The Captain of All Pleasures (Sutherland Brothers #1)(46)
Author: Kresley Cole

Brazen chit. Still, he grunted, and she continued, “Your cabin boy made it clear that he doesn’t think I deserve food after the dastardly thing I’ve allegedly done. I’m sure your whole crew is of the same opinion.”

She began shining an apple with the hem of her shirt. “Would you eat from the generous trays that keep coming if you were in my position?”

Put like that, he probably wouldn’t have, but he’d be damned if he’d admit that to her.

She shook her head at the apple, then held it in two hands as she lovingly took a bite with her little white teeth.

Why hadn’t he foreseen this problem? Hell, he didn’t want to starve the wench. Exhaling loudly, he said, “I promise you that your food has not been tainted at my order. In the future, I’ll make sure that no one alters your meals in any way.”

She inclined her head toward him as if in a regal acknowledgment. Irritated at his continual softening with her, he grabbed his hat and turned away.

“Sutherland?” she asked before he could leave.

“What?”

She ran her sleeve over her chin and took a deep breath. “Although I find it unspeakably difficult to ask you for anything, I find that I have to now that I finally have the energy.”

He expected she needed some type of luxury item that she didn’t already possess, so her next question caught him completely off guard.

“How did you sink my ship?”

“What?”

She leapt off the bed. “I have to know!”

“I didn’t have anything to do with sinking your ship. You and your crew took care of that all by yourselves!” Derek all but yelled.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It has to be you.”

“You’re just trying to escape your own punishment by throwing me off the scent—”

She began to pace. “I know your motivation,” she continued as if not hearing him. “After all, my father was favored to win this race. And with your reputation, the loss would be devastating to your company.”

“You exaggerate.”

Returning her attention to him, she said, “You know this race will make or break captains and shipping lines. All of England is caught up in it. All our reputations are at stake.”

“I don’t disagree with that. But, believe me, Peregrine Shipping is strong enough that a single race wouldn’t run it into the ground.”

She gave him a pitying glance. “I know about the company. I’m well aware that you’ve been losing business steadily for the last few years. You might have had some success in camouflaging that fact. But anybody who looked closely would know you’re killing Peregrine.”

What she’d said was only a variation of his brother’s rebuke just weeks earlier but, damn, he didn’t want this girl to think that.

“You can’t bloody well talk, princess. You poisoned my crew so your father could win.”

“How can you think I’m responsible for your crew’s sickness?” she asked in an astonished tone.

“Don’t forget that I found you in my ship’s storage hold sneaking around the water casks,” he replied just as heatedly. “And I heard you telling that Irishman that you could cross me off the list—that you’d been through my entire ship.”

“God, you are a fool. I swear the alcohol has pickled your brain.”

“I am indebted to my drinking. Staying on the bottle is the only thing that prevented me from succumbing to our poisoned water,” he thundered.

“I’ll tell you again, someone else did this. Most likely the same person who crippled my ship.”

“Then what were you doing in the hold?”

“Well, spying, of course.”

She said it in such a matter-of-fact way, he was tempted to believe her. But he’d never had an enemy as bitter as Lassiter, and it would make sense that he would find a way to retaliate after their fight.

“I don’t believe you. Your father was probably desperate to win to pay for all your frivolous luxuries.”

She answered with a strangely blank look, then explained, “My father was investigating the repeated accidents occurring with the larger lines. He was at the Mermaid that night to get information because he believes someone’s sabotaging them. My vote was adamantly on you. My father and Chancey thought Tallywood—”

He let out a laugh.

“My sentiments exactly,” she agreed. “I also believed you had something to do with my father’s continued imprisonment. We had a list of several suspects, but I was convinced you were cold enough to do it all. I wanted either to clear you or gather evidence against you.”

“And which did you accomplish?”

“At the time, I thought you had nothing to do with it. But now, after what you’ve done to me and my crew, there can be little doubt.”

“You’re lying,” he said evenly. “One aspect of your tale rings false, princess. No one would suspect Tallywood over me for something like this.” With a last look, he stormed out the door.

Nicole was well enough to go about on deck, but there was no way Derek could allow her out, not with the crew fuming about her being on board. Although they understood why a man would want to keep a prisoner like her, they’d hoped he would send her to jail with the rest of her crew.

Derek would be forced to escort her everywhere she went, and he didn’t relish spending that much time with the taciturn girl. When she did speak, she was belligerent and insulting.

As he’d expected, she started demanding to go out shortly after they’d sailed from Cape Town.

He thought he could easily deflect her by saying, “I’ll escort you topside as soon as you tell me why you poisoned my crew.”

“One more time—I did not poison your blasted crew.”

“So be it. When you’re ready to tell me, I’ll take you out.”

“You don’t have to take me. Just let me out! Are you afraid I’ll get away? I haven’t been able to take any sightings of my whereabouts, but I know we’re close to the Antarctic. Do you think I’ll attempt a swimming escape? Perhaps I could paddle a little chunk of ice back to the Cape,” she said with a nasty smile.

He answered her smile with a patronizing one of his own. “The crew dislikes you. I’m not certain you’d want to be out there without me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and looked to be gulping back whatever vicious retort she’d been thinking of. The girl had a stubborn streak a mile wide. But then, so did he. He meant it when he said she’d have to confess before he let her out. He would break her down.

Turning to walk to the window, she took a deep breath. “You must understand I can’t tell you about your poisoning because I know nothing about it. You are only butting your head against an unbreachable wall.”

“I think it’s you who are mistaken. You’ll tell me, or you’ll spend the next two months in this cabin.”

She shook her head and faced him with a proud look. “That statement just shows that you don’t know me at all. If you think you can keep me when I want to go, then you have truly lost your senses.”