Falling for the Pirate by Amber Lin

streets of London. Or maybe she really had been hired by a competitor. It didn’t matter. He would still help her.
    But not by hiring her.
    If he were forced to see her every day and not talk to her, not touch her…
    Preparing to replace the portraits, he flipped the locket open in his palm. He would return it to her tonight when he visited her room.
    He froze.
    Engraved into the inside of the locket where the metal casing had been covered, were initials. JH.
    H. As in Hargate .
    Hargate’s first name was Stephan. But the girl…she’d said her name was Julian.
    JH. Julian Hargate .
    No. It couldn’t be her. He didn’t want it to be her.
    But the plain block letters did not change.
    Ice crystalized in Nate’s veins, restoring the cruel sangfroid that had sheltered him for most of his life. He rifled through his desk and found the file on Hargate.
    Like any good revenge seeker, Nate had ordered surveillance on the man, his struggling business, and his long hours. The answer to his ruin had been clear. And fitting. Nate liked that he had taken away what Hargate had stolen in the first place. That was fair. A fortune for a fortune. And for his father’s life…that would also be fair. A life for a life.
    Once his plan had been made, Nate hadn’t bothered to look at Hargate’s personal information. His friends. His family. In truth, Nate hadn’t wanted to know who else would be affected in Hargate’s fall. But that had been a weakness. He saw that now.
    Had Hargate cared about who else was hurt when he had cheated Nate’s father? Had he cared who would grow up orphaned when he’d ordered Nate’s father killed to cover up Hargate’s crimes?
    No.
    In fact, he had disposed of Nate in the most efficient, most profitable way possible.
    He leafed through the papers. And there it was, in black scrawled ink.
    One child. A girl. Juliana Hargate .
    The woman upstairs was past being a child. He had pulled water-logged clothes off her slender form, frantic to get her warm, needing to make sure she didn’t have any broken bones—and he’d found out she was a woman.
    A woman who had made a mockery of him.
    Julian! He laughed, the sound harsh to his ears.
    No, her name was Juliana. Juliana Hargate. And she wasn’t a random thief. She hadn’t been sent by some greedy competitor to scout for information. She wasn’t even someone Hargate had hired. She was his daughter . And she had been lying about losing her memory.
    Of course she had. Juliana couldn’t tell him her real name.
    And Hargate. Where the hell was he hiding? She would know. Maybe she’d been on her way back to him last night. He could follow her. Yes, that was a good plan.
    Except…
    Except he didn’t have to scurry after her through the slums of London, hoping not to lose sight of her. She was the man’s daughter . He could use her and discard her, the same way he’d been used and discarded. That would be a suitable punishment for what Hargate had done to him. And Nate would enjoy it much more than he would enjoy killing the man.
    Oh, yes, he would enjoy ruining her very much.
    But more important, it would be fitting. And Nate liked things that fit.
    …
    Julia…Julian…whoever she was…wasn’t sure where she’d gotten the strength to climb the chimney, because she had barely gotten out of the bed for three days straight. Mrs. Wheaton brought a tray twice a day and quietly urged her to eat. She had obeyed, even when lifting the spoon felt insurmountable. Her limbs seemed heavier than normal. Her eyelids felt as heavy as lead weights. She slept more than she was awake.
    The pirate visited every day, in the evenings. He smelled of saltwater and clean sweat, as if he had been working on a ship all day long. His interactions with her were solicitous and so far removed he might as well have still been on the docks.
    He asked perfunctory questions and barely registered her answers. Was she feeling well? Did she have everything she needed? Only one exchange