Laughter and conversation drifted through the open door along with the sound of a flute and drums. The tavern owner's sons had been entertaining their father's guests for years, and their music accompanied the women when they danced. Sparrow and Opal removed their cloaks and followed Leah through the door. The tables and seats by the bar were filled. Several of the men cheered upon seeing the gypsies.

Opal and Sparrow danced together at first, the center of the floor becoming a whirlwind of lavender and blue silk. The silver and gold jewelry on the women's wrists and ankles chimed to the sound of the flute and drums as they spun and swayed their hips. For the next couple of hours, Sparrow and Opal took turns dancing and gathering the coins tossed on the floor.

Sparrow left the room for a moment to change into a costume of sheer black silk pantaloons and a beaded vest that just covered her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, leaving her curved arms and sleek abdomen bare. She draped a long, maroon veil over her head. The material hung to her sandal-clad feet. When she returned, Opal was just finishing her dance. While her friend left to change her clothes, Sparrow stood in the center of the room, and to the sound of the flute, began a sensual dance she and Opal had been working on. She spun, the veil floating around her. She slipped it from her head, and opened her arms, parting the maroon silk and revealing the scanty costume beneath as she wiggled her hips. Men laughed and banged their mugs on the table. She jumped lightly onto one of the tables and swirled the veil over the heads of the wide-eyed patrons before she dropped it and shimmied, her arms moving like liquid. Sparrow smiled, genuinely enjoying herself, and knelt on the table. She bent backwards, her arms stretching sensually over her head. She nearly toppled over when she found herself staring into a pair of shocked, angry and terribly familiar blue eyes.

She righted herself, her heart pounding from more than just the dance. It had been months since she'd seen those soul-reading eyes, that shock of brown and white hair, that disgracefully sensual body...

"Lock!" She scrambled away, but he grasped her off the table and into his arms.

The patrons shouted. Across the tavern Leah screamed for help.

"Lock, let go of me!" Sparrow bellowed, struggling, but his arms tightened around her like warm bands of steel.

"What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?" he snarled. "Dancing like some SothSea trollop!"

"As if you're one to talk!"

"Put her down!" Some of the men shouted. "She ain't finished yet!"

"You're all finished!" Lock growled.

"Hey! Put that girl down!" The tavern owner approached, wiping his hands on a tattered towel, the lantern lights reflecting off his balding head. "I've told you men a thousand times to keep your hands to yourselves!"

"Get away from her!" Opal leapt on Lock's shoulder, grasped a handful of his hair, and pulled hard.

"Let go, you crazy b.i.t.c.h!"

"Not until you put her down!"

Lock shoved Opal who fell onto a nearby chair, strands of his hair still caught in her fists.

"That's the second time I've lost part of my scalp over you, girl!" Lock's furious eyes focused on her. "And I'm not putting you down!"

"Cris!" the tavern owner hollered, and a tall, thickly-built youth charged into the tavern, bits of straw caught in his lank blond hair, manure smeared on his trousers. He flew at Lock's back, screeching a war cry. Lock kicked backwards, Sparrow still in his arms. His foot landed in Cris's mid-section and knocked the youth halfway across the room.

One of the patrons, apparently itching for trouble, ran at Lock who lifted Sparrow above his head and lashed out with his foot, kicking his attacker into a chair, splintering it.

"Lock, stop it!" Sparrow hissed. "What I do is none of your business!"

He lowered her so they were again eye to eye. "Everything about you is my business!"

"Since when? All you care about is the Lady Fire...watch that guy to your left!"

In a fluid movement, Lock shifted Sparrow over one shoulder and used the back of his fist to belt Cris, who had recovered from the first blow. Blood spurted from Cris's nose, spraying the table and floor. The youth grasped his face in his hands.

Again, Sparrow found herself in Lock's arms. She blinked. "I don't believe you! How dare you-"

"All right, put her down and get the h.e.l.l out of here!" The tavern owner approached Lock again, this time with a crossbow in his hand.

"No!" Sparrow shouted to her employer. "Don't hurt him!"

"Don't hurt him?" Cris croaked, his eyes watering as he wiped his b.l.o.o.d.y nose on his sleeve.

The owner glared. "He's d.a.m.n near destroyed my place!"

"I'm just here to get what's mine," Lock stated.

"I am not yours!"

"She wants nothing to do with you!" Opal shook her fist at Lock. "Haven't you done her enough damage!"

"Just put the wench down and get out of my tavern!"

"The wench is my fiancee!"

The owner looked startled. "Is that true?"

"No!" Sparrow snapped. "I mean, not anymore."

"I've had about enough of this nonsense." The owner lowered his weapon and pointed at Sparrow. "You don't come back here until you've settled things with that walking typhoon. Opal, you keep the customers entertained. I've hired you girls until midnight, if you remember correctly."

"Sparrow, you don't have to go with him." Opal's dark eyes stared hard at Lock.

"Opal, just go ahead and dance. I'll be fine."

Lock, Sparrow still in his arms, walked to the door.

