The Lady and the Pirate

by Bernadette Rowley

  This time when she drew back, the cold light of reality had doused the fire in his eyes.

  “We can’t do this here, Esta,” he said.

  “Well,” Katrine said from beside them. “That’s a relief. I was wondering when you two would come to your senses. Everyone is watching.”

  Samael looked around but Esta couldn’t bring herself to see what would be on their faces—disgust, pity, amusement? They saw her as a fool, she knew. A fool who had fallen in love with a pirate, a man who might have no future.

  “It has happened again, hasn’t it,” Samael asked. “I can see all the doubt resurface. You’re telling yourself this—”, he gestured between them, “can never be.”

  “And what are you saying, Samael? That all is well? That we can go home and be married and live happily ever after?”

  He snorted a laugh that held no mirth. “Of course it won’t be simple, perhaps not even possible, but I want you to let yourself go otherwise you’ll kill whatever time we might have.”

  “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “Try, Esta. We’re in love. We’re still breathing by the grace of the Goddess. We’ve helped each other through more trials than I care to remember. Just let it be.”

  Tears welled but Esta took his hands and nodded. She would try, she really would.

  The voyage back had been heaven and hell. Sam’s admiration for and dependence on Esta grew daily. They had spent whatever time together they could but there had been little privacy. She had tended his wounds and they healed. But he feared it was all coming to an end. The days of learning about each other and exploring each other’s bodies had been sweet torture. Now they sat together at dusk in a sheltered part of the bow and toasted each other over a sunset meal.

  “It’s so beautiful on the ocean,” Esta said. “I could never live away from the sea for long. Losing Sea Sprite was like losing part of me.”

  “I’ll find you another Sea Sprite one day, love, and she shall be fleeter and grander than your old vessel.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it.

  She gazed at the horizon. “It won’t be the same though. She was a link with my father who taught me to sail.” She frowned. “But that’s in the past and we have larger concerns.”

  “Ever the pragmatist,” Sam said, smiling. “You’re allowed to mourn you know. Do you fear if you sit still and live for a moment, something will catch up with you?”

  She looked at him, eyes narrowed. “How well you understand me. That’s exactly how I feel, but I never know if I’m running away from something or chasing it.”

  “Perhaps a little of both.”

  He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I so wish we could be together, truly together.”

  “I have to believe that Nikolas has a plan, even though he has studiously avoided us for the entire voyage.”

  “He has much on his mind and I’m sure the thought of how he will deal with me is a large part of that. I feel a little sorry for him.”

  “How so?” Esta asked.

  “It has been a shock to discover his older brother and then to learn that same man is everything he never wanted in a sibling.”

  Esta put her glass and plate to the side and crawled over. Her lips met his and he forgot what he had been saying. Her mouth was so sweet but her kisses were always laced with a restraint, sadness, as though she waited for a dark cloud to rain on her love. Perhaps he was the same. And then there was the ever present crew and Katrine. They were hardly the right conditions to express one’s passion.

  Despite the melancholy, passion grew between them until he was breathing hard—his fingers cradled her face and threaded up through her beautiful chestnut hair. When he thought of all she had sacrificed to come and find him, it took his breath away. Right then, he wanted her so much he ached all over.

  He pulled her against him and they reclined on a roll of sail. Sam drew her cloak over them both then returned to the kisses he had sought earlier. She responded and he allowed his hand to drift down over the side of her breast, bringing a sharp breath from his lady.

  “Sam, we can’t.”

  “Hush,” he said. “No one will know.”

  “Everyone will know.”

  “And do you care?” He imagined her throat tightening in the darkness for her reply was strained.

  “I should, but I don’t.”

  She had changed a lot, this lady who had bested him on the high seas all those weeks ago. Sam liked to think he had changed her, freed her just a little from the chains of her life. He allowed his hand to slide over her waist and down to cup her sex which was sealed away by her breeches. Damned breeches! There was a reason women didn’t wear them and this was it! He longed to take her and make love to her for the first time. But she deserved better than this. Esta deserved a soft bed, romantic lighting and a man who didn’t have a sentence of death hanging over him. He could feel her wet all the way through those breeches and he groaned.

