Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

judgment had been passed; she’d simply gone. By the time Annika had confronted the elders with the truth, Källa had already disappeared.
    The entire village had supported Annika’s decision to follow her, bring her back. It wouldn’t have mattered if they hadn’t. Annika would have gone after her sister anyway.
    A sister in heart—but closer to David Kentewess in blood. Though Inga Helgasdottor had left their village before Annika had been born, she could easily picture her. The only twins in Hannasvik, Inga and Källa’s mother had looked exactly alike.
    For as long as Annika had known her, Hildegard had worried and wondered about Inga’s fate. Those who lay with men didn’t always come back. Some fell to danger, some to love, others bore male children whom they couldn’t bear to leave. The news would hurt, but she knew that Hildegard would be pleased to finally know that her sister’s son had grown into such a fine man, that she’d died protecting him.
    And that was the crux of it: Inga was dead. Annika couldn’t help her now, couldn’t help David—and wouldn’t risk the lives of everyone in her village.
    Not again.
    David had said that he’d asked about her schedule, and Annika quickly discovered that he intended to use that information. She managed to avoid him at breakfast by coming into the wardroom late and taking a seat far away from him, then leaving immediately after eating. She did the same for lunch, but when she dutifully sat for her supper before the second dog watch began, he entered the wardroom—though he was due shortly for dinner in the captain’s cabin.
    The seats around the table were almost empty; most of the crew wouldn’t eat until the current watch was over. Elena wasn’t there to help her. The first mate’s “So you’ve got a suitor, eh?” left her stumbling for something to say.
    Of course the answer was “no,” but despite everything, she wished that wasn’t so. Annika preferred to think of David Kentewess as a suitor. She still liked him so well, still felt that flush of attraction when he took the seat next to her.
    And if he were a suitor, she wouldn’t be feeling so stupid.
    With heated cheeks, she stared at her plate. Her instincts when she’d left him on the docks had been right. Why hadn’t she listened to them? He had wanted something from her, something other than time in her bed, and she’d been foolish enough to let herself believe otherwise. And then she’d been foolish enough to ask him whether that was his intention, so he knew how she’d mistaken his interest for desire.
    Perhaps that was why New Worlders were always so damn proper. It saved them from playing the idiot in front of strangers.
    From the corner of her eye, she saw him edge closer. He dipped his head toward her. Annika forced herself to remain still. She wouldn’t run.
    “You asked why I noticed you at the gates.” He pitched his voice low enough that they wouldn’t be overheard. “Your accent is the same as hers—and you spoke Norse.”
    God. Who would have thought a plea for help would have led her to this?
    And if her accent had been so easily recognizable, perhaps he’d have known how to find her anyway. She recalled Lucia’s request that Annika make her nephew’s acquaintance. “I suppose your aunt told you I was aboard.”
    “No. But she wondered, too.”
    And that knowledge now colored every conversation she’d had with the woman. Annika had always thought the physician’s attempts to probe into her past were the same as every other New Worlder’s obsession with a person’s origins, as if an opinion of worth couldn’t be formed without knowing which soil she’d first walked on.
    Her throat tightened into a painful lump. She’d have to leave Phatéon for certain now. She’d always been careful, had always adhered to the tale she’d constructed about growing up in Norway. But she also hadn’t realized that she had been speaking to a womanwho’d already known someone from Hannasvik. She hadn’t realized that Lucia didn’t just have questions, as everybody did; Lucia knew which questions to ask, which answers might have matched Inga’s. How much had Annika inadvertently given away over the years?
    How much had she given away last night ?
    “You hail from Iceland, I think,” he said softly, and she closed her eyes. “And you’ve never mentioned any males in your past, only women. My aunt confirmed the same. You called me a daughter, not a son. So