Chapter 15

Adrian watched Miss Hawthorn's body tumble across the deck. The blade in her hand glinted in the flashes of lightning, aimed at her midriff. A horrific vision flashed before his eyes: the damage as she rammed into the capstan with the cutlass pointing at her soft stomach, but there was nothing he could do to prevent the impact.

He hauled in the halyard, lifting Elias back onto the ship.

"Are you all right?" he yelled through the gale.

Elias's wide eyes latched onto him, and his mouth twisted in a soundless scream. He gripped Adrian's shirt with one hand, trembling like a frightened bird, like the one Adrian had saved as a child. The other arm hung limp along his side at an odd angle.

"Dammit!" What the hell was Elias doing in the rigging? "Take the boy below and find Freddie," he shouted to Scott, who materialized from the gray wall of rain and sea spray.

He let go of the boy and fought his way over to Miss Hawthorn. The cutlass fell from her limp hand when he turned her around on her back.

"Miss Hawthorn?" he yelled over the howling wind. Her chemise clung to her body, a red stain spreading on her waist. "Miss Hawthorn, please answer me."

He swung her up in his arms and balanced across the deck. "Matheson," he yelled toward the quarterdeck. "Take the helm!"

"Aye, Capt'n."

An abrupt tilt to the larboard side sent Adrian's shoulder crashing into the steps to the quarterdeck. He grunted but ignored his discomfort. "Miss Hawthorn, are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Her voice shivered, and her teeth clattered.

"You're bleeding."

He lowered her as gently as he could next to the hatch, refusing to release his grip on her, and assisted her down the ladder to the hold. A pungent whiff of whale oil met him.

The high-pitched female scream that had pierced through the raging gale, through the ravenous roar of the ocean, and right through his heart still rang in his ears.

"It is but a small cut," she assured him as they escaped the lashing rain. "How is Elias faring? I want to see him."

Her demand pierced the bubble of the pressure that had rooted inside him. "What the hell were you thinking?"

He could only see a vague outline of her in the sparse beam from the galley, where Freddie tended to Elias, but he sensed her shocked eyes on his face.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I told you to stay in the grand cabin! Don't ever do such a stupid thing again. You could have died!"

He asked for nothing from her, yet she had rescued both the boy and the ship. Her selfless act bound him to her in gratitude, exposing his weaknesses and coercing him into owing her something he could never repay. He refused to explore any other motives for wishing her safe from harm.

"Captain?" Scott emerged in the opening to the galley, clinging onto the frame with a lantern flailing in his hand, but Miss Hawthorn ignored him.

"God forbid you lose your ransom!" Her hair plastered to her head and neck, and fine droplets dusted her eyelashes like diamonds in the shine of the lantern. Her chemise clung to every curve of her body as she held onto a beam for support. "You put him in that dangerous place, first by allowing him on board this ship and then by ordering him to work the rigging during a storm."

"I didn't order him up into the shrouds!" Devil take Thomas for letting the boy out of his sight, today of all days. And devil take that woman for making him yell at her in front of his crew. Damn!

Scott's head swiveled between them. "Captain–"

A cry of agony pierced the air, and they both whipped their heads toward the opening to the galley.

"Elias?"

Miss Hawthorn stumbled along the passage as fast as the rocking ship let her, pushing past Scott into the galley.

Elias lay on one of the tables with Freddie leaning over him.

"Thank God!" Miss Hawthorn exclaimed. "Are you quite all right, Elias?"

Scott hooked the lantern on a timber in the ceiling. Even the soft glow failed to mask the ashen tint of Elias's countenance.

"Y-y-yes, Miss." Elias's voice quivered with pain.

Had Elias always had such a childish voice?

The Ranger toppled over another wave, and Adrian stretched out an arm to support Miss Hawthorn when she staggered. She stood drenched and shivering, yet her skin felt burning hot against his hand.

"How is he?" Adrian asked and looked at Freddie.

"He be fine," Freddie grumbled. "Afeared and battered, and his shoulder be out o' joint, but he'll live to sail another storm. Me will need to pop his shoulder back, but he's sayin' nay to me touchin' him."

Adrian scanned the frail, soaked form on the table, needing to assure himself that Elias was fine. Why the hell hadn't he listened to his gut feeling earlier when Elias had reassured him that he would be fine? He should have kept him under vigilance, but as captain, he didn't have time to watch the boy during a raging gale.

Miss Hawthorn was right—Elias didn't belong on this ship.

He rested a hand on the boy's intact shoulder and felt the trembles racking Elias. "Well done, Elias. You were strong and proved yourself tonight, and I'm proud of you. Now buck up and sit straight so Freddie can pop your shoulder back in. You'll be no good to me as you are now, and I can't spare you from my crew."

A sparkle of pride passed over Elias's eyes, but his fear and pain soon quenched his joy. Adrian sensed Miss Hawthorn's silent accusations but avoided her eyes. She didn't know the brutal rules on the high seas, cruel rules that kept men alive in harsh conditions. A wounded and feeble sailor was a burden to the whole crew, and many a captain would have tossed the boy overboard without hesitation. Adrian had no such intentions, but Elias needed to learn.

Scott lifted Elias to a sitting position, supporting him so he wouldn't jolt off the table in the rough sea. Freddie reached for his arm again.

"Ow, it huuuurts!" Elias was unable to hold back his tears. He tried to fend off Freddie and landed a solid blow to his temple with his other hand. "Get the fuck away from me!"

