Dunham

Chapter 11

Never before had he felt so at home anywhere other than in his own manor in the midst of his large, boisterous family. Nor did he expect to feel at home with a wife he did not want, presiding over an estate in danger of being taken by the Crown, and the woman he did want plundering the Barbary Coast never to return to him.

Certainly he had never felt at home at sea and even less in the year since he had gone on account. In fact, he had never felt so alone in his life as he had this past year.

Pirate law was entirely foreign to him and his officers, trained as they were to expect unquestioning obedience no matter how outrageous the order. Thus, having a ship full of fugitives, mercenaries, and major and minor criminals to command with no government authority behind him had put Elliott in a constant state of tension.

Here, in Fury's bed, he could not only indulge his mind and body with an intelligent and enchanting woman, he could also sleep.

More thumps. "That tickles!" More abruptly smothered giggles.

Watching Fury this long day had taught him a great deal about how she kept a democracy of ne'er-do-wells from dissolving at the first hint of weakness. Contrary to everything he had been taught, this captain allowed her men to call her "Jack," shared jokes, traded insults, drank and caroused and gambled with them. However instructive, it was still not a manner of leadership with which Elliott could ever grow accustomed.

No matter how much he resented that she had deduced the truth of his career, it was because she knew that she could discern his tension and deduce possible reasons for it.

Except ... as of ten days ago, Elliott had a hold full of glittering reasons for a mutiny that had nothing to do with his leadership. He hoped that this sojourn would lull even the most avaricious of his crew into complacency. Keeping them drunk on good food and drink, gambling and entertainment, their pricks sated, might prove to be an effective distraction.

His crew was not stupid. Losing that tavern brawl and stealing a near-spiritual icon from a powerful and well-respected ship had unified them as nothing else had: It proved that Elliott was not above a bit of grand mischief. His pursuit of that same ship's captain to make her his lover had garnered a higher respect he needed.

It also gave any potential mutineers pause: She, along with her partner, were fully capable of sinking the Silver Shilling and, by virtue of his union with her, might be willing to do so at the first sign of mutiny.

"Kit! Oh, God, yes! YES!"

Yet he was loath to ask Fury for the help he really needed. Firstly, he had no desire to involve her in his command, as it would weaken him in his crew's eyes. Secondly, it would make him appear weak in hers and he had no desire to lose her respect. It was too much to be borne that he would lose her at the end of this voyage, never mind leaving her with an impression of him as a weak commander.

But finally, his mind grew as tired as his body and he was relieved he could allow himself to go back to sleep.

"Where is she?!"

Elliott started at the sound of a scream that was not George in the throes of release. He started again when Fury lunged out from under the linens, hopped up and over Elliott to land on the deck, light as a cat. She dashed across the cabin in the altogether, swept her kimono around her shoulders, grabbed her dagger and whip, and threw the door open with a crash.

"WOMAN!" she bellowed. Elliott flung off his own bedclothes, stepped into his breeches, and went to the door to lean against the threshold and watch. "Get back to your berth and stay there until I give you leave to come abovedecks."