Miss Minerva's Pirate Mishap by Maggie Dallen (inspirational novels TXT) 📕

“Well?” Abigail hissed the moment Roger departed. “Have you seen anything suspicious?”

If Minerva wasn’t mistaken, Abigail seemed just as enervated as she was with all the excitement. “Yes,” she said, her attention temporarily caught by the sound of the nobleman who had started to speak from the stage. She could not bring herself to pay attention to a single word.

“I believe Eddleston is our man,” she whispered.

“Eddleston?” Abigail’s lower lip came out in a pout. “But he’s such a nice boy.”

Minerva lifted a shoulder. “Even nice boys can be convinced to do wrong deeds for the right price.”

Abigail sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

Minerva’s gaze was still on the back door. Realistically, she knew that it was very possible the boy had merely slipped out to relieve himself or some such nonsense. But the timing of his sudden departure, and the way he’d glanced back...

Her eyes narrowed on the door. His entire demeanor had been far too furtive for his exit to have been entirely innocent.

She had no doubt that Marcus would catch him, but wasn’t it possible they might need her help interrogating the boy?

She bit her lip. Interrogation. Just the word made her wary on the boy’s behalf. And the thought of that giant brute Caleb manhandling the boy...

She shivered and cast a glance in the direction Roger had gone off for her wrap.

“I could help them,” she muttered. “I could get answers more efficiently than those men, I guarantee it.”

“Go on, then,” Abigail urged.

Minerva widened her eyes in surprise, but her sister was already nudging her toward the door. “I don’t like the idea of poor Eddleston alone with those men. Go help him.”

Minerva blinked in shock. Yes, she was desperate to intervene, but she never thought she’d see the day her younger sister was urging her toward danger. “But Roger will be returning and—”

“I can handle Roger.” Abigail straightened and Minerva wasn’t certain she’d ever seen her sister so determined. “I’m certain I can come up with some excuse to keep him occupied while you’re gone, just...” She glanced warily toward the door where Eddleston had disappeared. “Go help him.”

Minerva nodded, her shock fading and resolve taking its place. As she headed toward the door, all eyes in the place seemed to be focused on the earl; all she had to do was keep her head down and slip through the crowd.

Oddly enough, once she was in motion, her body calmed. Even her heart seemed to settle into a fierce, steady rhythm as if this was what she had been built for. Action. Movement. Her head cleared as well as the path before her and she slid easily through the crowd as she thought through what she might say to the boy to make him turn on whatever villain was behind this.

What sort of villain would involve such a young boy in their criminal activities?

Without so much as a glance behind her, Minerva followed in the younger boy’s footsteps, out through a darkened hallway that led to steep steps down to the shore.

No one was out here and the sudden silence after all the voices inside was deafening. The sound of the crashing waves below seemed to call to her, welcoming her as she made her way down the steps, lifting her skirts so she would not trip, and cursing the fact that she was once again destroying a pair of pretty silk slippers. The cold from the wet stones beneath her feet made her chilled all the way through.

Perhaps she ought to have waited for Roger to bring her wrap, after all. No sooner had she thought it when she slipped on the wet stones, her feet sliding out from beneath her on the last steps near the shore until—

Oof.

She landed nicely. Comfortably, even. She glanced up at familiar laughing eyes.

“Well, look who it is,” Marcus said, his voice little more than a rumble.

“I thought you might need help.” Her voice sounded stilted as she felt his arms close around her.

She ought to struggle, she supposed, but oddly enough she was quite comfortable where she was. In his arms. She gave herself all of one heartbeat to enjoy it. To savor the feel of his breath on her cheek, the warmth of his body surrounding hers... And then she returned to reality.

“I saw him leave,” she whispered.

His brows drew down.

“Eddleston.” She craned her neck as though she might see him standing somewhere near. “I know he came out here,” she said.

Marcus’s arms tightened. “I didn’t see anyone but you come down this way but perhaps he went overhead.” He nodded up toward the cliff’s edge.

Minerva nibbled on her bottom lip. She supposed it was possible he’d gone that way. “Please,” she said, one of her hands coming to his chest. “He’s just a young boy. Let me speak with him before you...”

She shook her head as she trailed off; his lips quirked up on one side in a lopsided grin that made her head spin. “What? Eat the boy alive?” he teased. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

“I hardly know you at all,” she shot back. But even as she said it, it felt like a lie.

His gaze grew serious. “Don’t you?”

Her hand seemed to have a mind of its own as it moved over the hard planes of his chest, over his shoulder. She found herself toying with the hair at the nape of his neck as he growled low and close to her ear. “I am not giving up on you so easily, you know.”

“No?” She pressed her lips together. That wasn’t what she’d meant to say. She’d meant to say that he should. That it was useless to keep up this flirtation when he had to leave and she had to stay here.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said before.” His nose grazed the outer shell of her ear as he spoke, and she shivered at the soft, intimate contact.

“What did I say?”

She felt his lips curve up