Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [104]
Benjamin swallowed hard, looking slightly sick. “She may have been right. I don't know. She was so damned defiant that it got under my skin. Every day I thought she'd give in and ask me to change her duty, and every day she threw her refusal right back in my face.” His hands came up to cover his eyes. “God, I feel rotten.”
Jane felt her anger begin to drain away as she saw the unhappiness and self-reproach in Benjamin's face. She could grudgingly understand the irritation that had driven him to such lengths. Hadn't she been stirred by the same pride and stubbornness that had goaded the captain? She knew the same treacherous melting that she always experienced at the sight of another's distress or pain.
“I should think you would,” Jake said scathingly. “You've acted with the same asinine stupidity that she has.”
This remark was met with resentful scowls from both antagonists.
“It wasn't the captain's fault that I bruise easily,” Jane said defensively, with an abrupt about-face. “You hired him to run your blasted ship for you. If he thought that I'd be of most value scrubbing decks, then that's what I should do.” She scooted to the other end of the couch to evade Jake's reach and rose to her feet. “In fact, that's what I insist on doing!” she added emphatically. She turned and marched toward the door, brushing by the stunned captain with a curt nod. “I'll see you tomorrow morning at the usual time, Captain Benjamin.”
The captain was having a predinner drink with Jake in the lounge one evening, shortly after they had sighted the northern coast of Mexico, and was mentally congratulating himself on his diplomatic brilliance. It appeared that his solution to the problem Jane had presented was working very well indeed in the past several days. His self-satisfaction in this respect was suddenly blasted into the stratosphere by a call from his first officer, Jim Davidson.
When he turned away from the phone, he grimaced as he picked up his whiskey. “I should have known that it was too good to last. That was Jim Davidson on the phone. It seems that we have a slight disciplinary problem with the crew. Five of them were caught shooting craps in the storeroom.” He looked down gloomily at his drink. “One of them was your problem child, Jane Smith.”
Jake Dominic lifted an eyebrow mockingly. “Surely that's not so reprehensible,” he said easily. “You've always allowed the men to gamble on the Sea Breeze.”
“Not for money,” Benjamin said shortly. “Evidently there was quite a bit of cash involved in this particular game.”
“I see,” Jake replied thoughtfully; then his eyes lit mischievously. “And what discipline are you going to administer to these miscreants? Scrubbing the deck?”
“Lord, no!” Benjamin said with a shudder. “The men are easy enough to deal with. They know that the standard punishment for gambling is to stop their pay for a few days. But how in the hell do I discipline Jane, when she's not even earning a salary?”
Jake rose from the barstool and wandered over to the port-hole to stare absently out at the tranquil sea that was just beginning to be stroked by the scarlet rays of the setting sun. “I'll take care of it.” He spoke casually, over his shoulder. “As you say, she's my problem.”
“I didn't think you'd want to be bothered,” Benjamin said slowly. Though Dominic had inquired once or twice about Jane, he'd never once visited his charge in her cabin during the time that she'd been confined.
Jake Dominic turned around to face him, a sardonic smile on his face. “It would hardly have been discreet to display more than a casual interest in our little invalid. You know damn well if I'd paid so much as a courtesy call to Jane's cabin, the entire ship would have assumed that she was my mistress. The next two months are going to be difficult enough for her without that particular problem to deal with.”
That