Page 48 of The Worst of Them

Her ears perked at the captain’s voice. His door was cracked, spilling a thin line of yellow light to where she stood. She couldn’t see the captain or whoever was in the room with him, but she stared that way nonetheless, her attention drawn by the sound of her name spoken like a taste he was eager to be rid of.

“All is as well as can be expected,” came Jack’s reply, his tone bored as though he craved his father’s preference for any other topic. “I have no issue with her.”

Copson chuckled. “Clearly. Are you friends now?”

A sigh. “Would you prefer I remain her enemy? Expend my energy guarding myself rather than winning her good graces? She’s no trouble at all when she feels safe.”

“I suppose if it makes her easier to manage.”

Cecily frowned. Easy to manage? Jack wasn’t managing her. He wasn’t because that would mean all he’d done to earn her trust—her friendship—was false. A manipulation.

But she wasn’t stupid. She knew people and would know if Jack had deceived her.

Wouldn’t she?

“I don’t mind being her friend,” Jack said.

“I don’t mind you being friendly,” Copson replied. “But I don’t think that’s what you’re doing.”

“Oh?” She pictured Jack folding his arms like he often did when he used that sardonic tone. “Enlighten me. What am I doing?”

“I told you to give her a sword to train the crew.” A pause. “Of all the swords we have, why’d you choose that one?”

Her gaze dropped to the lovely hilt at her hip as Jack laughed and said, “I knew she’d appreciate it.”

“You wanted to win her smile,” Copson said, the words lilting with mockery.

“Everyone on this damn ship is married,” Jack replied icily. “Will you begrudge me for wanting to make a pretty woman smile?”

“Make them all smile. I don’t care. But I see the lengths you’re going to win her smile.” Copson’s voice hardened. “Have your fun, Jack, but don’t get attached. Girls like her aren’t suitable for men like you.”

She glared at the captain’s door as though she could burn through it. Girls like her weren’t good enough for a pirate—the lowest in society who deserved worse than what she would have suffered? While she would have been strung up on the gallows and thrown into an unmarked grave, Jack would get his head sawed off and his body hung along the Thames to be eaten by crows for all he’d done.

But she wasn’t good enough?

Then Jack surprised her as he replied, “You think I don’t know that?”

Her grip tightened around her sword with its ugly inlays and gaudy hand guard. She glared at it, feeling like a fool for ever trusting Jack.

But he made me happy, a small thought whispered. He made me his friend. And maybe we would have grown into⁠—

She banished it. They weren’t friends. They’d had a truce, and now it was over.

“Remember who you are,” Copson said.

Jack’s tone was resigned. “I know.”

That was all she could take. She stalked toward the crew’s quarters—and stopped short at the top of the steps.

Morgyn stood in the shadows, her black eyes seeming to suck the light into their soulless depths. She broke into a feral grin, and Cecily knew she’d heard everything.

“Getting too cozy with the first mate?” Morgyn asked. “Sounds like he isn’t too keen on you after all.”

“Rot in hell,” Cecily grumbled.

With a giggle, Morgyn turned and disappeared into the dark.

Instead of following, Cecily spun on her heel and headed for the bow The rest of the crew had gone to bed by now, so she took up her spot behind the foremast and scowled at the stars.