Chapter 14

Shane could feel Carmen’s eyes on her before she even opened her own. Carmen was leaning over Shane’s shoulder and watched as Shane slept with her cheek pressed into the sand. Shane lifted her head slightly, still with sand stuck into her skin and gave Carmen a cocked brow while simultaneously squinting to keep the afternoon sun out of her eyes.

“What’s you’re real name?” Carmen asked and pressed a short kiss to Shane’s deviating eyebrow.

Shane gave a small laugh and stretched out her slim body. She turned onto her back and let Carmen rest her head back against her body, “It is Shane… The story I told you is true. I really was going about my life disguised as my brother…”

“Shane is an Irish name… You said you were Scottish and English.” Carmen said incredulously.

Shane laughed, “I’m a mutt. My mother was born in Ireland but lived in England most her life. She named my brother… and therefore me.”

“So… you never had a girl’s name?” Carmen asked while she played with Shane’s messy hair in her fingers then promptly stopped to clean the sand off of Shane’s face.

“No.” Shane smiled as Carmen went about trying to get the small grains off of her skin.

“Mornin’, you lazy arses!” Mark yelled out across the beach seeing Shane and Carmen wake up. Both girls raised their heads at the sound. “Best belay the affections, Shane! It’s time to start loadin’ the guns onto the boats!” They could hear him laughing as Shane let her head fall back into the sand.

“You heard the Cap’n, Shane,” Carmen grinned, kissing Shane on the lips, “Best get to work mountin’ those cannons…”

“I’ll mount you over those cannons…” Shane mumbled slightly with a grin as she lightly pushed Carmen off of her body and stood up, ambling over to help Victor and Diego lift a heavy iron cannon into one of the many longboats.

Carmen watched the pirates go to work preparing The Robin to set sail once again. She smiled to herself, watching as Shane went about her job with the men. She couldn’t help but wonder why Shane never lived as a woman… even after she’d run away… But the more she watched the more she understood. These men all lived in a free world. Their gender giving them the freedom to leave home and do what they like, and The Robin, their very symbol of freedom. Everything about them was free.