Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
“I don’t understand.”
“Would you like to hear about my latest prize?”
“Yes!” I bounced on my toes and dropped the cutlass. “Was there a battle?”
“Many battles.” He laced his fingers through mine and led me to the shade of the woods.
Lowering to the ground, he gathered me on his lap and told me every heart-pounding detail of his attacks on the king’s warship, a French brigantine, and numerous merchantiers.
“Then, two months ago, I encountered a Spanish treasure fleet. Twelve ships in total.” His eyes lost focus. “We were outgunned and would’ve never attempted something so dangerous, but there was a deadly storm on the horizon. We waited in safe waters for the tempest to take its toll. Then we moved in, attacking the battered ships and claiming their salvage.”
“They fought back?”
“The storm did. I thought it had passed, but a surge unlike any I’ve seen followed in its wake. I lost my ship.” At my gasp, he pinched my chin and smiled. “I seized a new ship that night.”
“You did?”
“Aye. A Spanish galleon. She was neither broken nor sinking like the others in the surge.” His expression glowed with veneration. “She was spitting fire and laughing at the storm.”
He explained how he rallied his surviving crew and boarded the fifty-gun galleon, even as his own ship was swallowed by the king tide.
I committed the particulars of his ambush to memory, hoping one day I might have a need for such knowledge and become half the wise, courageous captain that he was.
“What did you name her?” I asked.
“Jade.” His gaze lowered to my necklace. “She’s a beauty, she is. When I saw her, I knew I had to take her. For you.”
“For me?”
“She’s yours, Bennett. I’ll captain her until you’re old enough to decide.”
“Oh, Father!” My heart burst from my chest and soared with savage joy. “There’s nothing to decide. I want to be a buccaneer like you.”
“You’re too young to know what you want.”
“I’m old enough.”
“But not too old to sit on your father’s lap, are you now?”
“Just so.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and burrowed into his hard chest.
“Someday you might wish to travel to England in your own right and follow your mother’s dream.” He chuckled. “God knows, you would make a meal out of the beau monde.”
“No, thank you. I wish to follow you.”
“I’m honored, lass, and should you choose the sea, you have a ship. But I fear that path might end with your neck bent on the gibbet.”
My breath stilled, and a metallic flavor rose beneath my tongue. “What about your neck? You could be captured or killed in battle. I can’t lose you.”
His gaze sank into mine. “Such big grown-up worries in your child’s eyes.” He ran a thumb across my cheekbone. “I’m careful. Which is why I cannot visit as often as I’d like.”
I didn’t remember the first time he came to me, but there wasn’t a day I didn’t know him. He’d always been a part of my life. My very own secret to cherish and protect.
When I was younger, he visited more frequently and stayed longer. Sometimes months. But as his reputation grew, so did the risks. Now I was lucky to steal a few hours with him each year.
“I have something for you.” I jumped up, retrieved the linen-wrapped package from the horse’s saddle, and proffered it to him.
Nervous energy flapped beneath my breast as he unfolded the cloth and removed the gift.
“The natives wear these on their feet.” Crouching beside him, I traced the deerskin coverings. “The women scrape and smoke the skin to make it feel soft like this.”
The shoes were gathered at the toe and sewn above and behind with a raised flap on either side. Colorfully dyed porcupine quills and white glass beads decorated the folded edges in artistic designs.
“Exquisite.” He removed his jackboots and slipped the shoes onto his bare feet. “A comfortable fit. I shall wear them every night and think of you.”
My heart turned over so hard I felt it in my throat.
“How did you acquire such a thoughtful gift?” He guided me back onto his lap and stroked my hair.
“The servants make them. The cook maid is always kind to me, and she traded them for a spool of ribbon. I was discreet.”
“You did good.”
I snuggled into the warmth of his embrace, perfectly content and blissfully happy. I loved him so deeply and so completely. It went against logic that my mother could not.
“I’ve been stowing my prizes in a safe place over the years.” He kissed my forehead. “Enough riches for you, your children, and your grandchildren.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“You will. I want you to have this.” He removed the compass that hung from a chain on his belt. “It’s a map. When you’re ready, you will follow it and claim what’s rightfully yours.”