“Please call me Elissa.” She said, it hurt every time he called her Miss. “Or you can call me captain.” She joked as she took a drink with a small chuckle. “I was trying to get your attention with it. I’ll fix it if you’d like, it’s not the first time I’ve landed a dagger in a ship. My first mate taught me to throw daggers.” She picked up the apple and was about to take a bite when Joseph asked about her fiancé. She was glad when he said that Rhea wasn’t his lady, though she didn’t show it. Maybe she still had a chance.

“He’s heartless for one thing, makes Rat look almost saintly and that isn’t a joke. He only wants to marry me for my dowry and the inheritance I’ll get when my father dies.” She said. “While I’m not noble I’m as rich if not richer than some of the lower nobles. My fiancé is a man I’ve known since I was a kid. He is the son of a duke and has squandered most of his money. Our fathers arranged the marriage, I had no say in the matter. His name is Blayne Ashton. He bullied me as a kid and if I could get him onto my ship I would throw him overboard with an anchor tied around his waist. He’s already promised to send me back to Bedlam once we are married. I never want to go back there. They don’t help people, they hurt people.”

Blayne cared only for money and Elissa was the only eligible woman around who had money that he could dispose of after the wedding. Her father didn’t care what happened to her. “I can’t go back to him.”