"More's the pity. Eden?" he said abruptly. "Why does he keep you hidden away like this?"

"You mean Papa? Oh, he thinks he is protecting me." She tidied up the small incision with a splash of brandy on a cloth. "He isn't a genius in all things, Lord Jack, especially matters of the heart." Saddened by the admission, she stood up to put her things away.

"But it's a crime, his stranding you here like this." His stare tracked her with an intensity that she could feel from across the room. "You should be in Kingston, being worshiped by the sons of wealthy planters."

She turned around abruptly, shocked and flattered and above all thrilled to think that, at last, somebody understood. Why, she had just met the man and somehow he knew her heart better than Papa did.

She stared at him in amazement.

Folding her arms across her chest and leaning her hip against the table, Eden was wildly encouraged all of a sudden to think that if he liked her so well, then surely he would help her.

There could be no doubt that lordly male chivalry would compel him to escort her safely home to England, if she only asked. He was obviously a gentleman, no matter what the rumors said; he could have kissed her moments ago, after all, but had done the decent thing and refrained. Besides, she had just done him a favor, hadn't she, removing his splinter and possibly saving his hand? Surely he would be happy to do a good deed for her in return.

Yes, she thought, she could ask him now. Pirate or no, her excellent instincts told her that she could trust this man.

She bit her lip and summoned up all her nerve. "What would you say," she began slowly, "if I asked you for a favor?"

"A favor?" His eyes narrowed in sudden wariness. "What sort of favor, exactly?"

Her confident smile did not waver, though her heart was in her throat. Eden lifted her chin and squared her shoulders: "Take me with you to England."

Chapter.

Four.

Take her... ?

Jack stared into her hope-filled, emerald eyes, thought of his vital secret mission-his highly illegal secret mission-and let out a curse.

"No." He shook his head and rose with a shudder. "Absolutely not."

"But why?"

"Because it's a mad idea!"

"No, it's not!" She took a step toward him and seemed to force her coaxing smile. "You're going there anyway, aren't you?"

b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. "Is that why you asked me here for a visit?" he asked crisply. "To b.u.t.ter me up so you could get what you wanted?"

She lowered her head at the question; Jack scowled.

He glanced at Trahern. "Ready?"

"Aye, sir."

"Oh, please don't go-you only just got here!" Miss Farraday jumped in front of Jack, blocking his path. She seemed undaunted by his famous glower, though she only came up to his chest and had to tilt her head back to meet his irked gaze.

Her anxious smile refused the quashing effect of his glare. "You said your ship is big-very big. There must be room on board for me!"

"There's not."

"I don't take up much s.p.a.ce, as you can see."

"Thank you for the pineapple, Miss Farraday-"

"Eden," she insisted, trying to drag him into a familiarity that he did not desire, the better to make him do her will. Aye, that was how they got their claws into a man.

She was a most determined creature, darting left and right to block his path as he tried to step past her.

"I'm sorry, Miss Farraday," he said through clenched teeth, "but my ship is not equipped to take pa.s.sengers. It is a merchant vessel, a cargo ship. I have no place to put a young lady-"

"I don't require any special accommodations. I could sling my hammock anyplace! In fact-" She gulped with an air of desperation behind her dwindling smile. "That, er, brings me to my next point."

Jack set his hands on his waist. "Oh, there's more, is there?"

"Um, yes, well, you see, I-I have no money, actually. Terribly embarra.s.sing. I'm afraid I can't pay for my pa.s.sage. But I will work," she added stoutly. "I could help in the sickbay or the galley. I'm a hard worker, just tell me what to do. I won't complain. I'm quite cheerful."

"Yes, I can see that," Jack said through gritted teeth.

Trahern stifled a cough.

Jack shot him a fierce look.

"I've heard about press gangs, so I know that every ship can always use an extra pair of hands-"

"Not yours, my dear." A quiver of l.u.s.t shot through him only to imagine where he'd like those skillful, pretty hands to work on him.

"But why?" she asked with a sorrowful, doe-eyed blink.

"Because I said so," he growled. "Now will you please get out of my way?"

