

  “You look very nice,” Wynter complimented her and realized that she did. Lucy would never be a great beauty, but she appeared charming in the green silk with slashed sleeves that revealed a fine layer of gold cloth beneath, and her red curls lay wispily about her cheeks. This was so unlike the Lucy who preferred plainer clothes. Why suddenly did she wish to look so grand?

  “I’m pleased you approve. You are a lady of fashion, no matter the circumstances of your birth. Tell me,” Lucy prodded, “do I make a fetching bride?”

  Wynter’s fingers stiffened on the last button of her gown, and Maddie stopped her movements, picking up Wynter’s discarded nightclothes.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Oh, dear, Wynter!” Lucy put her hands to her face in mock horror. “Hasn’t Adam told you yet? I can see he hasn’t. Isn’t that just like him? He didn’t wish to hurt you until after the ceremony. We were married in the village this morning. I believe he might need to speak with you. You’ll find him in the library.”

  The room swam for a moment before Wynter’s shocked eyes. Was Lucy playing a horrid game with her? Adam would never marry Lucy, but from Lucy’s pleased expression, from the way her tongue twirled around her mouth like a cat who has leaped in midair and captured the bird, then gobbled it whole, she knew Lucy was telling her the truth.

  “But why?” Wynter managed to croak out, her mouth dry.

  “Why not?”

  “Adam loves me, not you.”

  Lucy shrugged her freckled shoulders. “Ask him.”

  “I will!”

  Lucy laughed in triumph as Wynter stormed from the room.

  “What a naughty girl you are!” Maddie reproved her.

  “Oh, darling Maddie, not even you shall spoil this day for me.” Lucy was laughing so hard that tears coursed down her cheeks. “I’ve finally bested her, and father can no longer help her. I’ve won! I’ve finally won!”

  A silence hung over the drawing room, thicker than the fogs that swept down from the hills on cold nights. Wynter stood by the window and gazed at the tranquil early morning scene of sheep as they munched the grass below the mountain range. Within her, turmoil reigned.

  She dropped the heavy damask drape she held back and faced Adam and Debra. Adam had the good grace to flush, while Debra sipped a sherry, a first for her since she hated liquor of any kind. But then today was a special day. Lucy had married Adam.

  “You’re to be congratulated. Both of you. I feel very foolish, very stupid,” Wynter told them and managed to hold back her tears. Rage overwhelmed her, saving her from making a complete fool of herself.

  “Wynter.” Adam came towards her, but Debra’s voice stopped him in mid-stride.

  “Please don’t make the situation more unbearable for Wynter by comforting her. After all, Lucy is your wife now.”

  “Wynter deserves an explanation,” he said harshly, and Debra’s eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch.

  She placed her sherry glass on the desk and stood up. “Yes, I think she does. I’ll leave you to explain it all to her.”

  When Debra closed the door behind her, Adam leapt forward and ensnared Wynter in his arms. “You must believe I love you, that I can never love Lucy!”

  Wynter pushed at him, but he refused to budge. “You married her!”

  “I did. I had to, because of your father’s will.”

  “The will? What about it?”

  Adam sighed. “I wished I didn’t have to tell you, but I suppose it’s better to hear it from me than from Debra. I married Lucy because of her inheritance.”

  “Adam, I have an inheritance, too.”

  He groaned her name, then looked levelly at her. “No, my darling, you don’t. You’re illegitimate. I’m sure your father intended to provide for you, but he never had the time to make out a proper will. He must not have realized how serious his health problems were and thought he’d be alive a long time. In fact, I think he probably would have settled something upon you when we married. He loved you very much.” Adam sadly shook his head. “Whatever you get will be because of Debra’s charity. Lucy is your father’s heir. Not you. The inheritance is the reason I married her.”

  The blood seemed to drain from Wynter, and though she detested Adam’s hands upon her then, she needed him to hold her up. She felt suddenly very weak. “I can’t believe any of this.”

  “Neither can I,” he said. “Lucy is such a plain, dull creature.”

  Thoughts whirled in her head. Her father had left her nothing, not a tuppence, and Adam, the man she loved, had betrayed her with her own sister. Oh, how triumphant Debra and Lucy must be! She had nothing to call her own, not even the roof over her head. If she hadn’t felt so devastated, she’d have laughed at the irony of it. She had been her father’s pet, his pride and joy, the light of his life, but he had not made arrangements for her future. Lucy had gotten it all!