"You can put me down," she said.

"Don't wager on it. I've been looking for you for four long months, and I'm not about to let you go."

Sparrow slipped her arms around his neck and smiled. "Don't you wager on it."

He walked behind the tavern to a short rock wall and sat on it. Sparrow slipped from his arms to perch beside him.

"Lock, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I think that's more a question I should be asking you." His eyes swept her bare stomach and the exposed tops of her plump b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Who do you think you are, doing half-naked shimmies? If that's what you wanted, why did you give me so much trouble about taking you back to the Archipelago?"

"Don't you dare!" She stuck her finger in his face, her blood pounding with rage. "You promised we'd get married and you'd make an honest life for us. You lied! Where's that floating snake pit you call a ship?"

"Probably back in the SothSeas by now."

Sparrow narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"The night you disappeared, I left the Lady Fire. Ilias told me why you ran away. He didn't tell me where you were, though."

"Did you hurt him? I swear, if you did anything to him, I'll never forgive you, Lock the White!"

"Why has he always meant so much to you? You'd never forgive me for hurting him, but I nearly got myself killed in the ring with Miska for your sake and you didn't give me so much as a kind word!"

"Because you asking to fight him when you could have gotten your freedom was utter stupidity!"

"Too right! That's the last time I get my hair torn out for an ungrateful little-"

Sparrow slapped him hard, months of pent-up anger and hurt exploding in a loud crack of flesh on flesh.

His eyes widened, the imprint of her hand visible on his cheek. "What the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l was that for?"

"For your existence! For your stupidity and your lies! Any more questions?"

"Just one." His teeth ground.

She lifted her chin. "What?"

"How can I get you back?" He grasped her shoulders and kissed her.

Sparrow knew she should push him away, but the sensation of his lips against hers was too wonderful. When she'd left all those months ago, she thought she'd never see him again, but here he was, all pa.s.sionate words, long, sinewy limbs, and raw desire. Sparrow closed her eyes and clung to him, her mouth opening beneath the soft, moist pressure of his tongue. His fingers entwined in her hair as he deepened the kiss.

When they finally drew apart, both were slightly breathless.

"So will you come back to me?" he murmured. "I swear to you, Sparrow, I'll never go back to pirating again. I've been working honest jobs while I've been searching for you. I've saved everything I've earned. I have enough to support you, and I figure in less than a year, I'll have enough to build a decent ship for fishing and trade."

Sparrow sighed and took his hand. She gazed at his long fingers and touched his callused palms. She often wondered how a man's hands could be hard and graceful at the same time. "I can't go back to you, Lock. Not now."

"When?"

"I don't know. I trusted you once, but I don't anymore. I'm only glad we never had a child."

He didn't speak for a moment, and she looked up.

"I admit, I'm not the best breeder, but you seemed to like me well enough in your bed." He stood and walked to the end of the fence.

Sparrow shook her head. "I didn't mean that how it sounded."

"So how did you mean it?"

"I just meant that it would have been bad for a child the way you were and the way I had to leave. It's not that I don't love you, Lock."

"At least you're past hating me and back to love again. Think you could make up your mind?"

"Do you think you could make up yours?" she snapped, her temper rising. "First you want to marry me, then you want to be a pirate, now you want to marry me again."

"I always wanted to marry you, but I was completely selfish. Ilias helped me see that...and no, I didn't harm a hair on his head. He left the Lady Fire, too, and went back to his family."

"Good." Sparrow smiled. "He was too nice for pirating."

"Yes, he was."

"You, on the other hand, seemed born for it."

"I was." He approached her and placed a fingertip under her chin, tilting her face to his. "But you changed me, Sparrow. One thing I learned the hard way, I can live without pirating, but I can't live without you."

"Yes you can."

"I don't want to."

"Lock." She turned away. "I can't marry you. Not now. Not until I'm sure I'm what you really want."

"How can I prove it?"

She met his eyes. "Keep living an honest life."

"You won't marry me, so what about courting?"

"Courting?"

"That's what I've heard it's called. Didn't do much of it in the Archipelago."

"You want to court me?" She looked skeptical.

"Is that a yes?"

Sparrow smiled. "How can I say no to such politeness?"

"Good." His eyes held hers. "So we're courting. Seems a little funny since we've bedded already, but-"

"Lock," she closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her temples, "just don't ruin the moment, all right? I have to get back to the tavern."

"You're still going to dance in there?" he demanded.

"Yes, unless you don't want to court a gypsy dancer?"

"You know that means I'll have to sit there every night and make sure no one touches you."

"Cris does a fine job of keeping the peace-or at least he did until tonight."

"From now on, he's got help."

"I'm not sure they'll allow you back in there. You did break a chair, not to mention Cris's nose. And you kicked a patron."

"I'll talk to the owner. See if I can pay for the chair. As for the two fools who attacked me, I acted in self-defense and they'll get no apology from me."

Sparrow shook her head and smiled. "Why am I not surprised?"

"One thing before you go back there."

"What?"