Shipmate: A Royal Regard Prequel Novella by Mariana Gabrielle Page A

of the upstairs
hallway. “You have to leave me here, John. Charlotte is in my room,
and if she’s awake… well… it will be difficult enough to explain
why I am not there.”
    He nodded. “Sissy, I really do—”
    She held her hand up over his mouth. “Stay
out of card games and brothels and taverns and Papa’s tin mine. You
are a better man than that, John. And for heaven’s sake, don’t be
drawn into Jeremy’s obsession with vengeance against Charlotte, for
Firthley will kill the next Smithson who poses a danger to his
family, not just blood him and give him the cut direct. Father
threatens you with Newgate, yet the path he asks you to walk will
lead right there.”
    He shrugged. “Only if we’re caught.”
    “You will be caught, John, if it is the last
thing Charlotte’s father and husband do. Have you any notion what
lengths they will travel to protect Charlotte, and how many
thief-takers their combined fortunes can buy? It cannot be long
now.”
    He grasped her arm firmly, but not
painfully, his face blanching. “Do you know something, Sissy? Have
they found something?” Suddenly, he hand convulsed, drawing a yelp
from her as her own hand flew to try to claw his now-bruising
fingertips away. “It was you! You told Effingale whatever you
learned from listening at keyholes. Probably have Holsworthy’s
money behind it, too, so he can save himself the coin he promised!
It’s only waiting until you leave to ruin the rest of us.”
    She didn’t confirm or deny it, only said,
“Pray, confess yourself to Uncle this night and beg his counsel. He
will help you, if you ask it. He knows you never asked to be
Father’s accomplice.”
    He looked away, refusing to look into her
eyes, until, squaring his shoulders, his usually facile face
stone-cold, he turned back. “I confess nothing,” he spat through
gritted teeth, glaring. With a snarl, he shoved her away and
growled, “I never thought you would betray me when I let you go
free that night. You might have ended a drunken bawd, but for me,
not been raised to the peerage and married into a fortune.” He
raised the back of his hand to her, but slowly lowered it again at
her flinch. “I always expected Father might send me to the gallows,
if only to save his own neck, but I never thought it would be you.
You’d better hope I don’t know something that will see you hanged
with the rest of us.”
    He strode down the hall without saying
goodbye, and after he turned the corner, she took the few steps to
her door and slipped inside the room.
     
    ***
     
    The lamp on the bedside table slowly
illuminated. “I’d like to think you were having a tryst with Lord
Holsworthy because you have fallen in love, but I think it too much
to ask. Where were you the night before your wedding?”
    “I’m finally tired, Charlotte. Can I not
just lie back down?” Bella removed and hung her cloak and the gown
she had thrown on over her nightrail before she left the inn.
“Should you not be in your husband’s bedchamber, not mine?”
    “As though I would allow you to spend this
night alone. Where did you go?”
    Bella pulled back the covers on the bed and
prepared to slide in next to Charlotte, but when she twisted wrong
and winced, Charlotte asked, “What is it?”
    Bella’s eyes slid to the side, and Charlotte
sat up straighter. Her sharp eyes traveled from Bella’s messy hair
to her shaking hands, to the spots of high color surely blazoning
her cheeks. “They are here, aren’t they? I knew Uncle Jasper
wouldn’t just leave you alone. And one of them hit you.”
    Charlotte threw back the bedclothes, ready
to storm the door, but Bella said, “Stop, Charlotte. You knew my
father would appear with his hand out for the bride price. You all
agreed to let things rest until after we sail.” Bella lowered
herself to the mattress and tucked her feet underneath the quilt.
“Get back in bed. Beginning tomorrow, I will be subject to no one’s
will but my husband, his God,