Page 34 (1/2)

She chewed her lip "No"

"Of course not No woestured brusquely toward her breasts and the money strapped beneath them--"need seek employment How much is there? Two hundred pounds? Three?"

"Nearly six"

"Bloody hell" He ran his hands through his hair, then curled thee of the bed "No one comes by that kind of coin honestly Who are you then? A thief? A fugitive? Some sort of swindler?"

All of the above Sophia clutched the blankets around her, as if they could protect her frole of her own , but she’d never dreaht Once he eined, he would happily embrace the truth as well She’d even expected he’d be amused, to hear the full story at last But now … his obvious displeasure suggested otherwise Fear built within her, swift and treacherous

"Does it really matter?" she asked, her voice weaker than she’d like

"After all that we’ve shared?" She slid one leg toward hiertips

"What we’ve shared?" He pulled his hand away "What have you shared with ? She’d shared everything with him Her artistry, her most secret fantasies Heavens, she’d touched herself in front of hiiven hi anything she’d ever known And he was rejecting that gift, as though it were nothing Rejecting her

"Christ" Hiking his trousers to his waist, he stood and turned to face her The look in his eyes was not quite revulsion, but rather an expression of utter disbelief "I told you things About s I’ve never told another soul Now I learn you’re no ain

"Must you persist in swearing?"

"Yes, I think Inary, too "I see And now I suppose you intend to continue?"

He froze, ar moment, Sophia stared at him He wouldn’t meet her eyes Finally, he pulled the shirt over his ar it into his trousers with ht," he said coolly, buttoning his falls "After e just did … it doesn’t matter"

"What doesn’t matter?" Sophia sed around the lump in her throat

"The truth? Or me?"

He pierced her with an icy look, one boot poised on the ladder leading up to the hatch "How can you even ask me that?"

How can you be so cruel? A sob sed her arht rasp in his voice tugged her eyes back up His gaze deepened,men up there, and a disabled ship in need of repair At the moment, they are what matters Stay here I will come back" He mounted the ladder "We

’ll deal with this later"

Then he was gone

Sophia fell back onto the bed, curling into herself like the head of a fern We’ll deal with this later? How hateful that sounded How final She didn’t want to be dealt with She wanted to be co she hadn’t felt in so long, she scarcely reine she deserved it, just the saht Her only visitors were Gabriel, who politely ignored her bedraggled, tear-stained appearance when he brought her evening tea and biscuit, and Stubb, who delivered her trunks to the captain’s cabin Evidently, the ladies’ berths had been appropriated as a makeshift hospital for the Kestrel’s wounded

Unfaht activity obscured the Aphrodite’s usual nocturnal sy wood and the reedy whistle of the breeze Huddled in the center of the bed, Sophia drifted in and out of shallow sleep, straining her ears to catch any echo of his rich baritone, or the squeaking hinges of the hatch If Gray did come to her, she wanted to be awake But she kept watch in vain, and exhaustion finally claimed her with the first rays of dawn

When she woke, it was to full daylight Sophia bolted straight up in bed, her heart pounding An argu directly above her, near the ship’s helm Even with the hatch closed, she could make out not only Gray’s voice, but the captain’s, as well as O’Shea’s thick brogue And a few unfa her, the ti as a bell struck on a winter --just the way she’d heard it last

She rose frolass attached to the cabin wall, realizing onder that she hadn’t looked in a reatly altered Her skin was a shade or two darker--resehtly freckled froles; her features caught more shado When she squinted, faint lines pleated at the corners of her eyes, and even when she relaxed her expression, the lines had the audacity to linger She was still beautiful, Sophia told herself, with no false or undue er a pampered debutante’s face that stared back at her