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Pausing, she allowed his words to sink in and waited for the rush of remorse. When she was a child, she loved nothing else. Her happiest memories were out on the water alongside her father as they sailed up and down the Detroit River or up into Lake St. Clair where they would stop along the Indian reserve and visit with the locals. So many happy memories. But such was often the case with all happy memories came sorrowful ones too. For she also remembered the times he would sail off alone on some expedition and she would shed far more tears then she cared to remember, begging him to take her with him. But that was before the accident.
She stiffened, putting up a protective wall.
“I have no intention ever of stepping on that boat let alone sail off on it.”
His expression dropped. “What do you mean? Your father said you loved the water.”
“When I was a child. I’m no longer a child.”
“Well, perhaps you just need—”
“I’m not interested.”
“There’s nothing to fear out there. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I never said I was frightened.”
“You could have fooled me. You can’t even come near on the dock.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you afraid of water, Evelina?”
“That’s absurd,” she said in indignation.
He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “You are, aren’t you?”
Getting defensive, she pinned him with an angry glare. “You don’t understand. I’m not frightened of the water. I resent it.”
He paused, taken aback. “What are you talking about?”
She turned to leave. “Our discussion is over.”
“Evelina, wait, at least think it over—”
“I don’t need to think it over.” She spun back around and scowled at him. “I know what my answer is and it is no. You’ll never change my mind.”
There was a moment’s pause, and then Ryan’s face grew serious, as he asked, “No to sailing or no to marrying me?”
From the moment they met, Ryan had never hidden the fact that his interest lay with the Lady Evelina only. It was never his intention or aspirations to take on a wife. However, without marrying Evelina, he would lose the boat. It hurt knowing he was willing to make such a sacrifice to ensure he fulfilled that goal. “No to both.”
Not surprisingly, he looked devastated. “What would you rather I do? Let you lock yourself up in that house forever like some kind of—of—?”
“Crazed woman?” She finished for him. “That’s what you were going to say, right?”
His lips came together in a straight line. He exhaled heavily out of his nostrils confirming Evelina’s words. Stung, she fought back. “You have no idea what type of woman I am.”
“Then tell me.”
“I can tell you this, I’m not crazy and I’m not the type of woman you can just abandon any time some other port catches your fancy.”
“Then come with me.”
Infuriated, she shook her head. “I can’t be who you want me to be.”
She turned and made her way angrily off the pier but in her haste, she wobbled and lost her balance. Horrified, she realized she was beginning to tilt toward the water. But before she could even tip to one side, Ryan was there to catch her by the shoulders and keep her upright.
“Are you all right?”
