Page 42 of The Pirate Lord
For a moment, she said nary a word. “Nothing I didn’t allow him to,” she finally murmured.
He groaned. If he ever got Miss Willis out of this mess, her stepbrother was going to murder him. “So he touched you? Did he . . . I mean, was he . . .” Petey broke off. The saints be cursed. How did a low sailor like him ask an earl’s stepsister such an indelicate and insulting question?
But he didn’t have to ask. He could tell from the way she colored that she understood his question. Steadying her shoulders, she fixed him with a too bright gaze. “He didn’t . . . deflower me, if that’s what you’re asking. And he won’t. Not ever.” When his only response was to raise an eyebrow, she added, “You needn’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“I can see that. That’s why y’ve got the cap’n sniffin’ after you like a tomcat on the prowl.”
She cast him a look that could’ve cut glass, it was that sharp. “I can handle Captain Horn, Petey. You just concentrate on getting us away from these pirates.”
Then she hurried from the cabin, leaving him to wonder just how he was supposed to manage her escape when he couldn’t even keep her safe from the Pirate Lord. Or herself.
Chapter Twelve
Oh, England is a pleasant place for them that’s rich and high,
But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I;
And such a port for mariners I ne’er shall see again
As the pleasant Isle of Avès, beside the Spanish main.
— ANONYMOUS, “THE LAST BUCCANEER”
“What do you think?” Sara asked Louisa as they peered at the horizon shortly after breakfast the next morning. It had been almost half an hour since the lookout had shouted “Land ho!” and they could still make out only a speck of mottled brown.
“It’s still too far away to tell much.”
A crowd of women surrounded them, pushing against the rails in their eagerness to glimpse their new home. Ann Morris shoved her way through to stand at Sara’s elbow, then shifted a stack of dirty plates from one hand to the other. “Is that Atlantis Island?”
“We’re not sure,” Sara said, “but we seem to be making for it. And the captain did tell me it would take only two days’ sail.”
Ann squinted at the speck. “P’raps we should ask Petey to let us look at it through the spyglass. He’d find a way to get one, I’ll wager.”
“I’m sure if Miss Willis asked, he’d be only too happy to oblige,” Louisa remarked absently. “Now that she’s going to marry him, he?—”
A sudden crash made both Sara and Louisa whirl toward Ann. The little woman stood staring down at a pile of broken crockery, her fist pressed to her mouth.
“Ann?” Sara asked as the Welshwoman bent to gather the broken pieces up, placing them quickly in her apron. “Ann, are you all right?” She knelt beside Ann, who was crying now, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. “Good heavens, what’s wrong?”
“Nothin’,” Ann protested, keeping her gaze averted from Sara. “It-It’s nothin’. I just lost my grip on them, is all.”
“But you’re crying?—”
Louisa’s hand on Sara’s shoulder cut her off. Louisa bent to murmur, “Leave her be. I shouldn’t have said that in front of her, but I thought she’d already heard.”
“Heard what?” Sara rose to ask.
“That you and Petey are engaged, of course.”
It was true that Sara had told as many women as possible once she’d left the crew’s quarters last night, but she hadn’t thought it would disturb anyone. Sara stared blankly at Louisa, then glanced at Ann, who’d gathered up all the crockery and now rose to hurry away through the crowd.
That’s when the truth hit Sara. Oh, how could she have been so stupid? She’d paid no attention to Ann’s worshipful comments about Petey, to the way she’d always fussed over him on theChastity.
Ann was in love with Petey—and Sara’s engagement to him must be killing her. She must’ve had her heart set on marrying Petey herself. Guilt hit Sara full force. She’d blithely agreed to Petey’s plan without stopping to think whom else it might hurt. Poor Ann.
It didn’t help to tell herself that Petey probably didn’t even share the Welshwoman’s affections, that he’d be gone as soon as he could find a way off the island. Ann had never had much in her life, and now the only hope she’d clung to was being ripped away from her. By Sara, who’d never wanted anything but to make the women happy.
She watched as Ann hurried into the galley. Then she turned to Louisa. “Did you know she had her eye on Petey?”
