Page 65 of Storm over the Caribbean (Storm and Silence Saga #8)
I just couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t send the boy off into such a harsh life. No little boy should—
My thoughts were abruptly interrupted as Liam’s posture stiffened. “So…it’s finally time, is it?”
“Yes.” I nodded. It was time for this little boy to get a real home. A place where he could grow up in play and—
“All right! What do I have to do for you to keep your mouth shut?”
My thoughts screeched to a halt.
Huh?
“What do you want?” he demanded. “Money? Are you trying to blackmail me, you fat bastard?”
This…wasn’t going the way I thought it would. So I decided to articulate my current thought process.
“Huh?”
“Don't play stupid!” Fuming, the little firecracker stabbed an accusing finger at me. “I heard the parrot!”
“Huh?”
“I heard it all! ‘Girl in disguise’! Ha! It was repeating you, wasn't it? You obviously saw through me! You…you know about it !”
“Err…?”
Lifting his chin, the little boy sent me a defiant glare. I, for my part, sent him a confused gawk, which only seemed to aggravate him further.
“You want to hear me say it? All right! I admit it! I am a girl! Satisfied now? I’m a girl! Female! Without bollocks! So what? Why should it be only men who can go sailing and have adventures and—”
“Um…”
“—don't care what you threaten me with! I don’t care about that nonsense superstition saying women are bad luck on ships! I won't give up on my dream! I will become the Queen of Pirates and—”
“Err…”
“—don't think for a moment that I'd buckle under your authority just because you are a man! If you try to throw me off the ship, you bloody macho, I’ll—”
“Wait just a minute, I don’t—”
“Shut up!” Stomping his foot, he…no, she marched up to me and stabbed a finger into my face. “Shut up, you bloody chauvinist! I won’t let you trample on my dreams! Send me back to the others at once! No matter what you do or say, I’m gonna be the Queen of Pirates!”
I opened my mouth—then shut it again. I opened it once more, desperately looking for any fitting response—and, not finding any, closed it for the final time.
Looking left and right, I desperately searched for a way to escape this situation.
Instead, I only found Mr Rikkard Ambrose, watching me from a distance.
His lips were most definitely not twitching in amusement. No, not at all.
“Don’t!” I hissed. “Don’t you dare!”
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean, Mr Linton.”
“Don’t you dare laugh!”
“Me? Laugh?” he cocked his head. “I would never do such a thing.”
My eyes narrowed. “No. You wouldn’t. You’ll stay perfectly calm and composed, while somehow still managing to make it seem like you’re laughing your arse off inside!”
“Indeed?”
“How about some help?” I demanded, keeping my voice low so the little girl who was still ranting at me wouldn’t hear.
“Help?” He cocked his head just half an inch or so farther. “How could I? Far be it from me to crush a young girl’s dreams. Unlike some people, I am not such a chauvinist as to stand in the way of an independent girl who wants to forge her own path in the world.”
If looks could kill, Mr Rikkard Ambrose would already be a bloody smear on the deck. Unfortunately, I had not yet managed to acquire that particular ability. Something I would have to remedy soon. Especially considering the way I was shoved aside a moment later.
“Really?” With stars in her eyes, the girl brushed past me, gazing adoringly up at my soon-to-be-deceased husband. “You’d really help me fulfil my dream? You’d send me back to the pirate fleet? Can I go now, please, please, please? We may still be able to catch up to them! Please!”
Mr Ambrose opened his mouth.
My foot moved on instinct. In a blink, it came down on my dear husband’s toes, squashing them to the deck. “Don’t you dare say yes!” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth, low enough for only him to hear. “Don’t you dare!”
Mr Ambrose closed his mouth again and, deciding to follow tradition, stuck with his preferred answer for all questions: silence. That would have been the end of the matter—except, the little girl had apparently sharper ears than I had thought.
“You…!” Fury burning in her eyes, the fuming girl turned towards me. “How dare you? You don’t have any right to tell me what to do, you male chauvinist pig!”
From the direction of Mr Ambrose came a muffled choking noise that was very much not a laugh. Sending him a glare that would have impressed Medusa 40 herself, I refocused on the little girl and plastered a smile on my face.
