Page 81 of The Pirate Lord
“Aformerpirate.” The corners of her mouth twitched upward. “At least you’re not a fortune hunter. You won’t even let me go home, much less lay a claim to my portion.”
Guilt struck him with a vengeance. “Don’t even talk about going home. You know you can’t. There’d be questions. They’d try to make you reveal where we are.” When she looked insulted, he added hastily, “I’m not saying you would, but if you didn’t they might try to keep you there until you did. And if you couldn’t get back here, I couldn’t go after you. They’d hang me.”
She paled. “I hadn’t thought of that.” Then she brightened. “Perhaps we could go to England together, in disguise or something. Haven’t you ever wanted to see the country where you were born? To find your family?—”
“Never. Not after what they did to me and my father.”
“And that’s another thing. Aren’t you just a bit curious to find out if your father gave you the whole truth? What if there’s another side to the story? What if your mother left because he was beating her or something awful?—”
“Leaving me behind to be beaten instead?” he growled. “That’s worse than what he told me.”
That seemed to unsettle her. “Well, yes, but it could’ve been something else?—”
“No. I saw that letter from her.” Grasping her chin, he tipped it up until she was looking at him. “Why all the questions about them? And why all this talk about going to England if you’re so pleased to be marrying me?”
A forced smile touched her lips. “I’m sorry, Gideon. I just can’t help worrying about my brother and what he must be suffering right now. It’s not that I want to leave you. But I do want to reassure him.”
He stared at her. A deep, hollow fear of losing her crept through him like a nasty poison. If he forbade her tocommunicate with her family, she’d grow to hate him for it. This wasn’t a need that would go away.
On the other hand, if he let her send a letter, would that be enough for her?
“If I tell him I’m safe,” she persisted, “perhaps he won’t try to find me.”
“I don’t know about that. If I were your brother, I wouldn’t rest until I found you and skewered the randy lad who took advantage of you.”
She paled, pressing her fingers to his lips. “Don’t say that. I won’t let anyone skewer you, especially not my brother.”
The sudden fear in her eyes, coupled with her obviously genuine concern for him eased his worries some. “All right. You can send a letter to your brother. I suppose that wouldn’t hurt anything.”
She threw her arms around him, snuggling close. “Thank you, Gideon. Thank you so much.”
Feeling generous, he smiled down at her head with its cloud of tousled red hair and stroked it fondly. “I suppose the other women may write letters to their families, too.”
Her head shot up to reveal an expression of pure pleasure. “Oh, Gideon, that would mean so much to them! Most of them have no one, of course, but some would like to contact their families, I’m sure.”
“I’ll have one of the men mail the letters from Sao Nicolau when they go to fetch the minister this week.”
“The minister?”
He dropped a kiss on her freckled nose. “Yes. I can’t very well perform the wedding ceremony for myself, can I? There’s an Anglican minister living on Sao Nicolau who might be willing to come here for a few days. And some of the other women might prefer to be married by a churchman as well.”
“I don’t know about that.” She traced a finger along a scar on his chest. “I dare say half of them have never darkened the door of a church.”
“Why, Miss Willis,” he teased, “don’t tell me you’re actually admitting that notallof your precious, beleaguered convict women are lily-white maidens.”
A stormy frown darkened her brow as she stabbed one finger at his chest. “You, sir, have no room to criticize anyone for not being lily-white. Plundering ships and kidnapping women and?—”
He muffled her lecture with a kiss, tugging her over until she was sprawled gloriously across him. Only a few seconds passed before she answered his kiss, her mouth opening sweetly to the thrusts of his tongue.
Yes, he thought as he grew hard again and felt her legs parting eagerly. This was the way to handle Sara—kiss her until she forgot what she was angry about. Make love to her until she forgot about all those blasted convict women and England and her stepbrother.
Especially her stepbrother. Because he had a nagging fear he hadn’t put an end to talk of that blasted English earl.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The gold’s no more than dross to me, alas! my heart is sunk full low,
The want of thy sweet company will surely prove my overthrow:
