Free A Distant Magic by Mary Jo Putney

his black hair.
"I told you the truth only because you asked."
    If he was deliberately trying to intimidate her, he was doing a good job of it. Hands clenched, she tried to shield herself, but she wasn't sure that her spell would work against a man like this.
"I do wish to know the truth, Captain," she said with an attempt at calm. "Even
if it turns my world upside down. Where did you meet my father? What was the act
of betrayal?"
    "I was born in Malta and orphaned young," he replied, voice clipped.
"Twenty years ago, on the worst day of my life, your father and his friend, Sir Jasper Polmarric, found me in Valletta and said I had magical power. They told me of the Guardians and said they would protect and educate me." Gregorio's mouth twisted.
"Your father claimed he would take me to Scotland and foster me with his own
children."
    "That sounds like him." Jean's parents had often fostered Guardian children in need of a temporary home. Simon, Earl of Falconer, had been one such child after his parents died. But while Simon had been a slightly unnerving older brother to her, it was impossible to imagine this pirate in that role.
"What happened to prevent you from coming to Dunrath?"
    "On the way to Britain, our ship was attacked by Barbary pirates." His dark eyes blazed with remembered fury.
"I was taken captive. When I called for help, your father saw me in the hands of
pirates, and he turned away. He bloody well turned his back!"
    Jean had a vivid, deeply disturbing image of a child crying out while the adult he trusted abandoned him. The image was so sharp that she wondered if it came right from Gregorio's mind. But her father would not have behaved in such a way. He
wouldn't.
"Battle is chaos. He must not have seen you."
    "He looked right into my eyes and turned away," the captain said coldly.
"Besides, was he not a mage? In the weeks I knew him, he proved often that he could detect my presence when I was near. He saw me taken, and decided it was not worth risking himself for a gutter rat, despite the promises he'd made." Anger throbbed through his voice, white hot despite all the years that had passed.
    The anger and rage were real, no matter what the actual facts of what happened. Trying to get a clearer picture, she asked,
"Why is all your anger for my father? Did Jasper Polmarric try to help you?"
    "It was not Polmarric who made the promises." His expression was brooding.
"I think Polmarric died that day, but if he survived and lives still, I shall
find him when I sail to London."
    "You saw Sir Jasper shot?" Jean asked, startled.
    "Yes. You seem to know him. Did he survive?"
    "Yes, but he took a musket ball in his back that day. Though my
father managed to save his life, Sir Jasper never walked again. He is confined
to a wheelchair."
    There was satisfaction in seeing Gregorio's shock, but Jean realized uneasily that this might be the answer. She had heard the story of how Sir Jasper was shot during a pirate attack, literally falling at her father's feet.
"Perhaps my father was forced to choose between you and the life of one of his oldest friends," she said slowly.
"The safety of the whole ship might have been on his shoulders—he was a natural
leader and a fine swordsman as well as a mage."
    Gregorio moved forward another half step. "Do you think that
knowing he made such a choice would make me feel better about it?"
    She refused to drop her gaze. "No. But I also know that in battle, events happen with shattering swiftness. Life-or-death decisions must be made with no time to think. Regret is a luxury that comes later, if you survive." And it haunted dreams forever.
    "For a pampered girl, you speak of war with great authority," he said drily.
    Though she knew it was best if he underestimated her, she could not let his comment pass.
"Am I wrong?"
    "No," he admitted. "In the heat of battle, strange things happen.
Small details can be magnified; great events can take place a glance away and be