Page 11 of A Countess Captured for the Captain
“You really have been deprived of a woman’s company for quite some time, Captain Nox,” she said, blushing under his gaze.
“Just Nox, will do. You are not part of my crew,” he said, and she smiled.
“But what sort of name is Nox?” she asked, thinking it a quite ridiculous sounding name, and one she did not particularly care for.
“Norman Black is my name, but I am known as Nox, and that is how I have always been known. I know nothing about who I am, and the name of Black is as much a mystery to me as it is to anyone else,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
There was a great deal about him she found strange and mysterious. She wondered how he was captain of such a ship, commanding men and issuing orders. He seemed not entirely suited to it, though clearly the other pirates respected him and followed his orders. Nox was not like the others, all of whom seemed entirely at ease with the life of cutthroat debauchery they seemed to enjoy out here upon the high seas. They were all of them like lost souls, caught up by accident in the life they now led, but Nox seemed the most out of place of them all. A man who belonged nowhere, or so she thought.
The sun was warm on her back, a brisk breeze blowing across the deck and catching the sails above. The thought that she was a prisoner hardly seemed to matter, for she was only a prisoner until they arrived back in London. Then she would be set free. Samantha had always been possessed of an adventurous spirit, and despite her apparent sea sickness, she could not help but find that she was enjoying herself in the company of this mysterious man.
“But you would prefer me to call you Nox?” she asked, and he nodded.
“Nox is my name. And I shall call you Samantha, I suppose. Unless you wish more formality, Lady Samantha?” he asked, and Samantha blushed.
Back home, she liked the title of “Lady Samantha”, a titled woman just like her stepmother, and she knew Regina hated to think of them on equal terms. She wondered what she would say when she discovered the adventures which Samantha had enjoyed, far from anything which Regina could ever have dreamed of.
“You may call me Samantha, but you must promise not to chase me like you did last night. It was quite unbecoming,” she said, blushing, as he sat back and laughed.
“You cannot blame a man for trying,” he said, rolling onto his side.
He had a boyish look to him, and Samantha could feel his eyes tracing across her body. It sent a shiver through her, though not an unpleasant one. He could charm, but also be a rogue, and she wondered just how easily he might be tempted.
“I locked the cabin door last night for fear of you,” she said, smiling at him.
“Or for fear of your own desires?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
“Really, Nox, you should not speak in such a way,” she said, but secretly she was enjoying it.
If this was captivity, then her captor was the most intriguing of jailers.
“And you say that your father tried to marry you off? Was the man he chose not to your liking? Or is there another? The true lover?” he asked, and Samantha blushed even further.
She was not used to being spoken to like this by a man. All the men she knew dallied around her with their polite requests and dull platitudes, showing themselves to be interested in only one thing. But Nox spoke his mind. It was as though he had no inhibitions, though she reasoned that a man who could be so bold as to attack a merchant ship in broad daylight would have no qualms in his directness toward a woman.
“I have no lover,” she replied, and he shook his head.
“A beautiful woman like you? A lady? Daughter of one of the richest men in England? Surely you have a suitor?” he said, but she shook her head.
“I have no suitor, and the man whom my father promised me to is… well, I do not even know who he is. I ran away before he could tell me his name. I do not want to know it, the very thought of it repulses me. How could anyone marry for anything but love?” she exclaimed.
“People marry for far less – wealth, power, politics. Marrying for love is hardly everyone’s happy fortune,” he replied.
“And what of you?” she asked, turning the question around. “Why have you never married or settled down?”
Nox laughed, pointing down at his crew and around at the ship and the ocean stretching out endlessly on both sides.
“What sort of life would this be for a woman? Besides, I am wanted on a dozen islands in the Caribbean. Do you think I can ever remain in port long enough to make an acquaintance of that sort? Women come and go, but none stay. This ship is the closest I have to a wife – she is ever complaining, ever demanding, and always threatening to sink me,” and he slapped his thigh and howled with laughter.
Samantha thought his joke to be in poor taste, but she could understand his reasoning. He was not that different from herself in some respects, trapped by a particular way of life, with its rules and expectations. He was a victim of circumstance, though it seemed odd that he knew nothing of his past before that unpleasant man Strap supposedly rescued him.
“Or kidnapped him,” Samantha thought to herself.
“No, there is no woman who could tame me,” he declared, and Samantha smiled.
“A challenge,” she said, and he nodded.
“Perhaps you will accept it,” he said, putting his head on one side and fixing her with a searching gaze.