  The anger built within her until she unleashed it, freeing her from her shocked state. “So, Adam, you married Lucy for her money.”

  “I had to. The creditors are hounding me like the devil. Try to understand.”

  “But I do understand!” She managed to pull roughly away from him, his touch disgusted her. “You had your choice of either of us, but you chose Lucy because she now holds the purse strings. You’re a despicable human being! How could I have thought I loved you?”

  Adam imprisoned her in his arms again, pleading with her. “You don’t mean that, my darling. Things don’t have to change between us, though I realize you’re hurt. I love you, Wynter, and refuse to lose you. True, I am married to Lucy, and she must bear my children. But when we have enough children, I’ll stop sleeping with her. Until that time, you can be my mistress, the woman I love. You’ll have my heart.”

  “Your heart?” Wynter screamed. “Why would I want such an untrue, wretched thing as that? I’ll never belong to you now, Adam. I hate you, detest you! You make me ill!”

  She pushed away from him, nearly stumbling in her rage. “I’ll never be your whore!”

  “The arrangement was good enough for your whore mother!”

  If he had slapped her she wouldn’t have felt such searing pain rush through her. God, he was right, there. Her mother had been her father’s kept woman, no better than a London doxy. How the truth hurt! But Wynter hated Adam more at that moment than she could ever hate her father or Sara. She knew it wouldn’t do any good to keep hurling angry words at him, and suddenly she didn’t care about him, or Lucy, or Debra any longer. She wanted to breathe free.

  She composed herself and managed a tight smile which took him aback.

  “Perhaps my mother loved my father more than I ever thought I loved you, Adam. I wouldn’t let you into my bedroom to polish my shoes, much less invite you into my bed. I do wish you happiness and hope you and Lucy have many years together.”

  As she wrenched open the door, she heard his voice raised behind her.

  “You’ll have a change of heart Wynter. By God, you will!”

  Wynter vowed to herself she wouldn’t. She’d rather die first.

  “I always knew he was no good.”

  “Yes, Fletch, I know you did.”

  “What do you plan to do now?” Fletch asked and stretched his legs.

  “I don’t know.”

  The early spring breeze caressed them. Wynter’s hair blew in gentle wisps around her cheeks. Large, fluffy clouds skittered across the blue sky, and from her vantage point atop the hill, Wynter felt close enough to touch them.

  “You know I’m leaving soon for Virginia,” he said.

  Wynter’s heart contracted. She’d forgotten. Was there no end to her disappointments?

  “Don’t remind me. I hate for you to go.” Her voice broke.

  Fletcher timidly took her hand. “I’ll always love you.”

  “Oh, Fletcher.” This time the tears w
elled up, and she found herself crying against his chest like a small child. Why couldn’t Adam have loved her like this?

  “Now, now, don’t cry.” He playfully chucked her under her chin until she looked at him. Then with his fingertips he wiped away the sparkling tears from her face. “I think I just may have a solution to all your problems. You can marry me.”

  “Oh, no!” she burst out without thinking.

  Fletcher looked hurt. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”

  “It’s not that. It would be a great honor to be your wife,” she said hurriedly, “but I can’t leave here. Part of Lucy’s inheritance is mine, the estate is half mine. I must win it back.”

  “How?”

  Wynter hunched her shoulders. “I haven’t decided yet, but I know one thing: I intend to buy the house and grounds from Debra.” They would all soon move into Somerset House, fulfilling the rest of Debra’s dream. Then the McChesney estate would be unlived in if Debra didn’t sell it to someone else.

  “Where will you get the money? I don’t know of any rich blokes from around here who’ll loan it to you now that you’re begging for it. The word will spread soon enough that you’re penniless. No one will go against Lady McChesney or want to offend the new wife of Lord Somerset. Now, when I make my fortune in the new world, foreign place that it is, I’ll be willing to give you whatever you need.”

  Wynter smiled. “Thank you for caring, Fletch. But I can’t wait until you work off your indenture. I need the money now.”

  They sat in contemplative silence. Where was she going to get the money to approach Debra to buy the estate? She knew such a transaction would require a great deal of money. Perhaps she could marry someone, maybe one of the young men who had been so taken with her at her birthday ball. She dismissed that. No one would marry her now. Fletch was right about word spreading. Before the week was out, everyone would know she was penniless and living on Debra’s charity. No, she decided. A great, dynastic marriage was out of her future.

  Yet there was one man she could approach, a man who seemed to have no shortage of either money or arrogance!