Free The Pirate's Duchess: A Regent's Revenge Novella by Katherine Bone Page A

Blackmoor.”
    “’Tis a pleasure to meet you at last,” Angus said, offering a crooked but charming smile. As she wondered how long he had been with her husband, the man bobbed his head again, then turned to Tobias. “Everything is ready.”
    Tobias nodded and took Prudence’s hand. Together, they wove their way through hoards of stolen merchandise, past the Fury ’s figurehea d— a woman clothed in a billowing shift, her hand outstretche d— to the gangplank leading up to the quarterdeck. The ship was an architectural wonder, a surprising blackened beauty with its gun decks, rigging, carronades, three towering masts, and furled sails.
    No wonder it had never been caught.
     

     
    Tobias ground his teeth in frustration. I am an unmitigated ass, he thought, watching Prudence cautiously navigate the hatch to descend the main companionway stairs with queenly poise. Nothing had changed in Exeter since his hypothetical death— except his wife. She’d once been a meek, easily persuaded woman, charged by flights of imagination. This Prudence was no longer cast from a cocoon of characters in Gothic novels. The estate thrived. His accounts were in pristine order and Blackmoor’s figures had increased under her watchful eye. She’d taken care of his tenants when there had been a need, Mrs. Denny’s difficult pregnancy included. Fierce in her defense of his duchy, she’d taken hold of his responsibilities like a lioness forged out of desert sand. And damn him, he couldn’t ignore the admirable transformation any more than he could deny the heart pumping blood through his foul veins.
    Blackmoor. Heir to a manse above the cliffs that cries no more.
    Throughout his life, the staff and tenants on his estate had been loyal to his father. In his father’s absence, nary a one had abandoned Prudence . . . except him. Had his decision, the deathbed vow he’d given his father, Eggleston’s letter, the map he’d hidden under lock and key to protect her, and his dishonesty transformed a solitary caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly? As the Black Regent, he’d set out to ruin Underwood’s financial realm, to expose the marquess’s evil, making it harder for the man to do his worst. His plan had worked until now, until Prudence had exposed his trump card. Where would this dangerous situation lead them? Would Tobias lose Prudence when all he’d ever sought to do was protect her?
    Tobias escorted his wife past the capstan with its large ropes, cannon, gun tackle and equipment to his cabin door, looking back at her occasionally to ensure she hadn’t lost her way. Nothing in this ship condemned him but her presence. Within this hulking vessel, he wasn’t an outsider but a living, breathing part of a greater plan, a leader of miscreants who fought for more than themselves—the lives of his father’s friends, their heirs, villagers who bore the brunt of Underwood’s deceitful, tightfisted tactics. To him, this defined his duchy. His father had exhausted legal channels to stop Underwood, to no avail. Tobias had chosen to fight fire with fire, sailing into perilous waters, attacking Underwood’s ships, dividing the spoils among those less fortunate, and making a mockery of revenue men who’d sought to stop his quest for revenge. He’d embraced impossible odds and sacrificed his own happiness for the downtrodden, hungry miners, jobless fishermen, and smugglers trying to make good.
    Prudence’s derision was a price he was no longer willing to pay, however. He was like any other man, desiring the comforts of a woman. Not just any woma n— his wife. If it took a lifetime to make amends, he’d breathe his last breath ensuring Prudence would love him again. Or he’d let her go, allowing her the freedom she deserved to love someone else, no matter how it hurt him. He’d done enough . . .
    He rolled his shoulders, released a sigh, and opened the bulkhead door to his private domain. He stood aside, allowing Prudence to move past