Thieftaker Read Online Free PDF Page B

spent most of her time behind the bar, helping Kelf with the ales and whiskeys. But occasionally she came out into the common area to joke with her patrons or settle down a group that was getting too boisterous.
    She might have been small of stature, but there was steel in her voice and ice in those blue eyes when she had need. Ethan had yet to meet a man who wasn’t cowed by her. At one point she glanced his way and saw that he was watching her. She smiled, her color rising, and then went back to what she had been doing.
    “Why don’t you marry her?”
    Ethan glanced at Diver and sipped his ale. “That’s none of your concern.”
    “If you’re still thinking that you and Marielle—”
    “I said it was none of your concern, Diver.”
    He didn’t raise his voice; he didn’t have to. Diver knew him well enough to understand that he had sailed into dangerous waters.
    Marielle Harper—Elli, Ethan called her—had once been his betrothed. Among the better families of the North End it had been said that she was too fine for him. She was the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder; he, the wayward son of a captain in the British navy. But she loved him, and he adored her. Still, in all their time together, he never revealed to her that he was a conjurer, and when he was accused of taking part in the Ruby Blade mutiny, of using “witchcraft” to subdue the ship’s captain, she wrote a letter to him that to this day he could recite from memory. In it she said that he had betrayed her trust, and she vowed never to see him again. By the time he returned, bitter and maimed, from the plantation in Barbados where he had labored and bled and, on more than one occasion, nearly died, Elli had married another and borne the man’s children.
    She had since been widowed, but she still insisted that she wanted nothing to do with Ethan or his spellmaking. Ethan knew better than to expect that she would ever change her mind, even as he also knew that a part of him would always long for her.
    Kannice knew about Elli. Having ruined one romance with secrets and lies, Ethan vowed never to do so again. He sensed that Kannice harbored hopes that eventually he would forget about his first love and agree to spend the rest of his life with her. She rarely spoke of it, though, and that was fine with Ethan; the last thing he wanted was to hurt her.
    For long minutes Ethan and his friend sat in uneasy silence, until at last Diver drained his tankard and set it down smartly on the table. “Well, then,” he said, getting to his feet. “Looks like I’ll be working the wharf again tomorrow, so I’d best get some sleep.” He flashed a smile, though it appeared forced. “Good night, Ethan. My thanks for the ale.”
    “Take care of yourself, Diver.”
    “I always do,” Diver said, and left the tavern.
    Ethan remained where he was and drank his ale slowly. No one approached him. Most of those who knew him either feared him for his ability to conjure or saw him as an unrepentant mutineer. He had few friends, though those he had he trusted.
    Eventually, as the crowd in the tavern began to thin and the noise died down, Kannice approached his table again.
    “Derrey was in a hurry to leave,” she said, pulling Diver’s chair around and placing it beside Ethan’s.
    “Not really. He has to work the wharves come morning.”
    “Who was that came to talk to him?” she asked, her eyes fixed on her hands as she toyed with one of the silver rings on her fingers.
    She doesn’t miss a thing.
    “One of his mates from the wharf, I think.”
    A faint smile touched her lips as she glanced up at him through her eyelashes. “Why do you protect him?”
    “Why do you harry him?”
    “If ever there was a man who needed harrying…” She trailed off, letting the words hang.
    He knew better than to argue. “I’ll tell him to keep it outside next time,” he said, an admission in the words.
    “Thank you.”
    They sat in silence for a few moments. Eventually