Lucretia ignored him, focusing only on Felix.
This whole time, she had known intellectually what happened to him. He’d been kidnapped by pirates, which was a risk for those who traveled by sea.
But now, seeing him aboard the pirate ship, a bolt of visceral understanding shot through her in a dizzying rush. He’d been taken captive, held on this ship in probably very uncomfortable accommodations, in danger every moment of being sold into slavery.
And that was what he had saved Marcus from. In the brief moment he had to act, he’d thought first of Marcus’s safety and lost his own chance at escape.
Her heart splintered as she fully realized what he had sacrificed.
Then, their eyes met, and her heart knitted back together. A smile grew on her face, despite the circumstances.
He gave her a searching frown, his eyes skimming from her to the crates of silver. Likely he was trying to figure out how they managed to raise the entire sum. That would have to be a story for later.
While she’d been gawking at him, Siro, in the other boat, was busily negotiating with the pirates, arranging for half of the silver to be hauled aboard before Felix’s release. The pirate crew set up a system of ropes and pulleys which lowered down a wooden platform, onto which they could secure a crate.
It seemed to take forever for the first seven crates of silver to be hauled up. Lucretia couldn’t see much from down here, but it appeared the pirates were opening each crate as it arrived to verify that the contents were all silver before sending the platform back down to retrieve the next crate—just in case Siro had tried to adulterate the silver with something else.
Finally, Siro’s boat had been emptied of its half of the ransom. A rope ladder swung down over the side of the ship. Lucretia held her breath as Felix climbed down, one rung at a time. Heseemed to be uninjured, which was better than she might have hoped, but no doubt he was exhausted from the ordeal.
She let out her breath as Felix’s feet touched the deck of Siro’s boat. He released the ladder and turned to greet Siro, speaking words she couldn’t hear and clasping his secretary’s arms with a weary smile.
Siro’s boat rowed away from the pirate vessel, and Lucretia’s progressed forward, preparing to deliver the second half of the ransom.
Felix said something to the pilot of the other boat, who maneuvered so their boat pulled up alongside Lucretia’s, a handsbreadth of space between them. With surprising agility, Felix hopped over the gap into her boat.
His arms were around her before she could even take a breath. “Felix,” she gasped, hardly able to believe this was real. After what happened between them, she never would have imagined that she’d be here, hugging him as if her life depended on it.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear, his voice rough and unsteady.
“For what?” She drew back to look at him, verifying her earlier assessment that he was overall uninjured, despite the deep shadows beneath his eyes.
“Firstly, because I fear I smell terrible.”
She laughed. He did, but she didn’t care. “Your staff will have a bath waiting upon our return.”
“Praise Vesta.” He lifted his eyes skyward with a smile.
Their boat had reached the side of the pirate ship, and the process of unloading and hauling up the crates of silver recommenced. To stay out of the way, Lucretia led Felix to the aft of the boat, where they could sit on a narrow bench.
Instead of sitting beside her, Felix dropped to his knees in front of her. “I must also apologize for how I schemed against you.” He clasped her hands. “My greatest fear on that ship wasthat I would never get the chance to tell you how wrong I was, or to ask for your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it, but I want you to know how deeply I regret betraying you.”
She stroked the back of one of his hands. “It has been pointed out to me that you didn’t actually go through with your plan against me.You thought better of it on your own, didn’t you?”
“I should never have investigated your guardian. Not after our truce.”
“No,” she agreed. “But you also risked everything—your life, your freedom—for Marcus’s sake. He told me what you did. You saved him and ruined your own chance of escape.”
“I was hardly thinking at the time. It was not a fully considered decision.”
“That’s my point,” she said. “When presented with an instant to make a life or death decision, your gut instinct was to sacrifice yourself to save my son. If that’s not worthy of forgiveness, then I don’t know what is.”
He blinked up at her, his gray eyes wide and disbelieving. “Do you mean…”
She pulled him up to sit beside her. “I forgive you, Felix,” she whispered. The words felt as much like a blessing for herself as for him. They eased the knot of tension wound tight inside her and filled her with a warm sense that finally, the broken pieces of her world were shifting back into place.
She drew him into another embrace, gentler than their previous frantic one. His arms skimmed over her back, a hand coming up to cradle her head reverently, as if she was the most precious thing in the world.
“Thank you,” he whispered. Then he pulled back, as if a sudden thought had seized him. “Lucretia, how did you get this much money? I know Siro wouldn’t have been able to retrieve it from the temple bank.”
