“Yes. No.” She frowned. Why did he make it sound so unappealing?
He looked her up and down with a sad smile. “No wonder you’re not married.”
She bristled. The nerve. “You, sir, are incredibly rude.”
He winked. “I never claimed otherwise.”
A flush spread over her cheeks. Christian was teasing her.
“We need to get out of here.” He pushed to his feet with a grunt and examined the lock. “Do you have any hairpins?
Did it look like she did? She pushed the unruly locks out of her face for the hundredth time. “They took them all.”
Christian turned a slow circle around the brig and stopped when he faced her. “Your bucket.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Mine doesn’t have a handle, but yours does. Bring it here.”
He was right. How had she not noticed the bent half-circle of wire? She scrambled over to the bucket and gingerly began working on it. No way she was handing him her unmentionables.
The tip of the wire bit into her finger and she let out a little cry.
“Miss Warstein, for goodness’ sake, bring it here.”
“No.” The word came out strangled.
“Are you embarrassed?”
“Of course I am!”
His chuckle sent a wave of mortification through her. “You should try living on a ship full time. Without the basic necessities you enjoy onshore, we learn very quickly not to be shy about bodily functions.”
Heat rose all the way to her ears. Clearly, his sailors behaved differently than her own. Mayhap her pirates could teach him a thing or two.
She stiffened. “I’ll do it.”
Throwing her hair over her shoulder, she bent above the bucket and worked her finger beneath the wire once more. Each end threaded several times around two holes drilled in the sides of the bucket. After carefully working one end of the wire through its hole to loosen it, the rest of it unwound with less trouble. She repeated the steps on the other side.
“Got it!” She waved it in the air. Though she could pick the lock herself, the lieutenant would never expect her to know how to, so she passed the wire over to him.
He bent it and slid one end into the keyhole. His face settled into hard lines of concentration and she had to bite her lip as he twisted the wire the wrong way. She could have had the lock picked by now. Instead of saying something, she focused on the way his clenched teeth squared his jawline.
When a clink echoed through the room, she let out the appropriate ego-inflating gasp. He grinned up at her and swung the cell door open. A moment later, he worked on hers. This time, he picked the lock correctly and moments later it clicked open.
Christian met her gaze. “See? All hope is not lost.”
He tugged her door open and she couldn’t help her smile. After nearly three days of being locked up, her heart gave a little skip as she stepped past the threshold. Still... she reached out and touched Christian’s shoulder as he turned away.
“What’s the plan? It’s midday, surely you don’t expect to get out of here unnoticed?” Even if they did, with a full day of sailing before Tortuga, there would be nowhere to go. And plenty of sharks.
Christian grabbed hold of the ladder. “If I can free my men, we can take the ship.”
Samantha’s stomach churned. “That’s a terrible plan.”
He twisted and peered down at her. “Our best bet is to take them by surprise when they least expect it.”
She swallowed and crossed to the ladder while he climbed. “Have you seen his crew? I’m not sure they are capable of being taken by surprise.”
