“Why would ye keep your true gender from me?” he asked, voice terse. “Ye should have told me immediately—”
“And then what? I know your reputation,” she snapped. “Do ye think to use me now? Treat me like the poor lasses the crew visits when we anchor in port?”
Kieran flinched, the bald assumption in her accusation literally stealing his breath.
“P-pardon?!” he managed to gasp.
“I will not be forced to act like a wh—”
“No one will harm ye, lass!” He held out a staying hand. “Not while I have breath in my body!”
“For all the good that does me!You,with your libertine ways, pose the greatest risk of all.”
Kieran’s jaw all but dropped.
Bloody hellbut this lass was brazen.
How had she gone to putting him on the defensive?
Shewas the one who had lied about her identity and stowed away onhisship.
“Ye dinnae know me, lass,” he said, tone sharp.
“I knowofye, and that is sufficient, I ken.”
“No. No, it isnae. Ye know only a wee part of me. Just as I, at this moment, only understand a wee part of the events that have led to a woman washing up in the hold of my ship.”
She did not respond but merely clutched her blanket tighter.
Kieran shook his head. “I willnae have ye casting such unwarranted aspersions against my character. Just as I will make no assumptions as tae your own.” He waved a hand, indicating her current state of undress and the absurdity of their surroundings.
“Finish bathing,” he ordered. “I will await you in my cabin where we will discuss your future.”
He spun on his booted heel and left.
Twenty minutes later, a clean, bedraggled ‘Jamie’ hesitantly knocked on the open door to Kieran’s cabin.
Even dressed in baggy trousers and an ill-fitting coat, she was so obviously, well, ashe.
How had he ever been so blind?
“Come in,” he nodded. “Please shut the door.”
She froze. Her silvery eyes looked at him in alarm from under a mop of damp curls.
Kieran took in a slow breath, tamping down his frustration.
“As stated earlier, I willnae hurt ye. I give ye my solemn oath—ye will always be safe with me.” He intended the words to be soothing, and yet, she continued to hover just inside the door.
He sighed, trying again. “I ken I made poor choices as a lad. I did run wild through more than one port of call. But that was when I was sixteen and seventeen . . . a mere youth. I havenae been that person in nigh upon a decade.” He motioned again toward the door. “But at the moment, I dinnae want any others overhearing our conversation.”
She squared her shoulders as if donning her courage, and then nodded, shutting the door.
She looked around the room.
Kieran supposed she saw quarters that were small but intensely tidy. A neatly-made bed ran along one wall. A desk was bolted to the floor against another. Maps and several charts hung on the walls. A shelf above the bed contained an astrolabe, sexton, and a collection of books. Two wooden chairs sat in the middle.
He motioned for her to sit in one chair.
