“Dev mentioned that you are an orphan.”
She nodded. “It was a carriage accident last fall.”
“Sometimes there is no comprehending God’s will.”
“I’m not sure I believe in God,” she said.
His eyes widened. “Then that is a shame. But there have been moments, I confess, when I have had my doubts, too.”
She smiled at him. “Then we must both be intelligent and human.”
He laughed.
She stopped smiling, enjoying his laughter, which was warm and rich and so different from the odd, croaking sound Devlin had made on the few occasions when he seemed to try to laugh. “You and he are nothing alike, are you?”
“No.” Sean studied her.
“How is that possible? Aren’t you both close in age?”
“I’m two years younger,” Sean said. “Devlin assumed responsibility for me when our father died. That is one reason for the difference between us.”
“And the other?” she asked, determined now to learn everything she could about her captor.
He smiled wryly and shrugged.
“I do not understand him,” she said. “He is very brave, that much is clear, almost fearless, I think—” she recalled how he had defied gale winds to rescue his ship “—and that’s not very human, is it?”
“He is fearless,” Sean agreed. “I think he doesn’t care if he lives or dies.”
Virginia stared, Sean’s theory stunning. “But no one wishes to die!”
“I didn’t say he wished to die, merely that the thought doesn’t frighten him as it does us other mere mortals.”
Virginia considered that and immediately she felt certain that Sean was right. “But why? What kind of man would be indifferent toward his own life?”
Sean was silent.
Virginia suddenly comprehended the only possible answer—only a man deeply wounded or deeply embittered would be so indifferent. She was shaken. She quickly sipped her champagne, which, she saw, was also contraband, as it was French. How complex Devlin O’Neill was. “His men respect and admire him,” she mused aloud, almost to herself, “and the town seems to think of him as a hero. I have seen myself how effective he is on the high seas, so I understand why his men admire him. But the town?”
“You are very curious when it comes to my brother,” Sean remarked.
“Yes, I am. After all, he seized my ship, then seized me. I simply do not understand why he wishes to ransom me when he so clearly does not need the money.”
“Perhaps you should ask him,” Sean said.
“Perhaps I will,” Virginia returned thoughtfully, “although I am sure he will only become angry—he is a very angry man. Why is that? You are not angry. I can see kindness in your eyes. You seem as compassionate as he is ruthless.”
“I am not a ship’s officer upon the high seas, where discipline is crucial to maintain, and once lost, impossible to regain.” Sean sighed then. “There is one fundamental difference between us. When we were small children, we saw our father brutally murdered by an English soldier. Devlin has never forgotten that day—I cannot recall a single second of it.”
She stared, her mind spinning, trying to understand. “How old was he?”
“He was ten, I was eight. From that moment, Devlin has been a father as well as a brother to me, and acutely aware of his responsibilities as head of the O’Neill clan here in southern Ireland.”
“How terrible,” Virginia said softly, “and how fortunate you cannot remember. I cannot imagine how I should feel or what I would think if I saw my father murdered. I suppose I should intend to kill the murderer.” And now the mind of her captor was beginning to make sense. Of course he was a hard, cold man. He had learned a brutal lesson as a small child, one that clearly had affected his character, his nature. Perhaps that was why he had chosen the rough and merciless life of a career spent at sea.
“Then perhaps you and I have more in common than we think,” Devlin murmured.
Virginia whirled and saw Devlin standing in the doorway rather nonchalantly, as splendidly dressed as his brother, although he wore his naval uniform. In his navy-blue jacket with its gold epaulets and buttons, his stark white britches and stockings, he made a terribly dashing figure, enough so that her heart seemed to stop. There was simply no comparing the brothers, not now, not anymore. Sean might have an innate decency and kindness that she doubted Devlin would ever have, but Devlin fascinated her impossibly, as if she were a moth, he the fatal flame.
