GHOST OF A CHANCE Read online

  * * *

  Contents:

  Prologue

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

  * * *

  * * *

  Prologue

  ^ »

  Magnolia Cove, Frenchman's Island, South Carolina

  One week shy of 200 years ago…

  Captain Sullivan Fouquet stared in horror as the woman he loved sank to the tavern floor in a pool of blood.

  "God's Bones, St. James! What have you done?"

  "'Twas not a'purpose! You saw what happened, Fouquet. She put herself in front of my pistol! Damned wench, what was she thinking?"

  Throwing himself onto his knees beside his beloved Elizabeth, Sully gathered her to his breast, grasping her sweet, bloodied hand between his. "I swear on her eyes, St. James, if she dies, friend or no, I'll see you to your grave."

  His heart wrenched as those self-same eyes fluttered open, her gaze upon him liquid and apologetic. "I'm sorry, my love," she whispered. Her body gave a little shudder, and then the light went out of her forever.

  "No!" he cried, anguish sweeping through him like a cruel northern wind.

  "My God, what have I done?" St. James murmured.

  Sully turned to the man who had joined him on his knees on the other side of Elizabeth's body.

  "Damn you," he swore, fury mounting. He sprang to his feet, whipping his sword from the sheath hanging at his chair. "You've killed her!"

  "Calm yourself. It was not my intention, as well you know."

  "Not true!" He lunged at the friend who was friend no more, aiming his blade at the blackguard's heart. "You loved her. You wanted her for yourself!"

  "Don't be an ass, Fouquet."

  St James swiftly sidestepped his thrust. Sully drew back and thrust again, missing by a narrow margin. His rage doubled.

  St. James snatched his weapon from the table. "Stop this before you come to harm. You are mad with grief."

  "And you are a dead man!"

  "Tomorrow you may pound me to your heart's content—till I am bloodied and blue if it will help. But stay your hand now, when it will only lead to misfortune. Think of the spoils of our last voyage, waiting for us on the island. It takes both of us to find it!" He parried Sully's lightning fast attack.

  "The only fortune I seek now is your soul cursed to eternal hell on earth!"

  "If so, I'll see you when the flames burn hottest, my friend," his betrayer muttered, furiously repelling his blade's assault. "Christ's Tears, Sully. Give it up, man!"

  They danced across the tavern floor, sword a' sword, onlookers astonished to see the two fast friends in mortal combat. Suddenly, a blinding pain seared Sully's side. His blade dropped from his hand and he grabbed at the blood that bloomed from the gaping slash.

  "And now you've killed me, too."

  "God forgive me, you gave no choice."

  As his limbs grew weak, the awful unfairness of this ignoble end to life settled over Sully like a gossamer shroud. He should have met his fate on the sea he loved so much, forcing the surrender of an enemy merchantman. Or in bed where he'd spent his happiest hours, coaxing the surrender of his ladylove. Now he'd know none of those things ever again.

  He sank to his knees, looking up into the face of the man he'd loved as a brother. "Tyree," he whispered, beckoning.

  "Save your breath, my friend. I'll fetch the leech."

  "To the devil I curse you…"

  "Lie down, now," St. James urged him. "'Tis not so bad as you think." But the anguished sheen in his comrade's eyes belied the soothing words.

  He felt a sudden pang of sympathy for his murderer. Perhaps the man didn't deserve damnation for quite eternity. They had kept faith for half a lifetime, after all.

  "May you haunt this earth for two hundred years, St. James—" Sully gasped, his breath coming short, his mind swimming in a thick, black fog "—or until you find a love so strong the lady is willing to die in your place, as did my Elizabeth."

  But as he spoke, his gaze fell upon the lifeless body of his own true love. Nay! He reached for his fallen sword. With his last breath, he swung the blade true, piercing the heart of the man who had killed her.

  "The devil I curse you, Tyree St. James."

  And then he died.

  * * *

  Chapter 1

  « ^ »

  Magnolia Cove, Frenchman's Island, South Carolina

  Sunday, mid-May, present day

  God's Teeth, there was a woman in his bedroom!

