How could he do this?
Linnie.
His love for Linnie…
Her eyes burned.
Fortunately, Scarlet dragged the comb through Meghan’s hair hard enough to raise tears. Meghan flinched.
“Tell me, was the captain as attentive and generous with you?”
The servant’s taunts hurt worse than the brushing.
Meghan dug her nails into her palms.
“Most generous, most attentive,” Meghan murmured. “I trust he also sends a maid to attend you in the mornings.”
Scarlet’s face darkened. She increased the force with which she yanked the comb through Meghan’s hair.
Meghan’s barb brought no victory. She was awash in a sudden cold as cutting as the tempest raging outside.
He had unknowingly broken her heart twice. Not that he would have cared either way, but he could not again crack that still-raw organ open and let it bleed anew over his corrupted soul.
Because then it would mean her cousin Linnie’s marriage to Captain Tremaine had transformed him—from man into villain, charmer into captor. From a good, honorable gentleman capable of smiles and laughter into a brute monster—all because he had loved and lost.
And it seared Meghan’s soul that she cared so much for the man who had abducted her. An enemy of her family.
How Scarlet the mean maid would laugh were she to know the truth—that August hadn’t even desired Meghan enough to seek his pleasure.
Still, seeing Scarlet as an enemy served no purpose. They were simply two women who wanted a man they should not.
And only one of them knew hoping for even a crumb of affection from August was futile.
Meghan.
Meghan was the one who knew.
Blistering envy aside, Meghan felt a kindred connection to the other woman.
“How long have you worked here, Scarlet?” she asked carefully.
“Do you mean how long has his lordship been visiting my bed?” Scarlet’s smirk was sharp as a blade and cut far worse.
“It is not my affair.”
So much for female camaraderie.
A visceral knot twisted in Meghan’s stomach.
The maid answered anyway.
“Every time he sails.” Scarlet’s gaze grew distant and heavy. “A generous lover he be,” she said, her voice equally faraway.
Biting her lower lip, the buxom maid ran a restless hand over the front of her gown.
Before he sails…
Meghan’s body snapped upright.
