Free The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries Page A

be, she couldn’t tempt him. He had different requirements for a wife, and she fit none of them. He wanted a sweet-tempered maid who’d give him peace and comfort during the long nights, not a defiant noblewoman who’d plague his days as well as his nights.
    “Never mind my reasons for taking her off the Chastity ,” he growled at Barnaby. “She’s on board now, and it’s too late to send her back.” When there was a surge of sound below decks, Gideon scowled. “’Tis a shame, too. Those women won’t stop their caterwauling as long as she’s down there stirring them up.”
    “She seems to think that if the women make enough noise, you’ll change your mind and return them to the Chastity .”
    “Return them to the Chastity , hah! Those women are lucky to be saved from what awaits them in New South Wales, not to mention the journey ahead.”
    “Yes, but they don’t know that, do they? And you didn’t tell them much about what we intended.”
    Gideon rubbed his stubbled chin. “You’re right. I was in such a hurry to get them aboard without any bloodshed that I didn’t tell them anything except that my men wanted wives.”
    He steadied the wheel. Perhaps he ought to set their minds at ease. If he made it clear they weren’t going to be harmed, then they’d be more likely to cooperate. That is, if he could force that Lady Sara to stop riling them.She seemed to have appointed herself their spokeswoman.
    A half-smile touched his lips. Their spokeswoman. Might as well go directly to the source of the problem. “Barnaby, go below and bring Lady Sara to my cabin. Then come take the helm.”
    “Now?”
    “Now. I think it’s time that vexing woman and I had a little discussion.”
     
    Sara stood in the cramped hold, so filled with righteous indignation that she could scarcely contain it. How dare that wretched pirate kidnap them! How dare he carry them all off like this!
    “Come now, ladies, I know you can make more noise than that!” Sara cried above the heads of her charges, who were wailing and carrying on as if their children had been torn from their breasts. “We’ll get them to turn this ship around if we have to scream ourselves hoarse!”
    “They might murder us instead!” Queenie shouted above the din. She’d been the only one to disapprove of Sara’s plan for annoying the pirates, but she’d been outnumbered by the other women, who’d thought it as good a plan as any. Besides, it had given them something to do instead of lying in the dark waiting to be parceled out to the men like so many provisions.
    “If they wanted to murder us, they’d have done so by now!” Sara shouted back. “They said they wanted wives! Let’s show them that we’d make terrible wives, and maybe they’ll let us go!”
    The words were leaving her mouth as the hatch to the hold opened, and one of the pirates came halfway down the narrow stairs. Instantly he grinned, making her wonder if he’d heard her words.
    She motioned to the women to be quiet as she surveyed their new assailant. His elegant attire made him look remarkably different from his companions. Indeed, in England he might have been considered a dandy withhis silk stockings, striped waistcoat, and cravat tied in a Bergami knot.
    As the women fell silent, he tipped his head toward Sara. “The captain wants a word with you, Lady Sara, if you’d be so good as to come with me.”
    Why, the man was English! Amidst all these barbarian colonials, at least there was one Englishman, one man who might have some moral scruples.
    Might. He was still a pirate, after all.
    At his words, the women had crowded around her as if to protect her. Though the gesture touched her, it hardly made any difference. They couldn’t even keep themselves safe, much less her.
    “It’s all right, ladies.” She forced a reassuring smile to her face. “I shall go speak to the captain if he wishes. Who knows, perhaps he has come to his senses.”
    The women’s skeptical looks