The Dubious Heir Read Free

dark cobbled street and out of sight. She would wait and watch just like he said to do. He was right as always. Something was amiss. May Acionna watch over all of them and keep them safe.
    The rest of the night followed with Treea giving orders for watch shifts to be set. They needed to keep vigil in case of a sudden attack. It seemed odd that the King's men would take her Pop and let the rest of the men go. If one were a pirate, the rest of them was also. These men were dedicated to her Pop, their captain of the ship. He had led them across the sea many times and not with the intent to catch fish either.
    Most times a merchant ship would let them board and take their plunder uninhibited. Her Pop's reputation from his younger years was known from one captain to the next. The flag that was flown from the mast was his signature. No one ever was hurt and the merchant was allowed to keep half of his merchandise. It was always a fifty-fifty agreement they would eventually settle for with no battle or squander.
    Her Pop said they weren't doing anything wrong but just charging for the use of the waters as a means of travel. These were their waters and they had the right to charge for safe passage. That was all they did.
    So why did the King decide after all this time that her Pop had done something wrong? If the first mate did not come back with an answer, she indeed would find one on her own.
    There was one thing she could do while she waited for Hurley's return. A protection spell would suffice and maybe keep their ship hidden from the eyes of danger. Just a little something to ease her fears. It didn’t matter if the kingdom frowned upon women using magic of any kind. The Duke in particular would be after her head for using it. The King, not so much. He had mixed feelings about magic in general.
    Apparently the spell worked. They had no unwanted visitors during the middle of the night and Hurley returned just before the sun up.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    Hurley was waiting impatiently for this moment. He’d been planning this for months. Finally, the captain was removed from duty. Now Hurley would soon control the ship and the crew. All he’d left to do was deal with Treea. But how was he going to do that? Have her arrested just like her Pop, kill her, no he couldn't do that, or find a way to control her emotionally. The later might be the easiest. Especially with the relationship he had already established with her over the past few years. For Pete's Sake, she was a woman, and he was a man, how hard could it be to gain full emotional control? To be able to make her do anything, absolutely anything he wanted her to do, like letting him take over the command of the ship?
    She'd been on the ship working alongside the rest of the men for the past three years. Her status had grown to his equal. He hated to think that she may have surpassed his equal, though lately, the captain had been confiding in Treea more than him, which Hurley thought was not right. He was the first mate, not Treea, and he was a man and she a woman. A ship was no place for a woman.
    When she’d boarded the ship that first time, her beauty struck all the men and Captain Pellesi made certain that she was known to be off limits to all the men on the ship. The captain wanted her married to a good man. The life of a seafarer was not what he wanted for his daughter. She deserved more and a much better man for a husband.
    But the Captain's order fell short on Treea. She pursued Hurley by spending time with him in close quarters. It all started with a subtle look, a twist of a lock of hair around her finger and a soft touch of her hand on the side of his stubbled face. An untimely wave crashing into the side of the ship sent her body against his own ending in an embrace and that first kiss below deck in the hold. The feel of her body against his own triggered a lust that had never been fulfilled until she came along.
    He thought of Treea while the guards led her Pop,