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Chapter 20
“Well, Captain?”
Morgan flinched at Barney’s question as he sat himself down at the table in the crowded
Boar’s Head Tavern. The odor of unwashed bodies, roasting meat, and beer hung thick in the air as Morgan signaled a passing wench and ordered her to bring another round of drinks.
A double round of drinks.
Cookie, Barney, and Ushakii had been waiting here for him while he made yet another inquiry about Serenity.
“Nothing,” he growled as the wench placed eight tankards on the rough wooden table before him. “Not a damn word. No one’s seen or heard of her, or if they have, they won’t tell me.”
His temper boiling, Morgan grabbed the nearest tankard of ale and drained it in one gulp.
His men exchanged wide-eyed gawks, but he paid them no heed. Damn them all, anyway. And damn himself.
He was an idiot, a first-rate moron.
What kind of man let a woman like her sail out of his life?
For fifteen months, three days, and five hours now, he’d been searching for her. He’d even boarded the ship that had taken her home, but to no avail. They hadn’t known anything more than anyone else.
Jake had placed her in a hired coach headed for Savannah, and no one had seen her since. No one.
She’d vanished without a single trace.
Fine, so be it! He’d had enough with this. She was gone and he was glad of it.
“Glad of it, I tell you.”
“Beg pardon, Captain?” Cookie asked.
“Nothing,” Morgan muttered as he seized two more tankards and drained them.
“Well, well, look what the tide washed ashore. What brings you gentlemen back to my part of the world?”
“Lay off, Jake,” Morgan hissed without turning to look at the man who stood directly behind him. “I’m in no mood for humor.”
“Hasn’t been in a mood for humor in over fifteen months,” Cookie said with a nod to Jake. “Never seen anything like it in my life.”
Morgan gave him a hostile glare, but Cookie ignored it.
“We’ve come seeking the lass again,” Barney said. “He ain’t been able to find her nowhere and now he’s about ready to gut the lot of us.”
“You should have seen the face of the colonial captain when he boarded his ship and then took nothing from them,” Ushakii piped in. “He couldn’t believe Morgan had fired on his ship when all he wanted was to interrogate the crew about Miss James.”
Morgan cringed as he remembered what a jack-snipe he’d made of himself that day. He’d terrified the entire colonial crew and had almost lost one of his own.
And for what?
A bloomin’ chit who incensed him.
A bloomin’ chit who…
He tensed as he remembered a vital fact. Jake was the last one to see her.
He reached up behind him, grabbed Jake by the collar, and pulled his face close. “You were the last person to see her. Tell me where she is, or I swear I’ll have your gizzard.”
