Free Pirate's Bride (Liberty's Ladies) by Lynette Vinet

support or not in this makes no difference to me. I am going to the Colonies.”
    ~ ~ ~
     
    Two hours later Bethlyn and Jeremy danced in the mirrored ballroom, supped with the Stanhopes and the other guests, and she listened to a litany of reasons from Jeremy why she shouldn’t make the trip. However, her mind was made up that her future must be settled in a direct confrontation with her husband. “I’m going,” she said over and over.
    By the time the ball had ended she’d danced with every eligible, handsome man in the room, and some who weren’t so eligible or so handsome, fended off at least ten indecent proposals, and convinced Jeremy that if he was worried about her, he should come with her. “You can act as my bodyguard and protect me from those nasty American pirates,” she playfully teased him.
    ‘‘I’ll come with you,” Jeremy said, and kissed her cheek in a brotherly fashion. “But I don’t want to be gone for too long. You know I can’t refuse you anything, Bethlyn, but I’m getting older, too, and I think it’s time I settled down a bit and looked around for a wife.”
    “Ah, I knew it. I saw you watching Lady Madeline Stanhope all evening. She’ll make you a perfect wife. I promise you, Jeremy, that we’ll be home before the spring. But if you don’t wish to go, I’ll understand.”
    “I’m going with you. If anything happened to you, I’d never be able to forgive myself. Since your husband doesn’t feel the need to protect you, I will, until he either takes you to wife or annuls the marriage and you find a man worthy of you.”
    Bethlyn couldn’t stop the tears which welled within her eyes. Jeremy was such a dear, sweet man. She’d known him for so long, trusted him, depended upon him, but there was nothing but a deep and abiding friendship between them. Sometimes she thought that if things had been different, they’d have made a perfectly good marriage. However, that would never come to be and she knew now that Jeremy’s sights, as well they should be, were centered on Madeline Stanhope. There was no hope for herself as long as Ian Briston kept her trapped in this marriage. She wasn’t free to love anyone, not even her own husband.
    “I should like to sail as soon as possible,” she told Jeremy. “Please contact Thomas Eversley for me. We can sail on one of my father’s ships.” She smiled ruefully. “One of my ships actually, one of my husband’s, since all of them are owned by Briston Shipping.”
    When she climbed into bed later that night, no thoughts of revenge against Ian Briston filled her mind. She felt that soon everything would be settled one way or another. Soon after she closed her eyes, she fell asleep, not dreaming that all would be decided, but in a way she hadn’t fathomed.
     

4
     
     “My lady, please reconsider; Mr. Eversley will be quite displeased. He specifically ordered that you and Sir Jeremy Smithers travel to the Colonies on Venture not Nightingale . I can’t insist, of course, but no one goes against an order of Thomas Eversley.” Harold Dempster wiped his perspiring brow with a fine linen kerchief and threw an imploring glance in Jeremy’s direction, having already decided that Bethlyn wasn’t about to be pacified by such an unusual request. Dempster had been in the employ of Briston Shipping as Thomas’s secretary long enough to recognize a stubborn streak a mile away. From the forward thrust of her chin and the nail-hard line of her mouth, Dempster quickly ascertained that he’d lost the battle. And probably his position as well, once Thomas Eversley returned from Woodsley to discover that this stubborn chit of a girl had sailed on Nightingale instead of Venture . If only young Smithers could dissuade her.
    Jeremy, however, appeared to be taking a devilish delight in the war of wills between Bethlyn and Dempster. He offered not a word to persuade her to heed reason and sail on Venture . Standing with his arms folded across his