"No! I don't mean to be a pest, but it's just that I need so badly to get back to England."

"Why is that?" Jack demanded, though he swore to himself he did not care and didn't really want to know. He was not taking her to England, and that was that. There was too much at stake to risk adding a f.e.c.kless young beauty underfoot.

"Father's patron died," she exclaimed. "His heir has cut the funding for our research." This instantly flared Jack's instinct for lucrative opportunity as Eden continued: "I intend to return to England so I can speak to the new earl and convince him to reinstate our grant."

He raised an eyebrow. "You're going to speak to the earl?"

"Yes," she declared with a firm nod.

He stared at her. "n.o.body's going to listen to you, a mere slip of a girl."

"Oh, yes, they will." She planted her fists on her waist. "I'll make them listen."

He found himself fighting a wry smile, d.a.m.n her. Jack eyed the redhead warily, a trifle amused in spite of himself as he realized that, indeed, the chit had made him listen.

Somehow it was easy to picture the intrepid little epiphyte lady taking this earl by the ear like an errant schoolboy and making him pay attention to her scientific lecture. Jack couldn't help but wonder how she'd set London on its ear if she had half a chance-or rather, knock it on its pompous a.r.s.e.

That thought nearly persuaded him to take her there just for the pleasure of watching it happen, but of course, he couldn't risk it. He shook his head with the faint, reluctant smile.

The girl had pluck, he'd give her that, brains, too, but on top of all the usual perils of a sea journey, his secret mission was already complicated and dangerous enough. The rumor mills of London would be churning when he reappeared after such a long absence, and his many enemies would be watching for any opportunity to pounce. He had yet to meet a female who could keep her mouth shut when she had a secret to tell, and this one already knew too much-whether she realized it or not.

"I am sorry," he said in a kinder tone, but with finality, "I honestly cannot help you." With that, he stepped past her and strode out of the palafito.

Miss Farraday whirled around and came scrambling after him. He could hear her, though he didn't look back.

"But I'll tell you what I will do," he continued before she could argue, her pattering footfalls d.o.g.g.i.ng his long strides. "Have your father write to my offices in Port Royal. Send me a proposal. I'll fund his research for..." He ran a quick mental calculation. "Eighty percent of the profits from any medicines he develops."

She stopped following him, apparently in shock. "Eighty percent!" she cried. "Don't you think that's a bit high?"

"Of course it's high." He stepped up onto the boardwalk and sent her a knowing smile over his shoulder. "Ever heard of negotiation?"

"Negotiation," she echoed under her breath. "Right!"

As he walked on, he heard her rushing after him again.

"So, maybe you would be willing to bring me to England if we could reach some sort of deal-"

"Now, wait one minute, that's not what I meant." He shot her an impatient look askance. "I was speaking in general terms."

"Infuriating man," she muttered under her breath as he continued down the boardwalk. "Would you stop walking away? Lord Jack? Will you please just wait?" A fair hand grabbed the crook of his arm and held on with a tenacity that would have impressed his bull-terrier, Rudy, the only living thing aside from Trahern that Jack really trusted.

"What do you want from me?" he asked wearily, turning around to face her. "You need to talk this over with your father."

"You don't understand."

"I'd help you if I could, but it simply isn't safe."

"Yes, I know, the sea is perilous, but I... I trust you."

Her innocent gaze was nearly his undoing, a fact that vexed Jack in the extreme. "You trust me. Girl-" He scoffed, shaking his head. "You don't even know me!" He pivoted and marched down the walkway in something of a daze, his heart pounding in time with the rhythm of his forceful strides. Lord, she had no business "trusting" him. He certainly didn't trust her. The chit was dangerous, aye, deadly, and he was getting the h.e.l.l out of here. Before she found a way to twist him 'round her little finger.

Eden fumed as he walked away from her yet again. Was there no reasoning with the man? He simply laid down the law and expected everyone to- Suddenly, she heard Papa and Connor hailing the servants from the far edge of camp, returning from their day's journey just in time, naturally, to complicate matters.

Blazes!

"Edie! I say, do we have visitors? Who is that?" her father called, but she did not answer, for every second now was precious.

