He hoped the women hadn’t been too upset when he interrupted them. But it really had looked like one had been tied up against her will.
“And the other half,” Grace retorted, drawing him back to the present, “look at you the way a starving woman eyes a loaf of bread. Bonnie Anne wasn’t the only one who found you desirable, you know.
“When I dragged you onto the ship, William, you were just a tool to use.” She lowered her head. “And I am ashamed I thought of you that way. But we…but I have had a chance to see your true worth.
“You could have claimed not to know anything about the disease which was killing my women, and simply let them die. You didn’t. You have worked as hard as any of us to save their lives. Harder.”
She stepped close. “People aren’t tools. I have-“ for a moment her voic