  She moved, her hands between them and Sam thought she must be removing her pants. He stilled her hands.

  “Stop, love,” he said. “I can’t take you here, you deserve better.”

  She laughed, a light sound on a dark night. “It was you I was thinking of, Sam. I believe men enjoy what I had in mind.” Her hands moved again and he realized she was unlacing his breeches. His heart pounded. Would she really do that?

  He didn’t have long to wait as warm, wet lips encased his rod and he had to stop from leaping right off the deck. Sam bit down on his lower lip to stop the groan that rose up and then she cupped his balls and stroked the base of his dick while sucking on the head. When he thought it couldn’t get any better, her probing tongue entered his tip, sending shocks right through him.

  Sam clutched her arms and struggled for words. “Esta,” he croaked. “Stop.”

  She looked up at him, and he could just make out the whites of her eyes in the gloom. “Is this not enjoyable?” she asked.

  He huffed out a breath. “Too good. If you continue, I’ll come and you might not like that.”

  Her lips encased him again and she moaned, the vibrations setting off tremors in his rod. Damn it, he couldn’t hold back. He thrust into her mouth and Esta clamped her lips over her teeth and sucked hard. It was only seconds before he lost himself in her warmth. Her body tensed but she remained where she was, accepting him, all of him.

  As the moment passed, Sam took several long deep breaths to slow his racing heart. “That was wonderful.”

  Esta had released him and lay on his lap, her arms around his waist. “I’m glad I could give you pleasure.”

  “Was it very awful?” he asked. “Me coming in your mouth?”

  “I wondered how it would taste. I would do it again so don’t fear you’ve injured me. I’d do anything for you, Samael Delacost.”

  “I’m beginning to see that,” he said, rubbing her back. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you, ever thought you had any other agenda but love when you came in search of me.”

  “Don’t you ever forget it, pirate.”

  Sam drew in a deep breath and pulled her close. He wished it could always be like this—just the two of them. But that was never going to be the case. Tomorrow he would face the justice of the kingdom and there would be jail or worse. He couldn’t regret any decision he’d made. There was no point. He and Esta would be together or they would not. Regret wouldn’t change anything. He covered himself and lay with her until the horizon began to show the first faint rays of the sun.

  Chapter 20

  Esta left Sam at dawn and went to her cabin to change. She found Katrine in bed staring at the ceiling.

  “I wondered where you were.” Katrine fixed her with that look that had become even more potent with the changes in her eye color. Esta was one of the few people Katrine looked directly at any more.

  “I needed time with Sam.” Her heart ached at the thought of being separated from him. He was so tender with her and her love for him was so much mor
e than anything she had ever felt for Reid.

  Katrine shook her head. “You had it all and you had to go and ruin it for a pirate. Not only that, for a pirate who will either rot in jail or hang.”

  “When you say it like that, it sounds hopeless,” Esta said.

  “It is hopeless. Even Nikolas won’t be able to save him. That’s if he even wants to.”

  “I have to believe Sam will come out of this. If I didn’t, I would shrivel and die.”

  Katrine got up from the bed and confronted her sister. “I hate to see you do this. You deserve happiness and all you will have is despair with Delacost. When we dock, you must go to Reid and beg for his mercy.”

  Esta stared. “No.” As she said the word, she realized she would never ask Reid to take her back. “He’s too good a man for me to ask that of him. I’ve ruined what we had and it would forever taint us. Let him start afresh with another.”

  Katrine snorted. “Perhaps I’ll ask him to take me as wife. Perhaps he is the man to overlook my faults and keep me safe.”

  Esta shook her head and grabbed her sister’s upper arms. “Stop it, now. You will not do that. Any man would be lucky to have you as wife. You’ll get through this difficult time and learn that there is love for you yet.”