  Well, not actually a woman, but a woman's things. Which was bad enough.

  What the hell was going on?

  Tyree St. James barely stifled the urge to bellow at the top of his lungs for Mrs. Yates. Barely, for even after two centuries on dry land, the instincts of a sea captain still ran strong in his blood. Rose Cottage was his, and it was his bedroom and his bed the small pile of pink tapestry suitcases lay upon. Mrs. Yates had no business letting a perfect stranger intrude on the sacrosanct privacy Tyree had worked so hard for so long to maintain.

  With a quick turn of his bucket-top boot, he stalked straight for the main house to have it out with the meddling old crone. How dare she? They had an arrangement.

  No women on the property. None. Ever.

  Preventing that circumstance was at the very foundation of Mrs. Yates's caretaker duties. The one inviolable law between the two of them. The reason he'd originally selected her, a matronly widow, to continue the old tradition as the earthly steward of all he possessed.

  And why she knew damned well that installing a woman—any woman—in his bed was completely, unremittingly unacceptable.

  The fact that he hadn't actually slept since the night he'd run his best friend through, and therefore had little practical use for a bed, was irrelevant. Sleep had been the last thing on his mind when establishing the No Women Rule.

  The real problem was, of course, sex.

  Tyree streaked through the solid oak backdoor to the kitchen without bothering to open it—one of the handier abilities he'd acquired since being cursed with his present condition—and stopped dead in his tracks.

  Mrs. Yates was sitting, cozy as could be, drinking tea at his kitchen table with the woman he assumed was the intruder.

  He gritted his teeth at the sight of her. Perfect stranger, indeed. Young. Vibrant. Beautiful. Everything he'd been avoiding for so long he thought he'd forgotten what the painful slam of sexual attraction felt like.

  What was Mrs. Yates trying to do? Kill him? He couldn't even manage a humorless smile at the irony.

  Sliding silently through the wall into the large butler's pantry, he carefully cracked the door, snapped up his eye patch and peered through the opening. He knew the interloper almost surely would not see him even if he sat upon the chair directly across from her, but he didn't want Mrs. Yates to know he was about. He'd discover what nefarious scheme the old biddy had in her devious mind before confronting her. And then he'd let her know in no uncertain terms it wasn't going to work.

  He had only one week left to endure this accursed state, and then he'd be well and truly quit of the bedevilment he'd suffered under for nearly two hundred years. He wasn't about to risk messing up his reprieve. God knew what strings were attached to that ridiculous love provision Sully had tacked on to his dying curse, but Tyree had no intention of finding out.

  He'd come close once, and his heart was still smarting from the experience.

  "Just imagine," Mrs. Yates was saying, "having such good luck on your first day!"

  First day of what?

  The village of Magnolia Cove on tiny Frenchman's Island, South Carolina, didn't have a hell of a lot to offer a visitor, and nothing at all that involved luck of any kind. A small, white sand beach, a dilapidate
d charter fishing boat, a couple of shabby antique shops, a few reportedly haunted houses—he did manage a smile at that—a restaurant of questionable culinary regard and … oh, God, the Magnolia Cove Pirate Museum.

  Tyree almost groaned out loud. He should have known.

  He was sick to death of hearing about his best friend and arch rival, Captain Sullivan Fouquet—or would be, if he wasn't already dead. For too many years, he'd had to suffer the hordes of euphoria-waxing historians and romance-swooning tourist ladies who invaded his remote coastal hideaway—all seeking to worship his benighted friend Sully and vilify Tyree himself.

  Hell, just because he'd run the bugger through and shot the man's light-skirted wench didn't make Tyree a bad fellow. Both had been terrible accidents, after all. But everyone shed crocodile tears over the romantic, untimely demise of Captain Sullivan and the comely Elizabeth, giving the evil Captain Tyree St. James the moniker "Blackbeard of Magnolia Cove."

  Damn it, he didn't even have a beard.

  Next weekend, the village was hosting the annual Magnolia Cove Pirate Festival, where Tyree would no doubt be forced to endure yet more indignities to his already black reputation.

