Free Microsoft Word - Sherwood, Valerie - Nightsong by kps

the airy response. "She has no peer among women, Juan-none at all."
    "She's a clever wench to boot," agreed his host sourly. "I hope you were close-mouthed, else she might have found you out!"
    "I was discreet. Besides, who could doubt me? Do I not make a fine Frenchman, Juan, rigged out in these French silks?"
    John Daimler snorted. All the wine he had drunk had made him bolder. "I hope the Silver Wench has not got such a hold on you as to make you stay in this place, for it's death that's staring us in the face if you do. His lady may not discover you for what you are, but Kells will ferret you out in five minutes!"
    "Oh, surely he is not so great an adversary as that! Dangerous I will admit but-"
    "Oh, deliver me from your banter!" Daimler slammed his heavy tankard down with a force that rocked the oaken table. "Do ye go tonight or don't ye?"
    "I go tonight, John," sighed Ramon. "And I will leave you these French clothes to sell and thus help provide for the men I'll be sending you."
    "The men you'll-?" John stopped to stare.
    "Yes, a month from now-two months at the latest-a pinnace will be arriving from Havana. You'll know her--she'll be the same one I arrived in and will leave in, this night. And she'll bear armed men."
    John fell back; his face lost color. "You're planning to attack Port Royal from a pinnace?"

    His guest sighed. "You didn't let me finish, John. My plan has not yet been approved by Spain-but it will be, never fear. I will send my pinnace with a small advance guard-fifteen men, no more. They will all be hand-picked. And I'll be arriving in force to lead them, John, with a fleet of warships behind me. This early group will look like Englishmen, talk like Englishmen, they'll make friends at the forts-that way they won't be noticed when they slip in and cause havoc during the attack."
    "And my part in all this?" "Only to find them housing, John. And pass on to them any messages I manage to send."
    John Daimler was staring at the shadow of a hanging iron chandelier suspended from the ceiling. The shadow suddenly looked to him like a noose. Indeed he could feel the hemp around his suddenly perspiring neck at this moment. With big spatulate fingers he loosened a collar grown suddenly too tight, and jumped as a cheerful Ramon clapped him on the back. "Don't look so glum, John. 'Tis a lieutenant governorship you can look forward to!"
    More likely a gibbet, thought John. But he was in it now-too late to back out. This Spanish devil would find a way to wreck him if he did. "Aye, I've that to look forward to," he echoed in a hollow voice.
    Carolina, who had only been exchanging friendly banter as she bade her departing guest good-by, had no idea of the amount of heat she had engendered. Had you asked her, she would have answered frankly that Raymond du Monde was attractive, yes. And that he had a way of looking at a woman with those tawny gold eyes that must have seduced many an unwary maid.
    But she, of course, would never be one of those, she would have added airily. Still-it had been an unexpectedly delightful evening. Since Kells chose to be on what seemed to be one of his interminable trips up the Cobre River of late, at least she had had good company!
    She tripped lightly up the stairs in her jadegown,and once in her own room viewed a flushed, rather excited face in the beveled mirror. That reflection brought her up short. Had she looked so to the Frenchman? she asked herself uneasily. Like an excited young girl? Her color rose at the thought. And this necklace that glimmered so barbarically around her neck, she really should not have worn it-it was flaunting their wealth. True, Raymond the Frenchman had been well-dressed this evening, but many a man had a good suit of clothes and no prospects. All in all, she felt rather ashamed of herself to have made such a display.
    She removed the necklace, went to the huge trunk with the curved top, and opened it. Rummaging down, she slipped aside the trunk's false