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The sound that eed from her throat was like the screech of the peacocks that strolled the grounds of Buckingha?"

She reached out and snatched the sheet back before Jaainst the wall "Get out of here!" she cried, her voice breaking "What are you doing here? Where is my maid? Why can’t you simply leavehi better now that she had covered herself again Her eyes burned and were swollen, and her voice was jagged Her entire body ached with a terrible, withering exhaustion that she hadn’t felt since her ive me some privacy I realize that you are likely not used to such on board ship, but I need to be alone"

In his eyes she thought she saw the dim shadow of the old Jaet in the bath," he said "You’ll feel better I can tell you’ve been crying"

"Brilliant deduction," she said flatly "When I take baths, I take them alone Good-bye"

"Why are your drawers so plain?"

"What?"

"Your drawers I remember them as confections of French lace, ribbons, and silk I spent a good deal of ti about them on board ship"

She frowned "My drawers are plain because I put away childish things"

"I liked them"

"So much you didn’t want me to wear them!" The sentence hurtled out of her mouth without conscious volition

"That was just erotic play," he said, shrugging

"Those garments were frivolous," she said, rather coldly And they reminded her too much of that dreadful afternoon: since then, she had never worn anything next to her skin but unadorned, austere linen

His hand twitched and she narrowed her eyes "Don’t think of snatching ain or I’ll put a knee where it will hurtin his facehe looked sorry for her Or was it pity? Theo sed That was the topping to a truly wonderful day "Could you please leave the bathing chamber? If not from common courtesy, then simply because you respected me once? Please?"

His eyes were shuttered, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking But rather than leaving the room, he sat down on the maid’s stool in the corner "No," he said

"Then I will leave," Theo said, turning "Thank you for puht her wrist before she could take asped Then her eyes flew to his "You--you didn’t ever force wo to her eyes again

A lol erupted from his chest "How can you say that to me?"

"Because you’re a pirate Because you--you" Her voice choked at the look in his eyes It wasn’t angry asto you?" His voice was raith a dark edge

Theo sed His eyes had taken on the bruised blue of the sky before a stor the state The worst of it was that she wasn’t entirely certain that she would resist

"I have never forced a worowl a sudden reminder of his voice’s pure beauty Before

"But you have killed people," she said, biting her lip