Page 42 of A Pirate of Her Own

Serenity frowned at his words. “Where was their mother?”

“She’d gone on to Mermaid’s Paradise as well.”

“Mermaid’s what?”

“She was dead, too, lass,” he said gently. “Morgan’s mother died of a fever when Morgan was eight.”

Her throat tight, Serenity couldn’t imagine how horrible it must have been for them to find themselves without parents. Her mother’s death had been one of the hardest things she’d ever had to face. Even nine years later, she missed her mother so much it hurt.

What would it be like to lose her entire family?

She couldn’t even imagine it.

“Poor Morgan.”

“Aye,” Barney agreed. “It was a hard time for the captain, not knowing where his sister was. If she was safe.”

“Didn’t they have any family who could help?” she asked.

Barney shook his head. “His father had been a British lord who lost his title and had come to America to make his way. The only family they had was back in England. Winston swore to Morgan’s father that he would send Morgan and Penelope back to England if anything should happen to him.”

“And Winston betrayed them.”

“Aye. In more ways than one.” His look turned dark, murderous. “I was with Morgan the day he found out that his father hadn’t died in an accident like Winston had said. The old bast—” He cleared his throat again. “Winston killed Morgan’s father.”

Serenity’s mouth dropped at his declaration. Morgan’s father had been murdered? “Why did he kill him?”

“Greed. Winston wanted the shipping company for himself. Morgan’s father wouldn’t let him trade slaves. During one of their fights over the matter, Winston stabbed him.”

Serenity shook her head in disbelief. How could anyone do such a thing?

“What did Morgan do when he found out?” she asked.

“He swore he’d tear out Winston’s heart.”

She took a deep breath, knowing that if someone had killed her father, she’d demand no less. “Did he?”

Barney stroked Pesty’s neck. “Well, life has a way of getting in the way of what we want most. It took Morgan three years before he was able to escape the navy and have a hope of ever finding Winston or Penelope.”

Serenity leaned forward, entranced. Morgan had escaped the navy? This sounded like her fictitious hero.

“What did he do? How did he escape?”

Barney shifted in his chair and glanced to the door as if afraid Morgan would overhear him. “One night when we was docked in Jamaica, he skipped off the boat in the dead of night and vanished.”

Ooo, definitely something her hero would have done. How exciting!

“Where did he go?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. He wanted me to go with him, but I was afraid of being caught and hanged, so he took off alone. I didn’t see him again for, oh, six, seven years. By then he was his own captain and he was preying on Winston’s ships. Said he’d hit the old bas—man where it hurt most, in his pockets. And when he wasn’t going after him, he was going after the Brits.”

“And what of Penelope?” she asked.

His shoulders slumped. “It took Morgan a long time to find her again.”

By the look on his face, she knew what had happened. “Winston had put her in a bordello?”

Barney stiffened and gave her a withering glare. “It ain’t fittin’ for a woman to know such a word.”

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