“Ye’re one to talk, Nick. Lightin’ off in the middle of the night like a thief, leavin’ yer friends. Yer family.”
“Ye’re not me family, and ye never will be, ye faithless female.” Another shove, another block. “Get outta me way!”
Elizabeth stepped in front of Alex, facing Nick. “Are you going to shout insults and threats at each other all night, or shall we discuss the matter like mature people?”
Nick’s finger jabbed over Darcy’s shoulder, pointing at Alex. “She’s a traitor! I’ll have her hang.”
“Ye no-good deserter!”
“Does that answer your question, Miss Bennet?” Richard teased, walking between them with Uncle.
“I ain’t no traitor!” Alex shouted over them.
Nick shoved his knife back into its sheath, and only then did Darcy let him step aroundhim. “Then why’d ye tell the thief-taker me route? Ye were the only one I’d told me plan.”
Alex took a step back, her fists balled up at her stomach. She sounded breathless when she spoke. “That’s what ye think of me?”
“Ye don’t deny it?”
“I swear on the stars and swells, it weren’t me.” Her voice shook, not in the rage Darcy had heard from Alex before, but with something he had never expected to hear from the hard-as-nails captain.
“Ye didn’t come with me. What else was I supposed to think?” Nick’s voice had lost its edge.
Elizabeth moved closer to Darcy, close enough for their elbows to touch. They exchanged a brief look, and Darcy understood that she did not intend to interrupt, nor would he. It was a time to clear misunderstandings. Richard and Uncle parted, allowing Nick to pass.
Alex flailed her arms wildly heavenward. “Ye came to me with this crazy, grand idea. I wanted to go with ye—I wanted to so bad—but ye asked me to leave everythin’ I’d ever known and go with ye into the unknown. I weren’t ready.”
Nick widened his stance and crossed his arms, his voice decidedly more unsteady than his posture suggested. “Ye didn’t rat on me?”
She shook her head.
“Then, who did?”
“I thought it was me brothers.” Her face twisted. “But I started to have doubts…” She stubbed the toe of her boot into the wood plank and blurted, “…as soon as I broadsided their favorite ship.” She squeezed her eyes closed, her whole face twisted into a guilt-racked wince.
Darcy groaned. Never again would he complain of his or Elizabeth’s family’s faults. They tried his patience, yes, but they had never—not once—attempted to blow him up or evaporate his residence.
“Ye did what?” Nick boomed, the sides of his lips quirking upward. “What’d ye do? Take out a mast?”
Her scowl deepened. She mumbled, “I aimed five cannons at their hold.”
“Five!” Nick’s smile widened.
She dug her toe into the plank at her feet. “Blasted theSea Queento bits.”
Nick’s smile was a full grin now. “Ye sunk theQueen? For me?”
Alex shifted her weight, her eyes bright and her fists clenched. “I was angry!” She looked apologetically at Elizabeth. “Elizabeth here’s been teachin’ me to hold me temper and think ‘fore I react. I’m tryin’, Nick, but it’s so blasted hard.”
Darcy bit his lips together. He would not laugh at Alex’s lady-like attempts when her effort was genuine. He would not. He sucked in his cheeks and held his breath for good measure.
Elizabeth was far more gracious than he was, though the glint in her eye was present.Addressing Nick, she said, “Alexandra is an excellent student. She did not even reach for her cutlass when you threw your first knife at her.”
Alex grinned like a child praised before her parents. “Ye’re right! I only reached for me dagger after the second one whizzed past me ear! Iamlearnin’! Oh, Nick, it’s so hard, but I’ll keep tryin’. I’ll get better, I swear. Just don’t leave again. Ye took all the life out of me with ye; I had to find ye, and now that ye’re here, I’m not gonna let ye out of me sight again…” Her words scattered like grapeshot until she looked down and clasped her hands together. “That is, if ye still want me.”
There was a collective holding of breath now as the eavesdropping sailors watched the scene intently.
With a loud whoop, Nick wrapped his arms around Alex’s waist, picking her up and twirling in circles while he peppered her face with kisses. “Call Boone! I’ll marry ye here and now with the crew—and me brother—as our witnesses.” He set her down, looking between Darcy, Richard, and Uncle Matlock. Pressing his hands together, he wrung his hands and bowed his head. “Perhaps ye’d agree to be me best men. If ye have no objection to me asking ye.”
