A Promise by Daylight by Alison DeLaine

Author:Alison DeLaine
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AN HOUR LATER, while Winston and Princess Katja ate in the great dining room, Millie sat down at the writing desk in her dressing room. Slipped out a sheet of paper that already had writing at the top.

Dear Katherine,

That was the problem. The address was far too presumptuous under the circumstances.

She set that sheet aside, took out another. Dipped her pen.

Dear Captain,

And then she sat there, ink drying on the nib of her pen while no words came.

It shouldn’t be so difficult. She’d written to India weeks ago, from Paris, just before her employment with Winston. Had somehow found the words to apologize for aiding India’s marriage to a man India hated. For accepting money from that same man in exchange for her betrayal.

India had trusted her.

As had Katherine, who had offered Millie a new life, only to have Millie steal her ship when circumstances changed. And Philomena, India’s aunt and Katherine’s closest friend.

And William.

Her crime against William was the most unforgivable of all. Knocking him unconscious, taking over his ship... And all he’d done was whip her, when he’d had every right to hang her from the yards and toss her body overboard. She knew better than to imagine, even for a moment, writing an apology to him.

She set down the pen and rested her face in her hands. If only.

She thought of Winston and his efforts to change. The uselessness of it all. Because, as he’d pointed out, one could not undo the past.

Being here was her own fault.

Millie raised her head and sat back in the chair. The only point of hope was her new life as Miles Germain. Certainly she’d masqueraded as a man occasionally. Aboard the ship, she’d worn breeches. But now she’d become Miles Germain, and she was making her way in the world alone. As a man.

No, there was nothing princesslike about her at all.

And Winston would not be touching her again with Princess Katja here, she could be certain of that. Yet even now, the memory touched her skin, parted her lips, ignited a fire on the inside—a slow burn that needed more of what he’d begun this morning.

She pushed back from the desk, grabbed up a book that had turned out to be not so useful, after all, and headed toward the library.

Into the corridor, past the door that led into Winston’s dressing room, through which she caught a glimpse of his bedchamber, where only a short while ago she’d experienced a man in a way she never dreamed.

She hugged herself against a nonexistent chill, rubbing her upper arms. Stop. Just stop!

There would be no more of that. She was Miles Germain. Needed to be Miles Germain. The best thing she could do toward that end was admit that Winston could easily find someone to replace her, and then collect her wages and leave.

Except that wasn’t the best thing at all.

As Miles Germain, she could hire on to a ship’s crew bound for the Mediterranean—unless someone saw through her disguise as Winston had, in the cramped quarters belowdecks where little could remain secret among sailors.

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