He slowly picked up the boxes, weighing their priceless, deadly contents.
"My crew is caged back there in those side corridors, near those ships. We'll take them and go. There's nothing to hold us ... now." His hand touched her shoulder. "You will come with us?"
She smiled, and gestured toward the boxes that held the Jewels of Orion.
There was a pause, and his face slowly paled. But his eyes never left her. He nodded slowly, then extended the boxes to her. "A Marward couldn't hold them, and I've been an outlaw too long."
But her hands gently repulsed his offer. There was color again in her damp cheeks, a rushing glowing tide of color that warmed her cold body like wine.
"We'll deliver them to the authorities. But, until then—hold them for me, Kurland."
His eyes glittered as he laid the leaden boxes suddenly on the table and his hands were rough upon her shoulders.
"So you make an honest pirate out of me, Irene? You give me name and ship again, you trust me as you would trust any decent sailorman? Then take the consequences!" And his lips were hard and fierce on hers, his arms crushed tight about her ragged body. She stiffened, then slowly relaxed, her eyes laughing into his.
"Did I pardon you for less?"