Chapter Twenty-Two Before #4
While Morovant glowered, Valerian gave a winning smile and sprang up from the table.
Stalking forwards, he clapped Fell on the shoulder.
The lieutenant went wide-eyed and shrunk away, but Valerian did not relent, gripping him around the neck like an old friend.
An old friend holding on a little too tightly.
“Exactly as I expected. Thank you for being so predictable, Lieutenant,” Valerian said.
Side by side, the two men could not have looked more unalike.
Jasper, dark-haired and silver-eyed, a bound wolf.
And Valerian, golden and grinning with a storm in his gaze, a lion prowling free.
“I will send word to our man and begin proceedings.”
While Fell glowered, Valerian only grinned wider.
Behind them, Morovant shrugged. “Simple enough. Not the prize you hoped for, but life rarely goes the way we expect. Well done, Captain Kane.”
“You’re bold, I’ll give you that,” Fell hissed and tried to twist out of the pirate’s grasp. “But the navy will hang the lot of you soon enough.”
Valerian dropped his arm, letting Fell stumble. “You’ll be lucky if the navy remembers to pay your ransom, Lieutenant,” he said, gesturing for Ana to escort him out. “They have far larger problems on the horizon. Or so Lady Rose tells me.”
Jaw clenched, Cat swallowed a sharp retort, glaring at Valerian to avoid the curious look from Fell. At least the lieutenant was good enough not to open his mouth.
She wished she could say the same for Ryman.
“Captain, might I make a request?” Lord Rose sniveled, his bound hands reaching out.
Valerian neatly dodged his pale fingers. “Depends on the request.”
“My wife—she is not one to do well on her own. She is a simple thing, you understand. A bit daft. And she has great need of me,” the lord said, cutting a sharp look at Cat.
Cat flinched, not with fear but disgust. Again, she felt the crushing weight of life on Rosby press down on her shoulders.
“Certainly, you would not allow me to be separated from her?” Ryman begged. “Just the single night was torture.”
“Was it, Lady Rose?”
Her head jerked up to find Valerian staring, a shadow of amusement on his face, strands of golden hair falling into his eyes.
“Excuse me?” she blurted out.
He took a step closer and folded his arms, tanned forearms bare beneath rolled sleeves. Over his shoulder, Ryman’s watery stare held her in a way that made her skin crawl.
“Was your night torture?” Valerian said clearly, careful to enunciate, every word sharp as a blade. He did not smirk, but the ghost of it was there, ready to unfurl.
As before, it sent a thrum through Cat’s body, like a piece of metal struck with a hammer.
Blood pounded in her ears, whipped on by frustration.
And strangely, an odd sense of delight. Her lips did not move, her tongue a dead weight, for there was nothing she could say that would not end in punishment.
To share a bed with Ryman now, or enrage him later?
She despaired of either outcome.
And she hated how much Valerian enjoyed her predicament, sandwiched between two terrible paths. He watched her closely, as he would a balancing set of scales.
Then, to her relief, he relented, turning away.
“You may join your husband in the brig, if you are so inclined,” he said over his shoulder, throwing her a lifeline.
She stifled a smile and looked at the floor, receding into a soft-spoken shadow. “I would not add to their discomfort with the burden of my company.”
“There you have it, Lord Rose,” Valerian said brightly, flitting his hand. “Away with you.”
With another well-placed kick, Ana got Ryman moving, though Cat did not miss the ugly look he shot her as he fled. Fell was more subdued, shuffling once more, Ana’s flintlock pointed at his spine.
When the door shut behind them, muffling the sound of the rain and the lieutenant’s ringing shackles, Cat finally exhaled.
“Lady Rose, you are dismissed as well,” Valerian said, gesturing in the opposite direction. Now he looked at her without any mirth, his face taking on a harder edge.
Cat wasted no time and gathered her skirts, fleeing the room as quickly as she could.
She had suffered more than enough of Valerian’s needling, and did not want to linger in Captain Morovant’s presence much longer.
Amiable as he seemed, Cat knew better than to assume a pirate in command of a vessel like the Seadragon was not dangerous.
Better to leave the card table while she still could, with whatever winnings she had in hand.
Of course, that did not mean she could not continue listening at the door.
If Valerian cared to stop her, he did not show it, returning to their discussion at the same volume, without any regard for the eavesdropping lady in his cabin.
“Now what of these larger problems on the horizon?” Morovant grumbled, pacing once more.
“I think the Meridian Empire is losing the war,” Valerian answered, a ferocious desire dripping from his words. “Their days in the Lyrian Sea are numbered. If not doomed.”