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The door closed, then Samuel and I were alone in Demery’s cabin. Silence bloomed between us, punctuated with the crew preparing forconflict—clatters,shouts, thuds, rolls and the tramping of feet.
“I’ve much to say,” Samuel finally began. “But little idea how to say it, and even less time to say it in.”
I felt my gaze soften. “Me too. But I cansay…Iam sorry I took your coat, and your coin.”
His smile was wry. “I had nearly forgotten about that.”
“Oh.” I nearly smiled back. “Then don’t let me remind you.”
Samuel’s grin deepened before a weight returned to his eyes. “I cannot apologize enough for my part in Kaspin’s auction. I had no desire to bethere…butthat is no excuse. I was there, and I understand if you resent me for that.”
I looked at him more closely. I remembered the way he’d looked at the auction, how uncomfortable and sour he’d been. I knew he hadn’t wanted to be there, but I appreciated the apology all the same.
“And for the way I pushed you to joinHart, in Tithe,” the man continued. “I had no idea the pressures upon you, orother…factors,at play.”
“You did what you thought was right,” I conceded. “Perhaps youwereright. If I’d gone with you, perhaps matters would have been simpler. Perhaps I’d have been safer. Or not.”
“I am glad you did not come.” Samuel shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and I saw the movement of his fingers as he worried something there. The coin? “My former captain,Slader…Hecould not have been trusted, not with you. I was wrong.”
There was genuine regret in his tone, along with a protective edge that warmed me, overturning memories of Benedict’s words and Samuel’s rumored past.
“Then for these things we’re forgiven, you and I,” I summarized, settling my shoulders. I glanced at the door of my own cabin, closed in the far wall, and felt a sudden urge to be alone. My thoughts and feelings were a tangle, not least of them due to my role in tonight’s events.
But the thought of Samuel’s pending visit to Benedict, and all that they might say, tempted me.
“You should go see to your brother,” I reminded him. “I need to prepare.”
Samuel nodded, though I didn’t miss the flicker of disappointment in his eyes. “Of course. I will see you when this is over, Ms. Firth. And I hope we can start afresh.”
I let myself smile at that. He returned the expression and moved to the door, opening it and stepping into the passageway.
“Farewell, Ms. Firth,” he said, lingering.
“Farewell,” I echoed.
I listened to his footsteps fade. I counted each step, and calculated how many he would need to take to cross the deck and descend to where the prisoners were held in the forward hold.
Then I slipped out of the door, and quietly followed him.
FORTY-ONE
Honor, Dishonor and Benedict Rosser
SAMUEL
Imanaged to still my shaking hands by the time I faced Benedict, but only just. Mary’s forgiveness impacted me more deeply than I expected, and everything I had learned tonight was an urgent jangling at the back of my mind.
But now I had to focus on my brother.
Benedict peeled from the shadows as I approached the forward hold with a hooded lantern. Bars and barriers had been erected over the space, cutting it off from the crates and barrels and bundles that packed the rest of the hold. Demery had obviously been prepared, and the prison was sound.
“Sam.” My twin leaned against the bars. Beyond him, the thirty or so crewmembers who had accompanied him languished, glaring and muttering in the shadows. “Did she tell you about us?”
“Who—”Immediately off-footed, I closed my mouth and fought to regroup. He was trying to take the upper hand, and I could not let him. “I am here to help you, Ben.”
“She enjoyed it, there is little doubt of that,” Benedict went on. His tone was flippant, but his stare was as fixed as a hunting wolf. And like a wolf, his eyes glistened in the light of my lantern. “Tasted like wine, and smelled of winter wind and sweat. Sweet, is a woman’s sweat. On her cheeks. Her throat. Her breasts.”
Rage hit me like a rogue wave. For an instant, all I could see was a vision of smashing my brother into the bars.
