The Duke

The Duke, Vincent Adair, nearly fell in his haste to get out of the carriage. Ilona and Ian hurried forward but Ilona stopped when she got to Jamie and Nick, leaving Ian to address the Duke on his own. All of the pirates were watching now, curious to see what was wrong.

Ilona could see the Duke was gripping the frame of the carriage, leaning slightly against it. Ian came to a stop in front of him and slid down from his horse, looking at the scene in confusion. Ilona could see from her place that Vincent Adair was breathing hard, sweating, and clearly in some sort of pain.

Ian looked at him in worry and then glanced around, noticing all the pirates watching them.

"Spread out and look for any threats," he called to them all in English before switching to the pirate language, "Get some water and stretch your legs."

To Ilona's surprise, some of the men looked to her to confirm this order. She nodded and waited until they were all far enough away. Once they were gone, she trotted her horse forward and came to a stop on the other side of the carriage where she would be out of sight. She slid down from her horse and crept around to the back so she could peak out and see what was going on.

Ian stepped to the Duke and put one strong arm around the other man. He helped him away from the carriage and into the grass that was growing along the road. Ilona watched the Duke move, limping hard on one leg and wincing with the pain of it. She realized this was the same side that most of his scars were on. This must be more leftover injury from the dragon.

"I'm sorry," Vincent croaked and Ilona had to strain to hear him, "I'm sorry I'm slowing us down."

"Don't be sorry," Ian chuckled quietly, "Half the men were complaining about needing to stop. I was going to have us stop you just beat me to it."

Ilona frowned as she heard her brother lie smoothly. He hadn't intended to stop at all. He would ride the pirates into the ground if he had to.

Ian left the Duke resting against a tree and moved back to the carriage. Ilona had to jump back quickly to keep from being seen. She crouched down behind the carriage wheel and leaned forward to listen to her brother talk to the Duchess. Her stomach twisted in knots, knowing she was likely about to hear him flirt with a married woman.

"What's going on?" he asked instead, "Why is he in so much pain?"

"It's the carriage ride," Lady Delaney Adair explained quietly, "all the jostling seems to agitate his injuries until the pain is unbearable."

"God Delaney, why didn't you tell me?" Ian hissed in an irritated tone Ilona knew well, "I would have stopped us to take a break ages ago!"

"I didn't get a chance," she sighed, "Besides he hates pity. He would have guessed you were stopping for him and been angry."

Ian groaned, "Yes well now I feel truly awful for putting him through this."

"What are you talking about? We had to go back to the city either way."

"Yes, but he wouldn't have felt the need to push himself to this point."

"It's alright," the Duchess said, "Just give him a little time for the pain to ease away, and then we can go again."

They didn't say anymore and the Duchess left Ian to go to her husband. Ilona straightened and watched as Delaney pulled out a handkerchief and used it to pat the sweat from Vincent's face. She felt a strange warmth in her heart as she took in the sweet scene. It was clear how much the woman loved her husband.

The knowledge only served to confuse Ilona even more about her brother's intentions. Was he truly in love with a woman who was so obviously in love with someone else? How had he let himself fall for someone who was so completely unavailable to him?

Ilona had never really been in love herself but she imagined a person must have at least some control over their own emotions. Why had Ian let this happen? What did he think was going to come out of the situation?

As she watched her brother move away from the couple back to his horse, Ilona thought about how much care he had taken when helping the Duke though. The two men seemed to be almost friends. The Duke had defended him and sent away his own guards instead of losing Ian. Was the man oblivious to the pirate's feelings for his wife?

Ilona glanced over to see Delaney Adair speaking quietly to her husband as he leaned against the tree with his eyes closed. She studied how close their bodies were yet how comfortable, if not pleased, they both seemed to be with the close contact. She wondered what it would be like to be so familiar with another person's body.

She moved back to her horse before she was caught by the Adairs or worse, her brother. She led her mare through the trees to a small creek not far away where several of the men had gathered to let their horses drink and have something to drink themselves. Ilona joined them, dropping down on a big slab of rock beside Nick and Jamie.

"What was all that about?" Nick asked curiously, "The man looked awful."

Ilona stared out at the water washing against the rocks and wished instead she was looking at the ocean washing against the sides of her ship.

"It's his injuries," she answered her brother quietly, "The ones he got fighting the dragon."

The younger boys nodded.

"I wish he'd let us see his scars," Jamie said with bright eyes, "I heard the dragon's teeth went straight through him. They say the places where the teeth went in never even healed."

"What do you mean?" Ilona asked with a frown, "So you think he just has big holes in his body?"

"I don't know," her younger brother shrugged, "That's why I want to see them."

"Well, that's not going to happen," she rolled her eyes at him before getting a drink of water.

"Maybe not if you ask him," Nick smirked, "But he likes Ian. We just have to convince Ian to ask him to show us."

"Good luck with that," Ilona laughed.

"You never know," Jamie grinned, "He might."

"I wish we could at least ask him about the battle," Nick sighed, "None of our men were close enough to see much. I want to know what it was like to fight the brute."

"You could ask him yourself if you'd bothered learning English like I've told you to."

Both of her younger brothers frowned at her.

"We don't need to learn English," Jamie crossed his arms, "We're fine."

Ilona opened her mouth to argue but at that moment she heard Ian call for them. She looked over her shoulder and saw he was signaling for people to come on.

"We'll have to save this argument for later," she sighed.

They all got back on their horses and by the time they'd reached the road again, the carriage was already on the move, headed towards the city.

They were almost there.