Page 41 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

“The tall blond woman… I mean. Is she part of the crew? I saw…” I stopped before I said too much, heat creeping up my neck despite myself. “Did she leave the ship?”

Surprise flickered across her face. “Oh, Selene. She is Theron’s friend. I don’t know her well, but she comes and goes. She doesn’t talk to us.” She leaned closer. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” I focused on my tea, then met her gaze, smiling.

Fraya’s mouth twitched, fighting a smile. “Mm-hmm.”

“How did you end up here?” I asked to change the subject. “On this ship, with Theron?”

Fraya was quiet for a moment, turning her own cup in her hands.

“My father.” She said it like the words tasted bad. “He wasn’t a good man. Not only did he drink too much, he was physically violent to my mother and me.”

I froze mid-drink and lowered the cup down. “I’m so sorry.”

She traced the rim with one finger, lost in the liquid. “The village I’m from, nobody stops men like my father. They’d rather look the other way. The law doesn’t protect us.”

I thought of Russo. Of the tavern, and how nobody had so much as glanced up when he’d yanked me down with a vise grip.

“My mother couldn’t leave.” Fraya’s fingers tightened around her cup. “She had nothing. No coin. No family who’d take her in. Nowhere to go that he couldn’t find her. So she stayed and endured and told me to do the same, that it was just how it was for women like us.”

“I’m glad you didn’t stay.” Heat crawled up my neck, settling beneath my skin.

I despised her father, and I didn’t even know the man.

Her features hardened. “I was sixteen. I took what coin I could find in the house and left in the middle of the night and never looked back.” She took a long sip of her tea. “I didn’t know where I was going. I just kept walking toward a port. Theron’s ship was docked, taking on crew. I told him I could fight, which was mostly a lie at the time, and he let me stay anyway.”

“Why?”

Fraya smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I think he saw something he recognized.”

“What do you mean?” I took another drink.

“I’ve sailed with Theron for six years, and not once has he spoken of his past. But I’ve seen the way he looks at men like my father. Men who prey on those who can’t fight back.”

I thought of Barron. Of the way Theron’s eyes had gone dark and flat right before he snapped his neck.

“My mother is still with my father,” Fraya said after a moment, her voice softer now. “I send coin when I can, with people who pass through my village. She won’t leave him, no matter how many times he beats her.”

“Why not?”

“Because leaving means admitting it is as bad as it is.” Fraya’s jaw tightened. “Some people would rather stay in the fire than admit they got burned. Or sometimes it’s easier to take the abuse than start over, I suppose.”

We sat in silence for a moment, the galley clattering on around us.

“Barron used to talk about his daughters,” Fraya said, staring into her cup. “Two of them. Some island east of here. He said he was saving up to buy them out of indenture before they came of age.” She let out a short, hollow laugh. “I used to think that meant you could trust that person. But I guess loving your kids doesn’t make you—”

“Doesn’t make you a good person,” I finished her sentence, and my drink.

“Yeah.” Fraya shook her head. “People aren’t just one thing. That’s the part that gets you. You want them to be all good or all bad so you know where you stand. But most people are just whatever gets them through the day. Even if it means selling out someone who never did anything to them.”

Barron had raised his cup to me the night before. Glad that bastard’s out of the picture. He’d meant it. And then hours later he’d had a blade at my throat.

“Did you know about his plan?” I asked.

“No.” Fraya’s voice was firm. “If I had, I would have stopped him.”

“And Theron?” I cleared my throat. “Did he know Barron had daughters? Before he…” I couldn’t finish.