When she’d discovered that note in Bastard’s cabin, she’d thought that he hadn’t left a ransom note in Bridgeport and her family would have no clue where to look for her. She’d been livid about that. She’d tried to kill Bastard that day—well, and many other times—and with her usual lack of success. The bloody sod had been far too strong for any of her attacks to do anything other than make him laugh. But he’d actually assured her that he’d penned a more polite version of his boss’s note that would be delivered to her father. As if that would matter in the scheme of things.

“I even explained to my father that I didn’t mention the original note to him sooner because I was sure he’d be walking into a trap if he sailed back to the Caribbean right away. He read it and just smiled without saying another word! It made me so angry!”

Judith tsked as she stepped out of her gown and turned back around. “Jack, enough time has passed that there won’t be any trap. So let your father do what he does best, while you enjoy the rest of your Season.”

Jacqueline sighed. “I know. I’ll try to.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “You don’t try, you do or die. Isn’t that your motto?”

Jacqueline laughed. “Something like that. Very well, I will get back to having fun in London.”

“Promise?”

“For you, yes.”

Nathan chose that moment to step into the room, making Jacqueline realize why Judy’s maid hadn’t been waiting for her there to help her change into her traveling clothes. Because her new husband must have wanted to assist. And he took one look at his bride wearing only her chemise and petticoats and crossed the room to gather her close for a passionate kiss.

Jack was quite sure he hadn’t even noticed her in the room! She smiled as she slipped out and quietly closed the door behind her.

Chapter Three

JACQUELINE MUCH PREFERRED EAVESDROPPING at doors—except at Haverston. The doors in that old mansion were much too thick, some even reinforced with metal, so it would be hard to hear through them unless there was shouting on the other side, which there wasn’t. She did check first, but only for a second. And since members of her family could traverse the halls at any moment, she couldn’t have stood there in plain sight with her ear to the study door anyway.

She hurried outside instead, leaving unnoticed through the back door of the house, and ran around to the study windows. She expected them to be open on that warm summer night and they were. She even peeked inside to confirm who was in there with her father—her uncles Warren and Boyd.

Anthony arrived just as she ducked below the window ledge. He wasn’t sailing with James, so what input he might have Jack couldn’t guess. Or he might just be there to provide moral support. No matter how angry Tony might be with James, he would still stand firmly with his brother against the Yanks, as her father and Tony called the Anderson side of her family. But there wasn’t going to be any sort of confrontation with Boyd and Warren tonight, verbal or otherwise, not when James had accepted their help on this mission.

Jacqueline was waiting so tensely to hear something from inside the room that she was startled when her brother Jeremy squatted down beside her, whispering, “I should have known I’d find you here first.”

She just put her finger to her lips as she scowled at him for finding her hiding spot. But he still asked, “What’d I miss?”

“Nothing yet,” she hissed, though she glanced quickly beyond her brother to make sure Percival Alden hadn’t tagged along with him. Percy was a long-standing friend of the family who could be depended on to do one thing—blunder. And in this case, that would be alerting her father to their eavesdropping outside the window.

“You heard from Drew?” Warren said inside the study.

“It’s not encouraging,” James answered. “Read it for yourself.”

Warren must have picked up Drew’s letter because he quickly pointed out, “Says here it’s not the pirate you and Drew suspected, that Pierre Lacross is still in prison on Anguilla.”

“Read the next part,” James prompted.

Boyd proved he was standing next to his brother and reading the letter at the same time when he said, “So the warden of that prison seemed a little nervous to Drew at the mention of Lacross? That’s actually understandable for a man living behind stone walls with hundreds of convicted criminals, don’t you think?”

“I do,” James agreed. “It’s the part about the warden refusing to allow your brother to see Lacross for himself. Drew is the only one of you who would recognize Pierre Lacross if he saw him because he was with me when I captured Lacross.”

“The warden could have denied Drew’s request for any number of reasons,” Warren put in. “Knowing Drew, he’s just annoyed that he couldn’t talk his way around that warden.”

Boyd added, “And that could mainly be because it’s a British prison and Drew’s American origins become obvious the moment he opens his mouth.”

Anthony chuckled. “Now that’s the more likely reason when Englishmen tend not to be cooperative with you Yanks even on a good day.”

“We’re not antagonizing them, Tony,” James warned his brother. “Keep your annoyance with me on me, not on them.”

“Then what am I even doing here?”

“I thought you might want to be included, in case you change your mind and decide to sail with me.”

“Not bloody likely, old boy. I’m staying close to home in case Judy changes her mind about that bounder Tremayne and returns home, needing a father’s shoulder to cry on. You can tell me all the gory details when you get back to England.”

“Then you might as well return to the party,” James suggested.

“Didn’t say I wasn’t interested,” Anthony grumbled.

Warren said, “Well, even if we still don’t know who we’re looking for, I’m game to leave now. I’ve been landlocked far too long. And we can investigate more once we get to the West Indies.”

James said, “If Drew and I didn’t both suspect Lacross is responsible for Jack’s abduction, I wouldn’t have given him this much time to try to confirm it. Drew checked Pierre’s old fortress island. It was deserted, but there were signs of recent occupation. And he wasted weeks trying to find out who had been there recently and where they went, which is why we didn’t hear from him before now.”