Page 32 of The Pirate Lord
He suppressed his urge to laugh. “Stealing? You?” Somehow he couldn’t imagine this timid little creature stealing anything.
But she nodded. “My ma was ailin’, you see, and I needed medicines for her, but I couldn’t afford to buy them. The little blunt I got from workin’ at the millinery shop weren’t even enough to keep me and Ma fed. So one day when I was passin’ the open door to a cottage and nobody was about, I went in and … and saw a silver pot and took it.”
Her eyes clouded over. “It was dreadful wrong, I know. I just thought if I could sell it, I could buy the cures for ma.” She shook her head. “But the shopkeeper I tried to sell it to … he’d seen the pot before. He knowed then that I’d took it, and he … he gave me over to the magistrate.”
Sympathy for the poor Welsh girl swelled within him. He couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice. “And the English had you transported for that? For one silver pot?”
“Yes, sir. My ma—” Her voice broke. “My ma was so ashamed of me. She wouldn’t own me, even to the day she died, because I ended in the gaol. And she was right. It was wrong what I done. It was very wrong.” She turned her face away so her profile was to him, and the lantern light flickered off her dampening cheeks.
Poor little thing, she was crying. He laid his hand on her shoulder. “You did what you had to and weren’t treated fairly. You weren’t wrong. Your country was wrong. There’s something badly lacking in a place where an old woman can’t get medicine, and no one will help.”
“I think so, too.” She took a few shuddering breaths. “That’s why I don’t mind so much that you’re takin’ us off to an island. Things can be better there, if it’s done right.”
A twinge of guilt hit him. Sara didn’t think he was doing it right. She thought he was taking advantage of young innocents like Ann.
Disturbed by that thought and the confusing emotions it stirred, he took his hand from her shoulder and stared out at the ocean. “So you don’t mind having to marry one of my men?”
She rubbed her tears away with one small fist. “Not now that Petey’s here.”
“Petey?”
He couldn’t tell for certain in the lantern light, but he thought she blushed. “Peter Hargraves, the sailor you took from theChastity.”
Not bothering to correct her false impression, he said, “Ah, yes.”
She scanned the deck, then pointed toward the forward house. “There he is now, with Miss Willis.”
His gaze swung to where Ann pointed. It was indeed Hargraves,and Sara was at his side.
Gideon’s eyes narrowed. So that’s where she’d been, off talking to Hargraves. What was the man to her? What was she plotting with him? She had to be plotting something; Sara seemed to spend all her time thinking of ways to thwart him.
He noticed Ann was watching Hargraves as closely as he’d watched Sara. Gesturing to the couple, Gideon said, “Tell me something, what do you know about Petey?”
A shy smile touched her lips. “Oh, he’s a fine man, he is. He stood outside the cells every night on theChastity,keeping watch over all of us.” She ducked her head, but not before Gideon glimpsed the hero worship in her eyes. “Especially me.”
Gideon ate more of his meal and watched the mysterious Petey head toward the foc’sle, leaving Sara to pick her way aft.
So Ann was infatuated with the little Englishman, was she? That’s why she didn’t mind marrying and why she would never consider Gideon as a husband.
He didn’t bother to examine the feeling of relief that swept him. He merely continued to watch Sara. “Why do you think he was talking to Miss Willis?”
Ann kicked her short legs back and forth against the box. “I don’t know. Perhaps because she looks out for us, too. Perhaps they’re talkin’ about what to do once we reach the island.”
Maybe. It wouldn’t surprise him to find Sara enlisting the help of someone who’d already proved sympathetic toward the women.Not that you gave her a choice.Who else was she supposed to turn to for help?
He scowled. The damned woman had him doubting all his plans, and now she’d have Hargraves helping her.
“Did Miss Willis have anything to do with Hargraves’s becoming the women’s protector?”
Ann looked confused. “I don’t think so. She didn’t seem to know him any better than the rest of us.”
“So she has no connection with Hargraves?”
“None that I know of.”
He relaxed. At least he need not worry about that.
She stared up at him. “Why?”
