Page 15 of Hired by Pirates

“I’m not that delicate,” she said curtly, with a flash of steel in her big blue eyes. “If I can reset a bone, and assist during surgery, I’ll be fine with your tall tales.”

Tobias laughed with a thunderous roar, clapping me on the shoulder. “You’ve got yourself a firecracker, Captain. I like her.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked his tone, or that he was actually implying that Astor was mine in any way.

It was so difficult to stop myself from reaching out to take her hand under the table. It was as if her body called to mine, taunting me. I craved her touch more than I’d wished for anything else in my life.

I’d always prided myself on being the sort of man who enjoyed new things. But the sudden sensation of yearning for a woman was wildly distracting. I should’ve been thinking about the night rounds, and practical details like our sleeping arrangements tonight.

Instead, my eyes followed her every graceful move. I overreacted to every single word she spoke, laughed too loudly when she made a small joke, and followed the track of her eyes as she looked around the galley, becoming familiar with the space.

I couldn’t tell if I should feel jealous when she laughed at Wood’s impression of the chief of police in Grimmington, or that Barnaby was so excited that they were going to bake together tomorrow.

It was difficult to feel like myself with all of this tension running through me. And now I had to find a way to be honest, without quite confessing that we were often thieves as well as traders.

“To be as plain as is reasonably possible,” I began slowly and carefully, “we do our fair share of honest trading. We often buy things cheaply, and sell them in markets where we can charge twice as much.”

Astor nodded, listening intently.

“Sometimes we are hired to run supplies from one port to another. Sometimes we are hired privately, for various jobs.” I tried to

give her my most winning smile. “It’s a bit of everything, I suppose. At least it keeps things interesting.”

She nodded, seeming satisfied, as I breathed a sigh of relief.

She knew.

She knew that we were pirates. There were no two ways about it. From the flag, to our egalitarian hierarchy, to the look of our crew, we were what we were. Privateers, traders, and yes, sometimes pirates.

I didn’t want to get into the details of how we always tried to do our jobs without spilling blood. How we never stole from people who weren’t practically bathing in money.

Once the bowls were cleared, I could tell the boys were going to start tapping the barrel of rum, and our sweet young doctor didn’t need to see that on her very first night at sea.

“Simon, you should go to bed early,” I said, with the slight shift in the tone of my voice to let him know it was an order and not a request.

“Yes, Captain.”

“And have one of the lads help you get into the hammock so you don’t move that arm.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Astor turned to me and said brightly, “When I cleaned and re-wrapped the wound before dinner, it already looked a bit less inflamed. I really do think he’s going to be all right.”

“Good. So how about we make sure that our new member of the crew is also well rested.” I took her hand to lead her from the table, ignoring the chuckle from Tobias.

The bunk room for the men was below deck, and was little more than an arrangement of hammocks. There was no way we could have a proper lady sleeping like that.

It was a bit odd to some that there were two beds in the Captain’s quarters, but whenever Simon had one of his fits of exhaustion, he would stay there for a few days. He was accustomed to the sound of my snoring since childhood, and I think it helped him sleep.

I was extremely glad that he offered his bed to Astor. Partly because that meant she would be sleeping extremely close to me. But mostly, she would be spending more private time with me than anyone else.

Perhaps I was unsettled because I’d never had such feelings for a woman before, but the thought of her becoming attached to any of the other men filled me with dread, even more than the time I had two guns trained on me and no escape route.

But I survived that, and I should be able to survive the task of coaxing a woman to show some interest in me. It was unbelievable that one young lady could fill me with such intense feelings after having only known her a day.

Finally releasing her hand, I opened the door to my cabin, ushering her inside. She looked around at the two neatly made beds, one of them with her pillow and blanket in place, and her things stashed neatly underneath.

“I’m afraid it’s very close quarters,” I said, trying my best to soften my rough voice as I noticed I already did whenever I was so close to her. “But I promise I’ll be as much of a gentleman as I can.”

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