**THE PRINCESS SERIES is part of the GOLDEN UNIVERSE, and considered a sequel to THE GOLDEN QUEEN/A BRAZEN LOVE**
♦YOU MUST HAVE READ THE GOLDEN UNIVERSE NOVELS AND THE BRAZEN NOVELS TO READ THIS SERIES! AS WELL AS BOOK ONE, PRINCESS OF CANDOR, AND...
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♪ Couple of wild eyes, cup full of high life She's an angel and a devil of her own device ♪ {BØRNS ft. Lana Del Rey—God save our young blood}
Days went by as the ship continued its path to Spain. Cordelia had expected a few pit-stops, where the pirates would seek other ships to plunder. But the captain told her they needed to stay discreet and not draw attention if they wanted to make it to Spain intact.
"There are other pirates out there," he once said, looking out to the horizon, a large feathered hat covering his features. "If we encounter them, it may cause a skirmish, and we do not have time for that. Yes, there are treasures at sea, but you are the treasure we value most, at this moment."
He was being kind to her, as most of the men on board were, and yet none of it sat well in her belly. They treated her with reverence, had given her her own personal room—about the size of a cupboard, but it gave her some privacy—fed her the most exquisite food from their stores, served her with various wines they'd stolen. But it was all in return for Antoine's agreement to pay them a hefty sum of money.
Did Antoine even have such gold? She wasn't sure how much the Baron would ask for, but she had no doubt it'd be an amount Antoine might struggle to produce. Totresia was prosperous, but Cordelia had never seen the coffers and had no clue what their financial state was. She'd heard of many a country indebted to another, and she wasn't certain where Totresia featured on that list.
Helen was given a separate room, too, on the opposite side of the boat. Clive asked her questions about herself, her heritage—and it turned out he knew her father well, and valued him.
"But he does not have the kind of gold we seek in repayment for retrieving the Princess at sea," he told her, as Cordelia listened at her door while they walked past her quarters. "You are a companion of the Princess, and as such we will demand a modest sum for your retrieval, as well. But not from your father; from the King."
Cordelia had bit her lip and pressed her back to her door, letting out shallow breaths. Would Antoine pay for Helen, too? She doubted it, as he'd associate all Cordelia's antics with her, no doubt. He'd instead tell the pirates to take Helen back to England, or to do with her as they pleased. Which would be a lot of effort on their part, and would likely result in Helen either dying—thrown overboard, as she was a dead-weight—or enlisting to live as a pirate.
Her heart swelled in her rib-cage and something jumped in her stomach. She pictured Helen garbed in baggy trousers, a loosely fitting tunic over her chest, a chained necklace dipping between her breasts. A dagger in one hand, a bag of gold in the other, and flashing a devilishly delightful smile as she joined in on the pirates' spoils of war, big boots thumping on the floor-boards of the boat she'd helped them steal.
With a gulp, Cordelia pushed away that fantasy, for it had animated a thread of desire in her that she didn't think appropriate to dive deeper into. She exited her cabin for a spot of sunlight.
