Page 14 of A Countess Captured for the Captain
“You… what have you done? Where have you been? The whole of London is talking about you,” he exclaimed, as Regina sidled smugly behind him.
“We had quite given up hope,” she said, in a tone which suggested her own hope was that Samantha would not return.
“Captain Nox has brought me home, I promised him a fine ransom for his trouble,” Samantha said, and her father turned red with anger, his fists clenched tightly together.
“Nox? I have heard that name. Yes, I have heard of you,” he exclaimed, turning his anger toward her companion, who stared back defiantly.
“I demand no ransom, Your Grace. I am only glad to have found your daughter safe and well,” he said, but the Duke merely laughed.
“And sank a dozen of my ships as you went. I know your name. The scourge of the Caribbean, that is what they call you. I have lost half a fortune to you and your men. I hear your name from every captain that puts into the port. Oh, yes, Sir, I know you, Nox,” he growled.
Samantha could sense that Nox was not prepared for such an onslaught, and she stepped forward, determined to make her father understand.
“It is me whom you are angry with, Father. I ran away, I admit it, but it was to teach you a lesson, I–” she began, but her father only waved his hand angrily at her.
“Be quiet, Samantha, I shall deal with you later. Anderton, summon the footmen. I shall have this man arrested for kidnap, and for pirateering. He has walked right into our hands,” he cried, as Nox looked around him angrily.
“You do not know what you are doing,” he cried, but Samantha’s father smiled.
“I know exactly what I am doing, Nox,” he said, as four footmen appeared to subdue the pirate who now sprang forward to fight.
“Let him go, let him go!” Samantha cried, flinging herself into the fray.
But her father grabbed her and pulled her backward. Nox was soon held by the four footmen, as Anderton sent another off to summon the authorities. Samantha could only watch helplessly, powerless to do anything, now that her father was determined to have his revenge.
“He rescued me, he brought me home, let him go,” she cried, but her father pushed her roughly into the salon, instructing Regina to control her, as Nox was dragged away.
The last she saw of him in that moment was him struggling with the footmen, fighting with them, and cursing her father, who stood with a smug look of satisfaction upon his face.
“Really, Samantha, what a thing to do. Can you imagine the upset you have caused us?” Regina asked, as the doors to the salon were slammed behind them.
She emphasized the last word, as though Samantha’s disappearance had been a personal snub against her.
“I wished to make a point,” Samantha replied.
In the weeks Samantha had been away, Regina’s bump had redoubled. She appeared like a prize pig, a permanent smirk across her face, evidently enjoying the spectacle, and playing her role as the suffering spouse to perfection.
“Your father was terribly worried, as were we all,” she continued.
“Worried that I would disappoint the gentleman he had promised me to? That is why I left, to show him – and you – that I cannot simply be given away upon a whim,” Samantha replied.
“I do not care who you marry, so long as you are eventually sent far away from here, so that your father and I – and his heir – can live in peace,” Regina said.
The sounds of the struggle were still coming from the hallway, and Samantha wished she had remained on boardThe Rosa Mystica.How dare her father treat the man who had rescued her and brought her home in such a way? Nox may have a reputation, but she had seen a different side to him, and the thought of him now being arrested was too awful to bear.
“So, you still believe that the child you are carrying will be a boy? It may not even by my father’s,” Samantha replied, for she no longer cared about insulting Regina.
Her stepmother’s face turned red, and she raised her hand and brought her palm hard across Samantha’s cheeks.
“How dare you speak to me in such a way, you little harlot? Returning home on the arm of some pirate. It is you over whom questions must be asked. Did he deflower you? A voyage across the Atlantic is a long time to be in the company of such a man. Perhaps the gentleman to whom you are promised will no longer want you. Damaged goods, Samantha, that is what you are – it is what the whole ton will say when they hear about this,” she snarled.
“You do not scare me, Regina. I am only sorry that I have returned here. I thought perhaps we might have put our differences aside, but I can see that you are nothing but a common harlot, mutton dressed as lamb, masquerading with your airs and graces. Do you think that because you are carrying my father’s child that you are special? There is nothing special about you, Regina, quite the opposite, you are a complete and utter–” but her words were cut short, as the door opened and her father entered the room, rubbing his hands together gleefully.
“The prison for him, and the hangman’s noose. There are two dozen other merchants in London who will gladly see him swing,” he declared, and Samantha clutched her hands together in dismay.
“The gallows?” she gasped, and her father nodded.
“He will hang, and the seas will be far safer for it,” he replied, as tears welled up in Samantha’s eyes, and she thought desperately of Nox, a man who did not deserve such cruel and harsh treatment.
