Page 51 of The Pirate Lord
He stared across the little clearing at the glossy, sun-washed leaves of a banana tree and the fruit that hung heavy from its middle like a jeweled chain. Wild jasmine scented the warm air so different from the damp chill of his native Yorktown. By God, how he loved it. If only he could make her see it as he did.
He snorted. Of course—make a rich, English gentlewoman with a titled family appreciate the unspoiled beauty of Atlantis. It would never happen. Ladies of the realm did not sport on wild beaches with great abandon. They looked down their noses at dirty pirates. They did whatever they could to get themselves back to their cold, bloodless England. If anybody knewthat, he did. Wellborn English were never what they seemed.
Glancing down at his belt, he stared at his mother’s brooch. How he hated all those blasted nobles. They thought they deserved the privileges they enjoyed. They thought they owned the world. Thanks to them, he’d been left to the mercy of a cruel man who had no sense of how to treat a child. Or anyone, for that matter.
That was why years later, when the war of 1812 had begun, Gideon had been more than eager to do his part for his country. He’d seen how English navy ships would take American sailors right off American ships, claiming they were English deserters. He’d nearly been taken once himself. And he knew all too well what cruel people the English were.
But he’d shown them all. He’d put them in their places.
Until Sara. He raked his hand through his hair. What had she done to him? She’d almost made him forget who she was and what she represented. She was passionate, not at all what he’d expected of an English lady.
But he mustn’t let her passionate nature fool him. Once her passions cooled and her prim English upbringing resurfaced, she’d turn on him. That’s what always happened.
He mustn’t give her the chance. Whirling on his heel, he started toward the beach. Oh, he’d make love to her, all right. He’d have her in his bed. But that was as far as he’d let it go. He wouldn’t let her ruin his life the way his mother had ruined his father’s.
Who’s ruining whose life?a little voice inside him said.Sara had an earl for a stepbrother and a position in society until you took it away from her.
Gritting his teeth, he came up along the stream and began to navigate his way down to the beach. All right, so he’d taken that from her. He hadn’t had a choice. What should he have done, left her on that ship to lead her brother after them?
That’s just an excuse,that long-buried little voice repeated.You didn’t have to take her, and you know it.
He stopped short, staring blindly ahead of him. His conscience hadn’t bothered him in a long time. The day his father had died cursing his mother, Gideon had decided that a conscience was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Obviously, his mother had never listened to hers. And his father hadn’t heeded his when he was strapping the tar out of a seven-year-old child. Gideon had figured he was better off without a conscience, too.
So why did the confounded thing have to pester him now? And over an English noblewoman, no less.
It was Sara’s tears that had done it to him, he thought sourly as he continued down the stream. And women used tears to get what they wanted. His mother had probably done the same, and he’d be better off if he reminded himself of that once in a while.
“Cap’n!” came a call from the beach below, jolting him out of his uncomfortable thoughts. He looked down to see Barnaby and Silas waiting for him. Barnaby furiously smoked a cheroot, and Silas mumbled to himself as he clumped back and forth, drawing little furrows in the sand with his peg leg.
Hurrying his steps, Gideon was beside them at once. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“The men are grumbling,” Barnaby said. “You know how you told them they were to sleep on board the ship until the weddings? Well, now that they’re back on the island, they don’twant to sleep shipboard. They want to take up residence in their homes again.”
Gideon shrugged. “Then we’ll keep the women on the ship. I don’t see the problem.”
Barnaby and Silas exchanged glances. Then Silas scratched his beard. “That won’t work neither. The women don’t want to stay aboard ship any more than the men.”
“I don’t care what they want,” Gideon growled. “It’s either stay on the ship or choose their husbands. Since they’re not ready to choose, they’ll have to stay on board until their week is up.” And he certainly didn’t want to rush the choosing of husbands, or he’d be pushing Sara right into the arms of that blasted English sailor.
Not that he wanted to marry her himself, mind you. But he didn’t want her marrying anybody else just yet either.
Silas was scowling at him. “But them women, well, they’ve been on board a ship for weeks. It ain’t healthy. Anybody can see that.” He paused to look off over the sea. “Now you take that little Molly, the one that’s gonna have a baby. She don’t need to be sleepin’ on no bedroll when there’s comfy beds here. It’s like Louisa says, the women deserve a little…” He trailed off when he caught both Gideon and Barnaby gawking at him. “What’re you two lubbers starin’ at?”
“When in the bloody hell did you ever care about making a pregnant woman comfortable?” Barnaby asked, taking the words right out of Gideon’s mouth. “And when did you stop calling Louisa ‘that woman’? Don’t tell me Miss Yarrow has softened your shriveled heart.”
Red color crept up Silas’s neck until his bearded face looked a mottled crimson and brown. “She ain’t done no such thing. Just because she’s got a little sense in her once in a while—” He broke off when Gideon and Barnaby burst into laughter. Turning away from them, he began to stride purposefully down the beach.“Aw, to hell with you both. It ain’t none of your business what a man chooses to think of a woman. And it ain’t like I ….”
He passed out of hearing, his mumbling drowned out by the surf.
“I don’t believe it,” Gideon said. “Silas Drummond captivated by a woman?”
“I wouldn’t say captivated. I think it’s more like flummoxed. No woman has ever stood up to him before. They’re usually terrified of him … or disgusted by his wooden leg and his inability to give them satisfaction in bed. But ever since Louisa started fighting with him, he’s been a different man. This morning, I even caught him dabbing bay rum behind his ears.”
“How the mighty have fallen.” Gideon knew one thing. He would never act like such a fool over Sara. He glanced at Barnaby. “You’re not in danger of losing your head, too, are you?”
“You should know better. I like women, to be sure, but they’ve got their place.” He grinned. “Preferably, in my bed.”
Gideon would once have shared Barnaby’s opinion. Now he found it slightly unsavory, and that disturbed him. “Well, I see you won’t be bothering me about a wife for some time. Not as long as Queenie is giving you what you want for free.”
