“But—”
He folded his arms across his chest. “It is either that or sit in this cabin for the remainder of the voyage. It’s your choice.”
She glared at him, her delicate face set in determined lines. “You know my answer.” She stuffed the clothes back in her bag.
“Yes.” Unfortunately, he did. He had hoped she would take the easy way out. But he was learning that dealing with her was anything but easy.
“Where would you like me to work?”
“First, I want your full name.”
She stood straight and tall, her breasts pressing against the bodice. “Arianna Pemberton.”
“Christopher Pemberton is your father?” His shipping line was one of the largest in England.
She nodded.
“When he discovers you missing, won’t he be worried?”
“I left my parents a letter.” She bit her lip. “Only it said I was sailing with my brother, Thomas.” Her face brightened. “They won’t know I am not with him until he returns. By then, they will receive another note from me, informing them I am now a seaman and able to take care of myself as I have told them many times. They never believed me.” Her lips curled up in delicious satisfaction. “Now they have no choice.”
Sympathy for Christopher Pemberton that he had to live with a daughter like Arianna surged through his veins. How many years had he done so?
“How old are you?”
Suspicion clouded her face. “Why?”
She needed a reminder he ran this ship. “As captain of this brig, it is my responsibility to know every member of my crew.”
Again, she straightened to her full height of a little over five feet. No matter how tall she fought to appear, she still resembled a little girl.
“Twenty-one.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure?”
“I should know how old I am, and I don’t lie.”
He lifted an eyebrow.
“Well, maybe I stretch the truth now and then, but I am really twenty-one. What are my orders?”
The willingness to prove herself flowed across her face. It enthralled him but also cut a notch in his heart. At one time, he had been as determined to please as she was now. Many years had passed since then filled with hard work and searing heartache. If she knew what her future held if she continued on this course, she would refuse his offer and remain in his cabin until the opportunity arose to disembark. But she didn’t, so he would kindly help to dissuade her.
“Since you managed to sneak on my ship—”
“I didn’t sneak on your ship. My brother’s men were to load me on the
Midnight
Star
.”
“Nevertheless, you are here. If what you say is true, there is a mix-up with the cargo.” He opened the top drawer of his desk, pulled out a sheaf of papers, and handed them to her. “Your job is to take this cargo manifest down to the hold and match each crate, box, and barrel to the list and report back to me with your findings.”
She glanced at the papers with a frown. “Are you sure there isn’t something on deck you want me to do?”
“You will be there soon enough. You have first watch. After that, since you are so good with a needle, you can mend my clothes. In the morning, you will help Hooper, the cook, feed the men and then—”
The light drained from her face. “When will I sleep?”
“When you finish what I assigned you.”
“But seamen work four hours on and four hours off.”
“Seamen do not question the captain’s orders.”
She grabbed her bag. “I’ll get started as soon as I store my things in the fo’c’sle.”
“And why would you do that?”
“That is where I will sleep.”
She thought to stay with his men. Oh no, she wasn’t. There was no telling what might happen. Actually, he could imagine exactly that, and she wasn’t sleeping anywhere near his crew. It was his responsibility to keep her safe. “You are to sleep in a hammock in a corner of this cabin.”
Her eyes rounded. “I can’t remain here.”
He’d never get any rest with her in his room, but he refused to remove any of his officers from their berths for a slip of a girl who didn’t know her place and believed she could be a seaman. “And why not?”
“It isn’t proper.”
“Sleeping with the crew is?”
She stepped toward him. “I am one of them.”
He leaned in her direction. Out of need or authority, he wasn’t sure. “You are a woman.”
“I am a seaman now.”
He slid his gaze over her as he swung his arms behind him and tightly clasped his hands together to keep from reaching for her. “With a woman’s form. Men don’t care who you say you are. They only know what they see before them. If you are to be a seaman, you must obey your captain’s orders.”
She narrowed her eyes but didn’t argue further. “Aye, Captain Danvers. I’ll get started right away.” She dropped the bag in the middle of the floor and headed toward the door.
Living with her in this cabin was going to be a trial in more ways than one. “Arianna.”
She spun to face him.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Her finely drawn eyebrows knit together. “I don’t think so.”
He glanced down.
“Sorry, Captain.” She scurried back, grabbed it, and deposited her possessions in a dark corner behind his desk. “I will hang the hammock here.”
Again she issued orders. “I will decide where it will hang.”
But she had picked the perfect spot. The farther away from him the better.
Frustration colored her face. “Aye, Captain.”
With the cargo manifest in her hands, she whirled again, her skirt flaring at the hem, and exited. When the door clicked shut, the tension gripping his muscles eased, and he breathed easier. Until he pictured himself lowering onto her naked body and her full lips uttering, “Aye, Captain” when he requested she spread her legs to accommodate him.
“Bloody hell!” He yanked open the door, strode through, and slammed it closed.
On deck, he checked the horizon, struggling to focus on a different matter. Noting in all directions only the ripples of the blue sea, his gaze followed the mast up to the maintop platform. The seaman stationed there remained watchful but silent.
Spotting Andrew on the quarterdeck with the helmsman, he joined him. “I’ve decided to allow Arianna to become part of the crew.”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “Do you think it is wise?”
“Wise, no. Necessary, yes.”
The whoosh of the wind filling the billowing sails and the creak of timber calmed him. He had missed the rise and fall of a ship beneath his feet while running the shipping company, even though he tried to deny it.
“Why?”
