Page 43 of The Pirate Lord
Louisa nodded. “But don’t worry. I understand why you and Petey joined together, even if Ann doesn’t. You’re the only two in this unholy crowd who aren’t criminals. I can’t really blame him for not wanting to marry a convict, and I certainly can’t blame you for not wanting to marry a pirate.” She shrugged. “People generally stick to their kind. It’s something I learned … a long time ago.”
The wistfulness in Louisa’s voice made a lump form in Sara’s throat. Louisa had never spoken much about her past, but Sara had made some conjectures. The man she’d stabbed had been the eldest son of a duke. It would’ve been easy to fall in love with such a man, but as a governess, Louisa could never have hoped to marry the heir to a title.
Still, if she’d been in love with him, what could the man have done to make her angry enough to stab him? A simple refusal to marry her didn’t seem like enough provocation for a woman of Louisa’s breeding and intelligence. There must have been more to the story.
But Louisa wasn’t the type to talk about her crime as some were wont to do, so Sara wasn’t likely to find out the truth. It was a pity. She’d like to help Louisa.
The way she’d helped Ann? Louisa could do without such help.
“I don’t see any trees,” Louisa commented, obviously determined to change the subject.
Still swamped with guilt, Sara returned her gaze to the horizon. Now the speck had grown to a shapeless blob, still brown and unlikely looking. “That’s what Gideon calls a ‘paradise’?” she speculated aloud.
Louisa slanted a curious look at her. “You’re on a first-name basis with our good captain?”
Hot color stained Sara’s cheeks. “No, of course not. I-I meant to say, Captain Horn.” That was something else she had to feel guilty about—her disastrous encounter with him yesterday. He’d avoided her ever since, with good reason. She should never have allowed him such blatant liberties. It gave him the wrong idea entirely.
“I wouldn’t get too intimate with Captain Horn if I were you,” Louisa remarked in a low voice, her face carefully blank.
“I’m not intimate with him.”
Louisa arched one eyebrow. “Good. Then you won’t mind that he sent Barnaby down to the hold late last night to fetch Queenie to his bed.”
Her gaze flew to Louisa’s. “He didwhat?”
“You said you weren’t intimate with him.”
Jerking her gaze back to the horizon, Sara fought for nonchalance. “I’m not. I’m just … appalled he would do such a thing after he told the men to behave as gentlemen until the marriage vows were said.”And after he spent the afternoon trying to seduce me.
A hot surge of jealousy swept through her despite her attempts to quell it. Glancing up to where Gideon was manning the helm and shouting orders to his sailors, she grimaced. In his scandalous leather vest and form-fitting breeches, he looked exactly like what he truly was—a randy satyr who would seduce anything in skirts. She’d been right not to trust him. For all his soft words, his overtures to her had been meaningless. He’d never intended anything but a quick seduction.
And to think she’d almost given in to him! What a dreadful mistake that would have been.
Louisa shrugged. “He’s the captain. Surely you didn’t expect him to follow the same rules he set for his men.”
“That’s exactly what I expected.” Sara sniffed. “He talks about starting a colony and making it a paradise, but what he really wants is a harem for him and his men. He wants to make us all into Queenies.”
“Shh,” Louisa whispered. “Here she comes now.”
Sara told herself not to look, not to pay attention to the woman. But she couldn’t resist peeking to see if Queenie looked as if she’d spent the night with the captain.
She’d definitely spent the night withsomeone. She wore a cat-in-the-cream smile as she swaggered across the deck toward them.
“Good mornin’, all,” she chirped. Stretching her shapely arms high over her head, she gave an exaggerated yawn. “Afraid I’m a little late gettin’ around this mornin’. Had a long night, you know.” With a languid grace Sara hardly knew the woman possessed, she let her arms slide back down like wilting flower petals, then struck a seductive pose. “Ladies, you mustn’t worry about the kind of husbands these pirates make. Judging from last night, I’d say they’ll do quite nicely indeed.”
Most of the women chuckled. Sara couldn’t. Turning her flaming face back to the horizon, she fought down the bitterwords rising in her throat. What did it matter if Gideonhadbedded Queenie and the wretched tarthadenjoyed it? They deserved each other. Queenie represented the worst of the convict women and Gideon the worst of the pirates. They’d be perfect together.
Then Sara felt, rather than saw, Queenie press through the crowd to stand next to her. Clamping her lips shut, Sara continued to stare at the island, which now loomed closer and larger than before.
“Is that it?” Queenie asked, bracing her crossed arms against the rail. “That’s Atlantis?”
“We think so,” Louisa thankfully answered. Sara couldn’t have answered civilly at that moment if her life depended on it.
“Don’t look like much,” Queenie grumbled. “There’s no green. And where’s the water?”
Sara’s eyes narrowed. Queenie was right. There was no evidence of a spring or any sort of vegetation. If this was what Gideon had meant by “paradise,” he had a strange idea about the meaning of the word.
A somber silence fell on the women as the ship neared the island.After everything these women have endured,at least Gideon could have had the decency not to deceive them about what lay ahead at Atlantis.