The Ranger lurched, and Elias groaned. Freddie latched onto the boy's arm, and Scott braced his other arm and shoulder.

"Wait." Miss Hawthorn stepped forward, clutching the table, capturing everyone's attention. "You'll break his arm."

"What do you mean?" Adrian asked. She shivered as the wet and bloody chemise clung to her curves, allowing a more generous view of her body than she seemed to realize. Suddenly, he wanted Scott and Freddie to leave. He pulled off his coat and draped it over her, shielding her from their eyes. "We need to get the shoulder back in place."

A faint blush tinted her cheekbones in the dim light, but she lifted her chin.

"My father owns a racing stable. We often see—saw such injuries among the riders. I have the skills to set it right with minimal harm."

The eyes of the crew members widened as they looked at each other.

"Please tell us how to treat him, miss," Scott said, but then he remembered his rank. "I'm sorry, Capt'n. On your orders, of course."

Dammit, she ate her way into his entire crew!

He held Miss Hawthorn's eyes. Wet and cold and bloody and hurting after saving Elias and his ship, she stood before him, swaying with the ship's movements, chin lifted, eyes sincere, waiting for him to make the right decision. She wasn't playing a game to improve her position like he would have expected. She wasn't bargaining. She offered to help because she cared about a privateer's crew.

A privateer who had ruined her life.

He moved his gaze to Freddie and nodded.

Miss Hawthorn didn't waste a second and crouched before the sniffing boy, placing a tender hand on his knee.

Adrian's gaze lingered on the hand, and his mind wandered in an unproductive direction. He chastised himself. Who wouldn't wish for a woman's touch after months at sea?

"Elias," Miss Hawthorn's voice interrupted his fantasies, "I know you're hurting, and I know you're scared, but you're a braver and stronger boy than any other man I've met before. Now, you can choose to be brave again and let me fix your shoulder, or you can choose to let it be, which will cause you great suffering and disabilities and reduce you to a burden for Captain Hainsworth. Which choice do you make?"

Elias sniffed a couple of times, his lower lip trembling as he gazed at each of them. He swiped at his tears with a determined move. "I choose to be brave."

Elias bobbed his head, a silent nod of conviction that seemed to bolster his resolve. Adrian noticed the approving looks shifting between Freddie and Scott.

God dammit.

"That is a good choice."

"C-can I please have a h-hug, miss?"

Elias's feeble voice coiled around Adrian's heart and constricted his breathing.

"Of course you can." Miss Hawthorn curled a careful arm around Elias's neck and hugged him. "Now we'll turn your lower arm like this"—she motioned Elias's elbow into her desired position. She nodded at Freddie above Elias's head, and he held the boy steady—"and before you know it"—a smoochy pop sounded when she put her weight to Elias's shoulder and yanked—"it is over."

"Ouch!"

"Well done, Elias." Miss Hawthorn praised. "A tight dressing and a few days rest will make you good as new in no time."

Adrian exhaled, unaware that he had been holding his breath. Miss Hawthorn had maneuvered Elias exactly where they needed him with effortless skill, maintaining the kid's dignity in the process. Against his will, Adrian had to give her credit.

"Is it over?" Elias's astounded look flashed between them.

"Yes," Miss Hawthorn confirmed. "You did very well."

"Thank you, miss, for saving my life!"

A broad smile lit up Miss Hawthorn's face, and Adrian's heart fluttered.

Wonder what it would take to get that kind of smile from her.

"I merely did what anybody else would have done." She smoothed back some of his wild hair. "And besides, Captain Hainsworth was the one who saved us both."

Miss Hawthorn's words were a grim overstatement. Few people would have done what she had done. She possessed a courage and a generosity that he had never witnessed in any privileged woman. She had endured the capture by a bunch of savages, yet she showed them all kindness and respect. She defied the mold of the typical English upper-class woman, who would scream and swoon at the slightest provocation.

And now, cold, shaken, and bleeding, she had set herself aside for a boy she didn't know.

No, she didn't behave like the typical peerage woman, and certainly not as the woman he had imagined as Ashcroft's betrothed.

What the hell did she see in that bastard? Not his real nature, for sure.

"Capt'n," Kinsley called from the doorway. "Need you at the helm."

Adrian lifted his chin to acknowledge Kinsley and turned to Elias. "You did well today, Elias. Get some rest. Freddie, make sure the boy falls asleep and sleeps long."

Freddie sent Adrian a knowing look and motioned for the cask of grog with his head. "Aye, Capt'n. Me will make 'im fall asleep in no time."

"Good. Report to Thomas when you're done here. He needs you on the lower orlop deck."

Adrian could feel the burning stare from Miss Hawthorn on his back when he turned and left. Out of sight in the dim companionway, he stopped and leaned on the tilting wall.

Elias could have died. Miss Hawthorn could have died.

Adrian bore the weight of his crew on his shoulders. Every choice he faced could mean the difference between life or death for his loyal men, but nothing had prepared him for the horror of watching Elias being pulled into the unforgiving depths of the Caribbean Sea.

Adrian could have lost his ship, his men, and his life tonight. He had been fortunate, extremely fortunate.

Because of Miss Hawthorn.

He dragged a shivering hand down his face. She had risked her own life to save Elias when Adrian failed, and her quick reaction had kept the Ranger from capsizing.

He owed her everything, and still, he dared to ruin her life.