Surrender (5 page)

Surely, they wouldn’t shoot her. Nor would they hang Finn. Would they?

She turned around and walked tentatively toward the door to the hall.

As she did so, there came a tapping on it. She froze. “Yes?” she said cautiously.

“May I come in?”

A female voice had spoken. Alaina’s?

She hurried to the door, throwing it open. She was met by a woman near her own height, slender, exotically beautiful. Her hair was raven dark, her eyes a golden hazel. Her features were finely formed. She moved into the room with a subtle scent of perfume and pure grace. She had Indian blood, Risa realized quickly, which was what gave her such rare and unusual beauty. Unnerved, Risa moved back slightly, aware that anyone here could be her enemy.

“How do you do, Miss Magee, I’m Jennifer.”

Risa didn’t move or reply.

“Ian’s cousin. Jerome’s half sister,” Jennifer explained.

Jennifer. Risa knew the name. Always a good friend to Alaina. Her husband had been killed at Manassas at the beginning of the war. The loss had devastated her.

“Jennifer, of course … it’s a pleasure,” Risa murmured.

Jennifer smiled. “Jerome said that you’ll be leaving with him as soon as he gets back. I thought you might be sleeping so I hesitated coming here, but I wanted to make sure that you had found fresh clothing—he said you’d had a boating accident, I’m so sorry. It was wonderfully gallant of you to come here on Alaina’s behalf, what a dear, good friend! No wonder Ian loved you so. And Alaina, too. Well, she was frightfully jealous of you at first, but then she wrote more and more frequently about how good you were to her. Oh, God, I’m babbling, but then war does that to people. Anyway, I’ve prepared a dinner tray for you. Since you’re still awake, I’ll have it brought in.”

“Thank you, and please, stay, talk with me,” Risa said. A boating accident indeed!

“Let me get your tray—”

“No, no, please, don’t bother. I can come to the kitchen or the dining room—”

“Don’t be silly, it’s no trouble whatsoever.” Jennifer turned, heading out of the room. Risa started after her, only to discover that one of Jerome McKenzie’s stalwart young seamen stepped between them when she would have followed. He was a handsome chap with wheat-blond hair and a chin full of whiskers—newly grown, she thought.

“Excuse me,” she told him.

“I’m afraid not, ma’am.”

His voice was truly sorrowful but firm. Risa stepped back into the room, frustrated.

A moment later Jennifer was back with a tray. The aroma arising from it was tantalizing. Jennifer set it on the foot of the bed with a flourish. “Fresh snapper, pan-seared with citrus wedges,” she offered. “Bread beneath the warmer, tomato salad, and Key lime pie made from Belamar’s very special little lime trees. And, oh, Jerome left you the white wine, insisting it was best with this fish.”

“Can’t you join me—” Risa began, but broke off, hearing a sudden, shrill cry.

“Oh, dear, I’m afraid not!” Jennifer said with a laugh. “That was Anthony. My son. Do enjoy your dinner.”

Jennifer offered her a warm smile, as if Risa were truly a guest here, and disappeared out the door.

The door was left open. Risa hurried toward it.

She faced the same young seaman. The door closed.

She stared at it, swearing beneath her breath. So much for helping friends! She kicked the door, turned, and leaned against it, then tempted to take the dinner tray and throw it across the room.

But she realized suddenly that she was famished. She sat on the bed, stared at the tray, then tasted the fish. It was delicious. She ate half of it before her thirst brought her fingers curling around the wineglass.

She hesitated. Jerome’s hospitality. She’d like to drown the man in the wine. She took a sip, then another. The wine was good. Really excellent. The Reb had a definite taste for fine wine. Well, he was a McKenzie—even if he was from the more
savage
side of the family tree.

She finished eating, telling herself that it was important
that she do so; she’d need strength to escape her current situation.

When she finished, she set the tray on the dresser and started pacing again. What she had overheard tonight was important. She had done what she could for Alaina; now she must reach her own countrymen. There had to be a way to stop the attack on the
Maid of Salem
.

She continued to pace, worry about what to do plaguing her relentlessly.

Then, quite suddenly, she realized she was dizzy. She moved quickly back to the bed, thinking she was just barely going to make it. The world was fading, going dark.

As she collapsed on the mattress, she thought irritably that she couldn’t possibly escape if she was going to be so dizzy she couldn’t stand.

