In a softer voice, she added, “You have my word, you and the baby are safe here. Why don’t you take him below, out of this weather. While I remind my crew about the code of conduct on my ship.”
She channeled her father’s arrogant swagger as she crossed the deck; it was far more powerful than the gliding gait her governess had drilled into her.
Ian marked her arrival with a glance over his shoulder before he returned his attention to the black water. “If you mean to wear me down with physical exhaustion, it won’t temper my anger about what you did.”
There was a healthy dose of gravel in his voice. The underlying threat in it roused a sensation of delight Diana forced herself to tamp down. “It would be foolish of me to try to dictate your emotions. But as long as you’re aboard my ship, I will have a say in how you behave.”
He whipped around and drew closer to where she stood. He’d washed and changed after his shift, but his overcoat was wide open, and he wore only a clean shirt, half unbuttoned, as if he were still trying to cool his body from the exertion and heat of the boilers.
His proximity made her breath stagger again.
Ian registered it. His eyes glinted as he perused her fitted wool jumper, oilskin coat, and trousers. They differed from the breeches she’d worn during her escape, with a wider leg and narrower waist that was more feminine and less revealing.
The fraught silence between them broke when the child’s cry rose from the other end of the deck as the mother tried to wrestle the toddler below deck.
Ian pinned his arms across his stomach. “I frightened them.”
His unease about it disconcerted her. “You startled them. And the poor woman couldn’t get the baby to settle. She was already frazzled.”
“Will you send me back to the boilers for punishment?”
“It’s a punishment now? I thought you said nothing would wear you down.”
He scoffed and turned back toward the dark view.
She desperately wanted him to look at her instead. “Working as a coal-firer to gain passage is an extreme gesture. You agreed to take the job with no negotiation. Why?”
“Why did you kiss me?”
She reared back. His question was an unusually direct confrontation compared to the way he typically sparred with her.
The kiss they’d shared had been necessary for her to pilfer the necklace. It had also been something she’d wanted for longer than she could remember.
None of her plotting could have prepared her for the impact of her fantasy becoming reality. The way Ian had ravaged her mouth and wound his fingers through her hair, the weight of his body as she’d pressed against him, had made her so giddy she’d almost forgotten her intent to rob him.
Now that she knew the truth of what it was to act on her desires, if there had been any other way to take the emeralds without betraying his trust, she would have.
She huffed a terse laugh to cover the way his suspicion pained her. “If you’re looking for an apology for the kiss, you won’t get one.”
“I’ll accept one for the theft instead.”
There was no heat to his tone. Someone could have construed his dryness as a subtle jab, a tease. But Diana wasn’t foolish enough to read into it. He hadn’t forgiven her for it.
Tomorrow, she’d find some way to tell him she could never surrender the emeralds to him. If she did, she’d put his life, and countless others, in jeopardy.
The wind gusted suddenly and pushed a loose line off its cleat. One of Birdie’s hands brushed past them to tie it down.
“There’s weather coming in. You should go below,” Diana said.
Ian shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “I’ve withstood plenty of storms on the open sea. I’m not worried about it getting rough.”
“I am,” she admitted.
Rives Shipping’s engineers had designedEver Hartwith luxury in mind.
While its technical engineering had the navy salivating, the ship was also built to ferry four hundred passengers and over fifteen hundred tons of cargo. Determined to corner the commercial market on the Kangaroo Hop between Britain and the Antipodes, the company had not sacrificed comfort for innovation and speed.
Diana occupied the captain’s quarters, which were as plush as the saloon-class staterooms. To avoid disturbing the passengers in the dining lounge and the crew belowdecks, she took her meals at a small table beside a tufted banquet in her cabin. The cooks on board—students from the Ladies’ Discussion and Improvement Society—prepared breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner that would have rivaled the service in any great aristocrat’s house.
