Page 87 of A Prince Among Pirates
“There isn’t much a bag of coin can’t get you, Kitten. And this helped a great deal.” He pulls out my father’s—no, Viscount Falmouth’s signet ring and places it in my palm.
I scoff and push the ring into my pocket. “But there are guards everywhere.”
“Oh, aye,” he says with a nod. “But the servants of the gentry are especially good at espionage. The richer the patron, the more devious they are.”
I see truth in what he says, and I laugh softly. “You’re insane.”
“I’ve had worse said about me.”
“You’re insane,andyou’re daft.”
“Both are very true,” he agrees, brushing a lock of my hair behind my ear. “I’m so sorry, Kitten,” he whispers.
I gaze up at him, my heart wrenching at the tone of his voice. “For what?”
“For not coming sooner,” he says. “For letting you think we were dead. I always planned to come for you, but I had to see to my ship first. I wasn’t sure where to look until I heard the rumors, and I came as soon as I did. I’ve been in London for days, bribing the servants and trying to get in.”
I smile and bring his hand to my lips to kiss his knuckles. “I’m just glad you’re alive,” I say.
“We should go,” he says, getting to his feet and taking my hand in his. “I still need to acquire a new ship. We can catch up once we’re away from here.”
“Go?” I ask, letting him pull me up.
“What did you think?” Sharpe asks with a rueful smile. “That the king would let you keep a pirate for a paramour?”
I flush at the suggestion but pull my hand from his. “I… I can’t just go.”
“Why not?”
“He’s myfamily.”
He frowns at that. “Kitten…weare your family. He only wants you because he thinks you’re useful now.”
That hurts, and I don’t hide that as I stare up at him. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” he asks. “You think he would have come for you had he legitimate children to secure his throne? There’s talk of an uprising against the Stuarts, Kitten. He had to secure the thronesomehow, to keep someone else from laying claim to it.”
“No,” I say, stepping away from him. “You’re wrong about him. He wants me.” Whom am I trying to convince—him or me? Henry said himself that he never intended to tell me the truth. Still, I can’t bring myself to face it. “He loves me. He loved my mother.” I pull her miniature from my waistcoat pocket and hold it out to him. “Look at her,” I say. “She was beautiful.”
He studies me, then steps forward to take the miniature from my hands. I watch as he crosses the room to study it in the firelight, and slowly his features soften. “Shewasbeautiful, Kitten,” he says—but there’s an odd strain to his voice. Maybe he understands now. I have to give this a shot, don’t I? I have to try.
I slowly make my way to the fireplace, watching him. “Her father was a merchant from the Ottoman Empire. She and my father had an affair… I’m sure he would have married her if he hadn’t already been married to Eleanor.”
He lifts his gaze to mine, frowning. “You think a king would have taken your mother, a foreign commoner, as his wife?”
“She wasn’t…” I set my jaw. I hate the thought of someone calling my mother a commoner, but I know that’s the old Christopher-Henry thinking. Mr. Kit would never have thought of “commoner” as a dirty word. My face burns with shame. “Why are you doing this?”
“Kitten… I’m not trying to hurt you,” he says softly. “Butwhy would a woman—especially one in a strange land—take such risks by having a public affair with a married man? And a prince at that?”
“You don’t know that she wouldn’t.” It’s a stupid thing to say. Deep down I know he’s probably right.
“No?” he asks. “You think all women are so eager to fuck royalty that they would give up everything for one night with a man?”
I shouldn’t be shocked by his crass turn of phrase—but I am. Itgenuinelyshocks me, and I snatch the miniature from his hands and clutch it to my chest. “What are you trying to say?”
“That men like Henry take what they want.” The look in his eyes is cold, and some part of me whispers that he’s speaking from experience. But a louder part of me is desperate to be loved by my father.
“Stop it,” I whisper.
