By The Sea, Book Three: Laura by Stockenberg Antoinette

Author:Stockenberg, Antoinette
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, great depression, hurricane, newport rhode island, sailing adventure, schooner, downton abbey, amreicas cup
Publisher: Antoinette Stockenberg

Chapter 10

Each morning for the next two days Billy rubbed one of the Virginia's backstays and whistled furiously, but still no winds came. The sun beat down relentlessly. The lumber strapped on deck began to split from one end to the other; the crew formed a bucket brigade to slosh it down with salt water before it became useless for building. Laura continued to take sun-sights, more for the practice than anything else, and was astonished to see that the schooner had begun to go backwards: with no wind to move her along, the Virginia was falling victim to the Gulf Stream current.

"We're being dragged back to New England," Laura said in disgust as she and Colin pondered the chart showing the pitiable progress of their last few days. "I really cannot stand this," she said, seething with frustration. "It's so ... impractical. A steamer would have been there by now." She threw a pencil across the chart. The cabin was stifling, and her thick long hair had begun to slip its braid and cling to her cheeks and neck. Nothing made her more irritable. "People will think we're dead. People will worry."

"Anyone with half a brain will understand that the ocean is a fickle mistress," Colin argued coolly. "The rest will be too stupid to worry."

"That is so easy for you to say. No one knows where you are; no one cares."

He looked up from the chart. "Are you so very sure of that?"

She compressed her lips. "I'm sorry. Naturally I have no idea what your personal situation is. How could I? You've never said a peep about it. I assume no one knows or cares where you are." She went back to her chart, staring at the tiny island that had become such an unattainable goal. "I assume you don't have a wife," she murmured.

"Have you always been so presumptuous?" he asked quietly.

"You bring it out in me. And anyway, you should talk," she snapped, her cheeks flaming one more time at the recollection of his kiss. She had thought of nothing else since then, despite the fact that Colin had not once alluded to it after he left her. And yet here she was herself—alluding. To the kiss, to his personal life; anything to break down the wall of professional reserve that he'd erected between them.

Laura dared to lift her eyes to his. She saw—nothing. Where was the passion, where was the heat? No one had that kind of control over his desire. Sam did not; and Sam was all she knew. So it boiled down to this: Colin Durant had seen an opportunity, and he'd tried to take advantage of it. It could have been worse. She closed her brass parallel rules with a snap and stowed them on a little shelf Sam had made for navigation tools. Neither one spoke. The only sounds were of Neil and the others laughing and splashing and diving from the bowsprit.

"I think tomorrow we'll begin to ration water more carefully," Colin said at last.

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