Paradise Island by Charmaine Ross Page A

to help other slaves hide from that master. But she could not hide from every beating, or keep other slaves safe all the time. I found her on board one of the worst slave ships I have ever laid eyes on. I helped her to health and she has been my good friend since.”
    â€œHow does she …
hide
… things?” Gregory asked.
    â€œShe told me once she weaves pathways around the object and mirrors back the surroundings, so that although it is there, no one can see it,” Estelle said.
    â€œAnd she hid the ship?”
    Estelle nodded. “And everyone on board. I asked her to do it. It was the only way I could think of to protect everyone from … the advancing ships.”
    Gregory could see her motivation for asking her friend. If they looked like they weren’t there, the ships would have nothing to fire on. “Then how could this have happened?”
    â€œShe never hides people. Only objects. She said once she had a premonition that if she used her ability on people, it would ask too much from the gods. She trusted me so much that against her better judgment, she did it. She was right. I did incur the wrath of her gods and now my crew and my ship are gone.”
    She stood abruptly and walked away from him through the frothy ankle deep waves. He cursed under his breath, clambered to his feet and dashed to catch up with her.
    â€œWe need to work out where we are. We don’t know if this happened to the rest of the crew. There’s still no knowing what happened to my ship. It may have been blasted apart by those approaching warships.” Estelle slowed, in thought. “They came at us so fast,” she said.
    â€œThey were not the Navy,” Gregory said.
    Estelle faced him. “No, it was not Navy. It was Jack Cutlass. Are you in league with him?”
    â€œI abhor the man,” Gregory said.
    â€œI’m sure there is more about this matter than you are telling me.”
    â€œI’m telling you everything I know.”
    â€œThat is something I will find out for myself.” She straightened her shoulders and hitched her chin upwards. “But now there is nothing I can do in the middle of the night. We need to find shelter and wait for the cool reason of daylight.”
    She strode towards the heavy, dark cliffs. He could escape, now was definitely the time to try. But he couldn’t chance it with his wrists manacled together, and not knowing where he was. He would have limited chance of survival. He tested the manacles and suppressed a surge of helpless anger when the iron bit into his wrists. An angry hiss left his mouth before he followed her.
    He could draw no logical conclusion about what had happened, and her story of her friend’s ability was surely imagination. To think that a woman could
hide
a ship and her crew with the power of her mind was preposterous. Yet, she seemed to believe it as though it were the truth. It made him question the state of her mind. He hoped he was not dealing with a madwoman bent of a path of revenge, as well as dealing with the mystery of where in the world he was.
    However, now they were stranded together and she was right about one thing. They needed to find shelter. Even a wolf would have trouble negotiating this area on a bleak, dark night such as this, and he had to get these manacles off. Without his hands free, he was at her mercy which was not a state that sat easily on his shoulders. He was used to being the man in charge, having his own ship under his command, not to be at the whim of a female who had an obvious distrust of men and the world around her, and who also had the audacity to kidnap him on a hair-brained, illogical whim.
    He watched her seductive hips sway as she walked in the silken moonlight, and felt his involuntary internal response stir. She was the sexiest guard he ever had the misfortune to be kidnapped by, and when he had sorted out this mess she had gotten him in, he would make her pay dearly