Page 39 of Pirate's Intent
“Aye then?” Thomas replied. “You're sure?”
“Aye.” He nodded. “Lookin' for any fool ship departing in this weather.”
All the more reason for Hannah to put her plan into action straight away.
“I will see you soon, Sister.” Hannah squeezed Rose’s hand. “Until then, stay safe.”
“What do you mean?”
When fear flickered in Rose’s eyes, she realized her sister had not been filled in on the whole plan, which was probably for the best.
“I mean we have to split up for now. We will be far safer that way.” She embraced her sister one more time. “I will see you soon, all right?”
“But...but—”
“No buts.” Hannah met her eyes. “We just have to shake the beasts on our tail, then we will regroup.” She nodded hello to Thomas, noting that he too was as handsome as ever. “You best take good care of her.”
Then, before she could doubt her decision, she fled into the night.
There was only one way to ensure her sister’s safety, and that was by letting Big Devil know she had the brooch before he pursued Rose. So she raced as fast she could back toward the buildings only for a strong pair of arms to come around her waist as the first heavy raindrops fell.
Before she could scream, Luke gagged her, tossed her over his shoulder, slapped her backside harder than before, then strode in the opposite direction. He proceeded to mutter all the while about stubborn, foolhardy, uppity, irritating women with a heroic streak that bloody wellwouldget them killed but not on his watch.
When she yelled through her gag, he squeezed her backside in warning. He’d prefer to slap it but held back from doing it too much, and she knew why. He was not sure how far to go with her. What was appropriate considering the abuse she’d suffered at her uncle’s hands.
“How much abuse must you take for your sister?” Luke ground out. They were sixteen, and it was one of the rare evenings that she had allowed him to comfort her.
As a rule, her uncle did not lash her backside with his switch, but everywhere else except her face was fair game.
“I will kill him for this someday,” he vowed. “I promise you that.”
In truth, Rose got lashed too, but Hannah tried to head it off whenever she could. Typically, as long as their uncle could take out his foul nature on someone, he didn’t care which girl it was.
“Maybe someday,” she murmured, flinching when Luke touched her wounded shoulder. She looked at him in warning. “Not now, though.” She shook her head. “Rose and I have no kin without him. Nowhere to go.”
“My father would take you in,” he said softly.
He would not, and they both knew it.
“Your father barely knows what to do with you and Thomas,” she pointed out. “Let alone two colony girls whose uncle holds so much power here.”
“My father is a British governor in a British occupied Virginian colony,” he reminded. “Remember that.” He turned her gently and met her eyes. “My father has more authority than your uncle.”
“In a man’s world where punishing a woman, let alone a ward, is not a crime by any means,” she said sourly, not bothering to mention the governor was friends with her uncle. So there was really no help to be had there. “I am my uncle’s property, as I will someday be my husband’s.”
“Then I will be your husband.” He offered the crooked grin that sometimes worked on her, depending on the day. “And you will only belong to me if you want to.”
As Luke had a way of doing, one moment the idea of belonging to any man repulsed her, where the next she quite liked it. More when he said it with that naughty gleam in his eyes.
Though it was not at that precise moment, it was around that time when she realized how much control she actually practiced in her life. Not just watching out for Rose but even in the lashes she took from her uncle. He thought he controlled her, but it was the other way around because she stepped up and took it willingly. She did not flee or turn coward but stayed strong when men, such as her uncle, only sought to weaken her.
Yet it came at a toll. An emotional strain born of staying so strong all the time. Never letting down her guard. Being caged within the walls of her own inner strength. Never truly relaxing but bracing for the next time. The next lash she was determined to intercept before it landed elsewhere.
As it turned out, it was her deeply repressed need to break free of her mental cage, that resulted in a dynamic relationship blossoming between her and Luke.
One that allowed them to explore the darker side of their natures. To embrace what some might say was broken inside them. He, she suspected, needed to be in control because his father was disturbingly strict. She, to relinquish control, to place herself in the hands of someone she trusted as she explored her deepest hidden desires. To have someone rip away her mental cage of strength and control without feeling weakened. To give herself over to something freeing in its own way rather than existing solely in the rigid prison of the society in which she was born.
Luke tromped along through Nassau’s sparse trees for a while in the driving rain before he finally rapped on a door. When it opened, and he plunked her down, she realized with dismay that the wench from earlier was waiting. What rotten luck. Why was she here?
