Andrea Kane Read Online Free Page B

actions.
    She felt the earl hesitate, then walk around and reach for her, drawing her against him until her face was buried in the wool of his coat. Gratefully, she accepted this small measure of comfort. “I’m sorry,” she choked out.
    “No. I’m sorry.” Gently, he cradled her head to still any sudden, jarring motions. “If I could undo this loss for you, I would.”
    “He can’t be gone.” Her hands balled into fists, digging into Slayde’s shirtfront. “He isn’t gone. I won’t believe it.”
    “I know,” Slayde replied, with a conviction only firsthand experience could afford. “And you don’t think you can withstand it. But you can. Not now, but later. For now, cry. Cry until the tears are gone.”
    Courtney did just that, weeping until there was nothing left inside her, nothing but a hopeless, unending void.
    At last, she drew back, gratefully taking Slayde’s proffered handkerchief. “You’ve been more than generous, Lord Pembourne. Once again, I thank you.” Shakily, she eased herself down to the pillows. “I’ll tell you everything I recall. It’s the least I can do.”
    A muscle worked in his jaw. “Are you up to it?”
    “Yes.”
    He pulled over a chair and sat, fingers gripping his knees. “Tell me what happened—the details.”
    Ghosts haunted her eyes. “That monster and his crewmen—I believe there were about six of them—boarded the Isobel…”
    “When?”
    She frowned. “My sense of time is still muddled. How long have I been here?”
    “A day and a half, nearly two.”
    “Then it was five days prior to the night you made your exchange when he seized our ship. He forced Lexley—that’s Papa second in command—to thrust Papa overboard. He imprisoned me below. I was permitted no visitors, food, or water. He tied me to a chair and left me in my cabin. Hence, I was privy to very little of what occurred topside, until the night when they dragged me up and shoved me into that sack.”
    Hope died in Slayde’s eyes. “So there’s nothing you can relay.”
    “I didn’t say that.” The screaming pain in her skull was back, but Courtney refused to succumb to it. “First of all, I can describe the scoundrel from head to toe. He was broad and stocky, with curling black hair, black eyes, and a thickening middle. He wasn’t young—about forty, I should say. His nose was scarred. It had definitely been broken—my guess is more than once. He wore a silver ring on the little finger of his left hand. It was engraved with the letter A.”
    Slayde’s brows rose. “You certainly scrutinized him closely.”
    “Very closely.” Courtney’s chin jutted forward. “I memorized his features, his walk, his voice. I intend to identify him the precise instant I next see or hear him, at which point I intend to kill him for what he did to Papa.”
    “I see.”
    “Yes, I believe you do.” Courtney swallowed. “In any case, he made repeated trips to my cabin to ensure I was properly bound, muttering about how I was worth a fortune to him and about how much smarter he was than the two of them—whoever ‘they’ are.”
    “I assume he was referring to my great-grandfather and Geoffrey Bencroft, the late Duke of Morland.”
    “Morland—wasn’t he the other nobleman who vied with your great-grandfather for the recovery of the black diamond when it first disappeared?”
    “I’m impressed.”
    “Don’t be. I’ve spent many years at sea listening to Papa’s crew spin their yarns. And your family is legendary.” Courtney shifted a bit, the resulting slash of pain across her ribs nearly making her cry out. “Where was I? Oh, the pirate kept boasting about the wonderful hoax he’d engineered, a hoax that would win him his treasure.”
    “Indeed.” Slayde’s mouth thinned into a grim line. “And that hoax was you.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Aurora—my sister. You bear an uncanny resemblance to her. At least in all the ways that would matter to that greedy snake: your