Page 59 of The Pirate Lord
It took Louisa a second to recognize what Ann had chosen to clothe the poor fertility goddess in, but as soon as she did, she burst into laughter.
Silas’s drawers. Ann had clothed the carving in Silas’s dirty drawers.
After that, Louisa couldn’t stop laughing. Ann had tied the legs around the carving’s neck so that the back side of the unlaced drawers covered her front. It was truly a sight to behold. And when Ann looked at her in all innocence, obviously unaware that the lady’s clothing was as indecent as the lady herself, Louisa laughed so hard her sides hurt.
“Louisa, are you all right?” Ann asked as she went to her friend’s side. “I swear, you’re behavin’ strange today. Really strange.”
Louisa couldn’t even speak. All she could do was laugh and point at the carving.
“This?” Ann asked as she held the carving up. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like her fine woolen dress?”
Louisa erupted in more peals of laughter. Unfortunately, it was just at that moment, when Louisa was laughing herself to death and Ann was waving the carving about in the air that Silas chose to make his untimely entrance.
“What are you females doing in here?” he roared from the doorway, making them both jump.
Ann dropped the carving, watching with horrified eyes as it rolled across the wooden floor, losing its exotic gown in the process. Louisa managed to rein in her laughter, though a few chuckles still bubbled out of her.
“We wasn’t doing nothin’, truly,” Ann began to babble. “Louisa said . . . I mean . . . we thought . . ..”
“It’s all right, Ann.” Louisa faced Silas, laughter still in her eyes. But when she saw his livid expression and reddened face, she sobered. “I’m sure Silas knows better than to blame you.”
“We was just tryin’ to help.” Bending to pick up the carving, Ann held it out to Silas. “Honestly, Mr. Drumm?—”
Silas made a choking sound as he saw what Ann held in her hands. “Get out.” Snatching the carving from her, he tossed it across the room. “I said, get out of here! Now!”
Ann hurried to the door, and Louisa followed quickly behind, but just as she approached Silas, he grabbed her arm. “Not you, Louisa . . . just her. I got a word or two to say to you.”
Her heart sank, and for the first time since she’d met Silas, Louisa felt fear. This wasn’t the man who’d given her salve for her burn. This was a different Silas. She’d never seen him look quite so furious. His eyebrows were drawn into a tight frown, and even his beard seemed to bristle. She must have been daft to think he would overlook her coming into his hut while he was away.
Well, it didn’t matter. She’d dealt with plenty of angry men before, and the best way to fend them off was not to let them take advantage of you. She’d learned that lesson the hard way.
Wrenching her arm from Silas’s grasp, she faced him, her posture stiff. “It’ll do you no good to scold me. I didn’t do anything wrong. Someone had to clean up this . . . this pigsty you call a house, and since you obviously weren’t going to ask anyone?—”
“You aimed to do it behind my back.”
There was a wealth of resentment in his tone that suddenly made her realize how he might see this. “Not exactly. I just . . . I merely thought you would appreciate it more once it was done.”
“Oh, you did, did you? You thought I’d appreciate havin’ my things tossed about and made fun of?”
She colored. “That wasn’t what it seemed. We were just—” She broke off when she realized she couldn’t possibly explain that to his satisfaction. “We weren’t trying to cause trouble. We just wanted to help . . . to . . . to pay you back for being so kind to us.”
His eyebrow shot up. “Tous?”
Her blush deepened. “To me.”
That seemed to give him pause. He stared at her a long moment. Then, to her surprise, he headed across the room. Taking his pipe off a shelf, he filled it with tobacco, then lit it and took a couple of puffs before cradling it in his right hand. The pungent smell of tobacco smoke filled the room. When he faced her, his anger seemed to have faded.
Instead, he watched her with eyes half-hooded by his bushy eyebrows. “You’re a meddling woman, Louisa Yarrow, if ever I saw one.” He paused to draw hard on his pipe, his brown eyes watching her the whole time. “What puzzles me is why you meddle inmylife when there’s plenty of other men on this island for you to pester.”
“I didn’t think of it as pestering you.”
He ignored her caustic comment. “Why me, Louisa? Why am I the only one?”
She grew uncomfortable under his intent stare. Turning away from him, she began to snatch up his soiled clothing. “You’re the cook, that’s all, and I wanted to make sure we got some decent food for a change. You must admit you’re not the best cook.”
He didn’t protest the insult hotly as he usually did with everyone else. “Aye, ’tis true. I served Gideon well as a sailor before I lost me leg, and that’s why Gideon puts up with me cookin’.”
She hadn’t known that. It made her revise her opinion of Captain Horn a little.
