Tales of Tibercon_The Princess and the Pirate by Monica Hahn

Author:Monica Hahn [Hahn, Monica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Catarina woke up the morning after her fake wedding and stretched luxuriously. It was not an enormously large bunk, but being able to stretch out after being chained up in the ship’s hold was wonderful. And she was clean, and comfortable, and the blanket didn’t smell horrible. She smiled, and turned over on her side, then gave a small squeak of surprise as she finally identified the faint sound as snoring. As in, Mikel was snoring as he lay stretched out on the floor beside her bunk. It was literally the only place in the small cabin where he could stretch out at all, and it didn’t look particularly comfortable. Yet he was sleeping, if the faint snoring was any indication.

Catarina was grateful to Mikel. He had been nothing but protective towards her since their first meeting, and had even gone so far as to marry her in a pretend ceremony, but this was taking it all a bit too far! How was she possibly supposed to sleep with a strange man in her bedchamber? Even if, technically, it was his cabin. Was there really no other place on a large ship that he could find to sleep?

Mikel must have felt her accusing gaze, because he woke up with an immediate awareness, blinking once and then seeming completely alert. “Good morning!” he said, with a smile.

“Good morning,” Catarina said, with no smile.

“Is something amiss?” he asked, his genuine concern touching. “Did you sleep well?”

“Well enough,” Catarina said.

“Then what’s wrong?”

Catarina felt petty for caring about convention, and guilty for feeling petty, which made her tone sharper than she intended. “I didn’t realize that it was necessary to guard me so closely,” she said.

“Did you expect me to lie in the corridor, outside the door, so as to preserve your modesty?” he asked, his tone a bit mocking.

Since the thought had crossed her mind, Catarina just glared at him.

“I’m not going to be any more uncomfortable than necessary,” Mikel said. “It’s bad enough that I’m sleeping on the floor, but I happen to like the privacy of my cabin.” From the emphasis he put on the ownership, she could tell he felt quite strongly about it.

“Do I really need guarded at all?” Catarina asked, much more mildly.

Mikel gave a snorting laugh. “Considering the events of yesterday, I'm surprised you would need to ask that.”

“You’re saying that I’m not safe on a ship that you help command?”

“No,” he said. “You’re not.” His uncompromising words reminded her of the fragility of her situation. As nice as it was to be rescued, she still wasn’t completely safe yet, and she may never be. Although he might just be trying to frighten her, and succeeding.

He must have seen that she was frightened, because he lightened his tone and tried to jest with her. “Of course,” he said, “it might be that I’m guarding the ship from you.”

She managed a wan smile. He stood up, wrapping the blanket around him and sat on the edge of the bunk.

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