The Pirate's Bluestocking by Chasity Bowlin

Author:Chasity Bowlin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2019-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

THE SOFTNESS OF her hand in his, the delicate feeling of it against his own much rougher skin, was a reminder of just how different their lives had been. Yes, his mother had raised him as a gentleman, they had not been wealthy. They’d struggled to keep body and soul together, but at least she’d loved him and his sister. She would have sacrificed her very soul to keep them safe. It was only when his grandfather had discovered Declan’s existence that their lives had gotten any better. Whatever else the old man had been, he’d been a stickler for responsibility. Kitty’s family seemed to be cut from a very different cloth. They’d used her, lied to her and about her, and in general made her life a misery.

But it wasn’t his family or hers he wanted to think about in that moment. For better or worse, to borrow a phrase he’d be uttering soon enough, they would be man and wife. Others might disagree, but to Declan’s mind, happiness wasn’t made entirely by what passed in the marriage bed, but it could certainly be destroyed there. He was very certain that she had no idea she was beautiful and desirable. Too many people in her life had told her otherwise. And despite however curious she might be, however passionate she might be, he believed that she was an innocent. But there was the question of Samford and what might have occurred during the time she traveled with him. It changed nothing of his feelings for her or what the outcome of their evening would be, but it would very much determine the tone of it.

“Kitty, did Samford hurt you?” He asked the question as gently as possible.

“You mean did he ravish me?” Her eyebrows lifted imperiously with that question. “If I said yes, would you suddenly be repulsed by me?”

“No. I’m not asking because it changes how I feel or what I want… but in order to make this a pleasant experience for you, I’d like to be able to gauge how much foreknowledge you actually possess,” he explained.

Her expression softened, her quick temper mollified by his explanation. “Samford had no interest in me.… only my inheritance. It was a fact that he made abundantly clear, loudly and repeatedly. He threatened, of course. To hit me, to toss me out of the carriage, to compromise me so thoroughly that I’d have no choice but to marry him. But he was just being a bully.”

No. He most assuredly wasn’t. Samford had been capable of everything he’d threatened and likely guilty of it on more than one occasion. “I cordially disagree with your assessment, but I’m very grateful that he failed to appreciate all of your many charms. Rest assured, Kitty, I will not.”

“For now,” she said.

“It’s a good place to start,” he replied and then tugged her closer to him, closing his arms about her as he pulled her down onto the bunk with him. She sprawled over his lap in a tangle of skirts.

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