Free Beyond Sunrise by Candice Proctor Page A

stalked off down the path ahead of him, her shoulders pulled repressively back, her pith-helmeted head held high. "But when they hang you, I intend to be there."
    Jack swiped one forearm across his hot, sweaty face, and followed her. "They need to catch me first."

    He'd expected her to dawdle along, deliberately trying to delay him, but she kept pace with him easily, her long legs matching his stride for stride. Watching her, Jack came to the conclusion she was one of those women with a naturally long, mannish gait. He suspected she was constitutionally incapable of walking slowly, no matter how much she might have wanted to. The thought brought an odd smile to his face, a smile that faded to leave a lingering, unexpected ache that was both wistful and sad.
    At first, she stomped along in an angry, detached silence, no doubt indulging herself with satisfying images of his lifeless body twisting at the end of a hangman's rope. But it wasn't long before her interest in her surroundings reasserted itself, and several times he had to prod her on when she would have stopped to investigate a peculiar form of mushroom growing on a moldering log, or to watch a red parakeet flitting through the branches of a giant breadfruit tree. He supposed it was inevitable that she would, eventually, turn her overly well-developed sense of curiosity to him.
    "Why are you wanted by the British navy?" she asked as they pushed through a stand of enormous old native pines mixed with native oaks and laurels and tree ferns.
    He glanced back at her in surprise. "Didn't you even bother to find out, before you agreed to help Simon capture me?"
    There was a long, uncomfortable pause. Then she said, "I was having difficulty finding someone willing to take me to Takaku, and Captain Granger suggested you. I didn't know what he intended."
    He didn't want to believe her, but studying her half-averted profile, Jack thought she was probably telling the truth. She was too determinedly straight-laced and bloody-minded to ever lie convincingly. He wondered idly if he would have drawn his machete on her and taken her hostage if he hadn't thought, in that first rush of blind fury, that she'd deliberately set him up. He was still pondering the question when she said, "Were you actually an officer in the British navy?"
    The way she said it, one would think it the most unimaginable thing in the world. He grunted. "Once."
    "Did you jump ship?"
    "Not exactly."
    "So what happened?"
    "My ship sank."
    She turned her head to look at him. "Was it your fault?"
    "The Admiralty thinks so."
    She kept her gaze leveled on his face. "Was it?"
    He gave a low, harsh laugh. "In a sense, yes."
    "In what sense wasn't it?"
    It was a perceptive question, but not one he intended to answer. A silence dragged out between them and lasted so long that Jack decided she'd forgotten the subject. She hadn't. All of a sudden, she said, "He told me he was once your friend."
    "Simon? He was."
    "It was a vile thing, what you did, forcing him and his men to walk back to their ship in such a state."
    "Natives spend their entire lives running around the jungle bare-assed. Why not Simon and his bluejackets?"
    "Because they're white men."
    "What's the matter? Never seen a naked white man before?"
    "Of course I have."
    Jack laughed. "I guess you saw me, all right."
    "I wasn't referring to you."
    He turned to stare at her, and was surprised to discover a faint hint of color staining her cheeks. If he hadn't known better, he'd have said Miss Indomitable McKnight was blushing. "My dear Miss McKnight, you are full of surprises. Where?"
    Her gaze met his, then veered away. "I don't see how that is any of your business."
    "How old was he? Two?"
    Instead of answering him, she continued to stare off into the jungle until her toe caught on a root and she tripped.
    "It helps if you watch where you're going," he said pleasantly, but she simply threw him a withering glance, and kept walking.

    India had formulated and