“Welcome back, Gray. Good to see you, too.” The man’s gaze shifted to his companions, then back to Gray.
“What can I do for you, man? My sister tells me there’s been a misunderstanding about the Kestrel.”
“Seems so,” Jenkins said. “Gray, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us straightaway. We’ve orders to hold you until the judge has a chance to question you and decide on charges.”
“There won’t be any charges,” Gray said, chuckling. “But I’ll be glad to come, just as soon as I’ve seen to my passengers and crew.”
The man looked uneasy. “It’ll have to be now, Gray.” He made a motion to the two men in back, and they stepped forward, holding a pair of shackles between them.
Gray took a step back. “Surely there’s no need for chains.” He looked from one soldier to another. “I’m a patriot. I brought more than sixty prizes into this harbor and surrendered them all to the Crown. Burton knows that.”
“Burton’s been gone eight months. The new judge—he’s called Fitzhugh —well, he wants you brought in wearing chains, public-like. Fond of display, this one.” Jenkins shuffled his feet. “We’ll leave the shackles loose. Just come willingly, Gray. Let’s not make it an ugly display.”
Gray swore with exasperation, but he didn’t resist. Stepping a few yards back, he held out his hands. Jenkins directed the two younger soldiers as they fitted metal bands around his wrists.
Sophia touched Miss Grayson’s shoulder. “He’ll be fine,” she whispered, as much to herself as to her companion. “He’s done nothing wrong.”
“I know.” The young lady sniffed. “Dolly always finds a way out of these things.”
“Who’s Dolly?”
“Why, my brother.”
Sophia blinked. Was there a third Grayson brother with square-tipped ears?
“You probably call him Gray,” the young lady continued, giving her a cautious smile. “Most people do.”
Dolly was Gray? Oh dear. No wonder his sister was the sole lady on earth permitted to address him by his Christian name.
The soldiers began shackling his legs now, working awkwardly to fit the bands around Gray’s ankles.
“I thought his name was Benedict,” Sophia murmured.
“Oh it is, but that was our father’s name. He’s always gone by his middle name, Adolphus. Dolly.” Miss Grayson turned to her. “You know my brother quite well, then. Forgive me the lapse in etiquette, we haven’t even been introduced.” She dropped a little curtsy. “I’m Isabel Grayson. Were you a passenger on the Kestrel?”
“No, I left England on the Aphrodite. Didn’t Joss mention me?”
Miss Grayson shook her head. “We didn’t have much time to speak. But if Dolly says I’ll be glad to meet you, I have a fair guess …” Suddenly she grasped Sophia’s hand. “You must be one of Mr. Wilson’s friends, with the West Indian Missions League. I’m so glad you’ve come. We’ve so many plans for the sugar cooperative. And we can take you to the judge. Even if he won’t believe Dolly, surely he cannot discount the testimony of a missionary.”
A missionary? Sophia’s mind whirled. Of all the preposterous assumptions … oh, but if only it were true. Then she might have been some help to Gray. But she, a fallen woman, a liar and a thief, walking into a courtroom to speak on his behalf? She could do his cause nothing but harm.
Oh God. He was better off without her.
Finally, the soldiers finished their task. At the sight of her brother in chains, Miss Grayson began to weep.
“All right, Jenkins,” Gray muttered, his voice seething. “I’m wearing your shackles. I’ll come willingly. Surely you can spare me a minute first.” At the command in his eyes, the men fell back a few paces.
Gray turned to his sister. “Bel,” he said quietly, “there’s a handkerchief in my breast pocket. Take it.” She obeyed, and wiped her eyes. He smiled down at her. “Now is this any way to greet your prodigal brother? I’d planned to come home a respectable tradesman.” He glanced toward Sophia. “Not just that, but a family man. Instead, I stand before you as a pirate in chains.”
He laughed, but Sophia wanted to cry. Once again, his best efforts at brotherhood had been twisted and distorted by fate. She could see in his expression how it wounded him. The thought of tainting Miss Grayson’s prospects, being the cause of that pain …
“Just the same,” he teased his sister, “I’d rather hoped for a kiss.”
Miss Grayson gave him a tremulous smile and went up on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“That’s better. Now don’t worry. I’ll have this straightened out directly.” His eyes went back and forth between Sophia and his sister. “In the meantime, the two of you can become acquainted.” He rattled his chains, adding a self-deprecating roll of his eyes. Then he walked a few paces back, toward the men.
Sophia’s dizziness increased, and the dock seemed to roll beneath her again. She felt as though she would become ill, or fall. And with Gray chained like a criminal, who would catch her?
She closed her eyes. If she ran now … he couldn’t catch her. She had to go. If she were a better person, a good person, she might have gathered the courage to tell the truth and accept her fate. She might have even been able to help him. But if she were a good person, she would not have been here in the first place. She didn’t know how to change her colors, any more than a dolphin-fish knew how to change its iridescent scales.
