Book Title: A Star to Sail By
Author and Publisher: Joy Lynn Fielding
Cover Artist: Getcovers
Release Date: August 30, 2023
Genre: Historical/pirate M/M romance
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, forced proximity, hurt/comfort
Themes: Emotional scars, self-forgiveness, self-discovery, finding home
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 88 000 words
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Abducted by pirates, a naval officer is torn between duty and desire.
Blurb
All Crispin Merriott has ever wanted is to be a captain in the Royal Navy. Placed on half-pay after the war, he’s reduced to serving on a merchant ship. When pirates board his ship and force Crispin to join their crew, his dream has never seemed further away.
Billy loves the freedom he has as a pirate. As master gunner aboard the most beautiful ship to sail the seas, he couldn’t be happier. But then his captain tasks him with guarding the naval officer they’ve taken on board. Billy loathes the navy. He hates its officers even more.
Crispin is looking for a way to escape when disaster strikes the ship. Beset by danger, Billy and Crispin have to work together. But how can they trust one another when they detest everything the other stands for?
Trigger Warning: Please note this book contains material some people may find upsetting. The content warning page on my website gives further details.
Billy’s mouth was dry and tasted as if a rat had died in it when he woke up, a sure sign he’d been drinking the night before. He lay watching the lantern spiral on its chain above him as the Hermione cut through the water, wondering why he hadn’t extinguished it before falling asleep. Movements beside him brought him fully awake. Merrick was attempting to get out of the cot and moving too unsteadily to make that a safe proposition.
“What are you doing?” Billy’s voice was thick and slightly hoarse. He hadn’t thought he’d drunk that much, but evidently he had.
Merrick turned to look at him. “Chamber pot,” he said succinctly.
“Stop moving.” Billy lay for a moment longer, wondering how his life had come to this, before he rolled out of the hammock and fetched the item in question. He passed it to Merrick. “Do you need help?”
“No.”
The ungraciousness shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but Merrick had been less autocratic since his injury. It appeared he was regaining his objectionable character with his health. “Leave it when you’re done. I’ll be back for it.”
He made his way up on deck and stayed there a while, loving the way the wind tugged at his hair and the moon hung so close and bright in the soft black sky. John was at the wheel, and more pirates than usual were sleeping on deck, probably having passed out where they lay, but he felt as if he were alone on the wide ocean. It called to something deep inside him, a part of him that had for so long wished only to be left alone. He breathed in the cool night air, rejoicing in his freedom.
Eventually, he realised he should return to Merrick. On his way back to the cabin, he filled a couple of mugs with watered rum. He was thirsty, and probably Merrick would be too.
Merrick was lying rigid in his cot when Billy entered, the chamber pot to his side, suitably filled. “You can take it now,” Merrick said, and Billy wondered if he was expected to curtsey or merely to express his gratitude at being allowed to handle His Merrickness’s waste.
But when he looked at the man more closely, he noted a slight flush on Merrick’s cheeks. Perhaps it was the awkwardness of the situation causing his manner. It had better be, because if he did this again, he’d be likely to end up wearing the contents of the chamber pot. Billy was no man’s lackey, never again.
He emptied it and returned to the cabin find Merrick had rolled onto his side and was facing the bulkhead, away from Billy.
“Do you need more laudanum?”
Crispin shook his head slightly, then winced. “Perhaps a little,” he said, as if he was doing Billy the most enormous favour by agreeing.
Billy measured five drops into the rum he’d brought for Merrick, and took it to him. Damned if he was going to help the man sit up—he could manage it on his own. But when he saw the pallor of his face and the tightness of his mouth, Billy bit back his resentment and helped him. He wouldn’t let this behaviour pass once the man had recovered, but for now he was suffering.
He’d just let him back down and picked up an empty mug that inexplicably had been rolling gently around the floor when Merrick spoke. “Thank you,” he said. He looked Billy in the face, his gaze fixed to his eyes with what looked like an almost physical effort. “I’m sorry if I was surly. I’m not used to needing help.”
If he’d been surly? But it was more of an apology than he’d ever thought to receive from a naval officer, so Billy nodded slightly before extinguishing the lantern.
Joy Lynn Fielding lives in a small English market town, where she indulges her passions for vintage aircraft, horse riding and gardening (though not all at the same time).
Joy tends to wax lyrical about the fascinating facts she discovers during her research for books. Thankfully, she has a very patient Labrador who has a gift for looking interested in what she’s saying while he waits for the food to arrive.
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