Unanchored (The Blood Pirate Book 1) by Stephanie Eding

Author:Stephanie Eding [Eding, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-02T05:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

My fingers traced the silken fabric for so long I lost track of time, stopping only to catch myself against the desk when the ship rocked me off balance. Finn, too, winced at the movement, still confined to his chair.

Why did he give me ribbons? Of all the things he could have brought with him, he’d taken the time to steal these.

“You don’t like them,” he said.

On the contrary, I loved them. It was the first gift I’d ever gotten.

“No, it’s…” I brought up my hushed voice. “I’m not sure if I should accept this. Did you kill someone to get these?”

He smiled at first, but his sapphire eyes widened as he grasped the seriousness of my question. “I did not kill anyone for a ribbon. Are you mad? I may be a pirate—and a damn good one at that—but I’m better than murdering for pretties. If you must know, I purchased them. From a store. Attended by an actual person, whom I very much did not murder. It was a perfectly legal transaction.”

“Was this before or after the village burned?”

“Before.” He cringed, but I doubted the pain caused it.

“Did you pay the shopkeeper with coin or by trading him ribbons for a human prisoner?” I knew the answer, or at least part of the answer. All the prisoners from below had been with him in the field by the time I’d arrived there, but I had to seize any opening I could, even if it came in the form of a stupid question.

Finn began loosening his belt to fumble with the holster that dug into his waist. “Did you save my life just to keep arguing with me?”

“Well, I wasn’t done yet,” I huffed and slumped in the chair opposite him.

“Obviously.”

Sitting wouldn’t work. I stood again and crossed my arms. “If you would just tell the truth, I could finish.”

“Blimey, Cess. Would you come off it?”

“Come off it?” My pitch could have cracked the glass windows. “I have reason to ask. I want to know what happened before I accept a gift, want to know what you did with those people I cared for. You act like…” I growled to myself, my fist knocking against the table.

I cursed him under my breath. Then I cursed myself for letting the Welsh words slip out in anger yet again. I’d meant to leave that part of me behind with Mr. Collins and the farmhouse forever.

“Would you stop insinuating that I’m imperfect?” He stood with his hand clasped firmly on to his side to keep everything in place. “I didn’t steal the bloody ribbons.”

All I could do was shake my head. “And what of the others?”

Finn grabbed a fresh shirt and let the shredded old one he wore fall to the floor. I paced, because how else could I keep from watching him? He paused at the window, staring out into the night while he gingerly slipped an arm through the sleeve, then the other.

With his hand supporting his weight on the beam, he studied the sea rather than fasten his buttons.

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