Page 66 of Devil of the High Seas
“Don’t mind Billy—he’s anxious to have his turn with you... once I’m done, of course.” Beauchamp laughed and then waved toward the food on the table. “Sit, eat. I’ll not have you starve. I like my women plump.”
Josephine sat, ignoring the urge to attack him when he called her his woman. She studied the chicken on her plate.
“I have no silverware,” she said. When she glanced toward him, she realized that neither did he.
He chuckled. “After the way you handled that sword on the beach, I wasn’t about to give you so much as a butter knife.” He picked up his chicken by the bone and bit into it. Josephine reluctantly did the same. She was hungry, and eating would keep up her strength.
“So tell me, how did you end up as Gavin’s woman? I can’t imagine him agreeing to take a wife, not given his free ways and hismanyconquests of the female persuasion.”
Beauchamp was trying to hurt her, make her doubt Gavin’s affections, but it didn’t work. She and Gavin had been honest with each other about their pasts. He’d told her about the few women he’d been with in his life, including Brianna Holland, but he’d said he rarely went to bed with women when he brought his ship into port. She had no reason to doubt him.
“Let me askyousomething. Why are you so determined to kill Gavin?” she asked, changing the subject. She wanted to get Beauchamp talking. The more he did, the more she would learn about the danger they were in and how she and Sam might survive it.
“Kill him? I aim to erase him from existence. Him and everything he’s touched.”
“What did he do to earn such enmity?”
Beauchamp slammed a fist down on the table. “Because he betrayed me. He betrayed his crew. And a man like that doesn’t deserve to live.”
Knowing it was risky given his temper, she pressed him further. “How did he betray you and the crew?”
He seemed to calm a little, as if remembering he was playing the part of a host, not a deranged madman.
“He’s been hiding his treasure, keeping more than his fair share, which is against our articles,” Beauchamp said simply.
“What proof do you have of that?” Josephine finished her chicken and then took a sip of the Madeira wine. She was desperately thirsty, but at least her hunger had been appeased. She was already feeling less light-headed.
“A man knows when someone is keeping secrets, and Gavin is full of them. His little toad, Ronnie, was helping him to hide how much gold we collected from the prize ships.”
“Ronnie? How so?”
“The quartermaster on any ship is in charge of counting the money, ain’t he? What better way to steal from the rest of us? The pair of them, working together, hiding everything,” Beauchamp sneered. “He took us all for fools.”
Josephine glimpsed a touch of gold madness in someone’s eyes for perhaps the first time in her life. Beauchamp was mad with delusions about treasure. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage.
She pushed her empty plate away. “I would like to see Sam now.”
“No,” Beauchamp replied without emotion.
“Please.” She gritted out the word as politely as she could.
“No,” he replied again, sipping his wine.
“Why not?” Josephine curled her hands into fists underneath the table.
“Because you haven’t earned any privileges. We have three days till we reach the Black Isle. I’m sure in that time you can find a way totemptme into letting you see the boy.”
He stood and walked around the table toward her. She was on her feet in an instant, backing away from him. He stalked her like prey. She searched the room for anything that could be used to hold him at bay and grabbed the chair she’d been sitting on. But the moment she raised it, her wounded arm seared with pain. She cried out, and the chair clattered to the deck.
Beauchamp lunged and grabbed her by the throat, slamming her back against the cabin wall. He stared at her mouth, then down her body at her breasts, his icy gaze burning through her as she tried to pry his hands off her.
“What makes you special, eh? You’re no different than any other woman who spreads her legs for a man. Has he convinced himself he’s inlovewith you?” Beauchamp laughed. “If you’re so important to him, perhaps I ought to carve your heart out and give it to him when he comes after you.” He tilted his head, as if considering the violent threat. “Or perhaps when he gives himself up to save you, I’ll rape and torture you in front of him unless he tells me where the gold is.”
“If you harm me, you will lose out on a mountain of gold.” Josephine gasped for breath as she still struggled to escape his chokehold.
“Gavin’s gold? I will have that soon enough.”
“You fool... Gavin has no gold. All that he had he spent on his home and the homes on that island you took me from. You asked why I was special? My father is a wealthy earl. My elder brother is a wealthy man in his own right. And the man Gavin stole me from who I was supposed to marry is also wealthy. They are all chasing Gavin to find me and will pay mightily to have me safely returned to them. But they won’t pay for a violated or dead woman.”
