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Chapter 10
“What?” Morgan asked, shocked by herunexpected demand.
“You heard me, Captain Crook,” she said saucily, removing his hand from her cheek. She tilted her head up to look at him. “I’ll keep your story to myself if you’ll take me up the rigging to the nest.”
Before he could stop himself, he laughed. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Next, you’ll want to be captain! Own your own ship.” He snorted in derision. “Why stop there? Why not be president of the Colonies?”
Her eyes narrowed in warning, “Need I remind you, Captain, that there have been women who have sailed as well as any man? Why, Anne Bonny and Mary Read were both said to have fought like a man when they and Calico Jack were taken. And when Anne Bonny went to see him in prison, she told him that if he had fought like a man, he wouldn’t die like a dog!”
He laughed even harder. “Where did you hearthat?” he asked.
“I read it in one of my father’s books,” she said triumphantly.
Morgan continued smiling that annoying little smile that made her blood boil. “Well, should you ever meet Jake’s wife, you better not let her hear that or she’ll have your head.”
His words confused her. “Why?”
“She happens to be their granddaughter and she’s very defensive when it comes to those types of lies spread about her beloved grandmother, especially the rumors that say Anne Bonny was ugly.”
His smile fading, he cleared his throat. “However, though it galls me to admit it, you’re right about women donning men’s clothes and becoming sailors.
“But,” he said before she had a chance to gloat. “They weren’t well-bred ladies who had been reared in genteel homes. They were prostitutes or hoydens. Do you really want be added to theirprestigiouscompany?”
Serenity stepped away from him and looked out the windows and let the sea air caress her. The ocean air smelled so sweet and she wished for so many things that she knew would never be hers.
Longing swept over her so fiercely that she ached from it. “You’ve no idea what it’s like, Captain Drake, to be a woman. To be told all your life that everything you want is foolish and that you’re useless except as a broodmare.
“First it was simple. ‘Don’t climb that tree, Serenity. Ladies never do such.’ Then it was, ‘Don’t run, it’s not ladylike. Don’t raise your voice. Don’t speak your thoughts. Don’t laugh too loudly, don’t eat too much, don’t cut your hair, don’t wear those colors.’”
Unshed tears stung her eyes. “My whole life isdon’t.”
Morgan watched her as she leaned her head against the glass. The wind whipped the tendrils of her hair out from her body and she looked so frail, so lost.
No, he couldn’t imagine what it must be like for her to want things and be told no at every turn. Once he’d escaped the British navy, his life had been his own. He’d done as he pleased.
“Now I’m too old to even be a broodmare.”
He barely heard her whisper.
Without thought, Morgan moved to stand behind her. He reached out to touch her soft hair.
She looked up at him from over her shoulder and he saw the raw pain inside her. “Can’t you understand—I want to know what freedom is like,” she breathed. “I want to climb the rigging and look out at the sea.”
“You are insane.”
“Probably,” she said, once again becoming the no-nonsense woman he had come to know. “But that’s my offer. Take it or leave it.”
Morgan smiled at her audacity. “You know, you’re not really in a position to argue. I could have you cut up into shark feed and no one would ever know.”
“Yes, but if that was your intention, then you wouldn’t have brought me down here. You said it yourself, Captain. You never harm an unarmed person.”
“Damn,” he teased. “Just my luck.”
She turned to face him, completely serious now. “Do I have your word?”
At the moment, he wondered who was the craziest between them. Certainly there was a bed in Bedlam with his name on it. “Aye, you have it then. But be warned, I’ll treat you just as I do my men. You’ll be expected to lift yourself up the rigging.”
“That’s all I ask.”
