Crossing arms over his chest, he leaned back against his desk.“Nay, I wished to thank you for your help in my care.”
“A compliment, Captain?”She placed a hand on her chest.“Why, my heart is all aflutter.”
He frowned, eyes narrowing as he moved toward her, his black Cordovan boots thumping over the deck.Placing both hands on the arms of her chair, he leaned in until he was but inches from her face.
Her pulse raced, her breath crashed, but she forced herself to return his gaze with brazen indignation.Loose hair hung about his stubbled chin.He smelled of rum and the sea with a hint of spice…nutmeg?
“You will never again touch anything in this cabin without my permission.I’ve sent men to the gallows for less than what you did here.”His rum-drenched breath saturated the air between them as he pushed from the chair and studied her with eyes that shifted from dark brown to green and back again.Only then did she notice that half his right earlobe was missing.
Was he mad?One minute thanking her and the next threatening her life?She would not allow him, oranypirate again, to feast on her fear.
“I merely made some sense out of the chaos and squalor you obviously enjoy living amongst.”She hated the tremor in her voice.
He flattened his lips, his hand resting on the hilt of his cutlass as if he would thrust her through for her infraction.
“’Tismysqualor and it will stay the way I like it.”
“Fine.If you wish to live like a pig, what is that to me?”The words flew out of her mouth before she thought of the consequences.This was not a man to be trifled with.There was an intensity about him, a depth, and a restrained power that both frightened and excited her.
His grip on the cutlass tightened and for a moment, she thought she might have finally overstepped the limits of his patience.
But he released a heavy sigh and returned to his desk.“Your tongue, Lady Fox!”he said with both acrimony and a bit of humor.
She gave a nervous laugh.“Lady Fox?”
He ran a hand through his hair, or attempted to, around the bandage.“It suits you.”He poured more rum into his glass.“For you are as shrewd as a fox and yet just as deadly.”
She gave a ladylike snort.“And you are naught but a heartless kidnapper.”
His eyes narrowed as he consumed the rum.Then slamming down the glass, he walked back to the stern windows and stared out upon the sea, aglitter in sunlight.
She feared she’d once again over spoke, inflamed his anger overmuch.Perhaps a change of topic, something that interested him.“The large map on your desk, Captain, the one full of strange markings and signs.What is it for?”
Instead of soothing his temper, he spun around, his face reddening, his eyes aglow.“What did you see?”
“Nothing.”Zada shifted by her feet, and she picked him up again, if only for the comfort he brought in the face of this man’s anger.“I was merely trying to make conversation.”
This seemed to settle him as he moved to his desk to stare down at the map in question, the same one she had rolled up in a scroll but was now laid flat before him.“This map will bring me the wealth, power, and prestige I desire.”
From one map?she wanted to say but thought better of it.The man was as volatile as a drunken gunner during battle.
After several seconds, she asked, “What are you to do with me now, Captain?”
“Nothing has changed, my lady.’Tis obvious Allard harbors some affection for you and his child.Ergo, you will remain on board as bait.”
Gabrielle’s throat went dry.Was she never to be free again?Foolish girl.What have I done?It would do no good to challenge the man.“May I at least have the freedom to wander about the ship?’Tis not good for me or the babe to be confined all day and night below deck.”
He stared at her, fisting hands on his waist.“Very well.But not alone.Omphile can accompany you.”
“Thank you, Captain.”Setting Zada down once again, she pushed against the chair to rise, ignored the pain in her legs and back, and started for the door.Truly, she didn’t wish to burden Omphile further with her care.“Why not have that guard you assigned to me on the island watch over me?”For she’d also seen him in the jungle before Allard had found her.She assumed he’d been the one to go get the captain.
Cadan shook his head, confused.“Once again, you speak nonsense, Lady Fox.I assigned no such guard, save Moses.”
???
How could a woman so ripe with child turn every male eye upon her all at once?Yet this was no ordinary woman.Even Cadan’s loathing of her could not prevent him from staring when she emerged from the companionway onto the main deck.With child or not, the woman was a beauty, like a pearl one searches for among the rare queen conch shells, and upon finding it, all other pearls are discarded.
He suddenly regretted granting her permission to come above, for such a distraction would only hinder the crew’s tasks.Especially should they encounter an enemy.