She knew how to lie. She knew how to run.
There was only one way she could set Gray free.
She rushed after him as he ambled down the dock, joking with his captors.
“Gray,” she whispered, clutching his bound wrist.
“Don’t be anxious, sweet,” he murmured, low enough that only she could hear. “I know these men. I’ve lined their pockets for years. They’re not going to hang me. I’ll have it all sorted out soon enough.”
“I’m certain you will.” She swallowed back a wave of nausea. “But … I won’t be here when you do.” He deserved this much, to hear it from her. Just as Toby had deserved the same. Gray was right. She didn’t regret the things she’d done, but what she’d left undone.
He tensed. “What do you mean?”
“I have to leave.”
He stared at her, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“My courses came,” she whispered. “There’ll be no child.”
“You know that’s not the reason—”
“No, it’s not the reason. It’s not why I’m leaving.”His expression hardened to anger. “What the devil are you saying?”
Be strong, she told herself. Cut the line cleanly; don’t dangle false hope
. “I just have to leave. Gray, please don’t make this harder than it is. You don’t understand.”
His hand encircled her wrist, like a cuff. “You’re damned right I don’t understand. And I’ll be damned if I’ll make it easy. Were you lying to me when you agreed to marry me? When you told me you …” He lowered his voice. “When you told me you loved me?”
“It doesn’t matter if I love you.”
He swore violently. “It matters to me.”
Surreptitiously, she wrestled against his grip. She kept her voice low.
“Gray, we can’t be together. We just can’t.” She finally wrenched her arm from his grasp and turned away, her gaze dropping to her feet. He made a motion toward her, but the chains cut it short.
“Look at me, damn it,” he growled.
She did. “Gray, I—”
“If you leave me, I will follow you. And I will find you. I’ve the fastest ship on the sea, and boundless determination. I don’t lose what’s mine.” His eyes burned into hers. “I will find you.”
She shook her head. “Please,” she whispered. “Don’t try. You won’t find me. You don’t even know my name.”
He flinched. Good. She’d struck a blow.
Soldiers took him by either arm. Gray tried to shake them off. “I’m not done here, damn it.”
“Sorry, Gray,” Jenkins said. “It’s time we took you in. Your sister can visit you at the jail.” He gave Sophia a cautious look. “Don’t know about your sweetheart.”
“I won’t be visiting,” Sophia said. “And I’m not his sweetheart.”
He winced this time, as if she’d dashed saltwater in an open wound. Tears stung her eyes. She whispered, “Go with them. Don’t let them drag you by the chains. You wouldn’t want Bel to see you that way.”
“Listen to the lady, Gray.”
The men pulled him back a step, and Gray’s feet moved under him. He hesitated, still staring cold fury into her eyes. “We’re not finished. I will find you.” Then he turned and let them lead him away.
Oh, Gray. We were finished before we began.
Miss Grayson came to her side, crying into her brother’s handkerchief. Together they watched him disappear down the dock. The crowd parted around him as the soldiers marched him into a narrow street and out of view.
There, it was done. She’d never hold him again. The pain of it threatened to split her in two.
“Will you be coming with me, Miss … ?” Miss Grayson asked. “I’m so sorry, I never did learn your name.”
Sophia turned to the young woman. The irony twisted in her heart. Hathaway, Turner, Waltham … She might assume any identity she wished, claim any name for her own.
Any name, that is, save the one she truly wanted.
Mrs. Sophia Grayson.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Joss. What the devil is going on?” Gray shuffled into the dank cell. The guard released him from his shackles and left, clanging the door shut and securing the formidable lock.
His brother rose to greet him. “Evidently, we’re pirates.”
“Says Mallory, I gather.”
“Yes.” Joss sank back to a crouch and leaned against the wall. “Swine went for the officers the instant we made port. I should have kept him in the brig until you arrived.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Joss shrugged. “He kept shouting and spitting. It was damn annoying.”
He swiped his cuff across his face. “Besides, I didn’t think they’d pay him any mind. Your reputation is worth gold here, quite literally.”
“It was. Not any longer, I gather.”
“Once the judge hears your side of things, he’ll set us free.”
“Damn right, he will.” And he’d better do it soon. She thought to leave him, did she? There wasn’t anywhere she could go, on this island or from this island, that he couldn’t follow her. A few hours’ delay, even a few days
—he’d track her down. And when he did, this time he would demand some answers.
Gray looped an arm through the bars of the door. “What’s Mallory told him? Do you know?”
“That we attacked the Kestrel without provocation, destroyed her cargo.”
Joss lifted an eyebrow. “Shot down her mast with our cannon.”
“The blackguard.” Gray made a fist around the bar. “Why didn’t I let him go down with his miserable ship?”
“Ah, I expect you were enjoying playing the hero too much. Bent on impressing the ladies, you know. How is the lovely Miss Turner, by the way?”
Gray’s chest deflated. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Good God, man, what did you do?”
“I asked her to marry me.”