“Ehem…well now, I think there might be a slight misunderstanding here…”
“Misunderstanding my smelly sailor’s arse! Just you wait, you macho bastard! I’ll—”
Somehow, I think you can imagine how things went from there.
It took me roughly half an hour to convince the bloody girl that I wasn’t a chauvinist son of a bachelor intent on crushing her dreams of independence.
As for convincing her that, maybe, becoming the Queen of Pirates at ten years old might not be the best possible career choice, that took me approximately…
No, scratch that. I had no chance of ever convincing her of that. Not that this meant I was going to stop trying. As for Mr Ambrose…he watched the whole proceedings from a safe distance, a neutral expression on his face that didn’t fool me for a second.
“Well, Mrs Ambrose?” he enquired solicitously. “How go your efforts to protect innocent girls from the ravages of pirate life by trampling on their lifelong dreams?”
I threw him a dark look. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.”
Ha! He was definitely enjoying this.
Just you wait! Just you wait till it’s diaper changing time! I’ll be sure to be “conveniently” absent from home, and just in case you decide to delegate, I’ll take Karim with me.
His eyes softening ever so slightly, Mr Rikkard Ambrose reached out to cup my cheek. “Besides…” He glanced over at the little girl. “Whether or not I enjoy this is irrelevant, is it not? You are going to do it either way.” I felt his thumb gently caress my face. “You will make an adequate mother.”
Warmth surged inside my heart.
All right…maybe I won’t be absent on diaper day. Maybe we’ll do it together.
“Oy!” a young girl’s voice came from somewhere. But I couldn’t really bring myself to care from where exactly. I was far too busy staring into my husband’s beautiful sea-coloured eyes.
“Oy, you two! Why are you ignoring me? Why the heck are you staring at each other like that? It looks…icky. You can’t seriously be planning to—”
Leaning towards me, Mr Rikkard Ambrose pinned me to the spot with his gaze. I could feel his breath on my cheek and could see the need glittering in his deep, dark, fathomless eyes as his lips approached mine and—
“—ewww! That’s gross! I’m outta here!”
A moment or two later, I blinked, freeing myself from my husband’s mesmerising gaze, and looked around. “Where did Liam or whatever her name is go?”
“No idea.” He shrugged.
“Well…” A shudder went through my frame as I had a brief flashback of a little living tornado of a girl tearing into me. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to let the girl calm down a little.”
“Definitely.”
“It’s for her own good.”
“Absolutely.”
“I’m glad you agree, Sir.”
“Of course I do.” He gave me a supportive nod. “It’s definitely not because you’re scared of a little girl.”
“Right, I—oy! What did you just say?”
“Me?” He cocked his head as innocently as a freshly-printed bank note. “I said we should probably depart. We don't want that little girl to sneak off the ship, do we?”
“Hm…no.” I sent him a last suspicious look. “We definitely don’t want that.”
“Well, then, Mrs Ambrose…”
He extended his arm to me. Taking it, I fell in step beside him, and the two of us moved towards the prow, looking out over the ocean.
“Everything ready?” my husband demanded.
“Anchor aweigh!” a sailor shouted from the other end of the vessel.
“Everything is ready, Sahib ,” Karim announced from behind us. “Should we depart?”
In answer, Mr Ambrose merely inclined his head. A moment later, Karim shouted commands to the crew. The sails unfurled, and the Croesus jolted forward, slowly gathering speed as it moved out onto the ocean.
So…it was finally time, was it?
Pirates taken care of?
Check.
Karim found?
Check.
Straw man in custody?
Check.
Now only one thing remained.
They tried to hurt my husband. To hurt my child.
Glancing up at Mr Rikkard Ambrose, I met his eyes.
“Mr Ambrose?”
“Yes, Mrs Ambrose?”
“It’s time for revenge, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.”
Never had that single word sounded so sweet.
Turning back to gaze out over the ocean, I smiled at the sunrise.
Soon, we’ll be back in Britain, in our home territory, untouchable and with an army of silent, plain-clothed men at our beck and call. And Patsy and Adaira. May God have mercy on our enemies, because my child’s future godmothers certainly won’t.
As I felt my husband’s arm slide around my waist, I felt certain that, from now on, everything would be all right with the world.
Although, as we sailed out onto the ocean, I couldn’t help feeling I had forgotten something…
Oh well. I shrugged. It can’t really be anything that important, right?