“What is this?” he asked, his voice tinged with anger. “These are bruises. How did you get these, Madelaine?”
She immediately remembered Geoffrey’s cruel fingers closing tightly on her throat. She remembered not being able to breathe, the light in the room going dark, then sparks of light flashing in front of her eyes.
“Madelaine,” he said, his voice indicating his displeasure. “Did Hugh do this?”
“No!” she said in a rush. “No, he didn’t.”
He didn’t look convinced. He already hated Hugh for some mysterious reason, and she didn’t want to get Hugh in trouble for something he didn’t do. “You must believe me. If you don’t believe anything else I ever say, you must believe that Hugh did not cause these bruises.”
“Then tell me how you got them.”
“I’m not inclined to follow any more of your orders,” she said matter-of-factly.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, though she knew he wasn’t amused. Without a word of reprimand, he took her plate and went to the buffet. She got the uneasy feeling that he had taken her comment as a challenge.
“Why do you hate Hugh so much?” she asked, hoping to turn the subject away from herself.
He paused and turned, giving her an unobliging scowl. “He isn’t the man he appears to be. You’d do well to remember that in the future. Would you care for a taste of everything?”
“Yes,” she answered, actually looking forward to her first hearty meal in months. He placed her plate in front of her and she thanked him as he picked up his own and filled it with chicken and potatoes.
“Why should I believe what you say about Hugh? It seems like you only want to hurt him.”
“I want him to feel the depth of loss he brought on me.”
“He took a woman from you?”
He gave her a hard look. She doubted he would answer, but the answer was plain enough in his pained expression.
“Yes.”
“So you’re going to take his woman from him,” she said quietly.
He simply looked at her and swallowed a bite of food.
“I don’t see how that’s fair to either of the women involved. Have you even considered that? Do we matter at all to either of you?”
“You should consider what I’ve told you a gift. Now you know the truth, and if you choose to stay with him, you have no one to blame but yourself.”
He seemed so sincere, and she started to wonder how much Olivia knew about the man she wished to marry.
“How well do you know Hugh?” he asked, as if reading her thoughts.
From what Olivia had told her on deck earlier, she realized the lovestruck girl didn’t know much about the man she was to marry. She couldn’t answer for her friend.
“That’s what I thought. You’re not betrothed yet. You could still back out of the arrangement.”
“I think I’ve heard enough of your opinions about Hugh. Obviously you would say anything to sway me. I would prefer that you don’t bring him up again, Captain Angel.” She sliced a juicy piece of chicken, hoping he would drop the subject.
His dark eyes narrowed and the dimple in his cheek deepened with his disarming smile.
“Don’t be so formal, Madelaine. I don’t like it. Just call me Angel.”
“We aren’t friends.”
“But we’re going to be more than that soon,” he reminded her wickedly. “You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
She swallowed a bite of chicken, thankful for the sauce that helped it slide down her suddenly dry throat.
“Did you forget that I said I wouldn’t go through with it?”
“I’ve decided to forgive you for that outburst,” he said, licking sauce from his finger. “I’m very much looking forward to sealing our bargain, aren’t you?”
“Certainly not!” she hissed, then lowered her gaze to her plate.
Her denial had been adamant enough, but her traitorous body had reacted to the seductive hunger in his eyes.
“I believe your affable response to me on deck today is answer enough.”
Kane took a sip of the deep red wine and watched Madelaine’s face flush to a similar color.
“Perhaps you would indulge me with an explanation of your kind, Angel,” she said with icy disdain.
He admired her spirit, her fearless abandon to use his name as if it was an insult.
“My kind?”
“Men,” she said, then tasted and savored a bite of chicken.
“What would you like to know?”
“Why do you think it’s acceptable to treat women as if they were no more than figurines in a chess game? You tell us what to do, as if we were children. You protect us, as if we had no common sense. You marry us for what our fathers entice you with, yet then you use us to make your rivals jealous. You act as if you own us—in fact, history has written laws to make sure we are forced to obey. What makes you worthy of all that power?”
“I don’t know, love. Is it so bad, being a woman? Being adored by men and lavished with love and fine things? Children, a home, gowns, jewels.”
“Oh, never mind! You couldn’t possibly understand. Why did I think for a minute—and wipe that silly look off your face before I drown you with this wine,” she threatened, lifting her wineglass. She took a deep sip instead, then dabbed her lips and rose from the table.
He hadn’t meant to upset her this much. She was far too discerning and he was burning to know what she saw in a man like Hugh. And he wanted to know what had happened to her in her cultured upbringing to make her so hostile.
“You’re very fortunate, you know. There are plenty of women who would switch places with you in an instant to know the life that you’ve lived. Even as a woman, Madelaine, you’ve had a much more privileged life than most. And as much as you think you might want to be a man, you should be grateful you’re a woman. God knows I am,” he said, hoping to lure a smile out of her.
She glared at him instead.
“You’re free.”
“Pardon?” The peculiar statement caught him by surprise. He was still entranced with the mystery of what had made her so offended by such a simple though absolute verity of nature.
“You can go where you want, say what you want. You can live alone or have a family if you wish, but you don’t have to rely on anyone but yourself. You don’t require an escort to attend a party, nor would your father force you to—”
“To marry? Is that it? You don’t want to marry Hugh, do you?”
She groaned. “No. No, that’s not what I meant. I drank too much wine, that’s all.”
“You had one glass.”
“Which is too much, considering the distress I’m enduring. You wouldn’t understand unless you’d been kidnapped by a pirate. I take it you have not.”
Kane smiled at her clever excuse. He found his bitterness slipping away. He was seeing her as an intelligent, captivating beauty with a wit to match that of his most sarcastic friend, Jax. He was actually enjoying her company. “No, I have not. But there might be something I can do to ease your distress somewhat. I’ll reveal a secret to you.”