Carolina Isle by Jude Deveraux Page A

North Carolina’s notoriously dangerous coast. Hurricanes, shipwrecks, and a long historyof pirates overhung the many islands dotting the coast. Some islands were large and well inhabited, and some were just spots of land sticking up in the way of the ships trying to get to the mainland.
    â€œThink we’ll see Blackbeard’s ghost?” R.J. asked Sara as soon as they were underway.
    Since she was pretending to be someone else, she couldn’t give him her usual monosyllabic replies, but she wanted to. She didn’t like the way he was flirting with the woman he thought she was. “Is it Blackbeard’s ghost or his treasure you want to see?” she asked.
    â€œMaybe the ghost would lead me to the treasure.”
    â€œI would think that you had enough treasure, Mr. Brompton.”
    â€œEveryone wants more, Miss Weatherly. It’s called ambition and it’s highly prized in this glorious country of ours.”
    â€œIt’s also called greed,” she said, but she made herself smile as she said it.
    Sara pulled the sun visor down and saw in the little makeup mirror that David and Ariel were head-to-head in the backseat, whispering. I wonderwhat they’re plotting? Sara thought, then put the visor back up.
    â€œCome on, Miss Weatherly—and, by the way, I told you to call me R.J.—hasn’t there been something in your life that you wanted so much that you were willing to work hard to get it?”
    â€œIt’s good to try to better yourself,” she said as primly as she could manage. “But when you get to the point where you have too much and still want more, it’s time to stop.”
    â€œI guess you mean me,” he said, smiling. “But, Miss Weatherly, it’s not as though you work for me and have to keep your mouth shut. Tell me what you think. Surely Sara has told you some things about me.”
    â€œI don’t reveal confidences,” Sara said as she glanced over her shoulder. What
were
they talking about?
    â€œSo tell me everything about Arundel,” R.J. said. “I’m thinking about buying a vacation house there.”
    â€œDo you want to know about the people or the land values?”
    He laughed. “You know, even if I didn’t knowyou were Sara’s cousin, I’d know it. You two sound and act very much alike.”
    â€œI couldn’t possibly do all that Sara does,” she shot back. “Sara is a saint.”
    â€œI quite agree,” he said quietly, looking in the mirror at the two in the backseat. “On the other hand, she’s a terrible secretary. Just the other day, she nearly spilled a pot of hot coffee on me.”
    Sara had to turn her head away so he wouldn’t see the anger in her face. After everything she did for him, all he could remember was that she’d almost spilled some coffee! Right now she wished she could erase the “almost.”
    â€œTell me about the people of Arundel,” he said. “Tell me about
your
life there.”
    Sara put some of her acting training into use and calmed herself. She made herself into Ariel and began talking about all that she’d memorized. She told him about her mother, and her childhood with her homeschooling. She told him about the old families in Arundel, and how they still named their children after the founding fathers. Sara did her best to sound lighthearted, as though she hadn’t a care in the world—the wayshe’d seen Ariel’s life until she met that virago who was her mother.
    Sara had memorized the way to get to King’s Isle, so she gave him directions at every junction.
    â€œWhat made you choose King’s Isle?” she asked.
    â€œEver hear of a man named Charley Dunkirk?”
    â€œSara and I have been corresponding for years, so I know a bit more about you and your business than you’d think.”
    â€œI can’t imagine that Sara ever wrote you a word about
me.
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