  “So I’m not to settle as you were willing to do?”

  “I was wrong and the first test of my feelings showed me that. I went running to Sam. He is where my heart lies and I have to believe he will be given to me in the end.”

  Katrine studied her sister’s face. “You truly believe that!”

  “I’ve been on a journey to find my heart and in Sam I have done that. I don’t care that he’s a pirate. I too have sunk low because I had no choice. I have no right to judge him. He has a core of good that will see him safe. Nikolas has seen it and will do everything he can to pull his brother from this mess.”

  Katrine’s eyes widened. “I think you are more insane than I.”

  Esta laid her hand along her sister’s cheek. “You’re not insane. You will find your feet. Just don’t give up.”

  Katrine closed her eyes and let her head drop. “I can’t see the way forward. Not since the crystal cave. It burnt the life out of me and what is left scares me at times. I find myself wishing for solitude, hating myself for wishing that. Hetty helped but only I can truly heal myself. I don’t know if I have the energy.”

  Esta pulled her sister into her arms. “Please don’t give up. I love you and want you to be happy. You have so much to give, including love. Also, I need you Katrine, now more than ever before. And mother needs you.”

  “I’ll try for you and for mother.” She smiled but Esta saw it was for show, to reassure, and she wasn’t comforted. Her sister would need to be watched and cared for if she was to navigate her way through this.

  Sam sailed into Wildecoast harbor with dread in his heart. Even from the heads he could see a sizeable welcoming committee. It seemed they had been spotted well before now. Three returning ships, instead of the two that had left, eloquently announced the triumph of Nikolas’s mission.

  Esta was still below decks and Sam hoped he’d have a quiet word with her before he went to his fate. He tried to concentrate on the happy times in his life, the love he had for his parents, the joy he had found on the sea, his brief soaring love with Esta and the chance to know Nikolas.

  He discovered a large part of those happy times had been in relationships and that shocked him. Before Esta, before Nikolas, that would not have been the case.

  Nikolas hadn’t revealed what he would do when they docked and Sam surmised that was because he couldn’t predict what pressure would be placed on him by the King. Men had died because of Sam’s actions, even if he had never wished for it. He had to pay. He hoped his actions back on the island had redeemed him somewhat but would that count for enough with the King? No, Nikolas had made him no promises.

  Sam became aware of someone behind him and turned to find Esta, tears in her eyes. He clenched his jaw, desperate to take her in his arms and never let her go. “Have faith, love,” he said. “I’ll come through this if it’s possible.”

  “I’m trying but the thought of you in prison keeps pushing at me. I can’t lose you.”

  He took her hand and raised it to his lips. “Happy thoughts. Remember what we share. Don’t let anything else in.”

  She nodded, perhaps unsure of her voice.

  Sam turned back to the rail and they stood side by side, not touching, but one in heart and soul.

  As the ships docked, Sam watched his Silver Lady as Nikolas’s men tied her up beside them. He missed her already. The Goddess only knew when he would see her again. She had been seized as proceeds of crime and Nikolas would likely draft her into his navy. Storm Chaser was at risk too if he ever discovered Sam’s other ship.

  He touched Esta’s skirt and she turned to him. “Esta, you must have Storm Chaser. She is now called Dawn Lady and lies at anchor in Shawmere. I should have given her to you when you lost Sea Sprite. Remember me when you sail in her.”

  “I will accept but only until you can captain her.”

  “Until then. Find Willem Septo, the harbor master in Shawmere. Tell him Samael Delacost sent you to claim Dawn Lady. When he asks for the word, tell him ‘Vitavia’. He’ll know I sent you.”

  “I’ll do as you say, Sam, but not until I know the outcome of your trial.”

  “It’s your decision, love, but I feel better knowing Dawn Lady is in good hands.”

  Nikolas approached with two sailors. “I’m sorry, Delacost. I must have you secured for entry into Wildecoast.”

