Other Oceans: Book Two of the Hook & Jill Saga by Andrea Jones Read Free Book Online

the captain requests you stay with us while we discuss her situation. He trusts your way with children.”
    “Aye, Madam. I enjoy the captain’s trust. I’ve never known him to be wrong in where he places it.” He lifted his hand to discipline a stray wisp of her hair. It was a reason to stand next to her for another second or two. Sometimes, when near to her like this, inhaling her perfume, Smee wished the captain wasn’t such a good judge of men. But, conscious of his duty, he released her shining tendril and nodded his respects. Then he went about her errand, content to have a reason to return.
    The door to the captain’s quarters clicked shut, and Smee’s heavy footfalls faded. Jill freed the strand of hair again.
    Even if she could, she wouldn’t hide the fact from Hook that one of the pleasures she’d discovered in her short life as a pirate was the warm regard of so many men. And she wasn’t a girl anymore. She saw right through Mr. Smee. She knew what he wanted.
    Smee was Hook’s man, and, as such, he had become her own. But Jill prized honesty, and she readily admitted the conflict she perceived within the bo’sun. As much as he respected her, he didn’t quite trust her. Smee’s loyalty to the captain was his most fundamental characteristic, lodged right next to the instinct to protect him. Hook knew it, too, and that loyalty was the reason Smee alone among his men was trusted behind the door of the master’s quarters. As Smee attested, Hook had never yet erred in placing his confidence.
    Jill, too, held a loyalty to the captain she was sure would pass the test of time. Smee’s devotion to Hook, even his doubts concerning Jill herself on the captain’s behalf, endeared him the more to her heart. The man played a role far beyond his office of bo’sun. Smee acted as Hook’s attendant and squire, first mate, and liaison to the crew. He had served the captain longer than any of the other men. And Mr. Smee, true to his reputation, was as strong and as sweet as rum. Jill made that claim many times in her stories, and now that she’d tasted that spirit, she affirmed her assertion, and appreciated him.
    Smee radiated a sense of security that lured many a woman to the shelter of his powerful arms. For Jill to pretend she wasn’t drawn to him would be untruthful. She looked forward to Smee’s touches every morning— courted his attentions, in fact. Certain intimacies could be allowed, even enjoyed. But much as the lady and the bo’sun valued one another, neither would make the move that would betray their captain.
    Thinking back on the morning, Jill also appreciated Mr. Cecco, and the intensity of his greeting. She hadn’t missed his golden armbands, the white teeth within his smile. He wore his thick hair bound back in a leather lace, and never a shirt since his flaying. His attentiveness, and Smee’s, gave Jill a sense of power she’d never known as mother of the Lost Boys. Hook told her once that she would find men easier to govern than boys, and of course he was correct. Her boys had vaguely wanted both nothing and everything from her. The men aboard the Roger knew exactly what they wanted, even if they couldn’t get it, and the bo’sun and the Italian were only the most obvious about their desires. Like Cecco, Smee was always ready to offer his attention, his service, or his arm, to escort her on the steps or along the rail. Like Smee, Cecco was a strong man. Smee was red and rugged; Cecco was dark, and strikingly handsome.
    Perhaps it was because, in her storytelling, she had a mysterious hand in choosing Hook’s crew that Jill found something appealing in each of his men, such as shy Mr. Noodler, with his gold teeth and his hands on backward, and Bill Jukes, whose stem-to-stern tattoos intrigued her. She intuited their individual stories to a greater or lesser extent. The men often asked to hear her tell their histories. Each man held interest for her, and, apparently, she for them.
    And all