Bound by Decency Read Online Free PDF Page B

furious. Only cowards turned tail and ran.
    He looked away. Shouldering past a seaman, he shoved through the heavy door that opened onto his private hall. At his cabin, he halted. India presented a more bothersome encounter than even Drake’s anger. Her deceit, her games, only made his head ache. He turned around and descended the main stairs into the crewmen’s deck below. Food would do his mind well. He hadn’t eaten since dawn the previous morning. On a full belly, he could confront both Drake and India .
    Winding through rough-hewn tables, he made his way to the cook’s room and pounded on the timbers that supported the open doorframe. The scent of his favorite fish soup permeated the air. His stomach rumbled greedily. “Cleaver, hand me a bowl of that tarpon stew.”
    The cook gestured a three-fingered hand at a large boiling pot. “Ain’t ready, Cap’n. All’s I gots is last night’s doughboys.”
    Cain considered the lumpy, soggy leftovers of dumplings soaked in pork broth before he let out a disappointed sigh. Warm, the fare left little to desire. Warmed-over, it could scarce be called edible. His belly, however, demanded sustenance, no matter the type. “Very well. Throw a scrap of jerk on there too.” At least the salted pork would add flavor to the floury lumps.
    Juggling his signature knife in one hand, Cleaver ladled out a generous portion. He tossed three thick slices of meat onto a plate, then passed them both to Cain. “Here ye be. Don’t let me hear ye complainin’ none.”
    Cain took his meager meal to a long table and dropped into a sturdy chair. As he picked up his spoon, footsteps entered at his back.
    “What in the seven hells was that about, Cain?”
    Drake’s gravelly voice washed over Cain like buckets of ice. He dropped his spoon into the runny soup and leaned back in his chair with a mutter. “Can’t you see I’m about to eat?”
    A scarred fist slammed into the table near Cain’s elbow. “I don’t give one single damn about your belly. My men agreed to aid your cause. They did not sign on to turn tail from a nonexistent threat.”
    Anger simmered through Cain’s veins. He narrowed his gaze, meeting Drake’s baleful glower. “Last I knew, I was captain here.”
    “Last I knew, the man I called friend was no coward.” Challenge gleamed behind dark grey eyes.
    In no mood to fight with one of the few persons he could consider ally, Cain dropped his head to the back of the chair and closed his eyes. Through clenched teeth he asked, “Have you forgotten His Majesty’s ships do not tend to sail alone?” He opened his eyes and pinned Drake with a hard stare. “Have you become so accustomed to the simple spoils off the Bahamas that you cannot remember a ship of the line, stays with the line, unless they seek to bait and sink?”
    Drake’s jaw worked in a fit of temper. But as silence settled around them, heavy and oppressive, the harsh glint in his eyes softened. He pushed his long unruly hair away from his face and lowered himself into the chair opposite Cain. “’Tis true I’ve come to take risks more often than not. But I didn’t save your sorry arse to become the laughin’ stock of my company. Tell me, Cain, what’s amiss with you? Did you grow to like a simple merchant’s life as Teddy?”
    Two years ago, had anyone asked Cain the same, he would have laughed in their face. Yet now, when he couldn’t sail the sea without looking over his shoulder, he craved what he had lost. He’d come so close to finding decency, to obtaining a worthy place within this world. To the life he hadn’t even realized he longed for.
    Now, he had nothing but a past.
    His appetite spoiled, Cain pushed the bowl aside. “I have confessions to gain from Miss Prescott and a traitor to hunt down.”
    “That’s it, isn’t it?” A solitary golden hoop earring glinted as Drake cocked his head. “Can’t say as I blame you—you had the freedom of a rover and the security of lawfulness.