  Obviously, the female now sitting in his kitchen must be another Sullivan Fouquet fanatic. Tyree clamped his jaw hard. Even from the blasted grave, the man wouldn't leave him in peace. Would he ever be quit the irksome bastard?

  He parried a sudden stab of unreasonable pique. What could a pretty young thing like that possibly see in Sully, anyway, especially now that he was dead? Had the infamous Cajun captain still been alive, well, Tyree had no doubt as to the answer. But he wasn't. That left only one possibility. She had to be after the treasure of their last voyage, like everyone else.

  "Yes, it was pretty amazing," the intruder replied to Mrs. Yates in a low, throaty voice that sent flames scorching through Tyree's loins. He could just imagine that voice murmuring words of encouragement in his ear as he moved in and out—

  Christ's Bones! This was exactly what he'd feared. It had been so long… He'd hoped he'd forgotten how much he loved the feel of lying between a woman's thighs.

  Swallowing hard, he tried to block the woman's enticing voice and only hear her words.

  "The sailor's diary is just what I was looking for," she said. "I'm sure I'll find the information I need to retrace Captain Fouquet's last voyage and find the lost gold."

  Tyree rolled his eyes. Just once he'd like to be wrong.

  Sullivan Fouquet was a damned menace, and he'd have thought so even if the man hadn't cursed him to wander the earth for two centuries seeking something he could never hope to find—not that he'd allowed himself to try. For how could any honorable man, even one in Tyree's present predicament, ask a mortal woman to die just to release him from his curse? It was a dilemma with no good solution, other than to wait it out.

  Only one week left…

  "I still can't believe nobody ever found the diary in your library before this," the young woman remarked.

  What diary?

  Mrs. Yates sipped her tea, and said in a much-too-innocent tone, "It is rather miraculous. It must have been fate, my dear."

  Fate, schmate. Tyree knew her all too well to believe any such thing. No, he thought, and tossed his eye patch onto a pantry shelf. Mrs. Yates with her mysterious diary had something up her Belgian lace sleeve. He'd bet another century of purgatory on it.

  * * *

  Clara Fergussen yawned and glanced up from her reading to check the brass ship's clock on the mantle. It was after midnight. Mrs. Yates had retired a while ago and Clara should be getting to bed, too. Tomorrow would be a full day.

  She looked down longingly at the old handwritten diary she'd checked out of the library, wanting nothing more than to dive back into the curled, faded pages and continue her reading. Even though the seaman had not sailed with Fouquet but his disreputable partner, the insights were still fascinating. She was so excited about her precious find she probably wouldn't sleep anyway.

  Her first day in Magnolia Cove and already she was well on the way to fulfilling her lifelong dream. She could scarcely believe it!

  Her friends and family back in Kansas all thought she was out of her mind to want to travel the world in search of new, exciting experiences. But Clara's dream was to win a berth on Adventure Magazine's year-long, round-the-world yacht trip. The voyage, plus a generous freelance contract, was first prize in the magazine's annual contest to find new writing talent.

  With a sleepy smile, she closed the diary in her hands and stowed it carefully on the top shelf of the bookcase along with her notes. An aspiring travel writer, she'd already made it to the final round of the contest by penning a poignant article about finding adventure in one's own backyard.

  But for her finalist story, she'd ventured a little farther afield. Scraping together her meager savings from her job as copy editor for her hometown newspaper, she'd come all the way to this remote village on the coast of South Carolina to write the winning story about her lifelong passion.

  Pirates.

  Clara had always loved pirates. Ever since discovering black-and-white movies on TV at the tender age of four, she'd drooled over Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and had taken up collecting swords and ships-in-a-bottle shortly thereafter. Of course, the fact that her great-great-great-great-granduncle on her mother's side was the famous Louisiana swashbuckler, Sullivan Fouquet, may have had something to do with her unusual obsession. But for whatever reason, she'd always found the sight of a handsome rogue with an eye patch totally irresistible.

  Surely, the scandalous exploits of her distant ancestor would prove just as compelling to Adventure Magazine's judging panel as to her. And now that she'd discovered this unknown sailor's diary, first prize was as good as hers.

