Beyond paradise by Copyright Paperback Collection (Library of Congress) DLC, Elizabeth Doyle

stairs smelled musty like wood that had been damp for much too long. She smelled putrid smoke from the kitchen and wet animals everywhere. A skinny sheep skidded past her, rubbing against her skirt, staining it with a streak of wet goo. She hoped the sheep would not be supper. She felt akin to the poor sheep, as though she, too, were a filthy lamb, surrounded by carnivores, wondering when or whether they would consume her. A door opened before her, and she beheld what must have been the crew's cabin. Rows of roped hammocks lined up like nooses stretched out before her. It was a long, clean room. Starlight flickered in from tiny portholes near the ceiling, and orderly rows of lanterns completed the task of illumination. When the door closed behind them, Sylvie looked at Jacques. They were alone.
    "You told me I could go." It was all she said.
    "I tried," he explained, "I tried to send you on your way, but my captain took a fancy to you. I'm sorry."

    Elizabeth Doyle
    "Really," she replied blankly. "Then why is it that your captain was not the one to drag me on this stinking ship? Why is it that you're the one who had me brought here, and rather cruelly, I might add." She lifted her sleeve to show him a bruise on her arm.
    He was not happy at all about the bruise. He reached for her hand so he could inspect it, but she pulled it away with a snap. He met her stunning blue eyes and saw control there, but a distinct anger struggling to break through. She was glaring at him without apology. "I had to do it," he said, "I had to tell them that you're mine, or else the captain would have taken you."
    "And how would I be worse off then than I am now?"
    He laughed gently as he thought she ought to know the answer. But apparently, she did not. He could see that in her unwavering glare. "You obviously don't know my captain. Please believe me. It is much better for you to be here with me."
    "Better for me?" she challenged him. "Or better for you? I helped you escape—unintentionally, mind you. But it is because of me that you're free. And this is how you repay me?" When he did not reply instantly, when he took a moment to indulge in surprise, she added, "If what you say is true, that your captain was going to harm me—and I'm to take your word for this, since I cannot understand Spanish, and do not yet know you to be a man of honor—then how have you saved me by bringing me on board? How am I better off in your care, tossed down here with hundreds of love-starved pirates, than in your captain's quarters?"
    That made him a little angry, somehow. He wasn't sure whether it was because she'd insulted his pirate mates, brought up his modest status and living conditions on the ship, or whether it was simply the fact that she wouldn't acknowledge he'd helped her. But he was officially annoyed.

    BEYOND PARADISE
    87
    "He'd have his hands all over you by midnight, and nobody would be able to help you, because he's captain." It had been a crude and blunt thing to say, and he knew it. But to his surprise, she did not avert her eyes or blush or tremble.
    She simply returned his gall by asking, "And I'm supposed to believe that you won't do the same?"
    "That's right," he growled.
    Sylvie wanted to believe him. She wanted to imagine she would make it safely home someday, unharmed and unrav-ished. She wanted to believe she had an ally. But it just seemed as though he had already betrayed her trust by bringing her on board. "Won't people think that's a little odd?" she asked cautiously. "That I'm 'yours,' as you put it, and that we don't even share a bed?"
    "We'll have to share a hammock," he shrugged, "if for no other reason than to keep the others off of you. But I'll keep my hands by my sides."
    "I'm to trust you to do that?"
    He'd been sorting through a trunk for something to wear but suddenly looked up. "What?" Sylvie repeated her reservations, this time with some indignation. "Don't be so impatient," he said, returning to his task. "I simply