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“I rather thought that was my job,” Sophie said. “You’re quite beautiful, Maddy, but you know I outshine you. People tend to prefer sweet, witless blondes to dark-haired viragoes.”
“I am not a virago!” Maddy was outraged.
“Girls!” Nanny said again, this time in a pleading voice. “You’re giving me a headache. Must you always bicker?”
“Things will be much more peaceful when I’m gone, Nanny, and by the time I return we can all leave and get out of your hair.”
“Now, Miss Madeleine, you know perfectly well I don’t want that!” Nanny Gruen said stoutly. “You can stay here as long as you like—for the rest of your lives if you wish.”
“Don’t worry—you won’t be stuck with us that long. It’s going to be fine. Mr. Fulton owes me a favor, after his total uselessness with Father’s estate. He happens to be acquainted with Captain Morgan, and he heard he was in need of a maid of all work. So I had Mr. Fulton tell him he knew just the girl.”
“You didn’t!” Sophie breathed, her bright eyes round.
“I did. And I know I can trust Mr. Fulton not to betray who I am. He feels guilty.”
“You could marry him and forget all this nonsense,” Nanny Gruen said sternly. “He’s a good-looking young man with prospects. A solicitor’s a respectable profession, not like a shopkeeper or something.”
“I have no intention of marrying anyone who has to work for a living,” Maddy said firmly. “If I don’t choose Lord Eastham then I’ll find someone with at least twenty thousand pounds a year and a title to boot. I’m not throwing myself away on a penniless solicitor.”
Sophie sighed dramatically. “Haven’t I already told you I’m the logical one to marry a title? You’re already twenty-two.”
Maddy resisted the completely childish urge to pinch her sister hard. “Then we can both marry titles. The more, the merrier. And I’m hardly at my last prayers.”
“Do you suppose Bryony really married Lord Kilmartyn?” Sophie said, clearly not realizing her imminent danger. “She always said she would never marry. And Kilmartyn could have anyone.”
“Are you suggesting that anyone’s more precious than our Bryony?” Maddy said in a dark tone. Sophie was going to end up black and blue at this rate.
“Of course your sister is suggesting no such thing. And shame on you, Miss Maddy, for even thinking your older sister would run off with a man without the benefit of matrimony. Miss Bryony isn’t going to do anything she ought not to do,” Nanny Gruen said with a determined tone they’d learned long ago not to thwart. “I know I can count on you not to do anything you shouldn’t. There’ll be a proper housekeeper there and all, won’t there?”
Maddy managed to hide her astonishment. She’d girded her loins, metaphorically speaking, for a major battle full of dire threats and recriminations. Instead Nanny Gruen seemed to be surrendering at the first shot across her bow.
“Of course there is,” she said soothingly. “Mrs. Crozier and her husband are in charge of the household, and there must be a boy for the heavy work. They just need extra help.”
“I can’t say that I like it, Miss Madeleine,” Nanny said in a worried voice. “But if there’s a respectable older woman in the house to look after the maids, and if young Mr. Fulton is going to be around, then I suppose I have no choice but to let you go. My mind won’t be easy until you
return, but at this rate if you two don’t kill each other then I may very well drown you both.”
“Thank you, Nanny!” Maddy said in a properly subdued voice, but the look the woman sent her was far too wise. They both knew there was nothing she could do to stop her. In the end she was going, whether her old nanny liked it or not.
“Well, I expect it’s going to be a dead bore,” Sophie said with a yawn. “Some prosy old sea captain stomping around smelling of snuff. Do you suppose he has a wooden leg? If he does and he gives you too much trouble you could always steal it.”
“Captain Morgan isn’t going to give me any trouble,” Maddy replied airily. “You forget—I’m used to seafaring men. Father used to let me accompany him to his office on occasion, and I met a fair number of the men who captained his vessels, though fortunately not Captain Morgan. He’ll probably be just like all the rest of them. Old and gruff and boring. The man has no wife and apparently never bothered to marry. The ocean probably arouses his passions, not the female sex.”
“Miss Maddy! Your language!” Nanny protested weakly, having given up the battle.
“Gender? Is that any better?” Maddy offered.
“A proper young lady wouldn’t bring up such things in the first place.”
“I don’t think we’re considered very proper anymore, Nanny,” Sophie pointed out. “We’re disgraced.”
“All the more reason to be above reproach.”
“I will be above reproach,” Maddy said cheerfully. “It’ll simply be in Captain Morgan’s household rather than here. Don’t worry—if the captain truly had something to do with destroying our father it won’t take me long to find it out. I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone. Trust me—one landlocked old man is no match for me.”
The man currently calling himself Thomas Morgan walked down the sun-bright streets of the seaside town of Devonport, at peace with the world. It had been a long time since he’d been Luca, half-gypsy street rat, and while deep inside he knew he could never be anyone else, the role of Thomas Morgan suited him well enough. It was a clear spring day, though the weather was crisp, and the breeze blew the salty smell of the ocean straight to him, a taunt from his jealous true love. It had been too long since he’d been out to sea. Ever since that bastard Russell had pulled him off his ship he’d been landlocked, and he cursed the lying, thieving old man every chance he got. Not that he hadn’t managed to profit in the end. He’d spent his twenty-nine years surviving one disaster after another, always coming out on top, as he had this time. With most of the assets of Russell Shipping disappearing into thin air the solicitors had had no choice but to put the few remaining resources, including the ships, up for sale, and he’d managed to buy two of them and was in negotiations for a third. It didn’t hurt that his fiancée’s father and his firm were in charge of settling Russell’s disastrous estate.
And now negotiations were almost settled, and the Maddy Rose was almost his. All they had to do was find one of Russell’s daughters to sign off on it. Every time he thought about the ship he felt a totally unaccustomed emotion swell inside him. The lines, the speed, the sheer beauty of the ship owned him as nothing else could. He’d sailed on many vessels, steam and sail, and commanded a large portion of them, but none of them moved him as the clipper ship did.
