Page 22 of Pirate's Intent
“Oh!” Like most women, she smiled prettily at Phillip. “You are all grown up then.”
“I am.” Phillip offered a flirtatious smile, his blue eyes twinkling. “But I am glad my shirt,” his gaze raked down her body fast enough not to upset Thomas, “and my trousers could be of use.” He shrugged. “Not sure why Cap’n keeps ‘em handy but glad he did.”
In truth, Phillip knew they served as a reminder of those lost, but didn’t voice it. Instead, he introduced her to the remainder of their crew. They lingered among his men for a while before Thomas eventually urged her to follow him inside and closed the door for privacy.
“Is everything all right?” she murmured.
“Yes.” He offered her a seat in front of a fireless hearth and poured her a cup of rum. “I was hoping we might talk while we waited for trouble.”
She arched her brows. “Talk about what?”
“What happened to us after I left to fight.” He sat beside her with his own rum, needing to at last get some things off his chest. To see if perhaps they might bridge the gap between them. “Why I did not come back...why I eventually turned to piracy.”
“I would like that.” Emotion flickered in her eyes. “Very much so.”
Good. That was a start.
“Though I suspect I already know the answer, tell me something,” he said softly. “Were you in love with your husband? Or was he a pre-arranged marriage made by your uncle?”
“In love with John?” Rose’s eyes widened in surprise. “Dear Lord, no. He came from money, so my uncle arranged the marriage.” Her gaze softened. “Thankfully, he was a kindly sort, so I do not imagine it would have been an awful life with him. Just not...”
“Not what?” he prompted, relieved his suspicions had been right.
When she hesitated, clearly unsure how much she wanted to reveal, he urged her to share. “Please, Rose. Tell me.”
“He was not you, Thomas,” she murmured. Her gaze remained on her drink rather than him. “But then, you did not want me anymore, and John, as I said, was kindly so...”
This time when she trailed off, he did not prompt her to continue but revealed his own truths.
“I never stopped wanting you, Rose.” He shook his head. “Nor did I ever stop loving you. Not for a moment.”
Her misty eyes turned to him. “Then, why?” She swallowed. “Why did you abandon me?”
ChapterEight
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ROSE WAITED WITH BATEDbreath for Thomas’s response, doing her best not to cry. He never stopped loving her? All this time? She dared not believe it. Yet even as her heart leapt, frustration simmered beneath the surface. She needed to understand why he never came home. Why he turned from her in the end.
“If I am to be honest, it was a culmination of things,” he finally said. “The man I hired to keep an eye on you, who told me about your engagement, only saw happiness between you and John. He heard nothing of an arranged marriage, only that you were a good match. That you were pleased with John and likely in love.” He sighed. “Mind you when I heard the news I was already in a bad place. The war was nearly over, and the things I saw in all that God awful battling, the things I experienced...had changed me.”
Her heart broke at the look on his face. The grief as he took a heavy swig of rum.
“There was nothing chivalrous about any of it,” he went on gruffly. “The conditions were horrid, the fighting brutal. If we were not dealing with the bloody French, the natives were coming at us.” He shook his head. “My countrymen were dying all around me, either from disease or wounds...losing limbs...so much blood and death day after day.”
He took another long swig, the topic obviously difficult to speak about.
“I am so sorry,” she said softly, truly meaning it. Yet she remained curious. “How did you end up a privateer, though? I was under the impression such was hired outside of the navy.”
“Luke and I were rare cases,” he conceded. “A bargain for them.” He took another swig. “As I’m sure you know, it cost England less to hire privateers than to adequately fund their navy.” He frowned. “Which, as to be expected, only led to the conditions we faced aboard ships in the military.”
He waved it away before she could respond.
“Luke and I had proven ourselves excellent sailors and soldiers, therefore a cheaper option for our country to hire out as privateers.” He shrugged. “They provided us ships, and gave us our orders.”
“So you were thrust into the life with no choice,” she murmured.
“Not unless I wanted to face the wrath of Queen and country,” he said. “Truth told, Rose, at that juncture, I was well past saving anyway and privateering gave me an outlet for my rage...for the bloody heartache of all I had witnessed.” He fingered the sleeve of her shirt, his gaze somewhere in the past. “For those I had lost.”