Exactly. She couldn’t possibly escape.

She had been drugged. It had to have been the wine.

From somewhere in the distance, she thought she heard the door opening. She struggled to open her eyes.

“Ah … she’s sleeping,” said a soft, feminine voice.

“Indeed,” a voice replied. Deep, husky, low. Jerome McKenzie. He was back.

Risa fought to awaken. She needed to know what had happened. And still, she couldn’t force her eyelids to open. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t find the strength to move.

“She’ll be leaving with me as soon as she awakens.”

“Poor dear. She’ll be unhappy on a Rebel ship.”

“She understands the situation.”

“Must you leave so soon?”

The door closed. Risa could hear no more. She struggled to awaken again, but the effort was futile. She drifted.

Noise again. Voices. Coming from somewhere down the hallway. She willed her eyes to open, and this time they obeyed. She tried to sit up. Her head felt like lead.

“She seems to be doing very well.”

She wasn’t doing well at all, she thought, but then she realized they weren’t talking about her.

Jennifer was speaking, and then the older woman with
the soft, gentle tones spoke again. Then Risa heard a low masculine voice, and her heart began to thunder.

Ian was here. The voice was
really
Ian’s. He was here!

She didn’t hear Alaina’s voice, but then she heard the older woman speaking again in her soft, richly accented voice.

“Boys, she’s going to be fine, the wound is clean, her pulse is strong. Ian, you can see for yourself. Her breathing is deep and steady. She received a surface wound, no more.”

Relief flooded through Risa as she realized from the conversation that they discussed Alaina. Jerome had found both Ian and Alaina, and they were all back here. And others were here as well. His Yankee family members. He couldn’t possibly keep her prisoner now!

She tried very hard to rise, but the room was spinning.

The voices came again, this time right outside her doorway. She heard the deep tenor of Jerome McKenzie’s voice as he spoke to whomever stood guard.

“Miss Magee is sleeping?” he inquired.

“Like a lamb, Captain.”

“Take the supply boat back to the
Lady Varina
, then, sailor, and I’ll be along before the crack of dawn. What of the
Maid of Salem
?”

“She’s headed this way, for a fact. The men caught up with her escort ship, Captain, as you commanded. They grounded her on the shoal, and her captain was a smart enough fellow. He surrendered her quickly—and assured the men that the prey we seek is on the way.”

“Losses? Injuries?”

“One Yank killed in the first firing; Jimmy Meyers took a ball in the leg, but it went clean through. He’ll be right as rain soon as he sobers up tomorrow.”

“The Yanks?”

“Beached, sir, with water and supplies. O’Hara reckoned as how you’d want to be sending notice they could be picked up by their countrymen
after
we’ve gotten our hands on the
Maid of Salem
.”

There was silence then. Risa struggled to sit, blinking furiously, shaking her head. Every movement seemed to be a tremendous effort, and she wondered what in God’s name the wretch had given her. She had to make it up
and down the hall—and she had to either disappear, or find Ian.

She managed to stand. It was an enormous feat. She staggered to the door and opened it, and felt a rush of delirious excitement to see that she had indeed been left unguarded. She set a steadying hand upon the wall, and moved at a snail’s pace along the hallway, blinking furiously all the while as great waves of darkness threatened to overwhelm her again and again. Suddenly, she froze.

A rush of inexplicable tears stung her eyes as she heard Ian’s voice. Pausing in the shadows while looking into the parlor, dimly lit by a dying fire, she could see that Ian stood with Jerome by the coral rock mantel.

It was easy enough even now to see how she had mistaken Jerome for Ian from the back; the men were of an identical height, broad-shouldered, well-muscled, but lean, lithe, and supple. They were men who had been at war now for two years, hardened by the battles they faced. Yet there was a reddish cast to Jerome McKenzie’s hair, and when he turned, his Indian heritage was quite visible in the strong rise of his cheekbones. Caught in firelight, his was a hauntingly striking face.

“There is no way that I can express my gratitude,” Ian was telling Jerome.

Jerome shrugged, and grinned rather awkwardly. “Sometimes blood is thicker than war.”

Ian nodded, smiling. “Indeed, sometimes blood is thicker than anything. It’s a pity we can’t end it here.”

“We both know that we can’t,” Jerome said softly.