  Sam met his brother’s eyes and for a moment was seized by the need to flee—he was close enough to the side to leap to the wharf then into the harbor and swim for dear life. He might have half a chance.

  “Don’t do anything stupid, man.” Nikolas said and the sailors gripped his arms while Nikolas placed the manacles on his wrists and ankles.

  Just like that, all chance of escape was gone. He glanced at Esta whose eyes were wide and shimmered with tears. She turned away without a word. She’d not watch him in his disgrace then.

  Sam battled harder than he’d ever had to as he walked with Nikolas and the sailors down the gangway and along the wharf to the dock. Shuffled would have been a more accurate description. Maintaining his composure wasn’t easy as shame curled up through his gut. He was better than this, deserved more, but this was what life had dealt him. And so he gritted his teeth, put one boot in front of the other and kept his eyes on the crowd that grew closer. There were few friendly faces to be seen.

  Soldiers on the docks had to clear a path but even so, Sam was jostled and spat on. Threats to his person washed over him. All it would take was one well-aimed knife or arrow and Sam might breathe his last. He didn’t want to die like this—scum crushed under the feet of the masses.

  A carriage appeared ahead and the jostling and jeers rose in intensity.

  “Head for the coach.” Nikolas pushed in front of Sam, forging a path and perhaps protecting his brother, risking his own safety. Nikolas reached the carriage and wrenched the door open. He turned to Sam and pulled him close then shoved him into the vehicle. He jumped in behind.

  Sam took a seat opposite a dark-haired man who looked at him with unveiled hostility.

  “Kain.” Nikolas gripped the man’s hand and engulfed him in a brief hug before sitting beside him. “You always know just when I need you.”

  “Happy coincidence,” Kain said. “Alique and I were in Wildecoast and I happened to hear you were on your way in. I predicted there would be trouble so brought the coach down.”

  “Well, I couldn’t be happier to see anyone.”

  “Except for Merielle, of course,” Kain said.

  “Indeed, is she at the castle?

  “Been there ever since you left, I hear.”

  Sam cleared his throat. “Admiral, will Lady Aranati and her sister be safe?”

  Kain’s dark gaze
snapped to him. “What concern are the nobility to you, pirate?”

  Nikolas placed his hand on Kain’s arm. “Peace, Kain. Delacost’s concern for the ladies is true.” He looked at Sam. “I left instructions for them to wait until the crowd dispersed. I’ll have a coach sent for them as soon as I can. In the meantime, the wharf is sealed.”

  Sam nodded, still concerned for Esta. She had been through enough on his behalf.

  “This is Kain Jazara, once army general of Wildecoast, now aide to the King. Kain, this is Samael Delacost.”

  Sam nodded at Jazara and got naught but scorn in return. He had heard of the half-cast elf who had fallen from favor when it was revealed his father was an elven king. The man could hardly treat Sam with disdain when he had such a murky past.

  “Where will you take me, Admiral?” Sam asked.

  “For now you’ll be taken to the prison where you’ll be held until your trial begins. I want you to know I’ll speak on your behalf to the King and tell him of your deeds at the end.”

  “What deeds?” Kain snapped.

  “I’ll tell you later. Suffice to say, things could have been ugly if Delacost hadn’t thrown his lot in with us. His crew mutinied.”

  “My Lenweri crew, Jazara,” Sam said.

  Kain’s eyes narrowed. “You had an elven crew?”

  Sam nodded. “They are hellish good at night as you would know.” He watched Kain’s throat bob up and down. What had rattled him so much?

  “Are there survivors of this crew?” Jazara asked. “I’d like to speak with them.”

  “I thought as much,” Nikolas said. “There are a handful of survivors but I doubt you’ll get much from them. I’ll see you get a chance before they’re put to death.”

  Sam’s heart gave a great thud. Nande would soon die and there was no hope of Sam intervening. He was responsible, even though the elf had turned on him at the end. Old habits…

  “As I assume their captain will face death for his actions.” Kain fixed Sam with a stare that held no mercy. “You look familiar.”