“Then come along and finish my shave. And do try and be a little more careful this time.”
“If you would…not talk, I might be able to concentrate better.” She couched it as a suggestion. Her tone was utterly respectful. But his despised brow still shot upward. “Well, you said I could speak my mind,” she mumbled angrily as she stepped forward and picked up the razor again. “And as long as I’m at it, I hate it when you do that.”
The other brow rose to join the first, but now in surprise. “Do what?”
She waved the hand that held the razor toward his face. “That supercilious lifting of the eyebrows.”
“Good God, brat, you bowl me over with your diction, indeed you do.”
“So now you think it’s funny?”
“What I think, dear boy, is that you took me much too literally. When I said you could speak your mind, it was not with the thought that you would be foolish enough to criticize your captain. In that you cross the line, as I believe you well know.”
She did know it, and had only been combing the waters, so to speak, to see just how far she would sink before drowning. Not far at all, obviously.
“I’m sorry, Captain.”
“I thought we agreed yesterday that you’d look me in the eye if you were going to apologize. That’s better. So you hate it, d’you?”
Devil take it, now he was amused. And she hated that even more than his brow raising, especially since he never bothered to share the joke with her.
“I feel it’s in my best interests not to answer that, Captain.”
He burst into laughter at that. “Well said, George! You’re learning, indeed you are.”
His pleasure with her included a clap on the shoulder. Unfortunately, this sent her careening into his open thigh, which precipitated his having to grab her to keep her from tumbling over his leg. She’d grabbed him, too, to stop the fall herself. When they both realized they were holding on to each other, the ship could have sunk and they wouldn’t have noticed. But the electrifying moment was come and gone in a matter of seconds, for he released her as fast as she did him.
As if fire hadn’t leaped between them in that brief span of time, the captain said, albeit unsteadily, “My whiskers have likely grown an inch since you got started, George. I do hope you’ll get the hang of this before we reach Jamaica.”
Georgina was too flustered to answer, so she just brought the razor up to his face and began working on the side she’d yet to scrape. Her heart was fluttering wildly, but why shouldn’t it? She’d thought she was going over his leg headfirst. It had nothing to do with touching him.
But when she turned his face to finish up the other side, she saw the dots of blood where she’d nicked him. Without thinking about it, her fingers gently wiped the spots.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
If her voice had been soft in saying it, his was much, much softer in his reply. “I know.”
Oh, God, here comes the nausea, she thought.
Chapter Nineteen
“Are ye ailing, Georgie lad?”
“Just Georgie will do, Mac.”
“Nae, it willna.” He glanced around the poopdeck to make sure they were alone before adding, “I’ve caught myself nearly calling ye lass when I shouldna. I need the reminding.”
“Suit yourself.”
Georgina reached listlessly into the basket sitting between them for another rope to splice to the one in her lap, which she’d already joined to three others by interweaving the rope ends together. She’d offered to help Mac with the mundane chore just to pass the time, but wasn’t paying much attention to what she was doing. Already he’d had to open one of her splices with a marlinespike and have her start over. She hadn’t said a word or noticed the mistake herself.
Mac, watching her, shook his head. “Och, ye are ailing. Ye’re being much too agreeable.”
That got a rise out of her, but only just barely. “I’m always agreeable.”
“No’ since ye got it into yer wee head tae sail off tae England, ye havena been. Ye’ve been a prime pain in the arse since that notion took ye.”
He had her full attention now. “Well, I like that,” she huffed. “You didn’t have to come along, you know. I could have reached England perfectly well without you.”
