Well, there were other dockworkers for hire, but he couldn’t unload his daughter quite so easily, which made him even more irritable. Tisdale had planned Ann’s seduction of Kendrick very carefully. The idea had been for Ann to be down below, draped invitingly on the settee, when Kendrick returned to his boat. Tisdale intended to follow him and give the man ample time to compromise her. If for some reason Kendrick refused or tried to leave his boat, Alfred would be waiting to accuse him anyway. Ann had been coached on what to say and having herself in a suitable amount of disarray. “You do realize how hard it is going to be to snag Kendrick now?”
Her eyes widened. “You want me to still try after what he said?”
“Of course I do.” Tisdale managed to refrain from shaking her. Ann’s marriage to Kendrick would eliminate a host of problems, including not having to pay her dowry and clearing the way to collect Caroline Nash’s. In addition, if Alfred proved Kendrick’s involvement with the pirate raids, he wouldn’t have to be concerned about the prince regent awarding the marquis title and lands. Anything unentailed would go to Ann as the marchioness since Kendrick had no heirs. The prince might even award her the title in her own right. It was rare to have that done, but then, Prinny would be grateful to him for Kendrick’s capture. It was a perfect scheme.
“But Lord Kendrick does not care for me,” Ann said.
“Care for you?Carefor you? What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Great Lucifer’s horns. Women really were stupid. “Forget caring. You can care for your children once you have them. The marquis’s title, along with his money and lands, are what’s important.”
“Maybe to you.”
Tisdale slapped her. “They had better be important to you, too.”
Ann put a hand to her stinging cheek. “Why?”
He raised his hand again, but his daughter stepped back quickly, and he dropped it. “Wealth and power are all that is important in this world.” Not that he expected her to understand. He tried a different angle. “Do you want Miss Nash to marry Kendrick?”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “No. I do not like her.”
Tisdale didn’t care if AnnlikedCaroline or not. At least, he’d gotten his daughter’s temper up. Now she would do what he told her to do.
“I will come up with another plan, then.” Tisdale smiled and patted his daughter’s other cheek. “You run along to bed for tonight.”
She nodded and spun on her heel. Alfred followed more slowly, frowning. Pity Ann had made a complete mess of tonight. Another French ship was due in Portsmouth on Wednesday, and the missive he’d received from Hemsbroke a few days ago indicated that Tisdale was expected to be at the port waiting to receive the shipment, regardless of the prince regent’s house party. Now he’d have to make up an excuse to go to London for urgent business and whatever plan he could hatch to put the parson’s noose on Kendrick would have to wait until he returned.
Unless, of course, the pirates raided the French ship as she passed by tomorrow. Tisdale smiled slowly. He’d hire cutthroats disguised as fishermen to be out in the waters waiting. If Kendrick—or that blond Viking—were sighted near the French ship, it would give Tisdale one more tool to persuade the marquis to marry Ann.
Blackmail.
…
“It is a good thing you rigged that booby trap,” Stephan said to Eric early the next morning when he came on board theLady.
Eric grinned as he coiled a line. “I would not have needed it with her. She made enough noise traipsing along the dock that she could have awakened the corpses lying in Davy Jones’s locker.”
“Sheer stupidity.” Stephan started untying a sail cover. “She is lucky not to have been accosted by a drunken sailor along the way.”
“I think the idea was that she be accosted by you,” Eric replied. “Or accuse you of it anyway.”
“I suspect you are right.” Stephan glanced at Eric. “She did not have a book, did she?”
“I didn’t see one and I didn’t hear anything splash into the water.” Eric raised a brow. “You didn’t really expect her to, did you?”
Stephan shook his head. “No. I just wanted to eliminate the possibility.”
“Giving her the benefit of the doubt is more than her father would have given you,” Eric said.
“Probably.” Tisdale had seemed angrier than concerned with his daughter last night, which just affirmed Stephan’s suspicion that she had been meant to be caught. “But I know what it is like to be falsely accused of something.”
“Aye, but most of those rumors have died down. Besides, your men saw the scrapes and bruises you got trying to save your brother from drowning.”
Stephan grimaced. “Scrapes and bruises some said I incurred while trying to drown him.”
“There will always be vicious tongues that wag.”
“Especially among theton,” Stephan replied as he folded the sail cover and put it in the locker behind the helm. “People like Tisdale cannot bear the thought that a commoner received the title of an aristocrat.”
“That is why the Midnight Marauder relieves those arrogant bastards of their coin, not to mention masquerading as a pirate,” Eric said.
