Damn Lavoy. When I first suspected him of talking mutiny, I should have keelhauled him.”

“That would have been good for morale,” Althea had murmured from the shelter of his arm. She lay in his bunk beside him. The length of his naked body was warm against hers and her head was pillowed on his shoulder. The mellow lantern light made shifting shadows on the wall, tempting her to simply clasp Brashen close and fall asleep beside him. Her fingers idly walked the long seam down his ribs that was the track of the pirate’s sword.

“Don’t,” he had muttered irritably, twitching away from her. “Stop distracting me and help me think.”

She had breathed out a long sigh. “You should have said that before you bedded me. I know I should be putting all my wits to regaining Vivacia from Kennit, but somehow, here with you…” She had smoothed a hand down his chest to his belly, and let his thoughts follow it.

He had rolled toward her. “So. Do you just want to give it all up? Go back to Bingtown, and leave things as they are?”

“I’ve thought about it,” she had admitted. “But I can’t. I’d always thought that Vivacia would be our major ally in reclaiming her from Kennit. I’d counted on the ship defying him to turn battle in our favor. Now that we know that Wintrow is alive and well aboard her, and that they both seem content with Kennit, I don’t know what to think. But I can’t just walk away from her, Brash. They’re my family. Vivacia is my ship, in a way she can never belong to anyone else. To give her up to Kennit would be like giving up a child to him. She may be satisfied with Kennit now, but in the end, she’ll want to come home to Bingtown. So will Wintrow. Then where will they be? Outcasts and pirates. Their lives will be ruined.”

“How can you know that?” Brashen had protested. A smile curved his lips and he raised his brows as he asked her, “Would Keffria say this was where you belonged? Wouldn’t she say the same things, that eventually you will want to come home and that I’m ruining you? Would you welcome her trying to rescue you from me?”

She had kissed the corner of his mouth. “Perhaps I’m the one ruining you. I don’t intend to let you go, even when we do go back home. But we are both adults, aware of what this decision may cost us.” In a lower voice she added, “We are both prepared to pay that cost, and count it still a good bargain. But Wintrow is scarcely more than a boy, and the ship had barely wakened to life when she left Bingtown. I can’t let them go. I have to at least see them, speak to them, know how they are.”

“Yes, I’m sure Captain Kennit would find time for us to visit them,” Brashen had replied dryly. “Perhaps we should return to Divvytown and leave calling cards, asking when he is at home.”

“I know it sounds ridiculous.”

“What if we did return to Bingtown?” Brashen had asked, suddenly serious. “We have Paragon, and he’s a fine ship. The Vestrits would still have a liveship, one that is paid for. You and I would stand shoulder to shoulder and refuse to be parted. We’d be married, with a proper wedding, in the Traders’ Concourse. And if the Traders wouldn’t allow that, well, to the bottom with them, and we’d sail up to the Six Duchies and make our promises to one of their black rocks.”

She had to smile. He kissed her and went on, “We’d sail Paragon together, everywhere, up the Rain Wild River and down past Jamaillia to the islands your father knew so well, and trade where he did. We’d trade well, make lots of money and pay off your family’s debt to the Rain Wilds. Malta wouldn’t have to marry anyone she didn’t want to. Kyle’s dead, we know that, so we can’t rescue him. Wintrow and Vivacia don’t seem to want to be rescued. Don’t you see, Althea? You and I could just take our lives and live them. We don’t need much, and we already have it. A good ship and a good crew. You beside me. That’s all I’m asking of life. Fate has handed it all to me, and damn it, I want to keep it.” His arms suddenly closed around her. “Just say yes to me,” he had urged her sweetly, his soft breath warm on her ear and neck. “Just say yes and I’ll never let you go.”

Broken glass in her heart. “No,” she had said quietly. “I have to try, Brashen. I have to.”

“I knew you’d say that.” he had groaned. He loosened his arms and fell back from her. He gave her a weary smile. “So, my love, what do you propose we do? Approach Kennit under a truce flag? Creep up on him by night? Challenge him on the open sea? Or just sail back into Divvytown and wait for him there?”