Wasn’t that a kick in the gut? Since the upstairs maid who had seduced him when he was sixteen, he’d tried to make sure his bed partners were satisfied, but he hadn’t given much thought to their happiness. Any of them.
He wanted to be the one to make Harriet happy.
“You look much more comfortable on horseback now than the first time you mounted the grey gelding. At the time I thought you had misled me about being able to ride.”
“Simply took some getting used to that type of saddle.” She gracefully swung a leg up and over the horse’s rump and jumped down. “Grab a scoop of oats for each of them, would you?” She went to add more hay to the rack, then secured the horses in their stalls.
Nick couldn’t help but grin. She dressed and acted like a member of his crew, but none of his tars would dare order him around so blithely.
He fetched the requested feed and earned an approving nicker as he gave each horse its feed bucket. “You aren’t afraid of falling off?”
She gestured at the straw-strewn deck. “Zach made sure we put down an extra thick layer so the horses are comfortable. It’s fairly well padded. I’ve been falling on it a lot.” Her grin was decidedly mischievous. “Just not from a horse’s back.”
“And have … the lads … been falling on it, too?”
“They have been kind enough to let me practice both throwing and being thrown. It’s important to know how to duck or take a punch as well as to give one.”
Nick snorted. ‘Kind’ was not the word he would use. “Show me.” He took off his greatcoat and tossed it into one of the nets.
She cocked her head to the side, staring at him, her hands on her hips.
He took up a stance on the far side of the hold away from the horses, and gestured with his hands for her to come at him.
She slowly shook her head as she sauntered toward him. “Don’t want to make your head hurt.”
“You won’t.” It was not his head that would hurt if she followed through on Zach’s offer.
She stopped just within arm’s reach. The distance they’d stood when he’d reluctantly asked her to waltz at the Hartwells’ ball when they first met.
While he was mentally picturing the glittering ballroom and trying to recall the undoubtedly simple and demure gown she’d worn, Harriet grabbed his arm, yanked, and twisted her body in one fluid motion, and suddenly he was on his back seeing stars. Breath left his lungs in a rush as he hit the deck.
The sly minx had fooled him.
She bent at the waist leaning over him, fists on her hips, blocking part of the stars. Oh, hey, some of the clouds had cleared off.
“You’re not going to cast up your accounts, are you? Big Jim just mucked the straw an hour ago.”
Nick reached a hand up and she took it, her body braced to take his weight the way she’d helped him up when they were under the cork oaks. When he yanked to jerk her off her feet, she shifted to the side and twisted his arm. With a little more pressure, she could dislocate his elbow or shoulder.
He grimaced. “The lads have taught you well.”
She let go and stepped back. “Not the same as experiencing an actual fight in a dockside tavern. And they pull their punches. They said you’d hurt them if they hurt me, however unintentionally.”
Damn right.
“But I think I could protect myself if the need arose. At least long enough to get away.”
He climbed to his feet, pleased the deck rolled only the expected amount, and dusted himself off. “Best two out of three falls.”
Her grin was decidedly feral. She tossed her braid over her shoulder, and they circled each other.
The horses snuffled in their buckets, looking for more grain.
Without warning the hatch cover came down with a clang. No lanterns were lit in the hold. Other than the faint glow from a lantern down the passageway, they were in complete darkness.
Harriet took advantage of Nick’s moment of distraction to grab him again, but this time he anticipated her maneuver. He broke her hold, twisted and spun, and suddenly she was against him, her back to his front, his right arm across her throat in a loose chokehold, his left arm tightly wrapped around her ribs.
“Got you,” he whispered in her ear, deliberately brushing his lips against her soft skin.
