Free The Prize by Brenda Joyce Page B

is no, so perhaps we could even spend the night
together."
    He chose not to
respond to that. He had never allowed any - woman to spend a night in his bed
and he never would.
    Her expression
changed; she appeared annoyed. "I have been ordered to remain in London
for a fortnight! It's a miracle that you are here, too, so I should not be so
put out, re-ally."
    "Why?" he
asked mildly.
    "Eastleigh's
American niece is on her way to London. She is aboard the Americana and
we expect her in the next ten days."
    He was mildly
surprised. He hadn't even known that there was a niece, much less an American
one. He was very thoughtful. "You have never mentioned a distant relation
before," he said calmly.
    Elizabeth shrugged.
"I suppose there was no reason to do so, but now she is an orphan and she
is coming here. Eastleigh intended for her to remain in a ladies' school over there, but I imagine she thinks to latch on to our coattails. Oh, this is just
what I do not need! Some uncouth colonial! And what if she is beautiful? She is
eighteen, and Lydia is only sixteen! I have no interest hi having an American
orphan compete with my daughter for a husband, and by all rights, the colonial
is the one who should be married off first!"
    Well, now he knew how
old Elizabeth's eldest daughter was. He smiled slightly, wry. "I doubt she
will outshine your daughters, Elizabeth, not if they are as beautiful as
you." His reply was an automatic one, as he was thinking now, hard and
fast.
    Eastleigh's niece was
on her way to Britain aboard an American ship. He was about to be given very
specific orders to sail west to interfere with American trade there but not to
harm any American ships. The niece was clearly unwanted and just as clearly
she would soon be in his path.
    Could he use this bit
of information? Could he use her?
    "Well, thank you
for that!" Elizabeth said. "I am just annoyed at having to take her
in. You know how pinched we've become these past few years. It has been one
thing after another. We cannot afford to bring her out properly, Dev, and that
is that!"
    Devlin nodded. There
was no guilt. He remained very thoughtful and it became obvious what he must
do.
    Eastleigh might not
want the girl, but he wanted scandal even less. Oh, how he would enjoy pricking
the fat earl one more time! He would seize the ship and take the girl and force
Eastleigh to pay a ransom he could ill afford for a young woman he did not even
want.
    Devlin began to
smile. His heart raced with excitement. This was a stroke of fortune too good
to be true—and too good to be ignored.
     
     

Chapter 3

     
    Late
May, 1812 The High Seas
    They were being attacked!
    Virginia knelt upon
her berth, her gaze glued to the cabin's only porthole, gripping a strap for
balance as the ship bucked wildly in response to the boom of more cannons than
she could count. She was in shock.
    It had all begun
several hours ago. Virginia had been told that they were but a day away from
the British coastline, and that, at any time, she might soon see a gull
wheeling in the cloudy blue skies overhead. Soon afterward, a ship had appeared
upon the horizon, just a dark, inauspicious speck.
    That speck had grown
larger. She was racing the wind— the Americana was tacking slowly across
it—and it appeared that the two ships would soon cross paths.
    Virginia had been
taking sun on the ship's single deck and had quickly become aware of a new tension
in the American crew. The ship's commander, an older man once a naval captain,
had trained his binoculars upon the approaching vessel.
                                   
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    It hadn't taken
Virginia long to realize they were worried about the identity of the
approaching ship.
    "Send up the
blue-and-white signal flags," Captain Horatio had said tersely.
    "Sir? She's
flying the Stars and Stripes," the young first officer had said.
    "Good," the
captain had muttered. "She's one of ours, then."
    But she wasn't. The
frigate had sailed