How to Be a Proper Lady

know she was a madwoman and a lady. “I bought my way free.” Along with Mattie, Billy, and Matouba. The rest of his crew would have to wait. He could not be seen to be throwing about gold too freely. But they were accustomed to tight quarters, and without charges to hold them the harbor master would release them soon enough.

She shook her head. “Port officials will do anything for a sack of coins.”

“And a good word from a trusted privateer. Thank you for your assistance.”

She straightened up again and gave him a slow, assessing stare from boots to brow. She did not move, but her very stance shouted swagger, sun-gold hand resting upon the long knife at her hip as though born to be there.

But it was not. That hand had been born to wear kidskin gloves. To have a dance card ribbon wrapped about the wrist. To find its place upon a gentleman’s arm.

“I don’t like to see sailors trapped on land,” she said. “Even pirates.”

An honest response. He had to admire that.

“I have not pirated on American ships for years.” Only during the war, and only those ships carrying supplies to England’s enemy, France. The Cavalier’s first master, Alex Savege, had preyed upon wealthy English noblemen’s vessels. “But you know that, don’t you?”

“Perhaps.” Her mouth twitched up at one edge.

“This does not bring us even.” He held her gaze steadily. “You sank my ship.”

“What do you think I owe you, sailor? Mine?” She laughed, a rich, throaty release of pure pleasure. “Think again.”

She liked to laugh, and that silken laughter acted like a caress right down Jin’s chest, straight beneath the front fall of his trousers.

“Your ship isn’t worth it.” His voice sounded unnecessarily hard even to his own ears. “You owe me the opportunity to regain some of what I have lost, and I haven’t a ship now with which to do that.”

Her brows tilted up. “Don’t tell me you expect me to hire you on.”

“I do. And three of my men.”

“I said don’t tell me. I don’t believe it. The Pharaoh wants to join the crew of a privateer in the pay of the state of Massachusetts? Tell me another tall tale, sailor.”

No easy riposte came to his tongue. Damn but that golden voice could distract a man.

“You had the funds to buy your freedom and clothes,” she added.

“I have spent all the credit I have in these parts.” Not even a quarter of it. “I put a down payment on that vessel by the slipway yonder.”

She sucked in a whistle through her teeth and wagged her head. Clearly she had lost every last vestige of ten years of upbringing in a nobleman’s household.

“She’s a beauty.” She peered into the bright day toward the dry dock. “She’ll be fast too. Possibly faster than the Cavalier.”

“I will need to settle the balance once she is finished. I hear you are heading south when you put to sea in a fortnight.”

“I am. But I’ll not be picking up prizes along the way, unless I come across one I can’t turn down. I’m carting a cargo on this trip.”

“I have assets in Tobago I intend to collect to purchase that ship. I could use the ride in that direction, and you could use me aboard.”

She seemed to mull, a wary glint in her dark eyes. Then she pivoted around back to her work.

“I will consider it.”

Jin’s shoulders got hot and prickly. He moved forward, his boots halting within the fall of her scant noonday shadow.

“You will consider it now.”

She looked up at him, eyes narrowed, but the pulse at her tender throat leaped. “Come any closer, sailor, and you’ll be eating my long knife for lunch.”

“Deny me my due, madam, and you will regret it for longer than it would take to make this dilapidated old barge into a seaworthy vessel.”

Her cheeks reddened. “This dilapidated old barge sank your ship. And didn’t your mother and father ever teach you manners, Seton?”

His mother had not taught him anything that had been of use once he had been sold into slavery. And his father, the Englishman whose name he had never known… Well, that was another stop he would be making in Tobago.

“I guess not.” He kept his tone even. “Will you hire me and my men?”

“Move off my back and I’ll let you know.”

He obliged by a pace, withholding his satisfaction. Already she was bending. This might not take as long as he had thought.

She pushed her hat back on her brow again and stood.

“My quartermaster has gone on furlough,” she finally said. “And this morning my mate and cook signed on with a naval frigate. Can any of your men wield a pot?”

They would now. He nodded.

“Truth be told, I could use an experienced first lieutenant.” Her eyes narrowed again, squinting as he had first seen in the rain. “But how would you like it after commanding your own vessel?”

“I will not give you trouble.”

She frowned. “I doubt that.”

Jin allowed himself a grin. This woman had not won her own command by making mistakes.

Now she scowled. “This isn’t a pirate ship, Seton. My men are loyal to me. You won’t steal my vessel out from under me if that’s what you’re imagining.”

“I do not want the April Storm.” He wanted Miss Viola Carlyle upon his ship come July, sailing east toward England. “Will you take me on?”

She seemed to study his face, her eyes keen. “I will come to regret this, I suspect.” But she moved forward and extended her hand.

He grasped it. Her palm was rough, fingers slender, grip tight. Sailor and lady both. And up close prettier still. The spring sun showed her features to be finely shaped. By accounts she was nearly five-and-twenty, but despite the sun-tinted tone of her skin, she still looked like a girl. It could be the twinkle in her rich eyes that shouted confidence to the world in the face of the constant uncertainty of a sailor’s existence. That confidence had been engendered in her during the first decade of her life in which she hadn’t a care in the world.

“You will not regret it.” How could she? A lady belonged in a gentleman’s house. Jin would make certain she got there.

Chapter 4

Viola allowed her crew a fortnight’s furlough stirring up trouble in alehouses about town while she fitted out her ship, did noisome paperwork, and argued with the clerk who worked for the merchant whose goods she would carry to Trinidad. Once she unloaded the cargo and enjoyed a few weeks of Aidan’s company, she would return to northern waters and scouting out enemies of her adopted country, as the state of Massachusetts had commissioned her to do nearly two years ago when her father died. She had been de facto captain since his illness grew debilitating two years before his death. But he had never wanted to leave the ship, and aboard she had been able to look after him.

Finally the cargo was loaded-barrels of flour, beans, hams, apples, and a vast quantity of furniture that filled the hull but provided little ballast. The April sat so light in the draft now, they would make the journey quickly, in less than a month if she was clever and they didn’t run afoul of brigands along the route.

But that’s why she had hired on the Pharaoh. Her own personal assurance. If trouble came looking for her, she would have the right man at her back.

When finally she climbed aboard, a single traveling case in hand, he was already amidships handing out orders