The Duke's Daughter -Wattys2014 Collector's Dream Award Winner-

Chapter Nine

A terror filled scream rent the night air aboard the ship bringing Arianna to her feet next to her bunk where she had been sleeping peacefully but a moment before. Betsy! Arianna realized as gooseflesh raised upon her arms.

She slipped her into her dressing robe, and then reached under her pillow on the bunk, to retrieve her father's pistol. The pirate's horse pistol was stowed safely in her reticule. Lord Trent's talk the previous morning, had left her afraid in the dark of the night last evening. He seemed to believe there was reason she may be in danger. Did he know something she did not?

Arianna opened her cabin door a crack and peered out into the hallway. It was pitch black, like it had been the other night. She quickly closed and locked the cabin door again.

She turned in the cabin and held her hands before her as she moved toward the table. Finding it, she set the pistol upon it, she began to feel for her candle and matches. Striking a match, she touched it to the wick and light quickly illuminated the area around her. Arianna retrieved the pistol once more, as she turned to the door and set her candle upon the washstand.

She unlocked the cabin door, tugging slightly, just enough so that she could push it the rest of the way open with her foot. Turning her body, she kept her pistol trained on the door, and retrieved her candle.

Pushing open her door, she surveyed the hallway, no one was in sight. Another scream pierced the air as Arianna stepped out of her cabin. A rattling came to her ears and she glanced around. The captain's cabin door opened and Derek stepped out into the hallway.

He looked at her, noticed her pistol trained on him, then glanced at the unlit wall sconce next to him. Arianna could not breathe. For before her, stood a half-naked Adonis, pistol in hand, and his sleep rumpled hair sticking up in every direction.

His chest was bare. Smooth, toned, and deliciously bare. The candlelight licked his rippled muscles, caressing his sun darkened skin, until he all but glowed. Arianna could not draw her eyes away.
She had seen other men without their shirts. Aye, she was not even sure half of the Lady's crew even owned such items. But none had stolen the very breath from her lungs the way the sleep disheveled captain did. A patch of hair began bellow his navel, then it disappeared below the barely tied waistband of his breeches. Arianna finally felt the air leave her lungs in an appreciative sigh, then blushed profusely, once her eyes managed to return to his amused ones.

"I assume  t’was not you screaming, my lady. Shall we check on your maid?" His words were polite, but the assessing look he sent down her scantily clad form, was not. Glancing down, Arianna realized that in her haste, she had not tied her robe. Nor had she even attempted to pull the front together. Even she could see the color variation of her nipples through her thin sleeping rail, and she knew his view must be much better.

Her cheeks heated anew. She handed him her candle then pulled her robe together. She unloaded her pistol and slipped it into the pocket of her robe. Arianna retrieved her candle from him, and made the mistake of lifting her eyes to his.

Warm heat spread through her being at the intensity of his stare, she could almost feel it caressing her curves. She turned from him quickly, knocking upon Betsy's cabin door, before she opened it and peeked her head in.

"Betsy? Shaw? Is everything alright?" Arianna stepped into the room, Derek right behind her. Arianna gasped, she spun from the room connecting solidly with Derek's bare chest. She hid her face in his shoulder as her nails dug into his upper arm. He wrapped his free arm around her, tucking his pistol into his waistband, he then retrieved the candle from her badly shaking hand.

Holding Arianna close, he lifted the candle above her head.

Shaw sat in the chair next to the bunk. Her throat was slit wide open, her head fell back from the cut, and the flesh and tendons were visible. Blood still fell from the wound, it joined that which had already soaked her clothing a dark red.

Betsy lay writhing in her bunk, moaning and crying, obviously delirious with her fever. Derek closed his eyes to the chaos before him with a curse, and squeezed Arianna tighter to him. He should not have let her see that. He should have opened the door and assessed the situation before allowing this trembling girl to be exposed to this.

He opened his eyes again. The scene before him was truly as gruesome as he had first assessed, if not worse. The doctor’s eyes were still open, her face still wore an expression of fear, or perhaps shock, but he would never know which now.

He backed out of the cabin, pulling Arianna along with him. She did not hesitate to follow him and made no move to leave his embrace. He gained the hallway, Alejandro was just reaching the bottom of the stairs from the deck, where he had been on watch.

"Alejandro, please move the maid to her lady's cabin and have Dr. Bridger check in on her. Shaw has been murdered and I am taking my- Lady Kent to my cabin." Derek took in a deep breath. "I want to know all there is to know, Alejandro."
"Si, captain."

Alejandro moved into Betsy's cabin as Derek steered Arianna into his own. He led her to the window seat, then retrieved a fur from his bunk to wrap her in, before he settled her upon the seat. Her face was blank, her eyes were wide open, but he doubted that she saw anything, other than the horror in the next room.

With a curse, he turned to his desk. He opened a fresh bottle of his preferred French brandy and poured two glasses. He moved back to her and set the glasses on the small table that stood next to the window. He then lifted her into his arms once more and sat down himself, cradling her against him.

Her expression never changed, her eyes never blinked. He remembered this expression from just after the pirate’s attack, he did not like it. Pressing a glass into her hands, he urged her to drink.

She stared at the glass for a moment and then lifted her eyes to his. There was no cover between him and the raw emotion swimming in the green depths this time. "Why would someone do that, Derek?"

"Drink, my love. I cannot answer that question now, but Alejandro might soon be able to." Her eyes began to fill with tears. This was something he had not seen before, it felt like a knife had just been lodged in his chest.

"But why, Derek?" He urged her to drink once more, she dutifully emptied the glass in one swallow, a shiver ran through her, as the brandy burnt its way down to her belly. Derek pulled her close, settling her head once more against his shoulder, he began to stroke her hair.

Slowly Arianna relaxed against him. His strong arms felt like heaven around her. She did not know how she would have managed on her own. It seemed as though his arms were the glue that kept her from shattering to pieces. The heat of the fur and his warm skin kept her from freezing up. His scent, that very male essence that was all his own, kept her from withdrawing into herself, kept her grounded but in a safe dreamland all at once. She closed her eyes as he rocked her and stroked her hair.

Cutting off her sense of sight allowed her to soak in the pleasure his nearness and touch gave her, she felt her heart rate begin to slow as the dreamland enveloped her. Her mind gave up its self-inflicted torment of questions and the brandy lulled her to sleep.