There was no time to explain to her obdurate papa.

She picked up her skirts and dashed after Lord Jack again, her footsteps pounding on the planks. "Papa's come. Why don't you stay and talk to him?"

"Jack Knight, you blackguard!" her father bellowed at that very moment from the head of the boardwalk some yards behind them. "Get the h.e.l.l away from my daughter, sir, this instant!"

"Thanks, but I'll pa.s.s," Lord Jack muttered sarcastically to her.

"Eden, step away from that scoundrel! That is a dangerous man!"

"Nice to see you again, too, Victor!" he called drily. "Don't worry, I'm on my way out."

Eden paused only long enough to shoot her father a quelling look, gesturing at him to remember his manners, and then she scrambled after her escaping guest again.

Ahead, Lord Jack smacked the palm fronds aside and marched past them. They sprang back into place like a green door swinging shut behind him.

Eden refused to be brushed off, though her hope was running thin. "So, it's true, then," she flung at his retreating back while his crewmen stared. "All you do care about is gold! You won't help me simply because I can't pay!"

"Sweetheart." He swung around to face her with a frank leer that raked down over her body. "If you were on my ship, believe me, you would pay me back. You'd work it off, every penny. Only I don't much think you'd like the price."

Shocked to the core, she drew herself up in grand indignation. "You, sir, are not a gentleman."

"You finally just figured that out?"

"Eden Farraday, get over here this instant!" her father bellowed. She glanced over angrily and saw Papa marching toward them, red-faced. "A word with you, sir!" He pointed to the barge. "What is that timber you're hauling?"

"Uh-oh," Eden taunted softly. "Now you're in for it."

Lord Jack glanced at her, sufficiently warned to brace for her father's explosion.

Dr. Farraday took a closer look at the pile of wood. "Zebrawoods? Zebrawoods, you b.l.o.o.d.y plunderer! How dare you? Fifty years of growth, and you chop it down for a bit of filthy lucre? d.a.m.n you, sir-get away from my daughter!"

Instead of telling Papa that escaping Eden was precisely what he had been trying to do, Lord Jack took what appeared to be an intense personal insult at Papa's order; she glanced over at him just in time to see the look of pure, b.l.o.o.d.y-minded rebellion that darkened his face.

"Get away from her, eh?" he growled under his breath. "Oh, so I'm not good enough for your daughter, is that it?" He sent her father a pirate grin and suddenly seized Eden around the waist, yanking her forward so that she crashed into his steely warm chest.

Before she could even react, his mouth swooped down on hers, hot and hard; in front of everyone, Papa and all, he plundered her lips in a brigand's kiss.

Cousin Amelia would surely have expired on the spot. But Eden, alas, was not Cousin Amelia.

He started rough, bruising her lower lip in his unyielding haste, his scruffy jaw sc.r.a.ping her tender chin, but the instant she whimpered, trapped in his iron arms, his kiss softened.

Then she forgot entirely to fight. Her eyes fluttered closed, and for a few seconds, time floated on the wavering path of a b.u.t.terfly.

His kiss deepened, widening her lips for the slow, exploratory stroke of his tongue in her mouth.

In the foggy distance, men were shouting, but she had traveled a thousand miles away from the chaos as Jack's hand tangled sensuously in her hair. He gripped her nape as his mouth slanted over hers in hungry demand; her hands clung weakly to his broad shoulders. His tightening embrace crushed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his chest. But though he held her firmly, inwardly Eden was falling, falling from the highest treetop, pin wheeling weightlessly to earth like a winged seed. She was totally in his power and the pleasure in this sudden helplessness alarmed her.

He went on kissing her for several delicious seconds more, as though he had forgotten this was merely an act of defiance; she felt his earlier anger melting away. He tore his mouth away from hers all of a sudden with a breathy curse. When he released her, she stumbled, dizzy and disoriented, and would have fallen off the dock straight into the river if he had not immediately reached for her and steadied her again.

They exchanged a shocked glance as he gripped her elbow and pulled her to safety. His eyes had darkened to a stormy slate blue. Then a rueful half smile curved his lips.