He would never allow another man to question his orders, but Andrew’s history with him earned him certain liberties. Morgan trusted Andrew’s judgment, but when his mind was set and he believed he was right, no one could sway his opinion, not even his first mate. “I’m hoping when she discovers how hard the work is and that she doesn’t possess the strength or stamina, she will forgo her insane idea.”
“The men won’t like her working on board. They think a woman on a ship brings bad luck.”
“They have no say in the matter. I am waiting for Shark to appear. I can’t put into a port to allow her to disembark.” He scanned the deck, intending for the men standing near to hear and spread his next words. “Inform the crew if anyone touches her, they will be flogged to within an inch of their life.” His face turned hard, his voice dangerous. “Make it very clear.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Morgan lowered his voice. “I want you to keep an eye on her and enlist a few reliable men you know well to help. I don’t want her hurt.”
“Where is she now?”
“I sent her to the hold to check the cargo.”
A quizzical expression marked Andrew’s face.
“She believes we loaded barrels that should have landed on her brother’s ship. It will keep her busy for a while and out of harm’s way.” He stared up at the ballooning sails.
“Did you discover who she really is?”
Morgan turned to the helmsman and commanded him to continue on the present course before he steered Andrew to the railing. “Arianna Pemberton of Pemberton Shipping.”
Andrew whistled. “Just our luck, she isn’t a common wharf rat. If her father owns a shipping company, why is she on one of your ships?”
Morgan relayed all she had told him. Andrew absorbed the information and digested it for future use. Andrew liked to be fully informed and ready to give an opinion when asked and even sometimes when he wasn’t.
Morgan’s gaze landed on Mark crossing the deck and called to him. He was just the person he needed to speak with next. He hated to do this to the boy, but he was the only one he could spare, and he trusted him.
Chapter Four
Arianna descended into the dark, airless hold, which wasn’t easy in a long skirt. When she sailed with her papa, she had worn duck trousers and a woolen shirt. But she shouldn’t complain; her plan had worked. Captain Danvers was allowing her to follow her dream. She held the lantern high and surveyed the full hold with a wary eye and groaned. This job would take forever. She didn’t like all of Captain Danvers’s orders, particularly this one. And especially the command she sleep in his cabin. Since she had developed into a woman she had never slept in the same room with a man. But she supposed it would be better than bedding down with the seamen.
Only they didn’t affect her the way Captain Danvers did. The feelings that assailed her when he stood near or touched her body scared her. Could it be a warning against his dangerous side? Even though she stood up to him, she feared him. She didn’t know this man at all, and he was impossible to read. His expressionless face and stiff, straight carriage never shifted or changed.
A rat scurried over her feet. She jumped back with a shriek. Arianna immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. She wanted to portray her bravery to the crew and be respected for her ability. A rat would never frighten a man. But she’d never liked the rodents and never would. Her brothers often teased her about them and one night had released them in her cabin. She woke to a big, fat rat biting her toe. But she soon outsmarted them by bringing a cat with her on their trips that protected her from the vermin. Brushing her hair from her face with a trembling hand, she fought to still her quivering muscles. She would ignore the creatures. They were smaller than her. She prayed she could.
Arianna wished he had assigned her a job on deck. She loved the wind tearing through her hair. The smells invigorated her, and the heights made her feel taller and free to do whatever she desired. Down here the sun never shined. It was dark, cold, and damp. And terrifying shadows played on the walls. In her original plan, she was to hide in the hold of her brother’s ship for a couple days. Now, she wasn’t sure she would have lasted.
She squared her shoulders. Of course, she would have. She could accomplish anything she set her mind to and the sooner she started this job, the sooner she’d leave. With water slapping against the hull and timber creaking around her, she hung the lantern on a hook overhead, surveyed the manifest, and then set it on a crate.
Turning, her skirt failed to follow. She tugged and the sound of ripping material filled her ears as a section of the garment parted to reveal a piece of wood with a sharp point. She knew dressed as she was would cause her problems and had told Captain Danvers exactly that, but he wouldn’t listen. She did the only sensible thing she could think of short of taking it off. Arianna grabbed the back hem, pulled it through her spread legs and tucked it in at her waist. She smiled. With no petticoats, which the captain hadn’t provided, it was easy.
The thump of a feet descending into the hold startled her, and she swung around. Those feet would be connected to a man she didn’t know. Captain Danvers’s words about a man only seeing the woman before him rang in her ears. Seamen were a tough lot and some unprincipled. She would rather introduce herself in a more open environment instead of this dark, confined space. Once they respected her, she was sure they would never take advantage. Despite her bravado, she knew she would lose in a contest of strength without a weapon. In the half second provided her, she scanned the secluded hold for something to protect herself with but found nothing. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her palms grew wet. Should she hide?
No. She had a right to be here, but even though she believed it, the air rushed in and out of her lungs at a rapid pace and sounded loud to her ears. As feet and then legs appeared, she forgot to breathe.
But then a skinny chest topped by a face she recognized dipped into the hold. She inhaled deeply of the humid air and released it in a whoosh. “Mark, what are you doing here?”
He jumped past the last few rungs of the ladder onto the floor and was about to answer when he stopped dead and stared at her with wide eyes.
What was wrong? Was it a rat? She hopped to the side and scanned the floor but found no scurrying rodents. Then she remembered he had never seen her in a skirt. When he continued to peer at the lower half of her body, she followed his gaze and heat seared her cheeks. She had forgotten a good portion of her legs were bare. Well, there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t work with the material swirling around her legs and entangling her feet.