Page 23 of Pirate's Intent
She glanced from the shirt to him, suddenly understanding. “Did this belong to someone killed then?”
“No, it belonged to Philip,” he murmured. “The son of a good friend who died in front of me.” His haunted gaze met her eyes. “Having been orphaned, I kept Phillip on with me, raising him into the life rather than the fate he would have faced otherwise.” He sighed. “In retrospect, it is hard to know if I did him any favors.”
“He seems a fine young man to me.” She tried to lighten Thomas’s heavy heart with teasing words. “If not a bit roguish.”
“Aye,” he murmured, his mind still in the past.
A past she was so glad he was sharing.
One that changed her perspective altogether.
“Suffice it to say,” he continued. “Though I knew your John had died and that I should go back, I could only see your betrayal through the eyes of the man I had become.” His gaze met hers. “I was bitter and resentful, angry at everything and everyone.” He shook his head. “I was not the man you once knew, Rose, but a hateful soul far better suited to piracy.”
“And what of you now?” she said softly, sensing something in him. An exhaustion she had missed before.
“Now I am tired,” he murmured. His gaze never left her, the sadness in his eyes tearing at her heartstrings. “And lonely.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “I misunderstood so much.”
“How could you understand when I never bothered to come back and tell you?” He ran the back of his knuckles along her jaw tenderly. “But then I do not think you would have loved the man who came back even if only to explain himself. Nor do I imagine that man explaining himself well.” He shook his head. “So, you see, the time for us had passed.”
“I suppose it had.” She understood him so much better now. “Yet, you still love me.”
“Yet I still love you,” he said softly. “Only ever you.”
As he gazed into her eyes, she swore she saw a flicker of the man he once was. Beneath the pirate, privateer, and soldier to the heart of him.
“You are still in there, Thomas,” she whispered and touched his cheek. “I see you beneath the layers, all of which made you the man you are now.” She cocked her head. “I suppose you just need to decide who that is. What you truly want now.”
She realized as she said the words, they were as much for her as him. They had been brought back together under dire circumstances and might see something come of it. “What now then, Thomas? What happens once we are no longer in danger, and life goes on?”
“That, darling,” he said softly, his eyes with hers, “is entirely up to you.”
Her heart leapt into her throat at the look in his eyes. The unmistakable hope.
“What do you mean—”
“Cap’n!” Charles skipped knocking and flung open the door. “Trouble’s afoot!”
ChapterNine
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BUGGER FOR THE POORtiming but good that they were in position and ready to fight.
“There they are, Cap’n.” Philip pointed south. “One ship just as ye expected.”
“Is that it then?” Rose joined them. “Is that who we have been waiting for?”
He nodded. “You should stay inside until this is over, Rose.”
Her worried eyes met his. “I wish I could be of more help.”
“Staying out of sight is help.” He squeezed her hand. “I fight better when I am not worrying about another. Especially if that someone is you.”
He wondered if she understood what he had been alluding to inside. Did she understand what he wanted? More importantly, did she want the same?
“They got more men than we had hoped, Cap’n,” Charles muttered as the ship docked. “Probably best to go with yer second option.”
