Her Pirate to Love: A Sam Steele Romance Read Online Free PDF

Captain.”
    Jacques could often be found in the galley, when Paddy wasn’t preparing meals, making his own remedies and adding to his supplies. As a rule, when there was an injury, Jacques always had something on hand. It saved time and lives. The man was wiping his hands on a rag when Steele walked in. Six glass jars formed a straight line on the table, filled to the top with something that looked as though it could have been scraped off the streets of Tortuga. A foul smell lingered in the air. A good thing dinner wouldn’t be served anytime soon. He’d just lost his appetite.
    “Do I want to know?” Steele asked.
    “It’s salve to treat burns. Smells nasty, so I wouldn’t recommend opening those jars.”
    “No risk of that happening. Besides, I didn’t come to examine your work. I wanted to talk to you about the woman.”
    Jacques finished cleaning his hands then tossed the rag over his shoulder. “Is she in pain? She seemed fine when I saw her.”
    “Which is why I’m here. Why did she want to see you?”
    “She had questions about her wound. I told her she was lucky to get by with a handful of sutures. Had the blade gone any deeper it would have been dire indeed, most certain she would have died from such a wound.”
    No doubt. It was a similar wound which had taken his brother’s life.
    “Seems your attack saved her life.”
    Steele’s back stiffened. “How so?”
    “Apparently Roche lunged to stab her at the same moment our shots tossed his ship. The man lost his balance, fell back and away from her. It’s what kept the knife from piercing too deeply, I figure.”
    Had she tipped toward the blade… Steele shook off the vision and the uncomfortable feeling he’d inadvertently saved her. He hadn’t. How could he save a stranger when he hadn’t been able to protect his own family?
    “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll leave you to your work.”
    Jacques words stopped him mid-stride. “She didn’t tell you, did she?”
    The hair on the back of Steele’s neck rose. “Tell me what?”
    Jacques carefully opened a cupboard set aside for his medicines and added the jars. Securing them, he closed the door, faced his captain. “She’s with child.”
    *
    Grace gently circled her hand over her flat belly. Jacques had confirmed the wound wasn’t deep enough to affect the babe. In fact, despite the pain, the blade hadn’t gone deep at all. Thank heavens. When Roche had come at her with the knife…
    She shuddered, remembering how terrified she’d been. Her unborn child could have died. When she’d missed her monthly flow for the second time, she’d known what it meant and she’d also known that the only future either she or her babe had was to escape Roche. It wouldn’t be easy, but then, when had her life ever been easy?
    Barely more than three years after her birth her da had been part of the failed rebellion to seize Dublin in order to negotiate the return of their lands from a position of strength. From then on, they’d lived in hiding. She’d grown seeing the worry in her parent’s eyes, especially after her brother Colin left to join the fight against Cromwell. She’d been raised hearing the horrors of Oliver Cromwell’s reign against the Catholics—the murders, the forcible eviction of farmers like her da whose crops had been burned and whose livestock had been butchered. Everything they’d owned and worked for had been ripped from their hard-working hands. She’d always been determined to join the fight against Cromwell, to fight for what belonged to them as soon as she was old enough.
    Unfortunately, Colin’s death in the Siege of Drogheda, when she was eleven, changed everything.
    Afraid things would be worse for them if they were ever discovered, rather than if they gave themselves up, Grace’s da had surrendered them and whatever small freedoms they’d had had been lost. Life in Ireland hadn’t been easy, to be sure, but the only happy memories she could claim were all