The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries Page A

“Oh? And why not?”
    “Because I’m not actually a lady—not in the sense you mean it, anyway.”
    Although she dropped her gaze from him, she could feel the force of his disapproval as he approached her. “You’re not the Earl of Blackmore’s sister?”
    “Well, yes, I am. Sort of.” She swallowed hard. “His father, the late Earl of Blackmore, adopted me after marrying my widowed mother. So I’m not really Lady Sara, you see, but Miss Willis.”
    When he was silent she ventured to look at him again,surprised to find that he looked thoughtful rather than angry.
    “Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that despite being adopted by an earl and made part of his family in every legal sense, you can’t bear the complimentary title that any one of his other children is allowed to bear?”
    She’d never heard it put quite that way. “Well, no, I can’t.”
    He snorted. “That’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard.” Running one hand through his rumpled wavy hair, he shot her a forbidding look. “I swear, I’ll never understand you English. You have more rules designed to cause enmity among families than I’ve ever seen. Younger sons can’t inherit, daughters can’t inherit, fathers are pitted against their heirs. It’s a confounded mess.”
    His commentary on the social makeup of British society startled her. Pirates weren’t supposed to have opinions on such things. Or express them so eloquently. “You must admit it’s worked well for hundreds of years,” she said in faint defense of her countrymen.
    He quirked one eyebrow upward. “Has it?”
    In those two words he managed to convey all his contempt for English ways. What could possibly have roused such feelings in him? Americans were testy about being a former British colony, to be sure, but this was rather extreme. And though she was dying to know why he hated the English, she didn’t ask. She doubted that this proud pirate would answer her. Or approve of her asking the question.
    He studied her, as if he wished to open up her mind and peer inside. She’d endured the ardent glances of lords and the lascivious looks of many a prisoner at Newgate, and all those sailors, of course. But never had a man looked at her with such concentration.
    It was unsettling, to say the least. She dropped her eyes from his, searching for something to say that would shift that intensity away from her. “In any case, I’m surethat’s not what you brought me here to discuss.”
    That shook him out of his silence. “Certainly not.” Moving behind his desk, he sat down in the armchair, then gestured to a chair near her. “Sit down, Lady Sara.”
    Though she did as he said, she protested, “I told you. You can’t call me—”
    “It’s my ship and my rules. I’ll call you whatever I damned well please.” His gaze skimmed her body before snapping back to her face. “And it’ll serve to remind me that you have a stepbrother lurking out there, waiting to pounce on me at any moment.”
    His sarcasm brought her up short. Why, he wasn’t afraid of Jordan, not one jot. No doubt her revelation had made him assume that Jordan was no longer a threat to him. And that wasn’t what she’d wished to accomplish at all.
    She straightened in her chair, folding her hands primly in her lap. “The fact that Jordan is my stepbrother and not my brother doesn’t change anything, Captain Horn. He still won’t forget about me. I assure you he’ll be after you just as soon as he learns what happened. There’ll be warships hunting you everywhere. You won’t be able to sail for fear of my stepbrother.”
    Her words didn’t have the effect she’d intended. A smile spread across his handsome face. “Then I suppose it’s just as well we’re not sailing anywhere else once we reach our destination.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He shrugged. “We’re retiring from piracy, my men and I. That’s why we need wives.”
    That stunned her into temporary silence. She