Chapter 1

Everyone on the ship agreed Bjorn LeBlanc was useless.

His name meant bear, a reflection of our father's hopes for him.

Too bad he grew up the exact opposite of his name.

Once, just watching an execution scared him so badly he threw up.

The sailors laughed themselves silly, crowding around him and pointing.

"The LeBlanc family's finished. After a century of piracy, a coward's going to throw it all away."

"Says who? His sister's pretty tough."

"What's a woman going to do? She should just get married and have a kid already."

Without a word, I grabbed an iron hammer and showed them exactly what a woman could do.

Afterward, Bjorn pulled me aside and said quietly, "Sis, I just don't want to kill people.

"I can support myself selling cloth and medicine too.

"Why do they have such a problem with me?"

I patted his head to comfort him.

Our parents died in a shipwreck in the frozen northern sea.

Growing up, the two of us only had each other.

I understood what he was going through. After I inherited the ship, I supported whatever Bjorn wanted to do, no questions asked.

Life was quiet until the day I met a handsome man at the harbor: Edgar Windham.

At first, he was like everyone else. He didn't think a woman could run a business this big.

I knocked him flat with one swing of my sword. He couldn't accept it, so he came back every day to fight me again.

We went back and forth like that for three years.

Then, after I knocked the sword out of his hand, he actually got down on one knee.

He pulled a sparkling diamond out of his pocket and asked me to marry him.

"Helga, you're the brightest jewel on the sea. Would you do me the honor of coming home with me to my castle?"

In that moment, I suddenly didn't want to be a pirate anymore. I wanted to quit and come ashore.

I wanted to live an ordinary life. Besides, Bjorn never liked drifting around at sea anyway.

I said yes.

When Bjorn heard the news, he wasn't very happy.

He grabbed my hand, looking worried.

"Sis, I don't think this Edgar guy is a good man."

"Oh? Why would you think that? We've known each other for three years, haven't we?

"Isn't three years enough to know what kind of person someone is?"

Bjorn shook his head. "I don't know. It's just a gut feeling."

I gave Bjorn a hug.

"Aren't you tired of life at sea too? This is our chance to go back to land.

"Haven't you always wanted to open an herb shop? Edgar gave me plenty of money and gifts. That's enough to open one for you."

But Bjorn waved the idea away.

"No, Sis, that's yours. I can't take it. I can work for a living and open one myself."

My eyes burned when he said that. The little boy who used to need my protection had grown up all at once.

Hopeful about the future, I left the pirate ship and took Bjorn with me.

He got his wish and opened an herb shop.

At first, Edgar treated me wonderfully.

He taught me how to dress up and enjoy my freedom.

He filled the house with all kinds of things I'd never seen on the ship.

Every year, when he returned from the sea, he brought me presents.

Then came the winter of the third year.

He came back from a long voyage.

Eagerly, I drank the wine he'd brought back for me from abroad.

Before long, my arms and legs went weak.

The door swung open.

Edgar walked in with his arm around a woman whose belly was beginning to show.

Edgar said calmly, "Helga, this is Lydia Crane.

"She's carrying my child."

I stared at them. The shock left my mind blank.

"I know you used to be a pirate, and you've always had a temper."

He sighed.

"I was afraid you'd get jealous and do something crazy, so I put something in the wine.

"Don't worry. It just makes you too weak to cause trouble.

"As long as you behave, at least until the baby's born, you'll still be the Duchess of Windham."