Page 91 of Ruthless, But for Her

“You're not one of her ladies, are you?”

She had seen the boy before, coiling scrap rope for a penny near Tam's stall. Dirt was worked into his knuckles. His shirt was more patch than cloth, his feet bare against the planks. He was perhaps one-and-ten.

“Her ladies?” Cassia asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.

“A girl from the Daisy told us not to talk to you. But you don't look like one of them, and there ain't any others like you around.”

She sat down on the barrel. It gave her a view of the sea she'd been so afraid of when she first left Grantchester. But she was growing to love it.

“No, I am not. So why do you speak with me, if you were told not to?” She was genuinely curious.

“My papa told me, when I asked him how I could be a crewman on the Black Sails someday, that sometimes, I had to decide things for myself and not always listen to whatever anyone else says. It's what the brothers would do.”

Cassia could not resist smiling at him. “I believe your father is wise,” she told him.

As Cassia thought back to the boy, to her day on the docks and contemplation of her future, she kept returning to the same question.

Could she remain in Mere's End?

It was a far cry from Grantchester and the peaceful life she'd known before Roland. But Cassia found she didn't mind taking care of her own needs. In fact, she liked it.

She liked him.

And that, she thought, getting dressed for the day, was the crux of the matter. Without Ashton, she'd not have such an inclination. Most of her desire to remain in Mere's End, or all of it, in fact, was because he lived here.

In a stew house. You cannot live in a stew house, Cassia. Nor can you live in the loft over a ropemaker's shop. And that is his reality.

And then there was the matter of Ashton not returning last eve. It was so unlike him to leave her unattended for the evening.

“G'morning Tam,” she said, descending the ladder and expecting a grunt in return.

Instead, he'd stopped working.

“What is it?” she asked. Something was not right.

“Ashton asked that I have you gather your belongings. He will be back straightaway, after you break your fast.”

She was as confused as Tam appeared.

“Gather my belongings? Did he say why or where we are going?”

Even if he did, she had a feeling Tam would not tell her.

Cassia was not satisfied with silence.

“Where are we going, Tam? I beg of you, please, tell me.”

She sat at the table he'd set for her. Tam went back to work.

He would not betray Ashton, and clearly Ashton had instructed him not to tell her.

Why?

The possibilities swirled through her mind as she ate. There was little for her to gather, and Cassia was prepared in no time. For what, she did not know.

Thankfully, she heard the creaking of the ladder a short time later. It seemed she wouldn’t have long to wait to find out her fate.

“Where are we going?” she asked as soon as Ashton appeared. “And why did you not return last eve?” she asked before he could answer the first.