For once, Ronan wasn’t quite sure what to say to her. A novelty, as they’d never had an awkward moment between them. But something about her brother and his situation had put a hesitancy in her.
He hated that passionately.
“When will you head back to sea?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. It hasn’t been the same lately.”
He gestured for them to take a seat at a table on his left. “What’s wrong?”
“Hard to explain.”
“Most things are.”
She snorted at that. “What about you? Are you heading home?”
“What home?” He spent his time spying for Dash or running messages. While his father wanted him to return to Sagaria and resume “royal” duties, Ronan had no intention of ever doing so.Had his father wanted him to play prince, he should have never traded him to Meara. Nor allowed his mother’s kingdom to fall and his mother to be executed.
Since the day of their release, Ronan had refused to step foot in his father’s kingdom. They could all burn in hell for what he cared. His loyalty was to the ones who’d been with him through the nightmare of captivity, and who’d helped him survive it. Not with the bastard who’d handed him over to be tortured.
His father was lucky he talked to him.
Mischief reached out and placed her hand over his. “You know you always have a place on my boat.”
“True. A crow’s nest always needs a crow.”
She shook her head. “You know what I mean.”
No, he really didn’t. They’d always had a complicated relationship. “I don’t even know your real name. Rather sure it isn’t Princess Mischief.”
She chuckled. “Actually, that is what my parents called me. More often than Penelope.”
Ronan sat there in stunned silence. “Penelope?” he repeated, trying to reconcile that name with the beautiful bit of chaos in front of him.
She nodded. “Princess Penelope Augusta Victoria Vandermere of Cosaria.”
“So Mischief it is.”
She laughed. “Exactly.”
He shook his head as he remembered the last time they’d met. He’d fetched her for Dash, along with Cadoc, another of their Outlaws from the port city where she’d docked her ship. She’d been horribly drunk when he found her. They both had.
“Are you doing better?” he asked.
“I’m only all right when you’re around. I wish you wouldn’t leave.”
Those words hit him like a sucker punch to the gullet. She’d never said that to him before. “I thought you didn’t want me to hold you back.” That was what she’d said the time before when they’d run into each other.
“Why do you think I was drunk, Ro? You weren’t supposed to leave.”
“You told me not to bother you. Not unless Dash or one of the others needed you.”
Her eyes glistened from unshed tears. “Because it hurts to see you. You weren’t supposed to leave,” she repeated.
Ronan pulled her forehead to his. “You are the most complicated person I’ve ever known.” And he should have known that when she’d been so hostile.
Mischief was so afraid of being hurt again that she always pushed away what she needed.
“You know that I’m always here for you, Missy.”
