Sparhawk's Angel by MIRANDA JARRETT Read Free Book Online Page B

and the others couldn't hear. "She's the last surviving daughter of Sir Edmund Everard, the man who built and owned this brig, and she's gold to us, Nick. Nay, better than gold." Gideon glanced at Rose before he edged closer to Nick and lowered his voice. "Can't you see the value of keeping her with us? Her old man's a grand, rich lordling back in England, and now with her in your hands you can make him dance to whatever tune you play."
    "A lord's daughter, you say." Nick frowned, rubbing the back of his neck as he considered. "If she's very dear to him, she could be worth five hundred guineas to us. Maybe six."
    "Oh, aye, six, no mistake." Gideon's grin returned with renewed eagerness. "And she won't be the most disagreeable prisoner we've ever had aboard."
    Nick shook his head, still not completely convinced. The girl did look harmless enough now, standing by the rail to stare after the last of the
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. Could the ransom her father would pay bring the happiness that Lily was always promising?
    He rubbed his neck again and sighed uneasily, trying not to think of the other Everard sister. "Still and all, Gideon, you know I can't abide women on board. And this one will be a trial, a regular trial, what with her sis—her shrewish ways."
    Nick glanced at Gideon, praying the other man hadn't noticed how close he'd come to saying Lily's name again.
    "That little mite a trial?" Gideon's eyebrows rose skeptically. "You'll scarce know she's aboard. And if you spare her a thought at all, just remind yourself of that six hundred guineas I asked from her father's business people in the letter that went with the ship for Charles Town."
    Nick glared at him. "Didn't leave a blessed thing to chance, did you?"
    Gideon flushed beneath his tan. "I figured Miss Everard was the same as any other cargo we'd taken, Nick. Your orders are always for me to dispose of the goods as I see fit." He shifted uncomfortably. "I only meant to make things easy for you, Nick, that was all. I didn't want you bothering yourself over nothing right now."
    But Nick knew what Gideon really meant. It didn't matter that Nick had just led them to the richest prize they'd taken in months; Gideon and all the others still believed their captain was mad as a hatter. And so, in some ways, he did himself.
    "I don't think Miss Everard would take to being called cargo," he said wearily. "And for your trouble, Lieutenant Cole, you will give our lady prisoner your own quarters."
    But at that moment an excited cry rose from the lady prisoner, and together Nick and Gideon wheeled around toward her.
    "My trunk!" cried Rose, leaning over the side. "Oh, please, pray, take care with that!"
    With a final, protesting squeak from the hoist-pulley, the trunk was lifted clear of the rail and, with a sailor's guiding hand, thumped to the deck. Rose ran to kneel beside it, brushing away the drops of seawater from its hide-covered sides.
    "I can't begin to fathom what manner of foolish presumption this is, bringing my trunk clear over here after me," she said crossly, as much to the trunk as to the men behind her. "Why ever would anyone go to the trouble of doing such a thing?"
    Grumbling to herself, she used the edge of her skirt to begin blotting the worst of the water spots. With the trunk's elaborate pattern of brass nailheads, it was better suited for traveling by carriage or coach than by sea, and the constant damp of the voyage had rotted bald patches into the hide despite Rose's best efforts. Carefully she worked her way around one side and the front, but when she reached the second side she stopped with a gasp.
    Trailing from beneath the locked lid was a long, torn length of white linen trimmed with lace, and unhappily Rose ran her fingers along the tattered scrap. She sat back on her heels and looked up at Nick and Gideon, her gray eyes flashing.
    "Well, captain," she said to Nick. "You see the work your men have done."
    Once again Gideon shifted uneasily from one leg to