Page 12 of A Pirate's Pleasure

Heat rushed to my cheeks. If there was one man I wasn’t prepared to discuss sexual liaisons with, it was this one. “Of course I haven’t, but…”

“But?”

“My last relationship, if you could even call it that, ended some time back. A year or more. I hardly think he would have waited all this time to put a dastardly plan into action.”

“Servants?”

“My servants are all loyal.”

“Someone has it in for you, Lief. They killed your friend. With your knife.”

“In my house,” I finished before he could. Yeah, now I knew the full story, it was clear I’d been naïve. There were no coincidences involved. Only a clear intent to remove me from the picture. “I’ll give it some thought,” I said.

Zephyr gave an abrupt nod. “Good. We’ll set sail for Dimhallow immediately. It will only take us a few days to sail around the coast. From there we can travel to Silkdrift.”

“You’re taking me back there?” I asked, making no effort to keep the astonishment off my face.

“It’s the last place the authorities will expect you to go. And the only place we can find out the truth.”

“We?”

“Given the amount of thought you’ve put into your plight so far,” Zephyr said drolly. “I doubt you can be trusted to solve the mystery on your own.”

It was hard to know what to feel first. Elation, that despite his personal feelings toward me, he intended to help. Or upset that he had such a low opinion of me when that hadn’t always been the case. Conversation apparently over, Zephyr strode toward the door. “Where are you going?” I asked.

He paused, his eyes flashing in a way that said he resented being questioned. “Up on deck. To explain to my crew why their time spent drinking and whoring only amounted to a matter of hours rather than the weeks I promised them.”

I rose to my feet. “I’ll come with you.”

“Not a good idea.”

I frowned. “Why?”

A glimmer of a smile appeared on Zephyr’s lips. “My crew don’t like you, because you’re the one responsible for their time on shore being cut short. Plus, you bled all over the deck, which they had to clean up. I expect they’ll find more reasons, given time.”

“Harsh,” I said, sitting back down on the bed and contemplating the cabin once more. “What am I supposed to do in the meantime? Just sit here?”

“I’ll send water,” Zephyr said. “You can start by having a shave.”

I rubbed a hand over my chin. I couldn’t say it didn’t appeal. If I left it much longer, my beard would rival the quartermaster’s.

“Try not to slit your throat, would you?” was Zephyr’s parting comment before he left the cabin.

Chapter Six

Zephyr

My conversation with the crew had gone about as well as you might expect. They might not have been stupid enough to verbalize it, but they didn’t need to, their expressions saying all I needed to know about their lack of understanding about me coming to Lief’s aid. It was a good job none of them had mustered the courage to put their sentiment into words because I wouldn’t have had an answer for them. Not when I didn’t fully understand it myself.

My gaze strayed to where, despite an immense amount of scrubbing, the deck still bore the bloodstained evidence of Lief’s attempt to free himself. I rubbed at my chest, experiencing the same uncomfortable feeling as when I’d turned at his shout to find Lief pale and wan amidst all the blood.

It was petty not to have untied him, and that pettiness could have had devastating consequences if the knife had gone any deeper. I vowed to be nicer to him in the future. I was an adult. We didn’t have to be friends, but I could at least be civil until we’d returned him to where he belonged: living in luxury while I sailed off into the sunset once more.

The news we wouldn’t be heading out to sea where there were rich pickings to be had, but sailing around the coast and heading to Dimhallow, had gone down like a lead balloon. Treasure was always an easy salve to any pirate’s sulking, and I was adding insult to injury by not giving them that. Normally, I would have retired early to my cabin and given them an opportunity to bitch about me and let off some steam, but I couldn’t even do that. Not when there was a Lief-sized problem waiting in it.

“You realize,” Whitby said as he came to stand by my side, “that we didn’t take on nearly enough supplies at Glimmerfield, don’t you? What with our hasty departure, and all.”

My fingers tightened around the railing. “Meaning.”

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