“Right,” Ian agreed. “Aunt Teela said that Risa was sleeping. I won’t disturb her; you’ll tell her thank you, from the bottom of my heart?”

“I’m sure Risa knows how grateful you are.”

“She’s sailing with you?”

“So we agreed. I’ll have her to neutral ground just as soon as I’m able.”

“But Risa, after this … sailing on an enemy ship?”

“She understands my position here,” Jerome said with a subtly wry note.

“Ah, Risa would,” Ian said.

No! Risa wouldn’t! she thought.

Yet there was a note of sadness about Ian’s voice. He
loved his wife, that Risa knew. Yet once upon a time, he had loved her as well. They had spun dreams of a perfect future together. But that had been the past, so long ago now.

Ian offered Jerome his hand; Jerome took it in a firm shake. “I’ll say good-bye, then, first,” Ian told Jerome. “I’ve got to let my own men know I’m alive and well. Your folks and Jennifer are tending to Alaina for the few hours I’ll be gone.” He hesitated. “Take care of Risa,” he added softly. “This must be so painful for her, she’s such a Unionist, but I’m sure she did agree to sail with you; she wouldn’t allow us to kill one another in this wretched war over her own situation.”

Risa inhaled, hesitating, as she watched the cousins. She damned them both. Yet she must have made some sound that at last alerted them to her presence as she lurked in the hallway, for they broke apart and turned to her. Jerome instantly came to her, drawing her to his side, a supporting arm far too firmly around her.

“Miss Magee, you’ve awakened.”

“Amazing, isn’t it?” she murmured, staring at him. He was tense, eyes were narrowed in warning, the breadth of his body blocked her from seeing Ian.

“Damned amazing,” Jerome agreed, his voice lowering out of Ian’s earshot. “Don’t you dare seek help from my battle-weary cousin. You gave your word. Behave, Miss Magee, or I’ll hang you by the toes myself, I swear!”

“Don’t threaten me!”

“I’ll more than threaten!”

“You drugged me!”

“It was necessary; I apologize. But apparently, I didn’t drug you well enough. I mean it, behave, I warn you.”

She couldn’t reply; by then Ian had reached them.

“Risa, I’m so glad you’re awake,” he said. His blue eyes were so intense. His hair was roughly tousled; his cheeks were shadowed. He’d been through hell. He drew her from Jerome, cradling her against his chest with the deep affection of a good friend. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

“Alaina is all right, that’s all that matters,” she said.

“But now you’re set to sail with this Rebel scoundrel
cousin of mine, and all on our behalf. I thank you again.”

She felt his lips against her forehead, then she found herself drawn back. Jerome’s arm was firmly around her waist.

“We had best both be going,” Jerome said to Ian.

Ian’s eyes had a haunted look as he sadly stared at Risa.

He touched her cheek. “You’re certain that …”

She could cry for help right then and there. Ian would be honor-bound to demand she be given over to him. She knew Jerome’s plans; he couldn’t let her go. Someone could die. Blood could be spilled, here, now in this room.

“I will be fine, Ian,” she said, nearly strangling on the words.

He squeezed her shoulder. She closed her eyes, not able to stop herself from thinking about what might have been. When she opened her eyes, he was gone.

“Where …” she murmured.

Jerome was watching her. “Neither of us knows where the other goes once we leave; we don’t ask. Belamar is sacred; neutral ground for we McKenzies. It’s time for us to be going as well.”

“Wait!” she cried, startled as he propelled her toward the door. “I haven’t seen Alaina, I haven’t the strength, I—”

“You had plenty of strength to slip down the hall and try to enlist my cousin’s aid against me!” he accused her.

“I was merely—”

“Trying to escape. When you had given your word. Don’t you remember? You were to behave, I was to keep your friend alive.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I was—I was not trying to escape. Not really. I was just walking in the hallway. Yet I warn you, if you’ve harmed Finn—”

“Miss Magee, you are a bald-faced liar, you were most definitely trying to escape. Yet you may thank God that I never meant to risk human life on the virtue of your word.”

“Oh, how dare you say such a thing—”

“I often dare to speak the truth.”

“The truth as you see it!” she cried. “I can’t come with you. I’m dizzy. I—”

“You will walk; you must come with me.”

“I haven’t the strength; I’ll slow you down, I’m in a wretched state—”