“If you even think of coming near my side of the cabin, the Bride will be the least of your worries.”
“To be fair,” I replied, sitting back, “she’s currently more your problem than mine.”
“I can handle her.”
“I wouldn’t underestimate her.”
“Let me worry about that,” she said, “something I can better do if I don’t have to worry aboutyou.”
I offered her my most innocent look—which, to be fair, was probably not terribly innocent in appearance. “I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”
“Thank you.”
I took another bite of food, intentionally speaking as I chewed. “Remind me, what do gentlemen do again?”
Her nostrils flared—not in irritation, but in amusement.
Well, then. I’d daresay she and I just might get along.
If the Bride didn’t get in the way first.
Chapter seven
Sofie
“I’dlikeapenand paper, too,” I said from the makeshift bed where I languished. The constant scratching and ticking of Bluebeard’s writing ought to have been driving me mad. Instead, in my boredom, it was making me jealous.
And also a little angry. I was making virtually no progress with the curse, and I couldn’t even note my findings thus far or collect my thoughts through writing.
“No,” he said without looking up.
Alright, now I was alotangry.
Jax had no right to take my things on top of my freedom, my bed and the usual peace and quiet I got in the afternoons. Instead, he’d been hunched over the desk for hours, pausing only to call for First Mate Aoki.
“What’s the matter?” I taunted. “Afraid I’ll stab you with a quill?”
He harrumphed. “If I give it to you, will you be quiet?”
“As quiet as the space between your ears.”
“Then no.”
I threw myself back on the blankets, wincing as my shoulder blades connected with the hard planks of the floor through the furs. “What are you doing anyway? Writing a novel?The Dull Tales of Long-Distance Travel.”
“Updating my ledger.”
My brows knit together. “You’re…doing accounting for your pirate ship?”
“My fleet,” he corrected.
“Ah, yes, all two of your ships.”
“This might surprise you, but you don’t know everything.” His voice took on a peevish cant as he said, “I have more than two ships,wife.”
“A wealthy man indeed. Spare your poor wife some paper, ink and a pen?”
Jax’s pen clattered into the metal holder screwed into the desk. At last, he tore his attention away from his bookkeeping. Unfortunately, this caused him to fix it on me.
