Dunham

Chapter 16

16

Elliott found Fury's rituals charming—when she was the one performing them. But making sure to respect her as a captain on her ship in this manner would grow tedious very quickly.

"Kit's the only cabin boy I've ever had who could put my things where they belong," she said softly. "He's teaching George, but in this respect, she is yet slow. She doesn't understand its importance to me."

He dropped on her bed and lay between her thighs, his head on her belly. She stroked his forehead and ran her fingers through his hair, which was one of the most heavenly things he had ever experienced. He yawned. "You do seem rather obsessed of it. How does Kit come to know this?"

"Kit shared my bed from the moment I stepped aboard the Carnivale until I took command. It was the only way I could protect him from Skirrow and his men, who passed him around. He learned my habits very quickly in an effort to please me."

Elliott's eyebrows rose. "Your bed?"

"Not in that manner. He, like you, could finally sleep in peace. Do you know: I never heard him speak until I killed Skirrow."

"Any other captain would have simply taken on more boys," Elliott pointed out.

She laughed. "Aye, who sought refuge in my cabin eventually. I ordered the bo'sun to vacate his bigger cabin so I could accommodate them all." She paused. "This ship has more hammock-sharing aboard it than most, I imagine, since I hire women and take on girls as well as boys, but it must be discreet, it must not interfere with ship's business, and it must not be with the children. When they are old enough, they will experiment for themselves amongst themselves."

It would be little time now before he was asleep, being coddled as he was by this magnificent woman who commanded a ship in such a foreign way. Then again, her anomaly began with the fact that a female commanded it without benefit of a masquerade.

"Have you ever gone as male?"

She snorted. "Aye, I have, but only when I must, which is not seldom enough. The first time, it was against my will and better judgment. It was not a successful endeavor, if by successful one means that I was mistaken for a boy."

"What happened?"

"Rafael took me for a girl and promptly took me to bed," she answered matter-of-factly. "Because he is perverse and reckless, he thought it would be a grand bit of mischief to train a woman to stand in a man's world and spit in its face. And I will forever be grateful for that."

Now Elliott could apprehend the reason for her attachment, which did not seem quite so girlish. Perhaps he should show Covarrubias a bit of gratitude himself.

"Surely you can understand the difficulties inherent in continuing such a ruse, and for so many years," she murmured, still stroking his forehead, running her fingers through his hair. "'Twas far easier to prove my sailing worth as a woman than prove it as a man while also secretly tending to my womanly needs, binding these breasts, and fearing discovery every moment of every day."

She fell silent whilst she fondled his head and shoulders, caressing, kneading, exploring him with her fingers. Lying in this woman's arms made him ache with emptiness over one fact: He could not have her. His future was bound up with a woman who, as pertained to his duty, could not legally be Fury. The fact that she refused to be his mistress only put another stake into his gut.

Yet another decision made by someone else, another decree in which he had no choice but to comply.

Elliott prided himself on his ability to foresee and plan for contingencies and enact those plans at a second's notice. Fury and all the implications of her presence in his life was not a contingency he had planned for.