Chapter 8
“Wherein adventure looms and pirates entice.”
Henri awoke with a nagging sense of doom at the back of her mind. Something was wrong. For a moment her brain refused to acknowledge it, preferring to burrow deeper into the warmth of the bed, and she was warm. Warm and surprisingly comfortable considering ... Her eyes flicked open.
Hardly daring to breathe, she remembered her dire situation and realised she was not alone on the bed.
The room was icy cold and as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw clouds of her own breath billowing in front of her face.
She also became aware of a large, warm body pressed close against hers and the heavy weight of an arm slung over her waist.
She waited, frozen, and quite at a loss as to what to do next.
“Stop panicking,” came the sleep-heavy, husky male voice from far too close behind her. “I’ve been here all night without molesting you, so you needn’t look so indignant.”
“I’m not looking indignant,” she snapped. “Though how you’d know with your eyes shut is beyond me. If you deign to open them, you’ll find I’m bloody furious!”
Henri cursed and pushed his arm away before struggling to an upright position which was tricky as he’d left her little room on the narrow bed.
“That is really very uncouth language from a lady,” he grumbled as she pushed him farther away.
“How dare you!” She kept her voice low, only too aware of the sounds of life on deck and the thin walls between them and the crew as shouts on deck filtered through to her quite audibly.
“How dare you get in the same bed as me! I knew you were no gentlemen but truly, you live up to your name with quite startling accuracy.”
She huddled into the corner and watched with mounting irritation as he sighed, stretched and rubbed at the stubble on his chin before yawning with enthusiasm, apparently completely unperturbed by her fury.
“Well,” he said, with what she imagined he thought was an endearing and sleepy smile. “What did you expect? I gained this reputation for a reason as I’m sure you know.”
As his reputation rested rather heavily on the effortless seduction of most of the women he met, she replied to that particular comment with an icy glare.
“Let me get up,” she demanded, meeting those cool blue eyes with determination.
But to her dismay he ignored her and simply turned onto his side, head resting on his hand as he watched her through heavy-lidded eyes.
Henri scowled at him and pressed herself as far away as was possible in the confines of the bed.
She wanted to get up more than anything, but she was damned if she was going to climb over him to do it, so she compressed her limbs into the smallest space possible.
“You really ought to be grateful,” he said watching her with amusement as she gaped at his words.
“You were warm weren’t you, when you awoke?
Considering the temperature last night that is something of a miracle.
You see, I did everything I could to keep you warm and in good health,” he said smirking, before reaching out and tracing a finger over her hand.
“I would hate you to catch pneumonia,” he said, his voice too low and inviting and filled with devilry.
Henri snatched her hand away. “You’re all heart,” she said, deadpan, glaring at him. “Now. Get. Off. My. Bed,” she bit the words off with as much venom as she could manage at this early hour of the morning but to her frustration he didn’t budge.
“It may have escaped your notice, sweetheart,” he replied with a mocking smile and mischief glittering in his blue eyes. “But this is my bed.”
Henri gritted her teeth. Never in all her days had she come across a more infuriating and inconsiderate man. By comparison he made her fiancé look like the perfect gentleman.
Her fiancé. The word jarred in her mind, and she tried to find the resolution she’d had last night.
That at least was a problem that would no longer trouble her.
Surely that was a good thing as it was what she had set out to do?
Though, she’d only really sought to avoid marriage to that one man, not to never be married .
.. or have a home and family of her own.
As much as she railed against her position, those were things she would have liked, if she could have only found a man to love and respect her as she was.
She tried to swallow down the misery that welled in her throat as she considered her position.
Even if she ever did find her way back home, which was looking increasingly doubtful, she was ruined.
There would never be a match for her now.
A night spent in the cabin of a pirate captain was unlikely to make her an alluring prospect as a wife.
The enormity of what she’d done and everything she’d lost pressed down on her, taking all the air from the room; she clutched at her chest. Slumping back against the wall she stared across the cabin, not really seeing it. What was she to do?
She sat in silence for a while, quite sunk in misery until she realised she could feel his eyes on her still. Well, let him look, what did she care?
“Come now, Miss Morton, don’t look so glum.”
She spared a moment to glare at him before turning away in disgust. To her frustration, however, he didn’t leave it at that.
“Seriously now, you said you wanted adventure, didn’t you? Or was it the safe kind of adventure you were after?” he asked, a faint but unmistakable mocking tone in his voice now. “The kind to be experienced sitting at home sewing, perhaps?”
She turned back to him, her arms folded tightly across her chest. His expression was perfectly placid, just that faint expression of curiosity she had seen in his eyes before.
Was he really serious? There was a difference between an adventure and losing everything - your home, your family, your reputation and any hopes for the future - all in one fell swoop.
“It rather depends on what your notion of adventure implies,” she snapped at him as fear and misery beckoned, threatening to swallow her whole. “For example, am I likely to survive it?”
She watched with irritation as he grinned at her and then stretched out like an indolent cat, lying out on his back with his arms behind his head.
His shirt was undone, and her eyes unwillingly tracked the enticing triangle of tanned skin on show, from the hollow at his neck down to where a scattering of dark hair was visible around his belly button.
She had never in her life been this close to a man and as disconcerting and precarious as her position was, it was certainly an education.
His skin was smooth and golden, his chest hard and well-defined with muscle.
She swallowed and dragged her eyes away with resolution.
She was in quite enough trouble as it was.
“Oh, you will survive it,” he said, his words followed by a low chuckle that seemed to rumble through the bed. “I promised you no harm would come to you, didn’t I? I meant it.” He inclined his head to look up at her. “You’re free, is that not what you wanted?”
Henri frowned as she considered the implications of his words.
That much was true, she supposed. If she’d lost everything, there was nothing left to lose.
But then she thought of her father, and his devastation at having lost her.
For all his selfishness he really wasn’t a bad man, just a weak and foolish one, and as much as she was forever vexed beyond reason at his callous disregard for her future, she knew he loved her dearly at heart.
Beyond that he had also lost her worth, as now his outstanding debts would be called in, and he would be forced to sell the house.
It was unlikely he would mend his ways, so it was only a matter of time before any proceeds from the house that had been in their family for generations were gone too.
And then there was Annie.
She wondered how Annie was faring. Surprisingly, considering their differences, she loved Annie.
Perhaps not like a mother. She frowned thinking on some of the conversations they’d shared, no, certainly not like a mother.
But she loved her just the same and knew Annie felt the same about her, despite her lack of maternal instincts.
Henri sighed, there was nothing to be done about that.
She would do everything she could to return to them, but she doubted they would thank her for it in the end.
Not her father at least, no matter if he was glad to have her back.
What on earth was he to do with her? He would be forced to support her still and yet she would cease to have any value to him.
She doubted she could even get a position as a governess once people heard what had befallen her.
She would just be a burden, another debt to be paid for. Perhaps it was better like this.
But then she realised what options were actually open to her. And the few possibilities she had of making money. She may be lost to polite society, but that did not mean she intended to become a whore. And there was little else that she could do to earn her keep.
“What on earth is going on behind those pretty eyes of yours?” he asked, and she glanced down at him, scowling.
“I’m ruined,” she said, hoping her voice and her expression held as much accusation as she felt.
Despite the fact that she knew it wasn’t entirely his fault.
“I may as well be dead. I’m lost to my family and friends, what prospects do I have?
How will I live?” she tried and failed to keep the tremor from her voice and then jumped as he moved, wondering what he intended.
But he simply sat up beside her with his back against the wall, a little too close, but he made no further move in her direction.
She turned to look at him with trepidation, startled to see a fair amount of sympathy in his expression.