Page 26 of Freeing Hook

“What makes you say that?” asks Maddox.

“You called him by his given name earlier. From what I’ve observed about the captain, that seems like the type of thing that would end with any other subservient hanging from the mast.”

Maddox clicks his tongue, though playfully. “If that’s what you believe, then you’re not as observant as you’d like to think.”

Okay, so maybe I’m not going to get much out of the First Mate. Which makes sense, now that I think about it. Maddox might look like the kind of man who’s never had to develop his brain to get what he wants, but I don’t see Astor trusting a man who is dull or easily influenced.

“The two of you don’t seem like the type to become fast friends,” I say.

Maddox appears amused. “Why not?”

“Your dispositions seem…” I try and fail to come up with the word I’m looking for. In the end, I settle on, “incompatible.”

“Why?” Maddox says. “Because he’s the murderous sort and I’m all innocence?”

There’s nothing sinister in his voice, only a reticent sorrow, but it raises gooseflesh on my arms all the same. “Were you there?” I ask. “The night my parents were murdered?”

“I don’t prefer the connotation of murdered, but to answer your question, yes, I was there.”

Dozens of bodies crash to the floor in my mind’s eye.

“I’m not sure I like the way you’re looking at me,” says Maddox, his jaw firm even if his voice is soft.

“The guests at my masquerade were innocent.” And I condemned them to death by penning their invitations myself, I don’t add.

“No one’s innocent, Miss Darling.” There’s a pang of regret in Maddox’s voice. “Not after a certain point, at least.” For some reason, Simon’s face comes to mind.

Anger bubbles up in my throat. “And that gave you the right to slaughter them? Just because you assume that at some point in their life, they did something wrong? I bet you don’t even know the names of the people you killed.”

Maddox’s hands wriggle in his front pockets. “I only killed one that night. And, as a matter of fact, I do remember his name. Lord Credence, I believe.”

I hold in my gasp, recalling the revolting man who tried to coerce me into marrying him the night of my masquerade, incorrectly assuming my desperation was due to my being with child.

“Nolan asked me to pay careful attention to make sure he didn’t leave,” says Maddox, a slight smirk at the edges of his lips. “As for why, you probably know more than I do.”

When I don’t answer, Maddox says, “Everyone needs a prickly friend, Miss Darling. If I were you, I’d use this opportunity to vie for Nolan’s loyalty.”

“How long have you known him?” I ask, wishing to deflect away from any talk of my relationship with the captain.

Maddox tucks his hands into his pockets. The way it causes his shoulders to slump gives him a boyish air. “Sixteen…no….I guess it’s been almost seventeen years now.”

My heart pounds rapidly. “Did you know Peter?”

Maddox examines me skeptically. “No. Peter was before my time.”

I blink. “They knew each other as youths, then?”

Maddox doesn’t attempt to hide the way his gaze dips to my finger. More specifically, the loose ring that I’m now twirling. “I’m assuming you didn’t get that from Astor.”

I snort in answer, but Maddox only says, “Your fiancé didn’t tell you?”

It’s not as if I haven’t been asked the question before, by Captain Astor even, back when he was trying to get a rise out of me in the cave so that I would forget to give him his dose of rushweed. Still, it stings all the more coming from someone as seemingly genuine as Maddox.

“Tell me what?”

“They grew up together. Lived in the same village. The three of them were as tight-knit as an iron wire cord.”

I frown. “The three of them?”

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