Wherever You Are Read Online Free PDF

around the desk. The woman’s expression went from defiance to fear, and Isabelle stepped between them, her hand on the hilt of her sword. The fact that Isabelle felt the need to touch her weapon as a warning for him hurt more than Morgan would admit.
    “I am ashamed to call you friend,” she said. “After all we’ve been through, never once have you touched a woman in anger, never once have you hit a woman.”
    The mysterious woman closed her eyes, her body held carefully still as if each breath hurt. Morgan knew the sting of the cat-o’-nine-tails. He’d seen grown men cry like babies after the first lash and he’d seen men die from the after-effects. That a woman had suffered this at his hand made his stomach turn.
    “You’ve changed, Morgan. The man I knew would never have done something like this.”
    “I had no idea.” They were the only words he managed out of his numb mouth. He’d had a woman flogged. A woman.
    He closed his eyes, fighting despair and self-hatred and felt himself slipping over the edge. Is this what Barun had reduced him to? Seeing spies in everyone? Blind in his paranoia?
    He carefully leaned his sword against the side of the desk. The woman’s terrified gaze followed his weapon. How had he not known, not seen what was before his very eyes?
    “Please tell me you’re speaking the truth,” Isabelle whispered. “Please tell me you didn’t know.” She pierced him with a bewildered stare. “Tell me you would never have ordered her flogged if you had known. I’m tolerant of many things, Morgan, but having a woman flogged is not one of them.”
    “Good God, Isabelle, of course I didn’t know. I would never hurt a woman on purpose.”
    He walked toward the mysterious female. The sight of her blood dripping from beneath the hem of her shirt onto his floor made him change course to walk a few paces away and run a weary hand through his hair.
    “I’ll take her to Reed’s ship and care for her there,” Isabelle said.
    “No,” he said.
    She paused in the act of reaching for the woman and looked at him in surprise.
    “I did this to her, I’ll take care of her.”
    “Morgan—”
    “I’ll take care of her.” He forced himself to look at the woman and what he had done to her. “I have to.”
    The woman was shivering. Beneath the tear tracks that carved furrows through the soot from the fire, her face was pale. Her eyes were wide, the pupils huge. Morgan knew the signs of shock when he saw them. Carefully, slowly, he reached for the blanket at the end of his bunk and held it out to her. She stared at the offering as if she didn’t know what it was before tentatively reaching for it. Morgan didn’t miss the wince of pain or the small whimper she tried to bite back.
    She clutched the blanket to her chest, turning wide, blank eyes to him.
    “Leave her with me, Isabelle.”
    The woman made a strangled sound, her terrified gaze going to Isabelle.
    “I don’t trust you, Morgan. I’m sorry…”
    Isabelle might as well have taken the sword and stabbed him through his stomach. After all they’d been through, the words tore through him. Yet, he couldn’t blame her. Three years ago he’d returned to his best friend and sailing partner a broken man, unable to speak of the horrors inflicted on him. Slowly his silence and moodiness had eaten away at their friendship until it hung by one thin strand. Morgan feared he’d just broken that strand.
    “I swear on my sword I will not hurt her.” No, he needed to heal her. Needed to do this. To right this wrong.
    Every so often a drop of the woman’s blood hit the floor, each splatter an ice pick to his heart.
    “I’ll check on her before I leave.” Isabelle walked out of the cabin and shut the door softly behind her.
    Slowly the woman looked around, her gaze stopping at the wall of windows behind him and the vast ocean spread before them. She turned her blank gaze to him.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered, not knowing what else to