Free A Pirate's Wife for Me by Christina Dodd

misled and defeated. Did Throckmorton explain how Davies came to his attention in the first place?"
    Cate shook her head.
    "I didn't think so." Taran paced back to the table. "In this case, Throckmorton is not pleased with his own gullibility. You probably know that Throckmorton commands a large and varied network responsible for the nation's safety through the use of … shall we say … diplomacy?"
    "Espionage," Cate said.
    "Well put. After the deaths of the king and crown prince of Cenorina, Davies stepped into the role of governor. No one knew that what he'd done was a coup, and of course, although England was initially interested in the shift in power, once they realized Davies was an Englishman who gave a good accounting of himself, he was forgotten." Taran grew ever more grim. "Until he brought himself to Throckmorton's attention by asking for help ridding the islands of pirates who he said were using isolated harbors for rest and recreation, and as a jumping off place to raid English coastal towns. Because there had been raids, the English sent in militia, two ships were sunk, and Davies was in Throckmorton's good graces."
    "I'm confused." Although Cate did not look so much confused as accusatory. "You said Sir Davies sold you to the pirates. If that is true, why would he report them to the English and ask for help in eliminating them?"
    "So that when they returned," he said, "the English would sink them, they would die in battle, and no one alive would remember what happened to me."
    "That's diabolical." Cate stood quietly, her brow knit. Then, "Who did you say you are?"
    "He's my son, the son of a very wealthy, influential family," Sibeol said.
    "I know that. My brother took in noble young men to train, and from the way the other boys followed Taran, I knew he was used to leading." Cate examined him as if seeing him once more for the first time. "But for Sir Davies to be so afraid of his influence that he would use him so vilely!"
    "Sir Davies is vile." Sibeol's eyes grew flinty. "He is an assassin of lives and reputations. He has destroyed my family, my country, all that I love. Should you go on this mission, I would ask you to be very careful of him."
    Impressed by Sibeol's vehemence, Cate nodded.
    As Taran expected, she believed Sibeol to be incapable of deceit. Sibeol had that effect on people. And, of course, Sibeol wasn't lying. She simply wasn't telling the whole truth.
    Taran said, "The English are, in their own charming way, naïve in many ways. For years, I've been watching Davies from a distance. He has been wandering into England, buying his way into rich and noble homes with his money and his phony title, and gathering any information that will weaken the British cause abroad. He sells that information. He is responsible for numerous English and Scottish deaths in both battle and in espionage."
    Cate's eyes developed the glaze of tears. "I know. Believe me, I know."
    Apparently she had the good sense to be frightened — how else to explain her quivering lips? — so Taran bent his most serious gaze upon her. "Now he moves in different circles. He travels abroad for reasons unknown."
    "What is your speculation?" Cate asked.
    He waved away her query. "Speculation is useless. We need facts, and that is what we seek in Cenorina. Yet if Davies or his mercenaries discover you are a spy — if they have the slightest misgiving about your performance — they will torture you until you blurt out every bit of this plan, and when you are of no further use to them, they'll kill you."
    Cate said, "I would think they have trouble keeping help."
    How odd and almost funny she was, as if the existence of such evil was nothing new to her. But she was a sheltered young woman — or she had been.
    "Your family will never know what happened to you," Taran said.
    "Then like Caesar's wife," Cate said, "I must be above suspicion."
    Why had he imagined he could terrify Cate? Long before he appeared in her life, she'd earned