Unfortunately, this unwelcome physical reaction had become normal when he found himself in her company.
“Fireworks, eh?” Kieran asked. He knew that Mr. Chen’s father had been a firework master in Shanghai. Chen had even apprenticed as one for a while before deciding carpentry and a life at sea suited him better.
Jamie nodded. “Luckily for us, we have the supplies on board to make them.”
Like any other ship ofThe Minerva’s size, they were armed with cannon and gun powder. Only fools circumnavigated the globe without being able to defend themselves against pirates.
Apparently, word had reached the crew that Mr. Chen promised to make a few fireworks for lighting once they arrived in Rio. Setting off fireworks at sea would be a bit too hazardous, as a single spark in the rigging could spell disaster.
“Would you be willing to help stabilize the board?” Chen asked Kieran, pointing to the wood they were working. “I need to go check the measurement of the space to be repaired.”
Kieran nodded and took Chen’s place.
Chen grabbed a measuring tape from a hook and left, half closing the door behind him.
Kieran thought nothing of it until that moment—until he knelt across from Jamie, hands pressed to one end of the wood to steady it, his head scarcely a foot from hers—
He was essentially within easy kissing distance of a bonnie lass.
A bonnie lass that he would very much like to . . . kiss.
Steady, man. She’s made it clear how she feels about ye.
His pulse drummed in his throat.
“How are ye getting on then?” Kieran asked, careful not to say anything that indicated her true gender in case there were ears listening. “Have the other members of our Brotherhood been helping ye?”
“Aye. Mr. Campbell showed me how to mark a block of wood for carving, how tae see the potential shape inside.”
Kieran snorted. “Ye know that’s not precisely what I meant.”
She laughed, a soft breath of sound.
Kieran studiously kept his gaze fixed on her hands, working the plane over the wood, but he could feel her eyes on his face.
He often felt her eyes on him.
“It feels endless, sometimes, this relearning of myself,” she said after a moment.
“Pardon?” He lifted his head. “What do you mean?”
She rubbed the plane back and forth, her curls bobbing against her cheeks. “Just that the world is rather different from what I had thought before taking to the sea as Jamie. My own abilities are greater than I had supposed.” She paused, those silvery eyes of hers lifting to his. She licked her bottom lip. “You . . . are different.”
The punch of her gaze left Kieran light-headed.
“You’ve been kind tae me,” she said. “Ye are not the man I thought ye were, Kieran MacTavish. Ye are . . . gentler. Responsible. More professional.”
“So you’re saying I’m not quite the reprobate you’ve been led tae believe?” he chuckled.
“Something like that. I likely owe ye an apology.”
“Thank ye.”
“Oh, I didnae say I wasactuallygoing tae apologize—”
“Are ye not?” He couldn’t help the lilt in his voice, the upturn of his lips. “It’s quite easy tae do. Allow me tae demonstrate.” He sat up straight and cleared his throat. “Ye simply say, ‘Why Kieran, I was so utterly wrong tae doubt your magnificence. Can ye forgive me?’”
She laughed, just as he hoped.
