didn’t he?”
“He is rather unpleasant,” she replied, straightening from
the wall and heading toward the kitchen.
Teach walked alongside her. “I’ve known him for several
years now. ‘Repulsive’ would be a more apt description.” Tilting his head, he gave her a hard look. “What did he mean when he said he could make your life difficult? Did you work for him
before?” The thought turned his stomach.
“What did he mean he saw you last night? When you left,
did you go to the tavern as he claimed?”
Teach’s lips twitched, and he leaned against the kitchen
table. “I thought I heard you following me.” He watched as
she sliced into a loaf of fresh bread. Her posture let him know
she wished he would leave. “All right, Anne, don’t answer my
question, but we both know the truth. At some point you must
have worked in Barrett’s household.”
“It’s a story I’m not ready to tell,” she said.
“Did he hurt you?” I’ll kill him.
“The past no longer matters.”
“It does if he caused you harm.”
Anne put the knife down and looked him in the eyes. “I do
not wish to discuss Henry Barrett with you.”
“Well, whether you wish to discuss him or not, this was not
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the first time you’ve seen him. And unfortunately, knowing him as I do, it might not be the last.” Anne’s face showed her dismay.
Teach was quick to reassure her. “Don’t worry. If I give him his money, he won’t have any reason to come back.”
“I thought you said you’d returned it.”
“I lied.”
A slight smile played on Anne’s lips as she resumed cutting
the bread, and warmth spread throughout Teach’s limbs, knowing he was responsible for it.
“You’re impossible,” Anne muttered.
“I’m a Drummond.”
“Oh yes, I’m quite aware of that fact.”
“You do realize this is just one more thing you and I have
in common.”
Anne shot him a curious look. “What is?”
“Our dislike of Henry Barrett.”
“I don’t think many people like him.”
“True,” Teach said. “Which is a shame. His father, Andrew
Barrett, was a good man and one of my father’s closest friends.
Before my mother died, they did quite a bit of business together.
They kept in touch off and on in the years since. When I left
England a year ago, it was on one of Barrett’s merchant ships.”
The knife stopped moving. “You sailed on one of Andrew
Barrett’s ships?”
“Yes, although not many people knew about it.”
“Why didn’t you sail on one of your father’s ships?”
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Teach looked down at his boots. “Because I didn’t want to be treated differently. If they’d known I was the owner’s son, the experience wouldn’t have been the same. I wanted to make
my own path. On Barrett’s ship I went by the name of Edward
Teach. I arranged it with him, shortly before he died. Only my
good friend John knew who I was.” On board the Deliverance, Teach might continue with that tradition. It was why he was so comfortable here in the back of the house, talking to a member
of his kitchen staff as if it were nothing.
Teach tried to picture Henry Barrett setting off to sea, performing menial jobs such as swabbing the deck and raising a
sail, but not even he had that good an imagination. Henry was
quite content to have things done for him. He was soft and
compliant.
Not unlike William, Teach thought. Before, Teach had
often found William’s inactivity amusing, for William used any
excuse not to exert himself. After seeing Henry Barrett, Teach
was uncomfortable with William’s and Henry’s similarities.
“Does Henry Barrett still do business with your father?”
Anne asked.
Teach’s voice was gruff. “Not that I am aware of. This is the
first time I’ve seen him since I left school. As I said, if I give him back his money, it should keep him away for a bit.”
“How did you steal it?” Anne asked.
There was a strange look in her eyes that he couldn’t quite
decipher. “It wasn’t as if it were his money. I’m quite sure he cheated 13 8
every hand he played last night. What’s the harm in taking something that never really belonged to him in the first place?”
Anne hesitated before answering. “Did you fight with him?”
“I simply took what wasn’t his.”
“Someone could have gotten hurt,” she protested.
“What’s this? Do I detect concern in your voice? Can it be
that, despite your protests, Queen Anne has feelings for one of
her subjects?”
Anne rolled her eyes but refused to be baited. “I hardly
think this is a laughing matter. What if he’d drawn a sword? Or
worse, a pistol?”
“He was in no position to draw anything,” he said, remembering the shocked look on Henry’s face.
“How can you be so sure? What if he’d had some hidden
weapon?”
Teach shrugged. “He would not have bested me. I wouldn’t
have allowed it.”
“You take far too many chances,” she murmured.