thought it was beyond the Gulf of Saint-Malo. How long would it take to sail back home?
Home.
It was a concept so distant and so unreal, it seemed that it existed in another life. Suddenly she felt very tired as the surge of excitement ebbed. She glanced at the netting bridge with a tremor of apprehension. It looked very unstable now and very, very high above the churning blue-green water.
“Too tired to make it alone this time?” Anthony spoke at her side, and she looked up quickly to catch that little flicker of a smile in his eye.
“How do you know?”
“I make it my business to know what might be troubling the members of my crew,” he said. “Particularly my newest and most inexperienced member.”
“I thought I was very good at disarming villains,” Olivia protested, forgetting her fatigue for a minute.
“Oh, you were. A natural,” he assured her. “A pirate to the manner born. Only pirates, you see, think of their victims as the villains.”
“And I just fell into that way of thinking,” Olivia said in tones of wonderment. “Isn’t that amazing?”
“Oh, I knew it all along,” he replied airily. “Come, let me take you back. I can see that you’re thinking longingly of your bed.”
It was perfectly true, although Olivia still didn’t know how he could so accurately pinpoint her uppermost thought. He took her elbow and walked her down to the rail in the main body of the ship.
Olivia regarded the netting doubtfully, her heart beating uncomfortably fast. The distance seemed to expand and contract before her eyes, and it astonished her now that she had leaped across it as nimbly as a monkey a mere half hour earlier.
And then as she hesitated, despising herself for her apprehension, Anthony swung her into his arms, holding her securely against him. “This won’t take a second,” he said, and with that cheerful whistle between his teeth he leaped across the gap, his feet just once touching the netting bridge.
“There, now you may seek your bed, and when you awake, we will be on our way and we shall dine on … on … oh, whatever Adam has planned for us.” He held her against him for a moment, and she could feel the steady beat of his heart against her breast.
Then he set her on her feet and swiftly pulled away the blue scarf that had come loose around her hair and was threatening to blow off into the wind. He tied it around her neck. “I’d hate to lose it, it’s one of my favorites.” He put his hands at her waist and stepped back, surveying her crimson sash. “That one is growing on me.” He left her then and Olivia knew he would be smiling.
Thoughts of bed were now irresistible. She was too exhausted for hunger, too exhausted even to consider the unreality of her present circumstances. She left the quarterdeck and climbed down the companionway, her legs so heavy it was hard to lift them. The cabin was sun-splashed and peaceful, and without a second’s hesitation, Olivia fell onto the bed, dragging the quilted coverlet over her.
“ ’T IS MAD Y’ARE. Mad as a March hare.” Adam glowered at his master. He had served this man since the manwas a mere babe new delivered from his mother’s womb, and he knew when
Wind Dancer
’s master had mischief afoot. He could read it in the angle of his head, in the devilment in his eye.
Adam knew exactly where the devilment came from, and he didn’t hold with women onboard ship. They were unlucky. He stood at his master’s side as the enriched
Wind Dancer
skipped true to her name on a freshening breeze.
“What’s troubling you, Adam?” Anthony didn’t take his eyes off the horizon, but he sounded amused, as always reading his friend and servant’s mind with uncanny accuracy. “She’ll not betray us,” he said.
“I don’t know as ’ow you can know that,” Adam grumbled. “Look at who ’er father is.”
“The marquis of Granville. Parliament’s man.” Anthony shrugged. “But let us not visit the sins of the father
Home.
It was a concept so distant and so unreal, it seemed that it existed in another life. Suddenly she felt very tired as the surge of excitement ebbed. She glanced at the netting bridge with a tremor of apprehension. It looked very unstable now and very, very high above the churning blue-green water.
“Too tired to make it alone this time?” Anthony spoke at her side, and she looked up quickly to catch that little flicker of a smile in his eye.
“How do you know?”
“I make it my business to know what might be troubling the members of my crew,” he said. “Particularly my newest and most inexperienced member.”
“I thought I was very good at disarming villains,” Olivia protested, forgetting her fatigue for a minute.
“Oh, you were. A natural,” he assured her. “A pirate to the manner born. Only pirates, you see, think of their victims as the villains.”
“And I just fell into that way of thinking,” Olivia said in tones of wonderment. “Isn’t that amazing?”
“Oh, I knew it all along,” he replied airily. “Come, let me take you back. I can see that you’re thinking longingly of your bed.”
It was perfectly true, although Olivia still didn’t know how he could so accurately pinpoint her uppermost thought. He took her elbow and walked her down to the rail in the main body of the ship.
Olivia regarded the netting doubtfully, her heart beating uncomfortably fast. The distance seemed to expand and contract before her eyes, and it astonished her now that she had leaped across it as nimbly as a monkey a mere half hour earlier.
And then as she hesitated, despising herself for her apprehension, Anthony swung her into his arms, holding her securely against him. “This won’t take a second,” he said, and with that cheerful whistle between his teeth he leaped across the gap, his feet just once touching the netting bridge.
“There, now you may seek your bed, and when you awake, we will be on our way and we shall dine on … on … oh, whatever Adam has planned for us.” He held her against him for a moment, and she could feel the steady beat of his heart against her breast.
Then he set her on her feet and swiftly pulled away the blue scarf that had come loose around her hair and was threatening to blow off into the wind. He tied it around her neck. “I’d hate to lose it, it’s one of my favorites.” He put his hands at her waist and stepped back, surveying her crimson sash. “That one is growing on me.” He left her then and Olivia knew he would be smiling.
Thoughts of bed were now irresistible. She was too exhausted for hunger, too exhausted even to consider the unreality of her present circumstances. She left the quarterdeck and climbed down the companionway, her legs so heavy it was hard to lift them. The cabin was sun-splashed and peaceful, and without a second’s hesitation, Olivia fell onto the bed, dragging the quilted coverlet over her.
“ ’T IS MAD Y’ARE. Mad as a March hare.” Adam glowered at his master. He had served this man since the manwas a mere babe new delivered from his mother’s womb, and he knew when
Wind Dancer
’s master had mischief afoot. He could read it in the angle of his head, in the devilment in his eye.
Adam knew exactly where the devilment came from, and he didn’t hold with women onboard ship. They were unlucky. He stood at his master’s side as the enriched
Wind Dancer
skipped true to her name on a freshening breeze.
“What’s troubling you, Adam?” Anthony didn’t take his eyes off the horizon, but he sounded amused, as always reading his friend and servant’s mind with uncanny accuracy. “She’ll not betray us,” he said.
“I don’t know as ’ow you can know that,” Adam grumbled. “Look at who ’er father is.”
“The marquis of Granville. Parliament’s man.” Anthony shrugged. “But let us not visit the sins of the father
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