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“Aye, but maybe the next person will think twice before coming after me.”
Jake snorted. “Leave him be, Morgan. You got more important things to attend.”
“Such as?”
“For starters, you can buy Lorelei a new dress from one of those expensive London designers. She’ll have my head when she finds out I let your woman have that flimsy pink thing she’s been asking for.”
“Serenity is not my woman. You’re the one who trapped her here.”
“Yeah, well, if I had a woman on boardmyship, I wouldn’t be down here making love to a bottle of rum. I’d be up there showing her the better part of my sex.”
Morgan placed his finger above his brow and traced a line that ran the same length and shape as the scar above Jake’s brow. A scar Lorelei had delivered during one of their numerous and notorious fights. “I think I’ll spare myself the grief.”
Jake laughed. “I assure you, Drake, Ithoroughlyenjoyed earning that scar. And it was certainly worth every stitch.”
With that, Jake took his leave, and Morgan noticed the bottle of rum took its leave as well.Same old Black Jack,he thought with a smile.
Some things never changed.
Morgan sat quietly, thinking over Jake’s words. And the fact that Serenity was only a few yards away, no doubt tucked safely in his bed.
Inhisbed.
Would the insults never cease?
Serenity came awake to the sound of rain tapping lightly against the windows. Opening her eyes, she watched the drops run down the thick panes of clear glass.
The ship!
“Oh no,” she gasped, realizing in that instant that the night before hadn’t been a nightmare.
Well, okay, maybenightmarewasn’t the right word. The point was:It all had really happened.
She was ruined.
By now her father would have been up for hours
and was no doubt scouring Savannah looking for her. He had no idea where she was, or when she would return.
“Oh no,” she repeated.
The permanence of her predicament hit her like a shot. This was really it. There was never any going back to the life she had lived before.
Serenity prayed for courage and strength to face her future—to face the stinging gossipmongers who would follow her for the rest of her life. Even now, she could hear the vicious comments made about Chatty.
That’s the James girl there. She’s the one they caught kissing that young boy down at the lake. Little harlot. That’s what happens when a woman starts talking social reforms for women. Benjamin should have taken a strap to his wife and never let her fill her daughters’ heads with such tripe. I pity that poor man, left behind to cope with the mess his wife left him.
How many times had she heard a variation of that story? And how many more times in her life would she hear the new one?
That be the poor James girl there. She done run off with pirates in the middle of the night….
She had brought it on herself, and it would haunt her forever.
Serenity pushed herself out of bed and quickly dressed. There was no need in moping around and bemoaning her fate. She had chosen this course and it was time to follow it wherever it led.
And right now her rumbling stomach wanted it to lead to a kitchen somewhere. She unlocked the door and tripped over a lump.
Only, it wasn’t a lump.
