in question. She inclined her head toward the cringing girl, and gave her brows a prompting jerk. With the trepidation of one approaching a coiled snake, Nathan inched closer.
“Your servant, Miss.” Striking a gracious pose, he swept off his battered leather tricorn and bowed with amazing graciousness. “It is both a pleasure and an honor to have someone so refined and lovely grace this humble ship.”
Straightening, Nathan gave Cate an ‘Are you satisfied?’ look as he strolled the long way around to his chair. He poured a coffee and sat alert over it.
A strained silence befell the tableau. Nathan sat twitching at Prudence’s every intake of breath, fearing an outbreak of tears. Prudence was rigid, scared to the point of speechlessness—not necessarily an objectionable condition. Cate quaffed her second cup and watched Nathan, wondering what he would do next.
“Soo…” Cate burst out just as Nathan prepared to speak. “How long do you plan for us to linger?” She finished with a significant look for Nathan’s benefit.
“The terms were two days,” he said slowly, staring back in confusion. “But we’ll linger here, until ’tis time for their arrival.”
“Arrival of whom?”
Their heads turned together, surprised by the sound of Prudence’s voice.
“Arrival of the people who are going to pay good money for your return, darling,” he said in a measured tempo.
Prudence brightened and openly smiled. “Then, I’m not a prisoner?”
“You’re not a prisoner, technically,” said Nathan. “Perhaps we shall go ashore today,” he declared, looking to Cate for approval.
“Perhaps not,” Cate countered with a significant lilt.
Straining to decipher the silent message, Nathan scowled and said slowly, “I thought it would be nice to—”
“No, I think not,” Cate said even slower.
“Pray, might you excuse us?” Launching to his feet, Nathan bobbed Prudence a bow, seized Cate’s arm and propelled her outside.
“What the bloody hell was all that about?” he cried whirling around on her.
“I don’t think taking her ashore is wise.”
He cocked one hip, crossed his arms, and patted one foot expectantly. Cate echoed the pose.
“Do you really think we should take a sixteen-year-old girl ashore with over three hundred men?” she asked at last.
“Three hundred?”
“The Griselle has gone ashore, too, have they not?”
His mouth rounded in a comprehending but silent “O” as Cate went on. “She’s barely gotten used to you—”
“Me! What’s wrong with me?”
“For a sixteen-year-old girl, away from home for the first time, everything. Now, imagine her ashore with three hundred more.”
Cate pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. It was a strain to recall ever being as indulged at Prudence’s age, or any age, for that matter; stunningly helpless, at even the most basic levels.
“I can’t believe anyone would expect a girl like her to marry—” she found herself saying.
“A bastard,” Nathan finished. “’Tis what he is.”
“Yes, I get that impression,” she said, resigned.
“What’s on your mind to pass the day? This island has glorious falls; I had it planned,” he said.
Cate heaved a long sigh. It was difficult to ignore the hopeful lilt in Nathan’s voice. The allure of cool breezes and shadowed pools made it that much more difficult to decline.
“I’m thinking she and I will do what young ladies do. Oh, don’t look so blank,” she said testily. “You brush each other’s hair and talk about young men.”
At least, that was what she recalled. It had been a very, very long time for such things on her part. On a more recent level, it was how Brian’s nieces preferred to idle away the time.
He made a face. “Sounds wholly unappealing. Surely, you aren’t expecting me to…?”
“Not in life! Perhaps later we might go,” she added, in hopes of allaying his disappointment. “But in the meantime, could you please remember, she’s only sixteen.”
He hunched his shoulders and grumbled, “Aye, I’m not decrepit.”
“Well, then could you please just be…more…careful,” Cate said in a strained whisper.
“What the bloody hell does that mean?” he cried. “You think I’m some bloody, cock-headed dolt what doesn’t know his ass from—”
“Shh!”
“Shh, yourself! I don’t give a tinker’s damn—” Nathan sputtered to an end, made several false starts, and then started anew. “At that age, I already made able-bodied seaman, crossed four seas, the equator double that, and rounded both horns.”
“And I was living halfway across a continent and hadn’t seen my family in years. She, however, has seen the inside of her parents’ home and a few blocks of Boston.”
Nathan drew a surrendering hand down his face. “Very well. Pray, I beg you enlighten me with your wishes.”
“Be nice.”
“Goddammit, I’ve been