Page 33 of The Pirate Lord
“No reason.” He’d finished his food, and it was long past time for the women to be sent below. His men were getting rowdy. Soon some of them would make fools of themselves, or worseyet, accost the women more forcefully than they should, which wouldn’t smooth relations any.
He handed Ann his empty plate. “Forgive me, but I have something to attend to. Thank you for keeping me company.”
She cast him a smile so brilliant that for a second, he envied scrawny Hargraves, the man who obviously had her affections. But the feeling didn’t last. Although he wanted a sweet, quiet wife, Ann was a bit too sweet and quiet for him.
Gideon crossed the deck to where Barnaby flirted with a bony-kneed doxy and pulled him aside. “It’s time to get the women below. Have Miss Willis help you.” He scanned the deck for her, scowling when he saw her talking animatedly amid a large group of women. First Peter Hargraves, and now the women. Sara never stopped scheming, did she?
Barnaby had already started to walk away, but Gideon halted him. “Wait, I’ve changed my mind. Leave Miss Willis out of it. I’ll take care of her.”
“Oh?”
“I’m putting her in your cabin. You can bunk with Silas for the next couple of days.”
“She won’t like that.”
Gideon flashed him a grim smile. “I don’t care. If she spends her nights with the women, she’ll cook up another rebellion. I want her where I can keep an eye on her.”
A sly grin twisted Barnaby’s lips. “That’s the only reason for putting her in my cabin? The one across from yours?”
“Yes,” Gideon snapped. Confound the English bastard. He was a buck of the first head, so he expected every man to be one. “I’m going to tell her now. Wait until I’ve got her inside, then send the women below.”
“If you carry her off without a word of explanation, the women will want to know why. They look to her for help.”
That was exactly the problem. “Tell them whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t anger them. But she’s staying in your cabin.”
As he strode away from his first mate, he cursed himself for succumbing to the whim that had made him take Sara.She’d been nothing but trouble from the moment she’d set foot on his ship.
The women scattered as he approached her, and he took that to be a bad sign. “What are you plotting now?”
“Plotting?” Her expression was as innocent as a nun’s.
But he knew better than to trust that expression. “With the women. You must’ve been plotting something, or they wouldn’t have run off at my approach.”
She tossed her head back, and the wind tugged a few feathery locks away from her face, putting her stubborn features in high relief. “We were merely discussing what time to meet for classes in the morning. They ran off because they’re terrified ofyou.”
He could hardly argue with that, since he’d just witnessed Ann Morris’s reaction to him. The thought that half the women feared him didn’t lighten his mood. Hooking his thumbs in his belt, he cast Sara a cool glance. “Then why aren’t you?”
Her eyes glittered in the lantern light, though her chin trembled. “I told you before. I don’t fear anything.”
Stepping closer, he lowered his voice. “Really? Then you won’t mind sleeping in the cabin across from mine.”
Fear flashed in her face a second before she mastered it. “What do you mean?”
Pleased he’d succeeded in ruffling her feathers, he took her arm and led her toward the quarterdeck. “You’ll be spending your nights in Barnaby’s cabin until we reach Atlantis Island.” When she looked at him in horror, he added, “Don’t worry. Barnaby will bunk with Silas. You’ll have the cabin to yourself.”
“But why?” She tried jerking her arm from his grasp, and when he continued to propel her forward, she hissed, “I want to stay below with the other women!”
“I know. You want to incite them to escape or rebel or engage in some other futile activity.” He thrust her through the entrance to the cabin area under the quarterdeck, then released her. “Well, I won’t have it. I run an orderly ship, and I won’t have you wreaking havoc aboard. The men and women are getting along fine, and I’d rather keep it that way.”
She whirled on him, mutiny showing in the set of her jaw and her clenched hands. “What do you intend to do? Imprison me for the entire journey?”
“No. I just want you where I can see you, that’s all.” When her eyes flashed, he softened his tone. “You can go wherever you want during the day, have your classes and such, but I don’t want you closeted with the other women at night. Just call it a precautionary measure, and a mild one at that.”
His words seemed to mollify her, for she relaxed her stance.
He took a few steps forward, then stopped in front of Barnaby’s cabin. “Besides, you’ll be far more comfortable in this cabin than you would below deck.” He opened the door and gestured for her to enter. “See for yourself.”
Keeping a wary eye on him, she slipped past him and into the cabin. He followed her inside, turning up the lamp so she could see better. Surprise, then pleasure suffused her face with color.
