“If he doesn’t what?” he shouted. “I’m to wait until the night before my wedding to see if I have a bride or not? Jessica, you go too far! You may think you’re the most desirable woman in the world, but there are other women.”
She stood, hands on hips. “Women who’ll marry you for your money? Why else would they marry you? Your looks? The way you make love to them? Even with your money you can’t get anyone else. I’ve never lied to you. I want the Raider. If he comes for me, I mean to take him.”
“But I’m second choice, is that it?”
“I didn’t have any choice at all, Alex,” she said, softening, walking toward him.
He was putting on his damp coat. “How can you be so stupid as to love a man who only appears now and then? A man who won’t show you his face or tell you his name?”
“I didn’t say I loved him.”
Alex stopped and stared at her. “If it isn’t love, then what is it? Lust?”
“No, I…I don’t know. He’s like me. We think alike. I’ve never met a man like him before. I think I could love him.”
Alex went to the door, then turned back. “You can damned well love me, too,” he said and went out into the rain.
For an astonished moment, Jess stared at the door. “Love?” she whispered. Was Alexander in love with her? For some reason, the thought pleased her very much. Whistling, she went upstairs to her lonely, cold bed.
* * *
Alex was shoveling hay for the Raider’s big black stallion.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Nick said, laughter in his voice, a smirk on his lips. “I hear shouting and you run away to your private island.”
Alex didn’t answer him. “Doesn’t Eleanor give you enough to do?”
“I gave her something to contemplate this morning,” he said smugly. “She was too busy to even remember her sister’s name. So, you’re going to marry your Mistress Jessica tomorrow morning.”
“Someone is,” Alex said, filling the horse’s water trough. As usual, he was stripped to the waist. Whenever he didn’t have to wear the padded clothes, he wore as little as possible.
“The wedding night with that little cat should be memorable.”
Alex gave Nick a malevolent look. “I can’t sleep with her and you know it. She’d know I wasn’t fat and she’d know the reason for the disguise in a minute.”
“Perhaps you could tell her the truth.”
“Jessica?” Alex spat. “Tell Jessica the truth? That woman has no sense at all. She’d probably borrow my mask and challenge the admiral to a duel. Besides,”—he grinned—“it’s better for my disguise if she doesn’t like me. If we spent a few nights together, she’d look at me, well, differently. People might guess I wasn’t the weakling I appear to be.”
Nick groaned. “So, you’ll marry her but not sleep with her.”
“Oh, I’ll sleep with her all right—as the Raider. Alex will support her and put up with those damn kids, and the Raider will enjoy her.”
“So Jessica will think she’s an adulteress.”
“It’s only for a while. Until I think it’s safe to tell her. Or maybe I’ll go to Boston and get cured of my disease. Alex will lose weight and the Raider will be no more.”
“I hope it works out as well as you plan. Are you ready to return? I don’t like this place at night.”
“The Raider will protect you,” Alex said in a deepened voice, making Nick laugh.
Together, they rowed back to the mainland.
All evening, Alex kept hoping Jessica might come to him, might apologize for her remarks, but she didn’t appear.
Eleanor walked into the common room. “They’re all in bed at last. She hasn’t shown up yet?”
“No,” Alex said, looking down at his empty mug.