  After quietly closing the backdoor of the main house behind her, Clara started down the brick path leading to the tiny bungalow Mrs. Yates was letting her stay in during her six days on Frenchman's Island. Yet another miracle.

  She'd met the delightful Mrs. Yates within minutes of arriving in the quaint historical village where the Pirate Museum was located. Because of the big Pirate Festival this coming Saturday, the few hotel rooms in Magnolia Cove had long ago been reserved, and Clara had expected to have to stay at a tacky motel about ten miles inland in the bigger city of Old Fort Mystic. But after hearing about her project, Mrs. Yates had insisted she stay at Rose Cottage. The gardener's bungalow had no one living in it, and she'd be grateful for the company.

  Clara took in a deep lungful of the unfamiliar and, to a Midwestern girl, slightly exotic Carolina air. The night was warm and pleasantly sultry, filled with the flowery scents of the lush English garden, the fecund aroma of springtime on the salt marsh, and a tangy hint of the nearby sea. A brumming of frogs and chirping of insects filled the stillness as she wound her way through the tangle of climbing roses and flowers surrounding Rose Cottage and the gardener's bungalow.

  Softly humming to herself, she looked up at the black night sky, spangled with a swath of twinkling stars. The whole place was magical. If ever the urge to settle down hit her, it would only be somewhere exactly like this which might have the power to quell the unrequited wanderlust in her blood.

  Not that anything ever could. Her yen was for travel, excitement and passion. If she succeeded in her quest to get to the heart of the elusive Captain Fouquet and capture his excitement on paper, the resulting article had a great chance to win her the year-long yacht trip, the freelance contract and launch her exciting new career as a travel writer. And finally gain her the respect of her doubting family and friends.

  Anticipation bubbled through her. Hugging herself, she spun dizzily in a full circle on the brick path. She wanted this so badly she could taste it.

  Nothing would stop her now. Finally, finally, her real life would begin!

  And on top of all that, she had six more days to spend researching her very favorite obsession, along with enjoying a day-long festival d
edicated to the memory of her sexy, handsome, pirate ancestor.

  How could it get any better?

  Taking the front steps two at a time, she flung open the door and let herself into the two-room bungalow. Inside, it was cool and quiet, a soft breeze blowing through French doors off her bedroom. Following the breeze, she went through the living room into the bedroom and then walked past the billowing curtains out onto a postage-stamp-size veranda.

  A few feet below, pink foxgloves winked up at her. Beyond a white picket fence, the spartina grass of the salt marsh swayed gently in the moonlight. Compared to the endless cornfields and prairies of Kansas, the sight seemed straight out of an old movie. Any second now, she expected to see the pirate Lafitte's sloop or Sullivan Fouquet's two-rigger sail up to anchor at Mrs. Yates's stiltlike dock.

  What an unbelievable thrill that would be!

  Clara had always harbored a secret fantasy of being swept away, captured by a devilishly handsome man in thigh-high boots and a lacy white shirt. Unfortunately, despite many a steamy daydream, she'd never actually met a man who came close—other than in the pages of her favorite romance novels.

  She yawned. Perhaps tonight Sullivan Fouquet would come to her in her dreams. The atmosphere at the cottage certainly lent itself to flights of imagination. She'd be his ladylove, Elizabeth, and he'd make love to her as no man had ever done before. She sighed at the thought.

  Her body thrumming pleasantly and her mind filled with delightful visions of olive skin and tight breeches, Clara wandered back into the bedroom. Too bad she hadn't brought any of those romance novels along. Yawning again sleepily, she flipped off her shoes and slid off her shorts. She turned on the muted Tiffany-style lamp, then went to the antique armoire that served as a closet and pulled her nightshirt from the drawer.

  Catching sight of her dim reflection in the mirrored door, she sat down on the mattress. Even in the near darkness, she could see a glow about her that was unmistakable. Her whole future lay before her like a beckoning smorgasbord. It was amazing the difference a little expectation could make on a woman's face.