Smuggler's Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

outrageous. Such illiterate, uneducated oafs! I scorned the thought.
    At once, however, I remembered how many of them would like to have put an end to my life, and this swiftly sobered me. I was completely trapped here with no prospect of escape and nowhere to go if I could get away. I had no choice, for now, but to play this game on their terms.

CHAPTER FOUR

    The French port was bustling with craft of all descriptions moving about under sail or oar. I watched interestedly from the deck as we manoeuvred through them all to moor up at the busy quay. The crew made the ship fast. Will did his fair share of work along with the roughest of the men and I wondered at it. Despite being wigless, plainly dressed, and aboard a ship full of criminals, it was clear to me he was gently born. Did he have no pride at all?
    The men were divided into three groups: those who were to have shore leave, the few who were to stay aboard, and those who were to conduct ‘the business’. No one paid any attention at all to me until Will was stepping across the gangplank with a dark-haired, older man with a shapeless figure, who answered to the name of Numbers Ben. The skipper turned to me and asked abruptly: ‘You speak French?’
    ‘Of course,’ I replied haughtily. To question my ability was to question my class and my education.
    ‘Go with them then, and maybe you can make yourself useful,’ he said, calling Will back.
    Will scowled at me. ‘I can’t possibly take her. She’ll run off!’ he objected.
    ‘I can’t go in such clothes,’ I cried equally aghast but for different reasons, looking down at my apparel with revulsion. ‘It would be shameful.’
    ‘Very well then,’ said the skipper. ‘No one here’s got time to guard her. Jacob, lock her in the cabin.’
    ‘No!’ I cried outraged. ‘I won’t be locked in.’
    ‘Come with me,’ said Jacob, taking a step to the cabin.
    ‘I won’t,’ I repeated, stamping my foot. I glared at them all, daring them to treat me so badly. Will and his companion shrugged and left the ship, walking off along the quay. Jacob made one more attempt to reason with me, and when I refused to budge, picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. For a moment, I was too shocked to make a sound. When I had gathered my wits, I began to pound my fists against his back and shriek. ‘Put me down, you great looby! How dare you manhandle me! I’ll scream! I’ll tell the authorities you’re keeping me against my will!’
    Jacob carried me to the cabin and dumped me down on the floor. I scrambled to my feet, still furious. ‘I won’t be locked in here,’ I yelled, feeling my temper burn inside me.
    Jacob simply grinned sympathetically, winked and went out, locking the door behind him. I could feel the familiar screams of fury and frustration building in my throat. My family would have read the signs; they would have known better than to thwart me.
    I kicked out at a chair, sending it crashing onto the cabin floor. My eyes misted over, burning hot, and then I let out my first scream of pure rage. I picked up the chair and threw it across the cabin. It knocked the oil lamp from the ceiling, smashing it down onto the floor with a clang and a shatter of breaking glass. I screamed again.
    The door behind me flew open with a bang and I whipped round, fists raised, ready to lash out at whoever it was. It took a moment for my rage-filled, heated vision to take in the sight of a rough man with a scarred face and a front tooth missing. I screamed and flew at him, determined to tear his face with my nails.
    The man caught my wrists in unbelievably powerful hands and twisted them until I gasped and dropped to my knees. Then he let me go and dealt me one ringing slap across the cheek. ‘I’ve heard enough of your childish tantrums,’ he ordered. ‘You be silent now.’
    ‘You can’t make me,’ I gasped, still defiant, although my head was spinning from the blow. To prove it, I began to scream again.
    The