Romancing the Pirate Read Online Free

she’d introduced herself while she’d made the tea, sat across from her, eyes dancing with delight.
    “Tell me how ya know Samantha,” she said.
    Because her manner had warmed considerably, Alicia told Fanny everything that she knew, ending with her decision to come there today in hopes of learning a little more. When she was done, Fanny had tears running down her dark cheeks.
    “What’s wrong?” Alicia asked quickly. Surely not any more bad news.
    Fanny blew her nose into a handkerchief she drew from her apron pocket. “She’ll be so happy yer alive.”
    Alicia’s stomach flipped and she leaned forward in her chair. Behind the bodice of her gown, her heart was beating a frantic drum.
    “She remembered me?”
    “Of course she did, child. She’s ya sister, ain’t she?”
    “I have a sister?” An impression flashed through her head. It didn’t stay long enough to grasp it all, but she was able to make out a few things. “She has light brown hair?”
    Fanny nodded and soon they both had tears falling freely.
    “Yes, child. And she’s lovely.” Fanny sniffled. “She spoke of ya often. She loves ya very much. Ate a hole in her soul, thinkin’ ya’d died and she was helpless to prevent it.”
    “But it was pirates. What could she have done?”
    Fanny slapped her thick thigh. “That’s what I’s told her every chance I got. Didn’t matter none. She felt she should have.”
    Alicia accepted the handkerchief Fanny pulled out of another pocket while trying to calm her emotions. Though the tears continued, she managed to steady her racing heart.
    “Will you tell me everything?”
    Fanny nodded, and before long, her happy tears ebbed.
    “He found ’em on the beach, promised ’em work and shelta.” She grunted. “It’s not what they got, that’s for sure.”
    “There were more with her?”
    “Two men from ya father’s ship. Joe and Willy.” Her chin lifted. “Good men, both of ’em. They escaped togetha.”
    Alicia searched her memory, but nothing shifted. “The five of us were the only ones that made it off the ship?”
    “Far as she knew, there was only three. She said she never saw ya that night, it ate at her somethin’ terrible.”
    Alicia shook her head, it was all so unbelievable. She had a vague recollection of being cold, and very afraid, but nothing past that. She listened as Fanny told her, in more detail, about the pirate attack and that it was Joe who’d thrown Samantha overboard in order to save her. They were found by Oliver Grant and taken back to the plantation.
    “It was a great day,” Fanny said, smiling, “when they escaped. Gave us all somethin’ to smile ’bout, knowin’ they was free on his own ship.”
    “You didn’t like him?”
    Fanny’s eyes narrowed. “He was evil. The devil hisself couldn’t have been any more vicious. We’s all glad he’s dead.”
    “And you never heard from Samantha again?”
    “No. But wherever she is, child, can’t be any worse than livin’ here was.”
    “Thank you, Fanny, for telling me. I’m glad she had a friend while she was here.”
    “Samantha had many friends here, child. Everyone who knew her liked her.”
    “Did anyone ever call her Sam?” The words came out as fast as the thought occurred to Alicia and she was taken aback by the sureness that she’d called her Sam.
    Fanny smiled, leaned back in her chair. “Joe called her Sam. I always thought it suited her.”
    Alicia’s heart shook. She had a sister. Sam. She pressed her trembling fingers to her lips.
    “I have some stories, if ya have the time to hear ’em.”
    “Please,” Alicia replied.
    Upstairs, directly above the garden, Lewis Grant sat in his father’s study—a study he hadn’t been allowed in when his father was alive—and started to pay attention to the conversation drifting through the open window.
    It grated on already raw nerves that as Oliver’s only son he’d been denied the title of overseer. Though he was considered the heir, it