Heather Graham - [Camerons Saga - North American Woman 02] by A Pirates Pleasure

Silver Hawk was nowhere about, then she winced and leaned back again, thoroughly despising herself for her weakness and more perplexed than ever by the pirate. At certain times he was ruthless beyond measure; he didn’t bend, break, or give the slightest quarter.
    But he could also be gentle, sensitive beyond measure to the terrors of darkness that plagued her heart.
    None of that mattered, she told herself flatly. She had lain in bed with a pirate and set her cheek against his chest and her hands against his flesh and she had clung to the very scourge of the seas.
    A lamp was lit, but the drapes were still closed against the sunshine. Skye crawled from bed and walked to the starboard windows, pulling back the velvet to look out. It was a beautiful day. All blue and golden. The sea was calm, stretching endlessly beneath the powder blue horizon.
    There was a knock upon the door. She wasn’t exactly decentlyclad, Skye decided, but her nightgown did cover her chastely from throat to toe. “Come in,” she called out.
    The doors opened and Robert Arrowsmith entered with a breakfast tray. “Good morning, milady.” She nodded his way as he set the tray upon the table. He seemed pleased with himself that morning as he removed the silver warmer from the plate upon the tray. “I’ve a surprise for you. Fresh milk and eggs and a ham steak, milady.”
    She couldn’t resist the food, nor her curiosity. “Fresh milk?”
    “We met with a sister ship this dawn coming out of Charleston, milady.” He hesitated. “The captain had a hip bath brought aboard, too, and he bought a supply of French milled soap. Now I warned him that you might not care to immerse the whole of your body into the water and take a chance with disease, but the captain’s regularly into bathing himself, so he thinks as how you might want the opportunity, too.”
    “I would dearly love a bath,” she said. Where was her pride? she wondered. She should scoff at every offer given her by the wretch of a pirate. She wasn’t terribly certain if her pride could be salvaged by remaining sticky and dirty and she scoffed at the idea that evil spirits and diseases entered into the body when it was submerged. She had grown up in a hot climate and had learned to love to bathe.
    “Fine, then, some of the lads and I will be back with the tub and water. You can heat more yourself, of course, if you wish. I shall light the stove and leave you a kettle.”
    Skye thanked him and sat behind the desk. He set forth lighting the stove and she watched him as she delicately cut into the ham on the plate before her. She chewed reflectively. “Charleston,” she murmured. “And we sail for New Providence?” She knew the general vicinity of the island. And she knew that it was a pirate’s haven, a true den of iniquity. The small swift pirate ships were able to manuever the reefs and shoals about her while the warships and merchantmen too often cracked up upon the treacherous coral rock. The English proprietors of the island seemed not to have the energy to deal with the pirate problem, and so, Skye had heard, the only lawthere came to be that based on the will of the strongest rascal who happened to be present.
    Robert hesitated, jabbing at the coals in the stove. “Aye, we sail for New Providence,” he said, looking her way. “You know of it?”
    “Too well.”
    “You needn’t fear. The Hawk does not intend for you to leave the ship. We won’t stay long. Then we’ll move on to Bone Cay. The Hawk is the law there. He will see that you are kept safe.”
    “Safe?” she said sweetly.
    “Quite safe,” he said. “Until some arrangement is made.”
    Skye gave him a beautiful smile. “Tell me, Robert, what happens if my father cannot pay the sum of money that the Hawk demands?”
    “Surely, Lord Cameron—”
    “But what if Lord Cameron does not choose to pay?”
    “He will,” Robert insisted.
    “But if he does not?”
    “He will.”
    “But what if he does