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“You said boys—you have a brother? More than one?” Her investigator had been adamant Roe had no family.
“Just one. Older.” His eyes squinted slightly as if he were watching a long ago memory. “He was the one that escaped—escaped the hell mouth of our youth the most unscathed.”
His gaze wandered to her face. Whatever he saw in her eyes made him jerk upright and take a step away from the railing.
Without a word he spun from her and stalked toward the stairs of the quarterdeck, swinging out and descending the ladder with ease.
She watched him until he disappeared toward the bow of the ship, out of her sightline. The stride of his long legs told her everything she needed to know.
She’d asked too many questions. Questions he didn’t want to hear, much less answer.
Yet he’d still done so, answered her questions. Peculiar.
With a sigh, she looked about the deck at the men still tossing glares her way. As though she didn’t have enough cross looks coming her way on the ship, she’d just added more. Dared to upset their mighty captain.
She’d stumbled into aggravating everyone around her without even knowing it.
Not her best day.
~~~
Roe took a sip of his port, trying to still his bouncing foot under the small table he’d had brought into his cabin. He usually ate standing up, and sitting at a proper table had sent his trapped legs into bedlam.
Torrie had disappeared after their conversation on the deck and by all reports she had hidden herself away in his room for the rest of the day. So he’d brought dinner to her. With the winds still stagnant, there wasn’t much else to do.
Whereas she still had half a plate left to eat of salted pork, peas, cheese and a biscuit,he’d finished eating more than ten minutes ago—a remnant from his days growing up, from his days in prison. Eat as much as one can as fast as one can, lest it be stolen from under one’s nose.
He hadn’t had a meal stolen from him in years, but the habit of it was hard to quell. He was always the first one done eating amongst his men. The first one moving on, ready for more work that would quiet his mind.
He and Torrie had been eating in silence.
His own making.
He hadn’t meant to storm away from her without a word on the deck, but he’d had no other recourse. It was either that or tell her things he’d rather stay buried in the past. He kept his mouth shut. He always had. But with this woman words manifested on their own without thought or control.
Stay far away.
He was proving to be quite dismal at putting that concept into action.
Even with his plate empty, he couldn’t bring his tongue to utter the words to excuse himself. So he sat, staring at Torrie and sipping his port but not truly tasting it, though it was of the finest vintage.
She took his scrutiny without pause, going about her meal with fluid, practiced motions. He imagined she would be good at that, for all the stuffytondinners she must have attended with her husband.
Still clutching her fork, she set her right hand down next to her plate and looked up at him, meeting his stare. “I have a question.”
He inclined his head to her. “Yes?”
“Why did you go to Vinehill Castle in Scotland and then to Wolfbridge Castle in Lincolnshire after you last arrived in England? You went to both of my cousins, yet you didn’t approach them. Why?”
Roe stilled, his glass poised halfway to his mouth. A deep breath, and he set the glass onto the table and leaned back in his chair, his look skewering her. “How do you know that?”
“I had you followed. I’ve had you followed since you got out of Newgate.”
“You what?”
“I wasn’t about to let you wreak more destruction in your path. When I found out you were released, I set an investigator on you.”
She said the words so nonchalantly it took him aback—as if hiring an investigator to trail a man was as common as requesting afternoon tea.
