Ruby blinked. “Reconsidering?”
“I’ll take ye south.”
Her breath caught, equal parts relief and fury. “Why should I trust you now, after you dumped me and ran off the moment you’d taken my locket?”
Evan shrugged. “Look around ye.” He gestured to the press of sailors, the hostile stares, the lawless energy that crackled through the port. “Ye dinna exactly have much choice, do ye?”
Ruby pressed her lips together. She hated the smug set of his mouth, and hated even more the fact that he was right. If Evan hadn’t appeared when he did she didn’t want to think about what might have happened.
Her pride screamed at her to tell him exactly where he could shove his offer of help. But her common sense whispered that she couldn’t afford another mistake.
She drew herself up. “Fine. I’ll travel with you. But only because I must.”
A grin tugged at his lips, quick and roguish. “As ye say, my lady.”
Ruby resisted the urge to frown. She would travel with him because she had no other choice but she was not about to let him forget how much she disliked him.
Even though, deep down, she was grateful he’d come back.
EVAN STEERED RUBY AWAYfrom the worst of the crowd, down a narrower stretch of the quay where the noise of the port thinned to the creak of ropes and the slap of waves against hulls. Ships still bobbed here, smaller ones with patched sails and battered timbers, fishing craft and traders too modest for the bustle further up.
“This way,” he muttered.
She hurried after him, her skirts swishing, the scowl on her face doing nothing to lessen how out of place she looked. Hedidn’t need to glance over his shoulder to know she was glaring at his back like she was planning to skewer him.
He had to admit, the lass had spirit. But spirit didn’t buy a ship, and it sure as hell didn’t protect you from the kind of men who prowled these waters.
He slowed as he spotted a single-masted vessel, small enough to be handled by two but sturdy enough to weather the straits, bobbing against its mooring ropes. Perfect. He glanced around—nobody in sight but an old drunk asleep on a coil of rope.
“Here,” he said, loosening the mooring rope.
Ruby stopped dead. “You’re stealing another boat?”
He shot her a look, half amused. “Borrowing, lass. Dinna be so dramatic.”
“Dramatic? You stole that one on the island and now you’re going to do it again? How can you—”
She cut herself off and took a deep breath. Then she began rummaging furiously in a pouch slung across her chest. Evan raised a brow as she drew out a small gold ring. It was delicate, fine work, the kind of thing only a wealthy lass might own. She marched to the nearest bollard, set the ring down atop it, then dug out a little stick of...something and scrawled words onto the wood.
“There, at least that’s some recompense,” she said.
Evan leaned close to read what she’d written. In rough letters the words readSorry, we needed a boat.
Evan watched her, baffled, his brows knitting together. “What is that?” He jabbed a finger at the instrument in her hand. “A stick that bleeds letters. I’ve never seen the like.”
Ruby blinked at him. “A pen, obviously.”
He frowned. The instrument itself was slim, gleaming, strange. Shaking his head, he put it out of his mind. “Doubt the poor bastard can read anyway.”
“That’s no excuse for stealing! You can’t just take things without asking!”
Evan didn’t reply. The set of her chin, the fire in her eyes, the way she stood there bristling like a cat. She wasn’t like any lass he’d ever met—and he’d met plenty.
Trying to ignore the way she unsettled him, he gave her a cocky smile. “How aboutItake the payment then?” He plucked up the ring, letting it roll across his fingers, unable to resist baiting her.
Her eyes flashed. She snatched the ring and placed it back on top of the bollard. “You’vealready been paid.” Then she swept past him into the boat, her back stiff as a rod.
Suppressing a smirk, he followed her onto the boat, set his hands to the tiller and shoved them off, the boat rocking free of the quay. The canvas snapped as it caught the wind and slid into open water, the sound of the busy harbor fading behind them.
