Cookson watches me from across the fire, though he’s trying to pretend to be busy serving the pirates.
I take a bigger bite and give him a thumbs up. He seems to swell with pride, then gives Starkey a generous helping of ribs.
“This is a feast.” I try the vegetables—some of them completely unfamiliar—from a skewer. The thing that looks like a pepper has a little spice, but it’s sweeter, the red meat of it like a treat.
“Don’t change the subject.” She balances her plate on her lap and slices off a piece of her fish and plops it into her mouth.
“Good, right?”
She chews for a moment, then swallows. “I hate to admit it, but Cookson is good at what he does. Not as good as me, of course, let’s not get looney. But he can cook a mean fish. Now spill.”
I keep glancing around for Hook, but I haven’t seen him since he left my room. I’m still reeling from what happened, from everything he said. His voice is on constant replay in my mind, and I get chills each time. I don’t understand him, not completely, but I understood his emotion, the deep well of sorrow in him that I’ve barely seen.
“Moira, come on,” Widow wheedles.
“I don’t know if I can. It all happened so fast. Smee was in there, and he scared me—”
“Yeah, I know. I was bringing the firewood when I heard you scream. Hook took off like someone had shoved a hot poker up his ass.” She shrugs. “I figured he had it handled. But when you didn’t come out, I wanted to make sure—”
“So, you didn’t just happen by to tell me about the food, then?” I give her a playful elbowing. “You were snooping.”
“Absolutely.” She takes another big bite of fish, then talks around it. “I was in service, like I said. I used to deal exclusively in baked goods and secrets. Maybe a gooseberry jam here or there.”
“I wouldn’t know a gooseberry if it bit me on the ass.”
“They don’t bite.” She stops chewing and leans closer, looking around suspiciously. “As far as I know.”
I smile. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Sometimes.” She nods. “I just want to make sure you’re all right.”
I want to thank her, to tell her that I’m so glad I met her. But I don’t. I can’t. The last time I made a friend on this island, it didn’t turn out so well. God, I just made out with the man who murdered said friend. My mind’s muddled with too many feelings. It’s like I can’t fit them all inside me, and my heart is still sore where Hook ripped it apart.“Because he hurt you.”
“What happened right then? You just sort of … went gray.”
I clear my throat. “Just thinking about things.”
“Like what?”
“About …” Hell, I may as well tell her some of it—the juicy bits are what she’s after. I drop my voice to a whisper. “You saw what you saw.”
“Indeed I did.” She waggles her eyebrows.
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s Hook. He’s a bad guy. He’s told me as much.” He’s a villain.
“Mmhmm.” She spears one of the sweet and spicy veggies and chews it thoughtfully. “Has he been bad to you?”
“Bad to me?”
She points her fork at me. “Has he hurt you?”
No, just the opposite. He’s protected me at all costs. But I can’t same the same for Coy. “Not me. But he killed a friend of mine.”
She nods. “The Lost Boy?”
