Helpful Husband
Chapter forty-one
Peace was a fickle thing. Lucianna’s fingers had just grazed the feeling when it was ripped away again one early morning aboard the ship.
She was lounging in bed with a cup of peppermint tea with extra honey, flipping through a book Wren lent her.
Her throat had grown sore, after spending the evening talking and teasing over Tidesmark.
Finn was with Castien discussing more plans for the heist. Lucianna had been invited into the conversation, but she turned them down saying she had a headache.
Her husband eyed her with suspicious concern, but Castien pulled him away before he could investigate.
So she rested in their bed, shaking her head every so often at the silly tome. Wren had warned her the story was lacking in common sense. The Princess and The Spy was more than lacking, it was absent of sense altogether. But it served its purpose to distract from the pain.
Lucianna took another sip of the overly sweetened tea.
The peppermint filled her nose while the honey coated her throat.
She closed her eyes and smiled. It was in this pocket of bliss that she heard Kelwin’s cry of alarm.
The captain shot up from where he slumbered in the hammock across from Lucianna.
Kelwin’s voice grew louder as he scrambled down the stairs. “An enemy approaches, Captain! They bear the Coat of Serena!”
Kaiden’s boots hit the ground with a loud thump.
“How far out are they?” he growled, his voice deepened with slumber.
“Two hours, sir,” Kelwin replied.
Lucianna looked between the two men, her heart hammering.
The Coat of Serena . . . that meant . . .
“Pirates,” she whispered.
“Gather the crew,” Kaiden commanded. “We must prepare for a fight. It is unlikely they pass us by, given our ship will look like easy prey.”
Kelwin bobbed his head, then leaped back up the stairs, already shouting the captain’s orders. Kaiden looked at Lucianna, who rested in a soft day gown atop her pile of blankets. She rushed to stand.
“I will change and gather my weapons,” she told him.
The captain nodded, then stomped up the stairs.
Lucianna quickly pinned up the curtain and pulled off her dress. She was pulling on her trousers when her husband’s voice called to her.
“Lucianna?”
His boots appeared below where the blanket hung. Her skin heated at the thought of only a thin fabric separating her disrobed body from his gaze.
“I-I am changing. I will be right up,” she stammered, cursing the fluttering of her nerves and wincing at the hint of soreness still present in her throat.
Finnick didn’t say anything for a moment. Lucianna tugged her shirt on over her head, then turned to search for her weapons belt.
“I don’t suppose you need any assistance, like on our wedding day?” His voice was low and held a teasing lilt.
The memory of his hand brushing her hair over her shoulder sent goose bumps rippling across her skin. She abandoned her search and ripped back the curtain to glare at him.
“Pirates are coming to raid our ship, and you are asking to help me dress?” she seethed.
Finnick grinned; an air of playful innocence floated about his expression.
“I was attempting to be helpful,” he replied.
“If you would like to be helpful, you can get my weapons roll from my trunk while I find my belt,” she said pointedly.
He lifted the roll with one hand and her belt with the other, still wearing that infuriating grin shadowed by the even more infuriating pirate hat atop his blond curls.
“See? Helpful.”
She snatched the belt from his hand and glowered.
“Insufferable,” she corrected.
He shrugged. “I can be both. I’m a man of many talents.”
Lucianna rolled her eyes and tightened the belt around her waist. She checked each of her daggers and brushed her fingertips over the center of her throwing stars.
“I hope I get to witness you use those. I imagine it’s quite the sight.” Finnick gestured to the stars.
Lucianna shot him a flat look.
“What?” he asked with a grin. “If we must fight pirates, I should like to get some enjoyment out of it by seeing my pretty wife throw spinning blades.”
She shook her head as though she were exasperated, when internally her mind had cut the word pretty out of his sentence and pasted it up like a framed portrait.
“Have you faced pirates before?” she inquired as she bent down to tug on her boots that were at the foot of the pallet bed.
“No, have you?”
“No,” she replied. “When I sailed, our ships were too big to fall victim to attacks.”
Pirates tended to choose smaller ships than theirs to further guarantee their success. They were scavengers and too selfish to band together with other crews in order to take down larger vessels.
“It was the same for me. Doubly so as I sailed with the royal guard.”
Lucianna nodded. She stood up and gestured to her weapons roll.
“Do you mind?”
He grinned. “Not at all.” Then he unrolled the parcel across his forearms to display the array of blades.
She ran her fingers over the various hilts.
“Do you have a favorite?” Finnick asked as she plucked one of the smaller blades out of the pouch.
Lucianna secured the dagger in a specialized holster just inside her right boot.
Then she reached for her belt and pulled out her preferred weapon.
It was forged of fine steel the length of her forearm, and the hilt was black with gold detailing.
She gave Finnick a moment to admire it before sheathing it at her hip once more.
“A gift from my brother. He made it himself in the forge,” she said, and continued her perusal.
She had just wrapped her fingers around another palm-sized blade when Finnick asked, “Do you miss him?”
Lucianna paused. Swallowed the emotion that choked her.
“Yes, of course. He is my closest confidant, the only person I have ever trusted.”
She picked up the blade and secured it in her left boot, then reached up to twist her braid into a knot, tucking the lockpicks into the circle of hair at the base of her neck. Finnick watched her with unwavering focus.
His words from atop the sails came back to her. I pay attention, he’d said. Lucianna wondered what he saw when he looked at her. What did she give away without even realizing it?
“You don’t trust your father?” he questioned, his tone curious but not accusing.
Lucianna rolled up the weapons bag and took it from his hands, ignoring the warmth of his skin brushing against hers. She set it aside, then faced him once more.
“I trust my father will always do what is best for our family,” she stated plainly.
Finnick hummed thoughtfully but did not continue on with the subject.
“Ready?”
She dipped her chin. “As one can be.”
She took a step forward, expecting him to move, only he did not.
He caught her shoulders and halted her. Lucianna frowned, then inhaled sharply when his fingertips brushed against her neck.
Finnick lifted her mother’s locket and dropped it beneath the collar of her shirt.
The metal settled against her warming heart.
“Best to keep shiny things out of sight when dealing with pirates,” he murmured.
“Thank you,” she whispered. If it had been taken or thrown to the sea, she would never forgive herself.
His mouth hooked to the right in a boyish grin.
“Now, let’s go make a band of pirates regret the day they chose to set sail, hm?”
She couldn’t help but return his smile.
“Sounds like fun.”
Finnick’s eyes sparkled beneath the rim of his hat. “Indeed.”