Page 57 of The Pirate Lord
“That’s neither here nor there.” He caught her chin in his hand, trying to force her head up so he could kiss her. “Your body wants my body, and God knows mine wants yours. So let’s satisfy both our needs and be done with it.”
“No!” She wrenched her head from his hand. “I’m not a plump hen for you to gobble up simply because you’re hungry! Nor will I bear the brunt of your hatred for ‘my kind’!”
This time when she shoved at him, he released her, though his breath came hard and fast. “What do you want from me? Undying love? A vow of constancy? A proposal of marriage? What’s your game?”
“That’s just it. I have no game. And since you can’t seem to believe that, I . . . I want no part of you. Leave me be. If you can’t see me as plain Sara Willis, then stay away and let me find someone who can.”
“You mean Hargraves.”
“I mean, a man who doesn’t hate what I am.” Sadness laced her tone. “And I don’t think you can be that man.”
A sudden coldness came over him. “You’re right. I can’t.” He started to leave, then hesitated. “But I doubt you’ll find anyone else here to fit your lofty expectations, now that your friend Hargraves is leaving. My men hate your kind as much as I do. Your tastes are much too refined for any of them anyway.”
His voice lowered a notch. “And we both knowI’mthe only one who can satisfy your other needs, the needs you keep pretending you don’t have. So who will be your choice of husband? Who?”
That question echoed in her ears as he bent his head to clear the doorway and was gone. A thousand curses upon the man for knowing her so well! Yes, who could she choose if not him? Who?
Chapter Sixteen
She fell in love with the Sailor strait,
And on him she could ever wait,
She loved him so tenderly,
A sailor’s wife she fain would be.
— ANONYMOUS, “THE LADY’S LOVE FOR A SAILOR”
Taking a furtive glance around and seeing no one, Louisa ushered Ann into Silas Drummond’s tiny hut, which lay a few yards from the entrance to the communal kitchen.
“I thought Silas said we wasn’t to come in here,” Ann whispered.
“I don’t care what he said. The man clearly needs help.” Louisa waved her hand at his room. “This place is a pigsty.”
Soiled clothing lay in discarded piles on the scarred plank floor. Dirty dishes were strewn about the room. Obviously, Silas didn’t believe in washing or putting away anything, despite the cupboard in one corner and the wardrobe and trunk in another. The room looked like the cave dwelling of an ogre.
Well, Silas might act like an ogre, but that was only a pretense. Louisa wasn’t about to let him to live in this filth any longer. While he was off hunting grouse with Barnaby, she and Ann would set the place to rights. Although he’d complain about it later, he’d like it once he got used to it. What man wouldn’t?
Besides, she could endure his grumbling as long as he never did more than that. In the five days since the capture, he’d mumbled and cursed and shouted. But he’d never once lifted a hand to her in anger. There’d even been moments when he’d shown her great kindness—like when she’d burnt her hand on that cursed galley stove. He’d found her an ointment to soothe it. And when she’d complained about her hard bedroll on the ship, she’d gone back one night to find a feather mattress in its place. At the time she’d guessed he might have put it there, but now she knew for sure, because she could see her bedroll lying on his bed.
But that was Silas, all bark and no bite. So the least she could do was set his house to rights. “Well, let’s go to it, Ann,” she said as she rolled up her sleeves. “We’ve got quite a bit of work to do before the men return.”
With a nod, Ann stepped toward the crude table and swept some biscuit crumbs into her apron. “I wonder if Petey’s made it to Sao Nicolau yet. It’s been three days this mornin’ since they left. They ought to be there by now, don’t you think?”
Louisa cast the Welshwoman a sidelong glance, but all she saw in Ann’s face was a certain wistful regret, which was better than the horribly sad expression the woman had worn for the first two days of Petey’s absence. “Most likely the men have been there and gone. They’ll be sailing into Atlantis in a day or two.”
“But not Petey.”
“No,” Louisa said in a soothing voice, “not Petey.” It still surprised her that Petey had been so willing to abandon them. She’d always thought herself a good judge of character, and he hadn’t seemed the type to run off.
“Now that Petey’s gone,” Ann said, “who do you think Miss Willis will choose for her husband?”
“I don’t know. Sara dislikes all the pirates enormously.”
“Not all of ’em. She’s fond of the captain. I expect he’d be the only one she’d consider.”
Louisa bent to sweep some rotting banana peels into the dustpan she’d taken from the ship. “Captain Horn? And Sara? Have you gone mad? Shedespisesthe captain.”
