The Raider Read online

  “Jessica,” Eleanor said sternly, “if you aren’t going to eat those turnips, give them to someone who will.”

  “Yes,” Jess mumbled. “I’m eating.” But she didn’t eat and Nathaniel gave her plate to Molly and Sarah. Jess didn’t even notice.

  Chapter Seven

  YOU are to come with me,” the young English soldier said, staring straight at Jessica.

  “She hasn’t done anything,” Eleanor protested, three children clinging to her skirts. “She was an innocent bystander to the raids.”

  “That will be determined by His Majesty’s appointee, John Pitman.”

  “It’s all right, Eleanor,” Jessica said, determined to not allow her voice to shake. Pitman had only to accuse her and it would be as good as being convicted. She gave a quick look of encouragement to her family and then followed the four soldiers sent to fetch her.

  Nathaniel walked beside her. “I’ll protect you, Jess,” Nate said, his young eyes looking very old.

  She gave him a weak smile and kept her head aloft.

  The soldiers led her to the sprawling Montgomery house, not going through the door to the common room but through a side door she’d never entered before. It led to the office that had for years belonged to Montgomery men. She’d often seen Adam there, sitting by his father, quietly learning how to manage the extensive Montgomery holdings.

  John Pitman sat behind the desk that had serviced generations of Montgomerys.

  One of the soldiers pushed Jessica’s shoulder, so that she sat heavily in a chair before him.

  “Mistress Jessica,” Pitman said after he waved the soldiers away. They were alone in the room. “I have been told that you have knowledge of this criminal who calls himself the Raider.”

  “I know nothing about him. Neither who he is, where he lives, nor anything else.”

  “Yet he kissed you.”

  Jessica moved uncomfortably in her chair. Too vividly she remembered the night she’d stumbled across Pitman in the woods. He’d told her that he didn’t sleep with his wife, and he’d tried to kiss her. “Many men try to kiss me,” she said in a low voice, looking him in the eye. “I don’t invite such attention.”

  His eyelids lowered a fraction, showing that he remembered what she was referring to, but then his eyes strayed to the front of her dress.

  Jessica suddenly realized that this man had never paid her the least bit of attention until the Raider had noticed her. “I know nothing of the Raider,” she said again, this time louder.

  Pitman stood and walked around the desk toward her. “I don’t know whether I believe you or not. You saved him the last time he appeared.”

  “I merely tossed a rope to George Greene. How was I to know your English soldiers would be so clumsy?”

  He looked at her for a long moment. “Yes, that is what I was given to believe.”

  Jessica wondered if Alex had paid his brother-in-law to get her released.

  Pitman moved closer to her, put his hand on her shoulder. “I never realized until recently how pretty you are, Mistress Jessica.”

  “Not until the Raider pointed it out to you?”

  He moved his hand away. “You have a sharp tongue on you. Perhaps too sharp. If you continue helping this brigand—”

  “You’ll what? Punish me because you can’t catch him?”

  Pitman drew his breath in sharply and Jessica wished she hadn’t spoken. He opened his mouth to reply but the door burst open.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Alexander demanded, slamming the door open against the wall. His heavy wig was flying out behind him. “I was told you’ve been arresting women.”

  Pitman moved behind the desk. His face wore an expression of boredom. “I did not arrest them, I merely had them brought here for questioning.”

  “I’ll not have it,” Alex said, his voice becoming higher by the second. “Do you understand me, I’ll not have it. Come along, Jessica.” He held out his hand for her as if she were a child.

  Jessica took it, never looking back at Pitman, and followed Alex out of the room. “Who else did he talk to?”

  Alex didn’t answer but began pulling her down the corridors of the house.

  “Alex, where are we going? Who else did he question?”

  At last Alex opened a door, pulled her inside and shut it behind them. He let out a heavy sigh of relief.

  “Alex,” she said again. It was a large room with furniture covered with yards of muslin to protect it from the dust.

  Alex sat down in a chair, a cloud of dust and powder from his wig wafting about him. He lifted a sheet behind him, opened a drawer and withdrew an embroidered fan that perfectly matched his green satin vest. “All right, Jess, tell me everything.”

  “There’s not much to tell. He wanted to know if I knew anything about the Raider.”

  “And you don’t, of course.”

  Only his kisses, Jess thought.

  “Do you?” Alex persisted.

  “Not anything that will help Pitman execute him, I don’t. I really should go home and tell Eleanor that I’m all right.”

  “Eleanor knows; I sent Nate. What do you know about the Raider? Sit down and quit wandering about.”

  Jessica removed a dust cover and sat on a small, pink tapestry-covered chair. “I don’t know who he is or how to contact him. I know nothing about him.” Except his hands on my body, she thought and she wasn’t about to tell Alex or anyone else about that.

  “Have you seen him again?” Alex asked softly, his gentle eyes suddenly turning intense.

  “I…Alex, why are you interrogating me, too?”

  “I told you, I feel responsible for you. I don’t want this Raider around you. I don’t trust him. There’s too much of the braggart about him.”

  “He’s all right,” she snapped. “At least he’s trying to help. Everyone else in town sat on their backsides and did nothing while Josiah’s ship was stolen out from under him.”

  “I thought you considered this Raider a coward, too frightened to stand on his own without hiding behind a mask.”

  “He’d shot if he protested openly.” She wanted to change the subject. “Isn’t that a picture of your mother?”

  Alex seemed to want to ask more questions, but instead he fanned himself awhile longer and then stood. “This was my mother’s room. I wanted to show you something.” He went to a large painted chest against one wall and opened it. Inside, carefully folded, were many dresses.

  “These were my mother’s and they’re just lying here rotting. I thought maybe you and Eleanor would like to have them.”

  Instinctively, she pulled back from him. “Charity to the Taggerts? Just because I took one dress from you doesn’t mean I’ll accept this. I don’t want your pity, Alexander Montgomery. You always did think we were nothing but dirt.”

  “No, Jess, I didn’t mean—”

  “What is going on here!”

  Both of them turned to see Marianna Montgomery Pitman standing in the doorway. It was a formidable sight. The Montgomerys’ tall, broad-shouldered physique looked great on the men, but it left something to be desired on a woman. Marianna stood six feet tall, wide-shouldered, deep-bosomed, slim-hipped—she had a body any man would envy. With her big body went a personality that was a cross between a typhoon and a newborn baby. No one ever knew whether Marianna was going to be domineering or try to snuggle in your lap.

  “Alexander, I asked you a question.”

  It looked like it was Marianna’s day to be stormy and Alex was beginning to cower before his sister. Jess stepped forward. “I was brought here for questioning by…by your husband and Alexander so kindly brought me in here to show me your mother’s lovely things. We were just leaving.”

  “Oh,” Marianna said and sat down heavily as the wind seemed to leave her sails. “My husband. I did make a mess of that. I didn’t know he was like this before I married him. I don’t want anyone hurt because of me. I sent for Adam and Kit, but I guess they never receive