"Thomas what are you doing here? This drab place does no justice to your since of class." A shadow detached it's self from one of the tables near the back of the pub. Thomas Winters found himself staring up into a face he could barely recognize. The copper eyes were the same, but they were sunken, and held a pained expression in their depth. Kate's face was thin, and her once fair complexion had been harshly tanned. Something in the set of her jaw told Thomas that this woman before him had few things still in common with the sister he had grown up with.
"Catherine?" His voice was a whisper, inaudible to any of the other late night patrons near bye.
"No, they call me Calico now. A pirates handle has been all I've used for some years." Her gaze never leaving his as she pushed the chair across from him out. Thomas swallowed in disbelief, looking away as she seated herself.
His older sister was wearing the fitted dark leathers of an assassin. Her long, bright hair pulled back harshly into a simple ponytail. An ugly scar was visibly over her right breast, angling down and out of sight beneath her bodice. Was she an outlaw of some kind now? His mind reeled. Looking up once more, he let Calico's coppery gaze again bored into him.
"What do you want brother?" Her tone had an edge to it, and Thomas could feel his expression tightening.
"I came looking for you... there were rumors..."
"For that I apologize, I hope it hasn't been enough to darken the family name." Kate cut his words short. A twich moving across one cheek as she spoke.
Now Thomas was scowling. "No, that was not it. People had said for some time that you had gone off to do something about Alexander's murder. I was still under my commission, there was no way I could leave to help you..."
"Do not waist your time with me, I suggest you return to Britain and start setting the papers for another commission."
"Let me speak." He had the satisfaction of seeing her sit back a bit at his tone. He had not spent the last six years serving in the royal fleet to keep getting shut up by a woman; even f it was his sister....
To Be Continued...
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