AllFreeNovel
Share Us
~~~
Five years later,Port of Veracruz
Rune was going to kill him.
Strider said he’d be at the ship an hour ago. And now he only had ten minutes to make it to the dock where theFirefoxwas moored. A new life just minutes away—on one of the crown’s privateering ships, of all things. Food, work, and Rune had said if they were lucky, they would earn some of the spoils if they took down any ships.
Strider dodged a wagon of fish as he ran across the street in the market at the wharf. Ten minutes to a future. A real future. The captain was supposed to be a good, honest man—and Strider couldn’t remember the last time he’d met one of those.
Three more streets and he’d be there.
He jumped in front of a team of horses and skidded to a halt.
A soul-freezing stop, every muscle, every nerve paralyzed.
Pen.
Pen in front of him, looking into an open carriage three coaches down from the one he’d just dodged in front of.
What in the hell had happened to her?
Tall—well, taller than she’d been. A woman’s height now, maybe a head shorter than him. Her blond hair still pulled back into a severe bun, a small black cap covering most of the golden strands. Dressed in stiffly starched black clothes—the exact same pattern he’d last seen her in when she’d run away from him inBelize Town. Simple, with little crisp black ruffles on the shoulders. All in black—black that did nothing to hide her body. Breasts. She’d gone and grown breasts that stretched against the black fabric that was too tight in her chest area.
His look returned to her profile. Damn, she’d grown into a beauty. The black dress, the hidden hair—none of it could conceal the fact that her beauty could stop the moon.
What in the hell was she doing in the Port of Veracruz?
His eyes locked onto her and he started forward, his legs anchors he could barely drag forward. His mouth opened, once, twice, before he could get sound out. “Wait, wait, Pen.”
He stretched his arm out. “Pen, Pen, wait.”
A man stepped in front of him, blocking his path. A man in a cassock and white collar. A clergyman, clutching a bible to his chest in one hand and a cane in the other. Mr. Flagton. His fist clutching the cane flew into Strider’s chest and Strider stumbled back two steps. The tip of the man’s cane lifted and centered on Strider’s neck. “Don’t you even think to look at her, you wretched little worm.”
The man looked down to the boy standing by his side. “You see, son, this is why we don’t send Penelope to the market alone—at least in a rat’s hole like this. She’ll be compromised by some dirty snake like this and then we’ll have to kick her out of the house and where will we be? Where will your mother be?”
The boy nodded and promptly turned around. He stepped behind his father’s back and pushed Pen up into the waiting carriage.
“Get back, scum. Back to the filthy hole you crawled from.” The man lifted his cane from Strider’s neck and swung it down, slamming it onto Strider’s shoulder. Once. Twice. Three times. It sent Strider down to one knee.
Mr. Flagton turned away, stepping up into the carriage that started to move away the second the door was closed.
Pen’s eyes. Her green eyes through the glass. Her eyes going wide as she recognized him. Recognition and then anger, her eyes going to slits.
She stared at him through the carriage glass, not saying a thing. Not defending him. Not making the slightest motion to escape from the carriage and run to him.
Nothing.
It wounded him to the core. No matter how they had last parted. He existed once as her family. Heexisted.
His head woozy, Strider staggered to his feet, running after the carriage. “Pen! Pen! Pen!” His voice not loud enough. His feet not fast enough.
And just like she appeared, she disappeared. Instantly.
Strider stood in the middle of the street, staring. Staring at the spot where he lost her carriage.
A horse brushed against his shoulder, sending him stumbling. He shook his head.
The ship.
