eyes pinched with resignation. “The only time you cry thus is for him. You love him; ’tis no crime that you grieve for him.”
“But you shouldn’t have to put up with a sniveling woman,” Cate said, toying with a braid at his shoulder. “It’s not fair.”
He flipped a hand, making a poor attempt at levity. “Ah, trifles, mere trifles. If I minded, I wouldn’t be here, eh?”
Putting a finger under her chin, Nathan brought her face up to meet his. “I promise, I’ll find him. If he is anywhere on this earth, I will find him.”
“He’s dead, Nathan.” Cate's voice quavered, threatening to break again.
“So you keep saying,” he said tolerantly, and drew her close once more.
It felt so good to be held; it had been years. Until then, she hadn’t realized how desperate in need she was for the touch of another human. Other than being snatched, grabbed, or accosted, in had been years since she had been held by a man for the mere sake of it. His shoulder solid beneath her head, she could smell the tear-dampened linen of his shirt.
Nathan stiffened and he pushed her back to hold her at arms’ length.
“You need off this ship, and I shan’t take no for an answer, nor do I want to hear or care about Princess What’s-Her-Name.”
Cate’s hopes soared at the prospect. Leaving the ship could mean escaping behind the ghosts currently haunting.
“It sounds wonderful! I’ll go tell Prudence.”
Nathan made a guttural sound of disgust. “Do we have to take the Princess of Darkness? I know! We’ll lock her up!” he declared, with an inspired finger to the air. “We’ll put her in the hold; the bilge rats deserve her. No, that won’t do. Hermione doesn’t deserve that. We shan’t have milk for a week. Why can’t we just leave her to annoy the anchor watch for the day?”
“We can’t just leave her.”
“Why not? Why does she have to follow us like some wharf cur?”
“Because you brought that wharf cur aboard, and now it’s…she’s your responsibility. You made an agreement: Creswicke gives you the money and you give her back safe. How is it to look if you arrive with an injured or damaged hostage?”
The dark slash of brows shot up to the edge of his headscarf. “Damaged? First of all,” he began, ticking his points off on his fingers. “Damaged is exactly what they are expecting. She’s on a pirate ship, ergo she’s assumed damaged. Secondly, I don’t give a buggering damn what they think, as long as they pay. And thirdly, how did I wind up arguing when all I wanted was to do something nice. How the bloody hell did that happen!”
“You keep saying you want me to relax, but how can I, if I’m worried about her?”
Agitation growing, he began to pace, hands spiraling skyward. “Hell and death, there’s no telling what the little petticoat might do next. She’s constantly ordering you about like you’re her damned chambermaid. In less than a day, she’s taken over me cabin, has you sleeping on the deck—in an utterly reproachful mood, I might add. You’re crying, and you’ve begun talking to yourself.”
“I do not.”
“Aye, but you do.”
She bit her lip. He wasn’t entirely incorrect. “Perhaps to her I am the chambermaid. Do you remember an older woman with her?”
“Aye,” he said after a pause to recall. “Caterwauled enough to raise the dead, she did. We were in no need of a grannie.”
“Well, in retrospect, bringing the grannie would have made things ever so much easier. That was her nanny.”
“I’ll remember that the next time I kidnap a sixteen-year-old, if I ever grow that desperate again!” he said, with a suffering roll of his eyes. “You should be subservient to no one. If I hear her bark one more order—”
“She doesn’t bark—”
“If I hear her bark one more order at you,” he repeated evenly, narrowing a malevolent eye, “I’ll…well, I’ll…I’ll do something, and it shan’t be pleasant.”
Muttering several unrepeatable oaths, Nathan surrendered by throwing his hands in the air. “Fair enough! Anchor watch didn’t do anything to deserve her anyway. To leave her, I’d be losing men overboard hither and yon, like rats off a fire ship. Probably have to shanghai me next crew, since no one what knows a bowline from a ratline would board this ship else.”
Chapter 15: Falls of Our Existence
This is wonderful, Nathan.” Her head pillowed on the folded quilt, Cate stretched out on the luxurious carpet of moss.
Nathan plopped down next to her,