Never Trust a Pirate Read Free Page A

vomit, hoping he’d die.
    Until he heard the captain and the quartermaster talking. “Might’s well throw him overboard, sir,” the quartermaster had said. “He won’t last much longer and he’s too much trouble.”
    He could feel eyes on his tiny, miserable body, and then the captain drawled, “Give him another day. See if he can hold down a bit of ale. He’s a pretty lad, and a bright one, or I miss my guess. If he’s no better tomorrow throw him overboard.”
    The quartermaster grunted, poking at him, and Luca wanted to hurl. Not a good idea, he decided, swallowing his bile. On land there were always a dozen places to escape to, particularly when you were small and wiry. He could fit almost anyplace. Here on the boat he was trapped.
    It was another man who forced the ale down his throat, clamping his jaw shut so he had to keep it down or choke. A big man, with huge hands, the ugliest face in Christendom, and an unexpected kindness in his eyes.
    And that was how he met William Quarrells.
    Billy was going to approve of this day’s work, he thought as he strode along the quayside. He’d loved the
Maddy Rose
as well, serving as Luca’s first mate and the one man he trusted unequivocally.
    Luca tossed his hat and coat on the dusty table in the narrow front hall of his house on Water Street and headed toward his office. It was a little past noon, time for a decent meal, but his very proper fiancée was trying to civilize him, and he was indulging her, at least for the time being. Gwendolyn Haviland had informed him archly that only the lower orders ate a full meal at midday. Proper people ate dinner in the evening, accompanied by wine and good conversation with one’s equals. The very idea made him shudder.
    His desk was as littered as the front table, though he rifled through things so often he didn’t allow dust to settle. By the time Billy pushed open the door he’d already compiled a stack of bills for his businessmanager to attend to, and was just enjoying the reward for his labors—a small glass of Jamaican rum.
    “Don’t let Miss Haviland see you with that,” Billy said in his rumbling, sea-dog voice. “She says rum is for lowborn limeys.” He mimicked Gwendolyn’s prissy accent.
    Luca turned and poured him an even deeper glass—Billy was a larger man than he was and needed more rum. “I
am
a lowborn limey,” he said, handing Billy his glass. “And a filthy gypsy as well.”
    “She expects you to rise above it. Cheers.” He drained half the glass, made a face, and then fixed his deep-set, worried gaze on Luca. “You were able to get the
Maddy Rose
?”
    “All taken care of. Just one little bit of business and then she’s ours.”
    Billy sighed with satisfaction. “You know buying that ship makes no sense at all. The age of the clipper ship is over. It’s all about steam nowadays. But the
Maddy Rose
is a thing of beauty, and it fair warms my heart that you were softheaded enough to buy her.”
    Luca grinned at him. “Even a man who’s sold his soul to commerce has to be foolish every now and then.”
    “Ah, you’re so rich you’ll never miss it,” Billy scoffed. “Now if you could only be sensible about the blasted woman you intend to marry.”
    “I may as well have respectability, Billy, since I’m about to have my own shipping company. You know that. Gwendolyn is my best way to achieve it. Besides, she’s my solicitor’s daughter. This way I know Haviland won’t play me false.”
    “True enough. He dotes on the chit. Problem is, he expects you to dote on her too,” Billy grumbled.
    “I dote on her,” Luca said cheerfully, draining his glass of rum and pouring another. “I proposed to her, didn’t I?”
    “You gave up,” Billy said sourly. “That woman set her sights on you the moment she met you, and she’s scarier than the… Lord, I can’t think of who she’s scarier than. I wonder you held out so long.”
    Luca stifled his momentary irritation. “Her plans