Lanard and Bernard blocked her from my sight. “Is there anything left you’d like me to do before I disembark, Captain?” Lanard asked, throwing his satchel of personal items over his shoulder.

“No. You may head into town with the rest of the lot.” Lanard started to walk away, but I called after him. “Lanard, how does Captain Lou have fresh garments?”

Lanard pivoted, and the strap of his bag slipped. His eyes darkened to moss green as they found the deck at his feet. He readjusted his hold on his things. “Ay, Captain. I… I found her some in the old cook’s trunk, the one left behind when he passed of the plague. Since Captain Lou’s were sullied in her companion’s death, I thought it’d be good to get her out of them and those were the smallest ones I could find.” His gaze lifted. “You asked me to make the guests more comfortable. Was that not what you wanted?”

“No, no, that is fine, but…” I paused.

Bernard folded his arms. “The lass held a blade to your throat, lad.” He shook his head. “Fancy the sort that would sooner lay you in the ground than the bed, do you?”

“Nay. But she saved my life when she could have let the siren’s song pull me under. I hadn’t enough time to get the wax in my ears. She held me down and put them in herself.”

“She saved you?” I asked, jaw dropping in sync with Smitter’s and Bernard’s. The attack had been so chaotic, I never saw Lanard struggling. And I absolutely did not see Lou save him from a jump overboard.

At the end of the gangplank, Captain Lou’s shoulders vibrated from laughter at some jest of her mate’s. Her chin twisted, her gaze drifting back to her ship. A genuine smile graced her face, and for the first time, I regarded her as a woman rather than a scheming pirate. High cheekbones, pouty pink lips, dazzling jasper eyes, and blond hair that, on any other woman, I’d have fantasized about running my hands through. My breath hitched as my heart thudded a wild tempo that no siren’s call had ever replicated.

Lanard’s voice broke the spell. “I chose to forgive and focus on the good inside her. It’s what you would have done, Captain.”

I dipped my chin, unable to find the right words to offer my thoughtful sailor, a better man than I. Lanard continued down the ramp without further retort.