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for us,” he shouted.
    “I’ll drop sails and tack ’er, if I have to,” Willie answered.
    If the sea was feeling generous, Rissa remained afloat, and if Willie and the leadsmen skills stayed true, they wouldn’t be too far off course once the storm subsided.

CHAPTER 4
     
    Gracie awoke to the steady beat of her heart—in her head. Pain throbbed behind her eyes and in her temples. She groaned, easing to sit up. Her stomach rebelled and queasiness roiled unmercifully. Damn it. She had drunk far past her limit last night. Why would she...
    Her sleepy vision sharpened on the carved door. Oh my!
    Frantically, she searched her hazy mind refusing to give up the vestiges of the night before.
    What happened? She kissed him. Attacked him, if she were honest. She momentarily forgot about the dull ache threatening to explode her head.
    His mouth was firm, his kiss magical.
    Shame took shape as she remembered nearly stripping out of her clothes like a cheap strumpet. But, oh, how he devoured her. He stirred a passion within her she didn’t know existed. Then he pushed her away and she cried like a wee child. She couldn’t remember much else, except the rocking of the ship and her pillow.
    Desire and embarrassment took turns battering her emotions, adding to the churn in her gut. How did he feel about what happened last night? Did he pity her, a pathetic hussy? Or did he share the same lust for her as she did for him. Heat from the blush burned her cheeks at the vision of his tented trousers.
    Either way, she wanted to see the captain by and by to end her suffering. The sooner she faced the judgment he reserved for her, the better. Then she would be better able to determine how to proceed. Most notably because she still had a debt to pay. She couldn’t overlook that he didn’t take advantage of her in her inebriated state. Another honorable, uncharacteristic oddity of the pirate captain.
    I light rap sounded at the door. “Miss. DuBois,” Richard called. “May I come in?”
    Only half-dressed as she was when the captain left her last night, Gracie wrapped the blanket around her shoulders to cover up and smoothed her frizzy hair in vain. “Yes, please come in.”
    The lock clicked and Richard entered, cradling a tray with one hand. “Good morning, dear. Captain Banning thought you might like some fresh mango and guava slices, a bottle of wine, and a pitcher of sweetwater. The wine will chase away the ill-effects of drink, and the water, your thirst.”
    He knew. And she felt foolish, like a mischievous child expected to repent. “Thank you, Richard.”
    “’Twas quite a night, and then the storm.” He set down the tray and poured her a cup of wine.
    “Um, yes, quite.”
    Unblinking, he handed her the drink. “Should I pray for you again?”
    So he knew she had been besotted but not whether she shagged with his captain. Banning hadn’t boasted about what they had done. Curious. Didn’t all men exaggerate and brag to friends about dallying with women? Hmm...maybe not to friends who were also priests. But with the way Banning enjoyed making Richard uncomfortable, she’d have guessed he would at least hinted to what happened. Another layer of Banning revealed. Gracie didn’t want to be smitten by him, but he made it hard.
    ’Twasn’t Richard’s business what happened between her and the captain, and she didn’t particularly like his prying. “My virtue is as it was before I boarded this ship,” she assured him.
    His shoulders visibly relaxed. “There is still hope, then.”
    She was unsure what to make of his relief. “There is always hope. You just have to know where and with whom you place it.”
    Richard smiled. Gracie liked to see him smile. There was warmth and acceptance and it drew her in to want to please him—as a father, as a friend.
    “You are a wise and delightful lady,” he said.
    Quite suddenly, his back straightened stiff as a ship’s mast. Like a dark cloud passing over the sun, the light