Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak Page B

Nathaniel was still a baby? It would
have been far simpler back then.”
    “I don’t know. She was
probably afraid of the duke at first, afraid for Nathaniel. And she
wanted him as her own. She went to London and lived in hiding for
several years. Then she heard about your birth and decided, since
you were a girl, that the duke might welcome Nathaniel back after
all, especially when he saw that the boy’s arm was no handicap. She
knew she could never give Nathaniel all the duke could, so she
risked her life to take him home—and she paid the
price.”
    “Could the duke be so
evil?”
    Trenton’s eyes became as
hard as flint. “You have no idea.”
    “Listen,” she said, hoping
an honest appeal to Trenton might help her case. He seemed like a
decent man. “I’ve not heard any of this before. I’m not Lady Anne.
I don’t even know her or the duke. Can’t you see that? If you don’t
let me go, I’ll miss my boat to India and then—”
    Frantic banging at the
door made them both jump as Nathaniel’s voice came through the
panel.
    “Trenton! Let me
in.”
    Trenton appeared relieved
by the sound of his captain’s voice, but Alexandra suspected he was
equally glad to be saved from having to respond to her entreaty. He
crossed the room and threw back the bolt, and the pirate captain
pushed inside.
    “We must go. Now,”
Nathaniel told him, a determined look on his face.
    “What happened?” Trenton
followed his friend around the room as Nathaniel stuffed into a bag
what few belongings he had brought with him the night
before.
    “Mary’s been found out. My
father’s on his way here.”
    “But what about Richard?
And her?” Trenton indicated Alexandra with a nod of his
head.
    Nathaniel lowered his
voice, but Alexandra could still hear his words and the anger that
infused them. “He’s coming after us, so he must have no plans to
release Richard, even for her.”
    “What do we do
now?”
    “She goes with
us.”
    “Why? What good would that
do?”
    “What other choice do we
have?”
    “She’s no good to us if
the duke won’t trade for her. I say we let her go.”
    “Not on your
life.”
    “But the Royal Vengeance is no
place for a woman!”
    “That’s the way things are
for now.” Nathaniel held his bag next to his body so he could tie
it shut with his hand. “We’ll simply have to do the best we
can.”
    “It’s too dangerous. Even
if we could keep our own men from molesting her, the Vengeance could take a
ball and sink, or we could lose our lives in the middle of a
boarding. Then what would happen to her?”
    Alexandra held her breath
as she awaited Nathaniel’s response. Besides the dangers Trenton
had already enumerated, she knew Aunt Pauline would be long gone if
she didn’t get away from Nathaniel and his men soon. Please listen to him, she prayed. Let me go. Let me
go.
    “Then her life shall rest
on my father’s conscience. He had the chance to rescue her, and he
didn’t take it,” Nathaniel responded.
    Alexandra felt her heart
plunge to her knees.
    “Nathaniel—” Trenton
began.
    “Look,” the pirate captain
interrupted, “when my father’s played his ace and comes here only
to find us gone, maybe he’ll see that we’re serious and agree to
the trade. If we let Anne go, there’s no telling what he might do
to Richard. Things are too precarious to go after our own right
now. My father’s been counting upon our taking the bait all
along.”
    Trenton nodded, and
Alexandra could have guessed his next words before he spoke them.
Concession, pure and simple.
    “Then we have no
choice.”
    “None.”
    “But how can we go?”
Trenton asked. “We don’t have much by way of supplies. We weren’t
planning on leaving for another three days.”
    “Get what you can,”
Nathaniel told him. “Regardless, we sail tonight.”
    Trenton crossed to the
door, then turned back, his hand still on the knob. “Where
to?”
    “To the Black Sea. One of
my father’s ships is heading