Page 79 of Inconvenient Honor
“Volkov owed us much,” Hamidou went on. “We will recoup our losses.”
These men intended Lily for the slave markets. Knowing felt far worse than guessing. The trade flourished for centuries. The American invasion of Tripoli and Exmouth’s bombardment of Algiers had contained the trade but never stamped it out.
Before Richard could respond, the door opened and Hamidou’s man returned. He pulled Lily behind him, her hands bound. The man pulled her with a rope like a dog. Frightened green eyes bore into his over a silken gag. Scarface’s sword kept Richard in place.
“She should bring much, this one, with or without the baby. The child is yours?” Hamidou asked.
“Yes,” Richard rasped. He racked his brain for an argument theman would accept. Only one would work. “Whatever you think she’s worth, I can pay you more.”
“You?” the man roared with laughter, looking Richard in his ragged smalls and bruises.
“I am Richard Hayden,” he rose up and stiffened his aching spine. Hamidou raised an eyebrow. Unimpressed. “The Marquess of Glenaire.” More interest. “Heir to the Duke of Sudbury.”I have his attention. “Whatever you think she is worth, my government will pay more.” He prayed that was true. If Castlereagh balked and his father wouldn’t, Chadbourn would see it done.
“Interesting, but not certain,” Hamidou answered. “I know the traders in Tunis and Algiers. I don’t know you.”
But you’ve heard of me. I’d swear to it.
“What do you have to lose by waiting?” He forced his eyes to stay on Hamidou and not Lily.
The man appeared to ponder his words. “Perhaps I will wait with the woman and sell you. You are worth almost as much as the woman, my lord Glenaire, though not, I think, as much as Volkov owes us. The galleys are hungry for strong backs. Your strength is not first rate, but it will improve over time, and it will amuse them to have ‘my lord’ to pull their oars.”
He felt sick.If I’m lost in the galleys, it will take years to find me. What will happen to Lily and the baby then?
“If I wait,” Hamidou mused, “she will deliver. If her baby lives, I can sell him also.”
A wail, wrung from the depths, escaped Lily’s gagged mouth.
Hamidou rubbed his chin and ignored Lily’s moan of protest. “What shall I do with you?”
The pirate looked amused.Does he really have to consider it or is he torturing me?Richard had nothing else to say, nothing else to offer. He had played his last card.
“I will consider your proposal,” the man said at last. “In meantime, you will be fed as will your … Wife, did you say? We must care for our merchandise. Volkov owed us much. You will make up for it and more, one way or another.”
Rough handsshoved Lily back into the wooden closet that had been her cell for hours. They removed neither bond nor gag.
Raucous laughter accompanied their forced march from the captain’s quarters. Hamidou’s quarters. Richard had called him Hamidou, the beast who would sell her baby. She gagged as her rising gorge threatened to choke her.
Two of the captors, who stunk of bilge and unwashed bodies, shoved Richard into the closet to lie in a heap at her feet. Her heart leapt.Do they mean to leave us together?The men grinned like fools from the doorway.
Richard struggled to his knees. One pushed him back down when he tried to rise. They pantomimed a mockery of obeisance. Lily forced her rattled mind to clear. She called on her smattering of Arabic and knowledge of Turkish, but she couldn’t make all out all of their words. She understood “English lord” at least. She could do nothing to help, bound as she was.
The men tired of their game at last when a third man appeared with what looked like a pile of rags. They tossed it at Richard, slammed the door, and shot the bolt to lock it. Behind the door, she heard muffled words that sounded like “robes for a king.”
Richard stumbled up and yanked off her gag. He kissed her hard and fast. She pulled her head away and lifted her bound hands to his face.
“Untie me you blasted man, this is no time for dalliance.” He began to work at the knots, but leaned in and stole another kiss.
“What the devil did you mean telling that beast I’m your wife?” she sputtered. “Who gave you the right?”
He looked up from working at her fastenings. “I thought it mighthelp keep you safe,” he said. He struggled with swollen hands to untie the knots. “They frown on unmarried pregnancy.”
“You have no business ordering my life,” she said. “I’m not yours to—”Yours to bully. Yours to control. She remembered Hamidou and the sword he held to her heart. “Oh God, Richard, the baby!”
“Don’t be an idiot. We need every scrap of protection we can find. At least they put us together. It will be true soon enough.”
The ropes came free before she could summon an argument. When he pulled her into his arms, she no longer wanted to argue.
He kissed her long, his mouth gently tugging on hers. Her arms went around his neck to pull him closer while she savored the warmth of his naked chest. She slid one hand down his back. When she felt scratches, he winced but did not relax his hold on her. She lowered her hand to the soft cotton of his smalls and held on to his buttocks. When she broke their frantic kiss and moved her mouth across his neck and collarbone, he laid his face against the top of her head and breathed deeply.
