Daphne shook her head. “No. Certainly not. Donald’s death wasn’t your fault. You must know that.”
He rubbed the back of his hand against his forehead. He moved closer to her again and kept his voice low. “Enough about me. What about you? What did you always want to be when you were a little girl?”
Daphne aimed the pistol at the bull’s-eye. The air seemed to suspend in her lungs. No one had asked her such a question before. It was popularly assumed that all young women of thetonwanted to marry well and produce offspring. No one ever asked them what theywantedto do. She took the shot and, like all the others, it winged off into the ocean, coming nowhere near the bull’s-eye. “I should have known when I practiced archery with Jane at Julian’s wedding party that I was no good at shooting things.”
Rafe took the pistol from her. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m not certain I know how to answer it.”
“Have I confused you?” Rafe laughed.
“A bit,” she admitted sheepishly. “I’ve just never been… No one’s ever asked me such a question.”
Rafe concentrated on reloading the pistol again. He shook powder into the muzzle. “That’s a shame.”
Daphne lifted her chin. “It is a shame, isn’t it?”
He looked up at her and nodded.
She lifted her chin. “I do have an answer, though.”
He met her eyes. “What is it?”
“You must promise not to laugh.”
“I would never laugh at you.”
She swallowed and glanced out at the horizon. “I always wanted to be a pirate.”
Rafe’s eyebrow quirked. “A pirate?”
“Yes. A pirate. I read about a lady pirate once. Well, she was more of a privateer, I suppose. I wouldn’t want to actually break the law. But adventures on the high seas, sun, and wind and rain, and… freedom. It always sounded so wonderful to me.”
Rafe shook his head. His brow furrowed. “You surprise me, Grey.”
“Do I?” She rubbed the bottom of her boot along the deck. “You expected me to say something about embroidery or charities?”
“Perhaps.”
“That is mighty boring, Cap’n,” she said in her best Thomas Grey voice, doffing her cap.
“Agreed,” he answered. “For I, too, always longed for adventure.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“Tonight’s lesson involves being tied up,” Rafe announced that evening after they’d said good night to the rest of the crew following dinner and retired to the captain’s cabin. He drew a long piece of rope out of the cabinet above the desk.
Daphne swallowed hard. “Pardon me?”
“I thought you wanted to learn how to be a spy,” Rafe replied.
“Oh yes. Yes, I do.” She brushed her hands across her thighs. “And… spies are often… tied up?”
“Upon occasion,” Rafe replied with his infamous wicked grin. “I was tied up in France more often than not.”
Daphne swallowed again and ducked her head. Of course. This was serious and if Rafe had something to teach her about being tied up, she was ready to learn it.
“Of course, sometimes allowing your captors to think you’re tied up is part of your strategy.”
