“There was a special shore party dispatched to evacuate the dependents of the consul and other British families in Algiers. Since they had to be rescued under the cover of night without the Dey’s knowledge, they needed a way to ensure the babies and small children could be smuggled out safely.”
Willa scooted close to the front of her chair, her hands gripping the edge of the seat.
“Dr. MacCloud was one of the surgeons who volunteered to accompany the marines to make sure the children didn’t cry, without endangering their breathing.” Captain Stills gave a huge sigh and set his spectacles aside, rubbing hard at his eyes.
One of the last rescuers headed for the shore boat was your husband. He was carrying a baby. From what we were able to piece together from witnesses, apparently Madame de Santis was on a mission to smuggle sensitive French documents out of the embassy before the bombardment began. When she accosted Dr. MacCloud and demanded he provide her passage aboard the shore boat, he refused, and she shot him.”
Willa could not contain her rage. “What happened then? What about the poor child? Did no one detain Ariadne for such a foul deed?”
Captain Still raised a hand in a sign of peace. “Dr. MacCloud’s infamously hard head saved him, and the blast only grazed his forehead. She showed up at the boat with the baby, claimed Algerian troops had killed the surgeon, and they believed her.”
“Then the letter she used to get me to do her bidding was only part of the truth, the part she thought she could use to destroy Cullen?”
He paused before answering. “I’m afraid so. In fact, Dr. MacCloud rejoined theLeander’screw before the battle began, they patched up his wound, and he assisted the surgeon, Mr. Quarries, throughout the entire bloody action.”
Willa scarcely remembered stumbling out of the captain’s cabin and scrambling down multiple hatchway steps at a time to return to Cullen’s side. When he saw the look on her face, he opened his arms and she fell into them.
Later that night, she stripped off her sensible cotton nightgown and climbed over top of him, nuzzling her way up his body, stopping to touch and lick at all of the places of which she’d become inordinately fond.
When he pulled her up hard against him and claimed her mouth for a long kiss, she straddled his cock. He rubbed the tip carefully against her entrance and then moved to pleasure her with his fingers, the way their lovemaking usually progressed. She pushed his hand away instead. “No,” she breathed into his mouth. “I want you inside me.”
“But what about—?”
She silenced him with her fingers against his lips. “Journal entries be damned.” When she slid down, sheathing his cock in her wetness, there was the tiniest of bit of pain until he grasped her hips with his hands and began to move within her. He thrust up several times before grabbing her wrists and demanding, “Are you sure?”
Her only answer was to rise up on her knees before slowly grinding back down over his cock.
He groaned. “Ye’re killin’ me, lass.”
She growled low near his ear. “Do you want me to stop?”
“Och, no. Then I’d be a dead man for sure.”
Hours later, she rubbed her fingers across his bare chest and purred a little hum of satisfaction. “Why didn’t you want to tell me the whole truth of what happened in Algiers?”
He stopped breathing for a moment before taking in a deep inhale and answering. “What Ariadne did to me at Algiers was nothing compared to the suffering and dying…all the blood in the surgery that day.” He sat straight up in the dark. “I love you more than life itself, Willa, but there are parts of my past that are so dark, I may never be able to share them with you.”
“I don’t care. I want to share everything with you. I’ve been in the surgery with my father when the blood ran so thick on the deck, even the sand we threw down couldn’t keep the decks from being deadly slippery. None of those men knew I was a woman, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have cared, as long as I kept the saw blades sharp and Papa did amputations wicked quick.
Cullen pulled her onto his lap and covered her neck with kisses. “Point well taken, wife. We’re just going to have to take this married life thing one day at a time.”
May 4, 1821
TheArethusa
Somewhere Off St. Helena
Captain Still called Cullen and his other officers into his cabin on the morning of May 4 to explain he would have to leave the ship abruptly for a meeting with St. Helena’s governor, Hudson Lowe, Napoleon’s controversial gaoler. He put First Lieutenant Dalton in charge and left with a shore party of marines.
When the captain did not return that night, the gossip amongst the sailors aboard theArethusawas wild with speculation and rumors.
And then, finally, during one of the the ship’s passes in front of Jamestown harbor, the flag officer reported the semaphore messaging indicated Napoleon was dead. After a few more passes, the shore launch bringing the captain back was sighted, and Lieutenant Dalton gave the order to head into the anchorage.
After Captain Still was piped back aboard, he disappeared into his cabin for the rest of the day. When he emerged the next morning, he announced they would be sailing back to Portsmouth, per his sealed orders which were to be opened only on the occasion of Napoleon’s death.
Chapter Twenty-Four
First Lieutenant James Daltonwaited anxiously outside the door to Captain Still’s cabin. He’d been summoned in a note to meet with his commanding officer about an “opportunity.” Perhaps, finally, the Admiralty had seen fit to promote him to captain and give him his own ship.
