Page 92 of Ruthless, But for Her

“We are headed to The Einar. I did return but left before you woke.”

She had no reason to mistrust him—Ashton never lied to her. Not directly, but perhaps in the exclusion of facts. So she questioned him again.

“You slept on your pallet?” she guessed.

“Aye.”

“Where will The Einar take us?”

He went for her trunk, calling down to Tam to aid him in transferring it below. So that was the way of it. Ashton would ignore her question, as he had when they'd first met.

Unlike then, Cassia was not inclined to remain silent. He lifted her trunk, advised her to bid farewell to Tam, then went outside.

She did, not for Ashton's sake, but because the ropemaker, in his own way, had been kind to her. When she hugged him, the old man stiffened and then returned the gesture.

“He cares for you,” Tam said as she began to walk away.

Cassia stopped and looked back. She was tempted to question him further, but realized it was not a discussion she should have with the ropemaker. She needed to speak with the man standing stoically in front of the shop, her trunk at his feet.

“What reason do you have for this sudden cruelty toward me?”

That seemed to snap him out of his silent reverie.

“Cruelty?”

She continued. “You made love to me, granted, at my bidding. And then left, without word, for longer than usual, returning only to tell me to ‘gather my things’ and ‘say my goodbyes’?”

“I do not mean it as a cruelty, Cassia, but as a kindness. You⁠—”

He looked down at his boots, something Ashton never did. The movement struck her as unusually deferential. But she had no opportunity to question him further. Sorren appeared from around the corner, his bulk and long stride difficult to mistake.

“Leif is waiting.”

He looked from her to Ashton but said nothing. Neither did he step away. Instead, Sorren picked up her trunk and waited. With little choice, she followed him, assuming Ashton would follow. When he did fall in step beside her, she said nothing, waiting for privacy to question him further.

They boarded The Einar not long after. Sorren stowed her trunk below without being asked. Ashton said nothing more. Neither did she, not with Sorren near, not with the crew watching, not with a dozen reasons to wait.

But she remembered what the ropemaker had said when she’d left. If Ashton cared for her, he wasn’t saying anything. She remembered Roland too—the question she'd asked about whether Ashton had deliberately let him die.

Ashton had admitted he hadn't taken Roland's hand, but he'd never told her why.

And she had stayed anyway.

She would ask him why, once there was no one left to interrupt them. And this time, she promised herself, she would wait until she had her answer.

CHAPTER 52

Ashton

The lines went out first. Then the oars. Leif's voice pitched low over the water, ordering The Einar off the mooring and into the current. Ashton worked alongside the crew until the sail caught and held, until there was nothing left for his hands to do.

He had to speak with her, but he'd been avoiding it, with good reason. He'd almost broken more than once—when he saw her silent form under the thin wool blanket on her pallet last eve as she slept. When he left that morn, knowing it would be his last with Cassia and Mere's End. When he told Tam they were leaving…

Ashton couldn't remember anything more painful in his short life. Not the day he finally understood Walter Crey wasn't coming back. Not the gash along his ribs from the fight at the spit.

But it was the right thing to do. He had been forced to become one of the black sails’ crew, men feared rather than revered. But she was still Lady Cassia of Grantchester, and every moment she stayed with him was one more taken from the life she should have had.

She stood at the bow when he found her, one hand on the rail, her hair loose in the wind off the water. Mere's End was already behind them, smoke still rising from the rooftops. No one stood near enough to hear.