Miss Minerva's Pirate Mishap by Maggie Dallen (to read list .TXT) 📗

strode in quickly before she lost her nerve. “Father, I need to tell you what I discovered last night.”

Her father stood up from behind his desk, his eyes wide. “Minerva, what are you—”

“I need you to hear it from me first, Father. You see, last night, quite unwittingly, I happened upon—”

“A pirate,” her father said. “Yes. I know.”

His expression was too calm. Not a hint of the anger she’d expected and also...he knew? “But—”

“Our visitor was just filling me in on all your mischief last night.”

Visitor. She blinked at her father as he gestured toward the door which she had just barged through, but she kept her gaze on her father to try and gauge his reaction.

Roger. Oh, drat. Roger had beaten her to it.

She turned slowly to face the man who would be her suitor but paused in the act, her body twisting oddly as she froze as surely as though she were a statue in a museum.

Him.

No. She blinked. It couldn’t be.

But it was.

Even with his hair combed and his beard neatly trimmed, there was no denying that it was he.

It was her pirate.

“B-but—that is—”

“Minerva, meet Mr. Haversaw,” her father said.

The pirate smiled. If there was any doubt left in her mind, that smile did away with it. She would never forget that smile, not in a million years.

She blinked rapidly as if that might help her mind to function. All it did was make her even more certain that what she was seeing was, in fact, the pirate.

“But he’s a pirate,” she said.

The pirate’s smile grew. “On the contrary, Miss Jones. I am not. Legally speaking, I am—”

“A privateer,” her father finished. His tone was curt, his voice sharp. Whether it was because he was not fond of privateers or because he was angry with her remained to be seen.

A privateer. She weighed the word. Still a pirate, just one with the crown’s permission.

Her scowl of disdain no doubt matched her father’s. He’d raised her and her sisters to know just how close privateers were to crossing the line. Little more than criminals, her father was known to say.

“You’re a...but you...you cannot....” She stopped and wet her lips, trying to organize her thoughts.

“Indeed.” His tone was earnest, but she caught the amusement in his eyes. He was laughing at her.

She pressed her lips together to hold her tongue.

He shrugged, his smile easy. “I’ve provided your father with my letter of marque and I assure you that I am not the dreaded pirate you believe me to be.”

“Then why...how...?” Oh, drat. She couldn’t seem to form a sentence for the life of her. She whirled around to face her father, her heart pounding more frantically now than it had back in the cave. “You believe him?”

He held up a sheaf of papers. “He has the proof, Minerva.”

There was so much unspoken in her father’s gaze—so much disappointment she couldn’t bear to look at him a moment longer.

She dropped her eyes, fixing her attention on the floor at his feet. “But last night—”

“Yes,” her father drawled. “I heard all about last night. First from Roger, and now from this...gentleman.”

The way he paused made it clear he’d had another term in mind. One likely much harsher than ‘gentleman.’

“Just so,” the pirate agreed. “I was telling your father how clever you were last night.”

Her father let out a huff of disapproval but the pirate—or rather, Mr. Haversaw—continued as if he had not heard. “If we had more watchful, curious ladies like you living along the shores of this country, perhaps we wouldn’t have need for men like me.”

She turned to scowl at the man. He was being condescending, and that, she could not bear. She drew in a breath to tell him just what she thought of him and his tactics, but she stopped short at the gleam of admiration in his eyes. Her lips parted and her eyes widened. He was being sincere.

All thoughts fled as his gaze met and held hers. That smile that had caught her so off guard the night before was no less affecting now.

Her stomach flipped even as her heart fluttered like a butterfly in her chest. “But what was a privateer doing in my cave?”

My cave. She caught herself too late and bit her lip as Mr. Haversaw’s eyes seemed to glow with laughter.

“I’m afraid I am not allowed to divulge that information just yet,” Mr. Haversaw said slowly. His gaze held hers so intently that her breath hitched in her throat and her muscles tensed. She had the most ridiculous notion that he was trying to tell her something. Or that he wished to tell her something. That he wanted to say more. She took a step closer, but her father’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Do not encourage her silly behavior, Mr. Haversaw. Minerva was foolhardy,” her father said, his voice filled with the anger she knew was coming.

She winced at his words.

“She could have been injured,” he continued.

“But I wasn’t, Father,” she said, so quietly she suspected her father hadn’t even heard.

“She acted impulsively and without thought,” her father continued. “But I assure you, it will not happen again.”

She clamped her mouth shut, his words coming down around her as surely as bars on a prison cell.

No. After this adventure, she would be watched like a hawk. Under even more scrutiny than she already was, of that she was certain. There was no way around it.

“On the contrary,” Mr. Haversaw said, his gaze never leaving hers. “I commend your daughter’s bravery. Not many young ladies have such courage.”

Her chest swelled with pride and a warmth like she’d never known flooded through her veins at the praise. At the recognition.

Even so, she was well aware of her father’s disapproval. Bravery. Courage. Mr. Haversaw might as well have applauded her sense of adventure and been done with it. To her father’s mind, it all meant the same thing.

She was careless. Foolish. Selfish.

Just like her mother.

Never mind the fact that it was he who’d