Page 20 of The Worst of Them

He didn’t deny it. “I thought you’d be a little more guarded. A true outlaw would know better.” He inclined his head. “Must not’ve been in prison for long. How old are you? Twenty?”

“Nineteen,” she breathed. For so long, she’d shared nothing about herself with anyone but Hester, and that was only after weeks of being worn down into accepting friendship. And now when a beautiful, irritating man offered a truce and gold, and she told him everything he wanted to know—and somehow he managed to learn things about her even by what she refused to say.

His brows lifted. “Couldn’t have been long at all, then.” He patted his jacket where the articles, and her life aboard this ship, were safely tucked away. “Before you design any more ways to do me in, I’ll bid you good evening.”

She didn’t wish him the same.

5

CINDERS AND ASHES

Cursing Jack under her breath, Cecily didn’t linger.

She slipped down to the crew’s quarters with its hammocks and bedrolls and found herself a shadowy corner in the crook of the wall. There she sat on the hard boards, leaned against the wall, and pulled her legs to her chest.

Rest came, but not sleep as her eyes slipped shut, her ears perked for any sound of someone approaching. The absence of her shiv felt like a missing finger, and without it she felt so exposed. She doubted Jack would hold on to that bit of bone, but on the chance that he did, perhaps she could find it and steal it back. Or she could make another…

Behind her closed lids, she saw her little home and the smiling footman standing in the entrance. He beckoned her inside and shut the door firmly behind her.

Deep within the house, a warm bath awaited her. A high window cast the washroom in golden sunlight as Cecily stripped and sank into water filled with suds and rose petals. Wrapped in lovely warmth, her breaths grew calm and even.

But then reality began tugging at her. She wasn’t sure why, so she left the bath, pulled on a gown, and wound back through the house toward the front door. The footman bowed as she left, and she opened her eyes.

Many of the crew had returned to their quarters, but they weren’t sleeping. Her cheeks flushed as she realized she was surrounded by the natural consequences of lonely pirates, grateful women, and a night of drinking and gladness.

Heart pounding, she got up, pointedly ignoring the bodies around her as she picked her way toward the steps. The main deck was deserted, and she scurried to the bow where she crouched behind the foremast. A chilly breeze moved over the ship, checking the closed sails and whispering darkness and brine against her exposed cheeks.

High above, the stars promised a few more hours before dawn. Cecily settled down against the mast, closed her eyes, and found her footman and her front door once more.

When she returned to her bath, the water was still warm.

“A little cold out here, isn’t it?”

Cecily startled from sleep with a ragged gasp, her hand flying for the shiv that was no longer in her boot. The stars were gone, and silvery fog hung around the ship, casting the barren deck in shades of blue and gray as it waited for the sun to rise and burn it away.

Jack stood a few feet away in the same coat from last night, lounging against the rail to her right. “I looked for you everywhere,” he said. “I half thought you’d thrown yourself overboard when I didn’t find you with the rest of the crew.”

She pressed a hand over her racing heart and leaned forward to rest her head on her knees. What she’d give for her little knife, if only to help calm the blood hammering through her veins.

“Are the crew’s quarters not to your liking?” he asked dryly. “I could arrange for you to sleep in the brig, if that’ll feel more familiar.”

She shook her head to clear it. “If it’ll keep you away, I’m sure it’ll work just fine.”

He snorted. “Why’d you sleep out here?”

“Why do you think?” She lifted her head and scrubbed the sleep from her eyes. “It was like trying to sleep in a brothel.”

He raised a perfect brow. “You’ll risk death and challenge a pirate, but sex is too much for you?”

She sniffed. “I’m rather pious.”

Piety had little to do with it. Contrary to what the women had been led to believe, sex was the last bit of innocence she had to her name, and she’d guard it however she could. And even if privacy was of little consequence to the others, she’d never been comfortable with the proximity. Now that she was out of a cell, she could finally seek peace and quiet.

“Really?” he mused, clearly skeptical. “Then how’d you get a bone shiv?”

The shiv in question appeared in his hand. He turned it over in his fingers, inspecting its pointed edge and small serrations. Her heart quickened at the sight of it.

“I made a bone shiv,” she said, eyeing the knife in preparation to snatch it, “and I’m still pious.”