Swiftcurrent Creek twelve years a slave

He said her name three times and the corners of her mouth twitched upward a little more with each enunciation. Ira mentioned an attempt to rescue her, which both surprised and touched Bones. Somehow intuiting that this was how he'd gotten his scar, she brushed her nose over his marred flesh. They both bore the marks of Tortuga now.

When he declared his mother dead, the yearling's eyes cut sharply to his face. "I'm so sorry, Ira," Bones murmured. She didn't mean to change the subject, yet she couldn't stop from asking, "Ye came? For me? Ye didn't fail me, Ira." She wondered how he'd found out about her abduction and shuddered slightly. "As far as I know, yer the only one who did," she finished. She didn't hold that against anyone, though it was incredibly heartening to know what Ira had done for her.