“Yes, miss.”
“I don’t need water. Nor anyone’s concern, thank you. It was an unpleasant dream and that is all,” Brogan assured them, catching his son’s eye.
Drew, who had been quietly observing by Lorena’s side, laid his cloth doll on the edge of the bed. “Captain Briggs helps when I have bad dreams.”
Brogan reached for the doll, recalling the day he’d presented it to Ben. Captain Briggs was to be Ben’s protector while his father sailed the seas. “Just think of me when you hold Captain Briggs,” he’d told his son as he tucked him into bed, “and remember how much I love you.”
Brogan blinked the moisture from his eyes, thankful that he sat within the shadows of his corner bed. “Thank you, Ben,” he said with pride welling in his breast. “I shall keep Captain Briggs with me for the rest of the night.”
Ben grinned broadly, responding to the name, and for the first time Brogan sensed the son he thought he’d lost acknowledge his true identity. Not as Drew Huntley, but as Benjamin Talvis.
Lorena twittered disapprovingly and moved to take the boy by the shoulders. She pulled him to her in that mother-hen fashion she was known to employ. “Surely, Captain, you mean Drew.”
“Aye, pardon . . . Drew. Seems I’m still quite sleepy.” And before Lorena could say another word, he quickly added, “Now back to bed, all of you. Mr. Smith, I leave it to you to see them safely to their cabins.”
It had been an eventful and emotional day for them all. Everyone was exhausted. And in the dead of night, who could think clearly? Or so Lorena tried to tell herself as she padded back to her cabin with Drew. Before bidding them good-night for the second time, Warrick reminded her that breakfast would be served at half past seven.
Her thoughts continued to whir as she climbed back into bed. No amount of reasoning could explain the exchange she’d witnessed between Brogan and Drew. Lorena could no longer deny there was something to their relationship other than a sea captain’s kindness to a small boy. Brogan’s longing looks, the interest and concern he showed for Drew seemed to indicate this was more than an unlikely pair of kindred souls brought together by happenstance. Could it be that Brogan concealed a deeper relationship with the boy, a relationship not even Drew was aware of, and yet for some reason he responded to it?
She could not dismiss Drew’s remark about the papa he’d lost. He had never complained about his lot in life. He’d resigned himself to the fact that both his parents were gone and had accepted her father as his own. He’d been content, and with the exception of his attachment to Captain Briggs, Lorena never knew he longed for more.
She curled her body protectively around his on the goose feather mattress, staring wide-eyed into the darkness, every faculty alert, unable to sleep for the accelerated beating of her heart.
“Drew?” she whispered from behind. “Tonight the captain called you Ben.”
“Oh, he does that sometimes.”
“Don’t you find that odd?”
The boy grew silent, then admitted drowsily, “I don’t know.”
“You’ve told me how much you enjoy Captain Talvis’s stories. Did he ever tell you how he got that long raised scar across his shoulder?”
She felt Drew’s nod. “He let me touch it.”
He rolled over and told her of a battle with cannons fired and the quarterdeck shattering. A wood splinter had speared the captain in the fray. He wouldn’t allow the wound to be treated until his privateer’s coat had been carefully removed, no matter how much additional pain it caused to his shoulder. The garment was not to be cut off.
Lorena could find no relief from her disturbing thoughts. Why would a coat, an article of clothing, hold such import? It was almost as though the coat were as precious to Brogan as Captain Briggs was to Drew.
She should confront Brogan for an explanation, but she was frightened of discussing a subject that might lead to the exposure of her own secret.
Lorena didn’t sleep well that night. She rose late, and by the time she entered the great cabin, the men were well into their breakfast. Mr. Smith, second mate William Farragut, and Brogan all set down their coffee cups and rose to bid her a good morning.
Drew looked to be working with something on his lap. He glanced up with delight to see her and let out a belch.