A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Diana Gabaldon [588]
She shook her head, wordless. A faint hope had sprung up in the back of her mind. He did have some faint streak of gallantry, or at least decency; he had come back to rescue her from the burning warehouse, and he had left her the stone for what he assumed to be his child. Now he had abandoned his advances, upon hearing that she was with child again. Perhaps he would let her go, then, particularly if she was of no immediate use to him.
“So . . . you don’t want me?” she said, edging her feet under her, ready to leap up and run, as soon as the door opened to admit her replacement. She hoped she could run; her knees were still trembling with reaction.
Bonnet glanced at her, surprised.
“I’ve split your quim once already, sweetheart,” he said, and grinned. “I recall the red hair—a lovely sight, sure—but it wasn’t so memorable an experience otherwise that I can’t be waitin’ to repeat it. Time enough, darlin’, time enough.” He chucked her negligently under the chin, and gulped more of his drink. “For now, though, LeRoi’s needing a bit of a gallop.”
“Why am I here?” she demanded.
Distracted, he pulled once more at the crotch of his breeches, quite unself-conscious of her presence.
“Here? Why, because a gentleman paid me to take ye to London-town, darlin’. Didn’t ye know?”
She felt as though someone had hit her in the stomach, and sat down on the bed, folding her arms protectively across her midsection.
“What gentleman? And for God’s sake—why?”
He considered for a moment, but evidently concluded that there was no reason not to tell her.
“A man named Forbes,” he said, and threw back the rest of his drink. “Know him, do you?”
“I most certainly do,” she said, amazement vying with fury. “That bloody bastard!” So they were Forbes’s men, the masked bandits that had stopped her and Josh, dragged them from their horses, and shoved them both into a sealed carriage, bumping over unseen roads for days on end, until they reached the coast, and then been pulled out, disheveled and reeking, and bundled aboard the ship.
“Where’s Joshua?” she asked abruptly. “The young black man who was with me?”
“Was there?” Bonnet looked quizzical. “If they brought him aboard, I imagine they’ve put him in the hold with the other cargo. A bonus, I suppose,” he added, and laughed.
Her fury at Forbes had been tinged with relief at finding out he was the motive behind her abduction; Forbes might be a low-down, sneaking scoundrel, but he wouldn’t be intending to murder her. That laugh of Stephen Bonnet’s, though, made a cold qualm run through her, and she felt suddenly light-headed.
“What do you mean, a bonus?”
Bonnet scratched his cheek, gooseberry eyes roaming over her in approval.
“Oh, well, then. Mr. Forbes only wanted ye out of the way, he said. Whatever did ye do to the man, darlin’? But he’s paid your fare already, and I’ve the impression that he’s no great interest in where ye end up.”
“Where I end up?” Her mouth had been dry; now saliva was pouring from her membranes, and she had to swallow repeatedly.
“Well, after all, darlin’, why bother takin’ ye all the way to London, where ye’d be of no particular use to anyone? Besides, it rains quite a bit in London; I’m sure ye wouldn’t like it.”
Before she could draw breath to ask any more questions, the door opened, and a young woman slid through, closing it behind her.
She was likely in her twenties, though with a missing molar that showed when she smiled. She was plump and plain-faced, brown-haired, and clean by local standards, though the scent of her sweat and waves of freshly applied cheap cologne wafted across the cabin, making Brianna want to throw up again.
“Hallo, Stephen,” the newcomer said, standing on tiptoe to kiss Bonnet’s cheek. “Give us a drink to be starting with, eh?”
Bonnet grabbed her, gave her a deep and lingering kiss, then let her go and reached for the bottle.
Coming down onto her heels, she looked at Brianna with detached professional interest, then back at Bonnet, and scratched at her neck.
“You’ll have the two of us, Stephen, or