Rexanne Becnel by Heart of the Storm

bring us water to clean ourselves with. And I’ll need a brush and comb as well. This chamber,” she added, really warming to her role, “will never do. We’ll need an adjoining suite with separate rooms for each of us. We’ll have our breakfast there, though you can bring the water here,” she finished.
“Well?” She gave him an arch look, quite satisfied with his suitably cowed expression. “Get on with it.”
    Oliver backed from the room, cracking his head against the top of the short door frame in the process. Once he was gone, Xavier began to laugh.
    “Ah, Miss Eliza. I see you have determined how best to deal with our young Oliver.”
    She tossed a hopelessly tangled length of hair behind her shoulder. “You mean order him about like the lowly worm that he is?”
    Again the man laughed, a deep rumbling chuckle that brought a reluctant half-smile to her lips too. “Oliver likes women,” he explained. “Very much. And women like him too. They’re always falling at the lad’s feet and he prides himself on how well he pleases them—” Xavier broke off and cleared his throat. “If you know what I mean,” he added a little awkwardly.
    Eliza wrinkled her nose. She feared she knew exactly what he meant. But Oliver Spencer—if that was his real name—would never find her at his feet. “I can handle Oliver,” she stated. “But …”
    “But Cyprian?” he finished for her when she trailed off. He sighed. “Cyprian will be a little longer coming around. You’ll need much patience.”
    “Who is Cyprian?” Aubrey asked.
    A heartless wretch, Eliza wanted to say. But instead she forced a taut smile to her lips. “He’s the captain of this ship. I imagine you’ll be meeting him later today.”
    “Actually,” Xavier said. “He wishes to speak to you now, miss.”
    A jolt of pure panic lifted the hairs on Eliza’s nape and raised her pulse to a rapid tatoo. She’d been dreading their next confrontation since the moment she’d stormed out of his cabin last night. “Me? Now? But why?”
    Xavier shrugged. “He didn’t say. However, I think
you should view this as another opportunity to win him over.”
    “Win him over?” Eliza frowned and chewed on her lower lip. “I doubt I shall ever sway that man from his vile plan to use—”
    She broke off before she could frighten Aubrey with the true facts of their abduction. But the boy obviously sensed her fears.
    “Don’t leave me, Eliza. Stay with me. Say you will,” he pleaded.
    “You mustn’t worry, Aubrey, for I have no intention of leaving you. No, none at all.” She sent Xavier a speaking look. “When our new quarters are ready and we’ve had our breakfast, I’ll be happy to entertain your captain. You will make sure that Oliver attends to those matters, won’t you?”
    Xavier stared at her as if she were just a little bit mad. And indeed, she must be, she realized. That awful captain would not like her demands at all, or her refusal of his summons. But then, what precisely did she have to lose? His good will? Inwardly she scoffed. Hauteur had cowed Oliver. Maybe it would work on Cyprian Dare as well.
    In less than an hour they had been transferred to a pair of outside cabins. The two chambers were connected by a skinny door, and neither of them was either spacious or particularly comfortable. But Xavier brought cushions while Oliver brought breakfast. By the time she and Aubrey were cleaned and fed, the rooms were nearly as pleasant as the ones on the Lady Haberton had been.
    But there had been no grim shadow hovering over them on the Lady Haberton . No threat in the form of a vengeful sea captain. When he summoned her again it was via a sailor she did not know.
    “I’m Mick,” the man said in a broad Yorkshire accent.
“The cap’n, he says yer to come wi’ me now. If you please,” he added, bobbing his slightly balding head.
    “If I please,” she muttered to herself. “If he pleases, you mean.” But to the weathered-looking