AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Spinning back to the sea, I leave him to smoke, or not smoke, that damned cheroot I didn’t smell, and clamp down on fury. He is a good man, undeserving of my wrath. Too good. He should have left me to Montague and gone on to marry the pathetically proper and boring Lady Clarissa.
“What are you chuckling about?” he asks, joining me at the rail.
Slanting him a minx smile, I bite my lip. The idea of Lady Clarissa sailing away to the Far East is the funniest thought I’ve had in weeks. Unfair of me. I look away, out to sea.
Unlike the intrepid Lady Eleanor, I’d never been in the midst of real danger. You would think that experience, or my fears for CeCe’s safety, would inspire my disquiet, but no. That is reserved for Bentwood.
“Trouble sleeping?”
His deep voice slips over me, as lethal as the black sea.
“Stuffy in the cabin.” A lie. We are both keen sailors, adept in close quarters. I gather my wits and glance at him again. “What has you about at this hour?”
He’s come within scent range. Close enough to smell the mix of tobacco in his cheroot and the hint of his cologne. Not close enough to touch.
We never touch. I’m a maiden wife.
He hesitates before admitting, “Wondering where CeCe is, what’s become of her.”
I turn away again, guilty for having been thinking about myself instead of CeCe.
“It will take months getting there.” I move away. He won’t challenge the distancing, which only prods my irritability. “You should have left me behind.”
“There is that.” I jerk around. He’s watching me, really watching me. “Are you sorry for the adventure? I rather thought it to your taste.”
“Hah! You want me under your thumb, so I won’t get into trouble.”
His crook of a smile is at odds with my sniping.
It took half a year for the letter to arrive, telling us CeCe was missing. So much could have happened in those months. Another missive could land on our doorstep tomorrow, telling us all is well, or not. Yet here we are, without answers, for the length of time it takes us to reach her on the far side of the world.
Everything is at odds. Bentwood would normally have forbidden me from joining him on this ship, troublesome or not, yet here I am.
“What haven’t you told me?”
A small smile and slight shake of his head are all he offers. He holds his cards very close to his chest. Ferreting out secrets would take time. No sense beating at that door tonight.
“I suppose I should try to sleep.”
I sigh and head for the ladder to the lower deck.
“Little else to do when at sea,” he murmurs, following me.
I don’t dare turn. If things were different, and we shared a cabin, I rather think there would be plenty for us to do.
Hesitating at the top of the ladder, I catch him focusing on my backside. I swat at my cape to dislodge whatever drew his attention.
His head snaps up. I’ve startled him again, but I haven’t the foggiest why.
When he speaks, it’s as if our conversation hadn’t stopped.
“At least you have Lady Eleanor.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ve a cabin mate as well, a Mr. Goddard. Fond of cabbage.”
“Oh, no. Is that why you’re above board?”
