The Lady's Pirate: Conrad Legacy (The Conrad Legacy Book 2) by C.K. Mackenzie

Author:C.K. Mackenzie [Mackenzie, C.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emelia Publishers LLC
Published: 2023-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

Temper boiling, jaw clenched against inappropriate and no doubt deathly words, Adi left Lambert and Bardot. She slipped from the room—her father’s room—and quietly back into the kitchens. Head high, she nodded to the guards watching her with suspicious expressions. They usually were after her return from serving breakfast, but, as Lambert still very much lived, they had nothing to do but scowl.

“Thank you, Joana.” She smiled at the girl, rested a hand on her thin shoulder. “I’ll watch Gabriel for a while.”

“Sim, dama.” Joana bobbed a curtsy and quickly left.

Adi scooped up her son, bouncing him on her hip until he laughed and laughed. The entire kitchen stilled. Adi ignored them all—the guards now shifting uncomfortably, her mother staring at her open-mouthed, the staff’s incredulous looks. All that mattered was Gabriel as he giggled and babbled.

His safety, his future, his happiness.

She couldn’t have said what made her snap. What changed her mind about the steady plan she’d enacted months ago. What pushed her forward before she thought she was ready.

Grayson? He promised a way out of this hell, and, God help her, Adi believed him.

Not that she had any idea how he planned to keep his promise. But she knew he would. He’d said all Conrads kept their word, but Adi had heard many things from many people. Grayson was the first person she believed. Truly, completely believed.

All that mattered was disrupting the French lines and helping her family escape. Even Inês, she supposed.

Grinning at Gabriel as he demanded more bounces, she turned and caught her mother’s gaze. Karlotta’s face softened as she watched her grandson. This was what mattered. This was all that mattered.

“Mama.” She kissed Karlotta’s cheek.

“I’d forgotten what his laugh sounds like,” she whispered. “It’s been so long.”

Yes. Too long. Adi understood that as well as anyone. Gabriel had grown, changed since the French invasion. He didn’t remember Mateus, probably not Inês, either. But he knew her, and he knew how to laugh.

“We’re leaving.”

Karlotta twitched back in shock. “Perdoe?” she hissed. “Now?”

“Not now,” Adi rushed in assurance. “By the quarter moon.” Maybe the new moon. She had absolutely no idea, but she couldn’t hedge. Her mother would never believe her then.

“Adi, have you lost your mind?”

“Not at all,” she said confidently. But she kept her voice low, ensuring the soldiers heard nothing. That none of the staff did. Not yet. They needed discretion, needed to move with prudence. Adi didn’t want anyone to slip up in front of the soldiers because of excitement or nervousness.

“What use is preserving a thousand years of our heritage if none of us are alive to carry it on?” Gabriel reached for Karlotta, who took him without a second thought.

Would he reach for Grayson like that? How would Grayson react if he did? She banished those thoughts. No sense dwelling on nonsense what-ifs. Not now. Still, the idea took root in her heart, and she had no idea how to dislodge it.

“Adi, you’re mad.”

“Mad?” She swallowed a laugh that would have most assuredly reinforced that thought in her mother’s mind.

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