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

have to rush off and fight my battles for me anymore.” She reached over to tweak her younger sister’s nose.

Even though she was two years younger, Sally had grown taller quicker than the rest. And even before she’d outlapped Minerva in height, she had been stronger and more athletic by far. Sally seemed to have taken this as reason enough to take on anyone who dared to slight her sisters or tease them too mercilessly.

Minerva’s lips hitched to the side as a wave of something bittersweet settled upon her. She wondered what Sally would have made of Marcus’s teasing.

Not even Sally could have been too angry, she decided as she picked up a strand of Hattie’s fine blonde hair and tucked it into a pin. There was something so very warm and kind about Marcus, which was all the more fascinating considering his mysterious profession, if one could even call it that.

“There she goes again,” Rebecca said softly.

Minerva snapped to attention, her gaze meeting Rebecca’s laughing eyes in the reflection. “There who goes?”

“You,” Rebecca said, sticking a hair pin between her lips as she went back to toying with her locks.

Hattie ducked her head as she laughed softly.

It was Abigail who clued her in. “Min, you’ve been awfully...distracted since you’ve met Marcus.”

“Someone has fallen in love,” Hattie sang softly.

“Oh, please.” Minerva took a deep breath and ignored their laughter. “I hardly know the man.”

“That is what all heroines claim when they meet their soul mates,” Hattie informed her.

“Is it?” Minerva gently guided her littlest sister’s head, so she was facing front again. “Then I suppose that is why all the heroines of those ridiculous romantic novels you read are such featherbrained ninnies.”

“Hear hear!” Sally crowed with a laugh.

Hattie shrugged. She was used to their mockery when it came to her novels and rarely let it bother her.

Abigail smiled at her sisters fondly. “So, you are not even intrigued then, Min?”

“Intrigued?” Minerva pursed her lips and gave Hattie’s hair a little more attention than it necessarily required. “Of course I’m intrigued. In the short time I’ve known him, the man has been a scoundrel, a thief, a privateer, and then some sort of rogue hero bent on taking down a villain. It would be odd if I didn’t find him somewhat intriguing.”

Her sisters were too quiet, and she suspected they were sharing looks galore but she would not glance up to confirm it. “Besides,” she said finally. “I have Roger.”

The lack of agreeable responses made the silence feel even heavier. Or perhaps it was the fact that Minerva wasn’t quite certain if she’d said that to remind her sisters about her very agreeable suitor, or if she was only reminding herself.

She tucked one last curl into a pin and regarded the final product with approval.

Truth be told, she hadn’t given much thought to Roger since he’d escorted her home the other night. Not while she was plotting out the lies she would tell him to aide Marcus’s plan, and certainly not while kissing another man.

She froze before the mirror as she waited for guilt to choke her.

Guilt never came. She scowled down at the top of Hattie’s head. Was it odd that she felt guilt for not feeling guilty?

Probably.

But, then again, she hadn’t done anything so unforgivably wrong. First, Roger wasn’t officially courting her. He had not yet spoken to her father and they had yet to even speak of marriage or courtship. It had merely been understood that they would find their way to one another eventually.

Perhaps she’d thought there’d be a moment—a draw or a tug that would make their courtship begin in earnest. Something like the gravitational pull that had led her into Marcus’s arms the day before.

“Speaking of Roger,” Sally said. “What are you going to tell him about all this?”

She opened her mouth to respond but Rebecca beat her to it. “Never mind Roger. What will you tell Father?” Her eyes were wide with apprehension.

Oh, Rebecca. Sweet, kind, dutiful Rebecca.

She and Sally shared a quick look of understanding. While Rebecca lived to sing and dance and charm and flirt, she had never once crossed their father. She’d never been tempted as far as Minerva was aware. She seemed to have no desire at all to rebel or, heaven forbid, seek adventure.

Her father was under the assumption that Caleb had volunteered to stand guard during the ball. And that was the truth. It was merely the rumor that the cave would be unguarded that was the lie. Surely that was not such a great omission.

“I don’t believe I’ll tell Father anything just yet,” Minerva said. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t either.”

Rebecca clapped her mouth shut and nodded.

Minerva gave her a smile. Rebecca might have been dutiful, but just like all of the Jones girls, sisters came first. Always.

Her smile faded as a wave of sadness hit her unexpectedly in the chest. She’d put her sisters first, and she could not regret that.

“Back to Roger, then,” Sally said, not one to be derailed from a topic. “What will you tell him?”

Minerva shrugged. “The same lie I’ll be telling the others, I suppose.”

“That you’ve convinced Father to leave the treasure unguarded so that the officers will not miss out on the entertainment?” Hattie arched her brows in disbelief. “No one would think you so much of a nitwit. Not even my heroines would be so foolhardy as to put dancing and toasts above the safety of this town.”

Minerva pursed her lips as she considered. That was precisely what she’d thought, too. And for Roger who knew her so well to believe it? Well, she would certainly have to be convincing with her lie.

You'd be amazed what lies men will accept from a beautiful face.

Minerva turned away from the mirror to hide her grin, but apparently she wasn’t quick enough. She heard Rebecca’s teasing laughter behind her. “There she goes again.”

Chapter 10

Roger believed her.

Minerva tried not to scowl as he patted her arm affectionately as