Tainted Lilies Read Online Free PDF

the family to take up privateering as an occupation, had put in twelve years at sea before teaching his nephews the family trade. But Reyne had long since recognized the leadership qualities of his dead sister’s youngest son and addressed Jean Laffite as “Boss,” the same as all the others on Grande Terre did.
    Laffite looked up to see his tall uncle escorting a Creole beauty on his arm. She might have just stepped out of a carriage a moment earlier for an evening at the St. Peter Street Theater in New Orleans. Reyne’s large, sun-bronzed frame, his craggy features, and his flamboyant seaman’s costume contrasted violently with the woman’s statuesque perfection and her gown of Paris design.
    “So this is your infamous nephew, Reyne?” she said with a smile, not yet aware that her niece lay unconscious just out of her view. “If half the tales that have reached Paris are true, I’m sure I should be fairly quaking in my slippers at this moment!” She turned flirtatious, brandy-colored eyes to Beluche, then gave Laffite a sweetly wicked smile.
    Reyne Beluche bellowed his delight and squeezed her ungloved hand affectionately. “You have nothing to fear from this nephew, my dear Gabrielle, but watch out for his brothers.”
    “And their uncle!” Madame DelaCroix added.
    Beluche laughed aloud again and beamed at her.
    “Well, Uncle Reyne, are you going to continue this flirtation interminably or are you going to introduce me to the lady?”
    “Ah, Jean boy, you’ve heard me speak fondly of the fabulous Gabrielle Dubois often enough. Now she’s the Widow DelaCroix, but the same charming girl I remember from my courting days. When I was a younger man with hotter blood and a shorter fuse, I fought more than one duel trying to win her favor. She could break a heart with the flicker of an eye or fire a man’s passions past the boiling point with half a smile. Nothing changes, eh, Gabrielle?”
    “Everything changes, my dear Reyne,” she said cynically, then softened her tone and added, “except our friendship.”
    Jean Laffite felt almost embarrassed watching them, as if he were a guilty voyeur peeking in on some private and very intimate reunion. So this was the love of his uncle’s life—the woman who had fled New Orleans when another man she loved married someone else. The very woman Reyne blamed for his lifelong bachelorhood. Laffite and his brothers had always thought Uncle Reyne made up the romantic tale to amuse them and himself. But it must be true.
    “Mon Dieu! Nikki!” Gabrielle gave a sudden, shrill cry when she spied her unconscious niece. “What’s happened to her?”
    She dropped to the deck and cradled Nicolette’s head against the soft mauve silk of her bosom.
    “Browne and his men had her; then in trying to save her, I’m afraid I frightened her half to death, ma’am. She should come around soon. Right now, the best thing would be to get her off this hot deck and back to shelter on the island. I’ll take her in one of the lifeboats. Reyne, lend a hand.”
    The two men lifted Nicolette gently and placed her in one of the small craft on deck, before lowering it to the lapping waves. Sukey had gone ahead to shore in Dominique’s boat. Laffite was sure Gabrielle DelaCroix would find safe keeping in Reyne’s care.
    “Monsieur Laffite?” Gabrielle’s call delayed the casting off.
    “Madame?” he answered, looking up at the strained but beautiful face peering down from the railing.
    “My niece… They didn’t… you got here in time, I pray. Why did I lock myself in my cabin? I might have helped her.”
    Laffite shared the woman’s concern, though he couldn’t answer her question. He chose his words diplomatically. “I don’t think she’s suffered any lasting damage, Madame DelaCroix. But whatever has happened, I take full responsibility. And I promise you Nicolette has endured all she’ll have to.”
    “She was to be married, you know. As soon as we reached New Orleans. But