The Pirate and the Pagan by Virginia Henley

Author:Virginia Henley [Henley, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-56807-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 1990-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Summer cherished the freedom of her days, although she admitted with shame the nights were inconsolably lonely. She arose each morning while it was still dark and rode upon the beach as the day dawned.

Two weeks had gone by since she had seen her husband and she never gave him a thought. Never a thought until she was in her lonely bed at night and then he dominated the long, dark hours. Where was he? What was he doing? Did he think of her as often as she thought of him? Did his body cry out for her? What a ridiculous thought; the moment his body demanded pleasure, he would take it; she had no illusions about that. He wouldn’t even pay lip service to being faithful.

She wondered if he had taken steps yet to annul their marriage. She hoped he had; she wanted desperately to be free of him, she told herself fiercely!

She had done nothing about the jewels, for she knew that in the small port of Falmouth there were no jewelers. There was possibly a small demand for such things in the lurid little seamen’s taverns and brothels that were part of every port in the world, but she knew the jewels were of the best quality and wanted a good price for them.

The thought of Black Jack Flash lured her to ride along the Helston River each afternoon, but rumors of the pirate in these waters must have been just that, for she never even glimpsed a vessel. After two weeks of idleness she was frankly bored and sought to fill the hours of the day with anything which would take up time.

She washed her hair and tried on one of Ruark’s fine lace shirts and inserted the ruby studs. She laughed into the mirror as she admired herself in her tight black breeches, for she looked like a lady pirate. She went up on the widow’s walk to finish drying her hair, up among the twisted chimneys and sailboat weathervanes. She gazed east over the sparkling seas, shading her eyes to watch some passing whales far out to sea, then idly she walked around to look west along the Helford River. Was it a trick of the light or were her eyes deceiving her? she wondered. No, there was definitely something there tucked into a cove, beaneath the trees. Her heartbeat quickened. Could it be a ship? It was a possibility; one she would investigate. She put the lovely silver knife into her belt and ran down to saddle Ebony. As she rode she wondered if the ship had been there awhile and was only visible from the top of Helford Hall.

She dismounted a distance away and tethered her horse in a thick stand of trees where he wouldn’t be easily seen, then by stealth made her way to where she thought the vessel lay hidden. It was a ship! She lay full length on her belly in the grass to look it over carefully. It was smaller and much lower to the waterline than the usual sailing ship.

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