"Don't you think it strange that you've had two near misses so recently?" His words, echoing her own thoughts, startled her. "Tell me what you know about what happened tonight."
She wasn't sure how to say what needed to be told, so she stalled while trying to marshal her thoughts. "I'm sure the villain who attacked me tonight was nowhere near the warehouse when that barrel fell down."
Drake remained silent, his hand making a circular motion on her back. His silence wasn't the relaxed, accepting kind, however. She felt that with every rhythmic caress on her back, he was commanding her to tell him the entire story. She didn't want to. He already thought she needed a keeper and she had no intention of allowing him to hinder her investigation. He had no right to, of course, but she wasn't a fool enough to think that would stop him.
"I already know about your abolitionist activities."
How could he? No one knew that she helped runaway slaves escape the island on Merewether ships. Not even Uncle Ashby.
"What do you mean?"
"Jacob told me how vocal you are with your beliefs on the subject."
Oh, that.
She smiled against his shoulder, breathing in the spicy scent of him. "That's neither here nor there. Of course, I'm vocal about it. Slavery is an abomination that England should never have had any part in and should abolish now. Passing laws to outlaw the slave trade is not enough."
He surprised her with his ready agreement. "You're right. However, that is a fight you must leave to the lawmakers."
She pulled away from his arms. "No, it isn't. Every citizen of our Great Nation should take up the cause until the powerful few who have made their fortunes on the deaths and forced labor of their fellow man are made to stop."
"Your opinion is not a popular one in England and even less so on the Islands."
"It's not my opinion. It's the truth. Right is right and slavery is wrong."
"Bloody hell. No wonder someone tried to throw you overboard."
She was incensed. "I thought you agreed with me."
"That doesn't mean I agree that you should risk your neck spouting off about the subject to everyone you meet."
She knew it. If he thought her discussing her beliefs on the moral cowardice of slavery was risky, he would go wild if he discovered she was conducting an investigation into thievery.
"I don't lecture everyone I meet." When he raised his brows in disbelief, she shrugged. "Just everyone who needs it."
"Who have you lectured on the ship?"
He thought she had offended someone on board enough for them to try to kill her? "I've been sick in my cabin most of the time. I've hardly talked to anyone." His tense muscles relaxed a bit.
"I probably said something to Lady Boyle on the subject, but she's your aunt and not likely to do me harm."
"Naturally."
She smiled at his sardonic tone. "Well, then there was the steward. He made a comment regarding Africans I had to set him straight on."
"What comment?"
"It's not important."
He frowned. "Who else is hardly anyone?"
"I may have mentioned abolition at dinner last evening."
He looked confused for a minute.
"After you left. And then there was that nasty gentleman in the passenger parlor. He's a plantation owner and went on about intelligence differences and one race serving another. I argued most vehemently with him, but I don't think he was convinced. He left the parlor in a huff."
Drake admired the fact that she could route a man, but didn't like the pattern she had set. The woman was a menace to herself and didn't realize it. "Who was the man?"